President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday delivered a review of South Africa’s progress in the past twenty years. The review, he said, was frank and factual. He admitted the country was straddled by huge economic challenges. On the flip side, he pointed to progress in social services and infrastructure development. It was an assessment of democracy, together with some of its challenges and successes.
Apartheid’s legacy presented a democratic government with unassailable challenges and among them are the effects of Bantu Education.
Despite this, the country recorded progress in socio-economic transformation. “On average, the country has grown on…unemployment substantially,” says Zuma.
There were advances in education, primary health care and fighting HIV-AIDS. Service delivery however was still a challenge. Land dispossession had presented a new set of problems and 9.4 million hectares of land has been redistributed.
Progress has been made in building social cohesion. Senior officials, the media, business and labour attended the event at the Presidential Guesthouse. The President dedicated the review to elder statesman Nelson Mandela who died last December.
Meanwhile, the DA says progress made since South Africa’s first democratic elections has been reversed under the leadership of President Zuma.
“It is clear that the nation’s current leaders are not able to provide the leadership required to continue that progress,” says Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille in a statement.
Zille said he highlighted progress made since 1994 under the leadership of former president Nelson Mandela and former president Thabo Mbeki, but failed to show what he himself had achieved.
He disingenuously bracketed his term in office with that of his predecessors because he knows that the Jacob Zuma presidency is not a good story to tell,” says Zille.
She says the country’s political economy was now marred by corruption and declining accountability. Unemployment and corruption became worse since Zuma took office and the gross domestic product had shown a decline, says Zille.
“The problem is not South Africa – the nation is strong, but the government is weak.” Zille says her party has the ability to turn things around.
Other political parties in Parliament also responded to President Zuma’s report.
The African Christian Democratic Party’s Steve Swart believes far better progress could have been made in addressing South Africa’s most pressing issues.
“The ACDP is not impressed with the 20 year review by government, and by the ANC led government. So we believe in 20 years we could have made far better progress in addressing widespread joblessness, wide spread poverty, and inequality, and we believe it’s time for the opposition – including the ACDP – to rule the country as to prove it has better policies to deal with those issues that are facing us.”
Freedom Front Plus’ Corne Mulder called for a more balanced approach. “In this review, we have only seen one side of a story, as its been put by government, as it put all the things they think are positive, but SA knows the other side as well. We would have liked to see a more balanced kind of approach.”
United Democratic Movement Leader, Bantu Holomisa acknowledges the progress made in the country over the past 20 years.
But he says more could have been achieved with strong leadership. He says instead of promoting the ethics of good governance, corruption has undermined the gains of the struggle.
– Additional reporting by SAPA
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– By Lehana Tsotetsi
