South Africa’s third democratically elected president took office in 2009. President Jacob Zuma has since delivered eight State of the Nation addresses. Africa Check went through his speeches and selected a promise from each year to check whether it has been achieved.
Our requirements were that the promise had to be checkable, meaning that we needed to be able to locate publicly available information against which to verify it and that the promises covered the spectrum of issues concerning South Africans.
We’ll be publishing a promise a day until Thursday 11 February so check back daily.
Water
2015: “…government through the department of water and sanitation will train 15,000 artisans or plumbers who will fix leaking taps in their local communities.”
Verdict: In progress
Zuma made this commitment on 12 February 2015.
In August the department of water and sanitation launched their “War on Leaks” project.
Phase 1, to be completed in the 2015/16 financial year, will train 3,000 artisans, plumbers and water agents. (A water agent educates the public on how to use water wisely and manage water resources.)
An additional 5,000 people will begin training in the 2016/17 financial year (phase 2) and 7,000 will begin training in 2017/18 (phase 3).
Spokesperson for the department, Mlimandlela Ndamase, told Africa Check that 2,897 people were receiving training as of 25 January this year. This included 1,573 artisans, 243 plumbers and 1,081 water agents.
However, the artisans and plumbers need 3 years of training before they will be able to start working, while the water agents can begin work after 10 months of training. – 08/02/2016 Crime
2010: “We are implementing plans to increase the number of policemen and women by 10% over the next three years.”
Verdict: Not achieved
Zuma’s commitment was made on 11 February 2010, during the 2009/10 financial year.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) reported that they employed 190,199 people at the end of 2009/10.
Of these, 151,164 were police officials and 39,035 were Public Service Act employees (who perform support functions such as personnel administration, procurement, financial administration, typing and cleaning).
A 10% increase would have seen the number of police officials increase to 166,280.
But by 2012/13, their numbers only stood at 155,531 – an increase of just 2.9%. The latest data from 2014/15 showed that the number of police officials has decreased by 0.1% since Zuma made the commitment.
Police officials are employed under the South African Police Service Act. Support staff are employed under the Public Service Act. Source South African Police Service Get the data
However, even if Zuma had kept his promise to increase police numbers by 10% it may not have helped to tackle South Africa’s crime problem.
Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cape Town’s criminology department, Dr Andrew Faull, told Africa Check that more police officials don’t always result in better policing and less crime.
“Police officials need to be deployed and managed properly along with targeted interventions and programmes. As importantly, they should be seen as legitimate authorities enforcing legitimate laws fairly and equitably,” said Faull.
“Conversely, illegitimate police practices can promote crime and disorder. In this case, the fewer police officials there are, the better.” – 05/02/2016
Jobs
2009: “The second phase of the [Expanded Public Works Programme] aims to create about four million job opportunities by 2014.”
Verdict: Achieved
Zuma made this commitment in his first state of the nation address on 3 June 2009.
By March 2014, the second phase of the Expanded Public Works Programme had created 4,071,292 work opportunities figures from the department of public works show.
It is important to remember though that work opportunities are not permanent jobs and in most cases only last a few months.
The department of public works notes that “the same individual can be employed on different projects and each period of employment will be counted as a work opportunity”. So while 4,071,292 work opportunities were created this does not mean that the same number of people benefited from the programme.
And though Zuma promised “four million job opportunities by 2014”, the Expanded Public Works Programme itself aimed higher – to create 4.5 million work opportunities – and this was not achieved. – 09/02/2016
– By Kate Wilkinson, Africa Check
