INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

President Jacob Zuma. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

When President Jacob Zuma delivers his fourth State of the Nation address in Parliament on Thursday night it will be against a clamour of demands for clarity, certainty and bold action.

ANC ally Cosatu has put the government on notice with plans for a countrywide strike on March 7. Centred on demands to scrap labour-broking and Gauteng freeway tolls, if it is significantly supported, this show of force will also carry a telling message for Zuma, whom the labour federation helped to power.

For while he will be speaking on Thursday night as the head of state, Zuma will also be pitching for a second term as party president at the ANC’s elective conference in December.

The past year has seen Zuma strengthen his position within the ANC, striking a possibly mortal blow against a faction mobilising against him behind ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema.

Thursday night’s speech presents him with an opportunity to dispel lingering notions of him as a weak and indecisive leader. He will review progress the government has made in fulfilling the promises made in the five priority areas of jobs, education, health, rural development and fighting crime and corruption.

But he will be doing so as global economic storm clouds cast a shadow on SA’s own forecasts for the economic growth needed to create those jobs and to redistribute wealth, conditions putting a choke-hold on an already constrained public purse.

Cosatu wants to see action on four accords signed last year by the government, business, labour and civil society. These cover basic education, which the ANC admitted in its January 8 statement was in crisis; skills development; local procurement; and green jobs, where the aim is to create 300 000 jobs by 2020.

“We look forward to hearing how government plans to play its part in taking (the accords) forward as quickly as possible,” said Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven.

The key to reaching the target of 5 million jobs by 2020 is rolling out the New Growth Path and industrial policy action plans aimed at reshaping the economy – but implementation has been slow and there have been confusing policy signals, prompting Business Unity SA (Busa) to call for “policy certainty, predictability, continuity and coherence”. Such an environment would maximise growth and job creation. “Busa hopes that the… overall message will underpin investor confidence and the role of business to strengthen economic recovery and promote growth.”

Cosatu also wanted faster action against corrupt officials and “a firm assurance” from Zuma that the Protection of State Information Bill would be “radically redrafted to ensure it can never be used to classify evidence of crime and corruption as ‘secret’ or to criminalise whistle-blowers”, Craven said.

DA parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said: “South Africans want to be inspired and excited about their future. They don’t want to be presented with another bureaucratic checklist of targets and promises.

“They want the president to be bold and decisive.”

Bold leadership was also the call from lobby group Equal Education, which called Zuma out on his 2011 State of the Nation pledge on the Triple Ts: Teachers, Textbooks and Time. “(We) hope the president will reaffirm education as his top priority and, crucially, give more concrete form to his good intentions,” said spokeswoman Yoliswa Dwane.

*The State of the Nation address will be broadcast live on SABC radio and television and starts at 7pm. - Political Bureau