Cape Town - Opposition parties were unimpressed with President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech on Thursday.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said it had been a “wasted opportunity”.
“The president focused on the right issues - jobs, especially youth unemployment, education, health, crime, and rural development.
“All the right issues, but he hardly came up with a single new plan.”
Zille said he had mentioned many old projects, but had failed to detail anything about involving young people in the economy.
He had fudged the whole issue of the youth wage subsidy, focusing on old things such as the expanded public works programme and learnerships in state-owned enterprises.
“This won't go near to addressing our five million unemployed young people,” she said.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe said he was left “uninspired”.
“When you talk about eradicating corruption and you don't comment on Nkandla, you are not going to solve the problem.
“There are still many unanswered questions. There is still a lot of secrecy.”
To successfully eradicate corruption, there had to be transparency, Meshoe said. - Sapa