Cape Town - Pressure over South Africa's jobs crisis and lethargic economy towered over President
Jacob Zuma on Thursday ahead of his annual address to a nation demanding solutions.
Zuma is set to give a progress report and lay out his vision for the year ahead, with lobby groups and the media painting a sober picture of his scorecard after three years in office.
"We do recognise a small improvement in the level of unemployment," said Patrick Craven, spokesperson for Cosatu. "But this improvement is nowhere near enough."
After declaring 2011 the year of job creation, Zuma received a welcome boost on Tuesday with news that official unemployment had fallen to 23.9% in the last quarter of the year, its lowest level since 2009.
But still dangerously high, the figure rises to 32.7% when those who have given up hope of finding work are included.
South Africa's fragile recovery from a 2009 recession has been bogged down by the eurozone crisis, and the government has struggled to boost employment despite pledging to create five million jobs by 2020.
Zuma last year announced a R9bn job fund to roll out over three years, and made job creation a top-five priority alongside education, health, rural development and crime.
"The state's job-creation programme will undoubtedly feature prominently in Mr Zuma's address, as it should," the Business Day daily wrote in an editorial.
"But however much gloss is put on the situation, this will not change the fact that the government will not achieve its target of five million new jobs by 2020."
The state is chasing yearly economic growth of seven percent to support that goal, but the International Monetary Fund cautiously predicts 2.5% at best this year, well below 5.5% for sub-Saharan Africa.
Renowned for his ability to bounce back, Zuma faces a tough year under the shadow of internal fighting in the ANC party, with some members seeking his ouster.
He will bid in December for a second term as party leader, a post that would virtually ensure he retains the national presidency.
Styled as a man of the poor, Zuma has scored points for scaling up the fight against HIV and firing ministers over dodgy dealings.
But he has struggled to turn around weak public services and roll out democracy's gains to all South Africans amid frustrations over graft, mismanagement and a lack of basic services.
State-run schools and hospitals used by the poor black majority are mired in crisis, while the wealthy turn to high-quality private options in a widening social gap 18 years after
Nelson Mandela's democratic election.
A new poll released on the eve of Zuma's speech showed his approval rating had dropped from 77% in November 2009, six months after taking office, to 61% in November last year.
"Unfortunately for Zuma, despite much cajoling and kicking on his part, he has yet to get the state machinery to do what he has been promising since 2009," The Star wrote in an editorial.
"This failure, more than anything else, will colour the reaction to whatever he will say tonight."