Opposition leaders were quick to dismiss President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Wednesday as "a wish list".

The Democratic Alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party and the Congress of the People all agreed that the speech was long on good intentions, but seriously short of substance.

Missed opportunities

For Cope, their first deputy president Mbhazima Shilowa categorised the address as more of the same, with a lot of missed opportunities. "Everything was about what we will ensure rather than a programme of action for the next five years," he said.

For the DA, Athol Trollip the Parliamentary leader said that the reduction of red tape which is stifling small enterprises, said nothing at all bout the labour regulations. "Labour is often the most stifling issue. Labour and its policies make it almost impossible for small businesses to survive in this kind of environment," he said.

Trollip was also concerned about creeping socialism – especially in relation to agrarian reform. He suggested that perhaps that was a sop to his left wing supporters in return for some labour concession.

Helen Zille the party leader was most anxious about the determination Zuma expressed to press ahead with the unified civil service. "It will make government more and more centralised and will undermine the independence of local governments."

Resonates with us

Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the leader of the IFP, said he regarded the speech as an expression of intent, rather than a detailed programme of action. But he had praise for the intention to uplift the poor. "That resonates very well with us," he said, but he noted that Zuma also warned that it might be difficult to implement that because of "the global meltdown".

The general secretary the Congress of South African Trade Unions, Zwelinzima Vavi, said he was worried about what the President said on reducing the bureaucracy stifling small businesses. "We want to hear the details of what that means," Vavi said, "because in the past that term was used in a most problematic fashion, in a way that was interpreted to mean that the workers in those businesses have their rights reduced."

I-Net Bridge

RSS
Digg
de.li.cious
facebook