President Jacob Zuma vowed Wednesday to create 500,000 jobs this year, insisting South Africa's stinging recession would not alter his development goals, in his first state of the nation speech. In his first major address as the nation's leader, Zuma also promised to follow through on a three-year scheme to spend 98 billion dollars on public works including schools and transport.
"The economic downturn will affect the pace at which our country is able to address the social and economic challenges it faces. But it will not alter the direction of our development," he said in the nationally televised speech. The global economic crisis has taken a toll on the economy, which is officially in recession for the first time in the post-apartheid era after a 6.4 percent contraction in the first quarter.
"We must act now to minimise the impact of this downturn on those most vulnerable," he said. "Between now and December 2009, we plan to create about 500,000 job opportunities," he said. "Government will ensure that the planned 787 billion rand (98 billion dollar) infrastructure expenditure as provided for in the budget earlier this year is properly planned for and executed," he added.
Zuma led the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to a thumping election victory in April, on the back of strong support from unions and the poor, who rallied behind his promises to spread the gains of democracy more evenly. Fifteen years after the end of apartheid, about 40 percent of South Africans live in poverty - more than half of that number surviving on less than one dollar a day, according to government data.
The president invoked the legacy of South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela, the 90-year-old Nobel peace laureate who attended the speech, pledging to build a more equitable nation.
But Zuma faces a tough economic climate to deliver on his promises. Earlier this year, economists predicted that up to 250,000 jobs would be lost as the mining and automotive industries suffer. He said government was working with labour and business to avoid lay-offs by creating job training programmes to teach workers new skills rather than retrench them.
He also stuck by pledges to crack down on one of the world's most alarming crime rates, insisting his government would cut violent crime by at least seven percent a year, in a country where 50 people die violently every day. Zuma insisted the government would keep expanding access to anti-retroviral medications for the millions suffering from AIDS in the world's hardest-hit country.
And he said the government would meet its promise to gradually introduce a national health insurance scheme meant to improve the dire condition of the public health service. However, he offered few new details on how the government would meet its promises, and analysts warned that Zuma would struggle to balance South Africa's pressing social needs with the worsening economy.
"He tried to strike a balance between the country's high expectation on his administration and the current economic realities, which are not entirely condusive for some of the government's economic development goals," said political analyst Siphamandla Zondi. Compared to former president Thabo Mbeki, who often used his speech to highlight international affairs, Zuma kept a solid domestic focus with only passing mentions of crises in countries like Zimbabwe or Madagascar. "He talked more about domestic matters, issues of development and preventing more job losses as the result of the current economic downturn," Zondi added.
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