INLSA

The SANDF during a practice parade ahead of the opening of Parliament on Thursday.

SIBONGAKONKE MAMA

Staff Reporter

CIVIL SOCIETY groups have called on President Jacob Zuma to address a host of issues when he delivers his third State of the Nation address tomorrow night – from addressing social grants and the rights of immigrants living in SA to the Protection of State Information Bill.

Black Sash has called on the president to send an “unequivocal message” that the government remains committed to fighting poverty and inequality.

Black Sash advocacy programme manager Nkosikhulule Nyembezi said the organisation was alarmed by “noisy criticism” of SA’s social grants programme.

“We look to the president to reiterate the belief he expressed in his address two years ago that ‘social grants remain the most effective form of poverty alleviation’,” said Nyembezi.

He said Black Sash hoped that some of the “gaps” in the country’s service delivery systems would be closed by the proposal for a Comprehensive Social Security System.

“We offer no income support to those who can’t find work and have no means of supporting themselves and their families. Likewise, there is no relief for those in our country who are chronically ill,” Nyembezi said.

Refugee rights group People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty (Passop) said it hoped the president would remind South Africans of what the continent had done for the country’s liberation.

Passop director Braam Hanekom said the organisation was disappointed by past state of the nation addresses because not enough attention was given to immigrants living in SA.

Staunch anti-Protection of State Information Bill campaigners, the Right2Know Campaign, however, said it expected very little from the address.

The Right2Know’s national co-ordinator, Murray Hunter, said the organisation was not expecting “anything substantial” from the president in terms of access to information and freedom of information.

“If there is mention of the controversy surrounding the Protection of State Information Bill, we will probably see an acknowledgement of complaints about the bill, and a standing line justification of the bill that the executive has used in the past,” Hunter said.

Mario Wanza, organiser for the Communities for Social Change, said the organisation did not have much faith in what the president will say tomorrow.

Wanza was recently arrested before the Occupy Rondebosch Common demonstration he organised.

A group of people invaded the space to gather on the common for a summit on jobs, land and housing, and were arrested. They were later released and charges against them dropped. Wanza was due back in court on March 16.

“What the president has to say will speak to the interests of the rich and those who live a comfortable life,” he said.

Both the FW De Klerk Foundation and the Triangle Project said they wanted a commitment to uphold the constitution.

“We hope he (the president) will recommit the government to supporting the independence of the judiciary, and retaining the independence of the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) which have been in question,” said Dave Steward, executive director of the FW De Klerk Foundation.

sibongakonke.mama@inl.co.za