Zuma takes a positive stance ahead of Thursday’s state of the nation address

Words like “will”, “growth”, “can” and “opportunities” dominated a speech by President Jacob Zuma today, ahead of his state of the nation address on Thursday.

Addressing what he called “captains of industry” and “labour leaders” in Cape Town, Zuma said he believed the nation had reasons to be optimistic.

The meeting served as a platform to strengthen cooperation between government, organised labour and business to promote inclusive economic growth, radical socioeconomic transformation and job creation in South Africa.

The president called for “unity in action”, a theme that was upheld at the ANC’s anniversary celebrations last month in attempt to drive South Africa on a sustainable growth path.

He called the economic conditions “improved”.

“Following a period of low economic growth in the last few years, prospects have improved for the years ahead. We expect economic growth of 1.3% in 2017 following an estimated 0.5% in 2016.

“Improved commodity prices, and stronger global growth should encourage both investment and employment, and provide necessary support for exports,” he said.

Zuma also said the improved weather conditions signalled an expectation that agriculture would recover.

“Tourism and the manufacturing sector should be supported by the weaker rand and a recovery in economic activity in the region,” he said. “We have reason to be optimistic.”

The words used by President Jacob Zuma in his speech ahead of the state of the nation address on Thursday.

However, Zuma’s speech wasn’t all rosy. He focused on country’s “triple challenges” of poverty, inequality and unemployment, and acknowledged that growth wasn’t fast enought to significantly reduce them.

“Unemployment currently stands at 27.1%. This is the highest rate since June 2004. Our youth unemployment stands at 44% for 18 to 29 year olds.

“In South Africa as in the rest of the world, the largest employers of unskilled workers are shrinking in importance. This puts more workers in the job market, being not only unemployed but also largely difficult to employ due to lack of skills.”

Zuma called the scale of inequality and exclusion “a most important challenge we need to confront head-on this year”.

He acknowledged that the black majority still remained largely outside of the mainstream economy.

“Social justice cannot be achieved if we allow the status quo to persist. Economic inclusion since 1994 demonstrated that we can grow the size of the economy. We have though, failed to ensure that the growth is shared.

“As we begin a new phase of economic recovery we have to make sure we take everyone along. We have to rework and sharpen our transformation model and more importantly demonstrate commitment and empathy.”

Zuma also commented on movement regarding the need to remove obstacles to doing business.

The interministerial committee on investment was established and was discussing the coordination and alignment of investment policy and regulation including the marketing of South Africa as a preferred investment destination. In this vein, the department of trade and industry had established a dedicated division, InvestSA, which will focus on investment promotion, facilitation and aftercare, he said.

A national “one stop shop service” for investors will be launched in March.

Zuma said that “working together as we are doing, we can achieve more in developing our economy and making it more attractive for foreign and domestic investment.

“Let me emphasise that it is critical that we work together as business, labour and government. That is what we mean when we talk of unity in action as we move South Africa forward,” Zuma said.