Pretoria - Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane says President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address last night was fair, balanced, well delivered and highlighted government’s achievements under his leadership.
“As a member of the ANC and Cabinet, I was impressed by the manner in which the President was able to come across to South Africans … he went into detail about what has been happening in the country,” Chabane said during a debate on SAfm radio, this morning.
Zuma spent a large part of his sixth and last SONA for this administration outlining government's successes over the last 20 years, especially with regards to infrastructure development and the economy, and also gave a few hints about what the future holds.
“He covered all the major priorities, but I think he showed that in the context of very acute challenges, we've made some progress,” Chabane said.
Regarding criticism on the pace of growth of the economy, Chabane said the country needed to be realistic and take into account the international economic downtown, the effects of which the country could have not avoided.
“We are not saying we don’t have any problems at home or we cannot do better. Like any other country, we also acknowledge that the growth rate is lower than other African countries, including our neighbours … but we cannot exclude the global economic downturn.”
He said South Africans needed to work together to encourage investment and manage finances better so that the economy can rise to higher levels.
Last night, Zuma said: "On average, the economy has grown at 3.2 percent a year from 1994 to 2012. There are now 15 million people with jobs in our country, the highest ever in our history and over 650 000 jobs were created last year, according to Stats SA. This is still not good enough. The unemployment rate still remains high."
Chabane said overall, he would give the president 9.5+/10 for his speech. “The … President could have not have included everything … there was no space to do that. But as government, we will be releasing the 20 Year Review in the coming weeks, which will unpack and go into detail about everything.” - SAnews.gov.za
