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Cape Town - Job creation in South Africa has "gone backward at a gallop"
under President Jacob Zuma's leadership, Democratic Alliance
parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said on Thursday evening.
"It's unbelievable," he said, responding to a question on what
he thought of Zuma's claim - made in the president's
state of the nation address earlier - that his government had
created 480 000 public works job opportunities by the end of
December.
"That, in fact, goes to the nub of the credibility of the whole
speech. He started with that... It's not true.
"We lost 800 000 jobs, which he admitted... We created 480 000
so-called job opportunities. There's no credibility to that. It
hasn't been tested by anybody.
"Losing jobs, real jobs, and replacing them with job
opportunities - you're going backwards at a gallop."
Trollip said Zuma had again disappointed the country, by making
a promise he did not fulfil.
He's now trying to obfuscate and say we achieved 97 percent of
our target. We actually went backwards at a gallop under his
leadership," he said.
In his address earlier, Zuma said the jobs created were in areas
such as construction, home and community-based care, and
environmental projects.
"The nation will recall that during the 2009 state-of-the-nation
address, I announced that the expanded public works programme would
create 500 000 work opportunities by December [last year].
"Let me reiterate that these jobs are not in the mainstream
economy. These are job opportunities created to provide unemployed
people with an income, work experience, and training opportunities.
"We are pleased to announce that by the end of December, we had
created more than 480 000 public works job opportunities, which is
97 percent of the target we had set," he said.
Asked what he though of Zuma's claim, Inkatha Freedom Party
Chief Whip Koos van der Merwe's response was blunt.
"I'm very surprised, and I'm not sure I believe that," he said.
United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa responded in a
similar vein: "Those are palace statistics," he said.
- Sapa