Sona 2016: Reaction from opposition parties

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has criticised President Jacob Zumas State of the
Nation address on Thursday night, saying he missed an opportunity to restore the confidence of
many South Africans.
Despite Zumas announcement that his administration intended to embark on a cost-cutting measure
that would see, among other things, oversees trips by government officials reduced, Maimane said
he expected Zuma to do much better.
The president was not bold enough on budget cuts. He literally cut food and travel. Those are small
things. The president should have announced the privatisation of SAA and other parastatals to make
sure we can recoup the capital to finance the developmental projects in the country. He should have
made sure that he cut his cabinet by half so that he release some of the money towards higher
education. It [Zumas speech] should have been bold, but the president announced more or less the
same things he did last year, said Maimane.
He described Zuma as compromised man, who had no clue how to pull South Africa out of the
current economic crisis.

We are in deep economic crisis and I dont

think President Zuma has got [the] capacity
to address that, said Maimane.
Zuma should have been open with the people
of South Africa and apologised to them about
the Nkandla scandal, said Maimane, referring
to Zumas concession in the Constitutional
Court this week that he was prepared to pay
a portion of the R246-million used for
security upgrades at his homestead.
Maimane also said Zuma should have announced government plans to develop small businesses in
South Africa as part of the strategy to create more jobs in the country.
We believe business should create jobs. Rather than him telling us about how the government was
planning to create 100 black industrialists, he should have focused on millions of black small
businesses, so that we can make sure that there is wealth that we develop to make sure more jobs
are created. We should have focused on key sectors.
We must focus on plans that deals with creating more jobs, said Maimane.
He lashed out at Economic Freedom Fighters [EFF] MPs for disrupting proceedings during the state
of the nation address.
His sentiments were shared by Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

We are sick and tired of the chaos in Parliament. Maybe it is because of my age, but if a head of
state is supposed to deliver the state of the nation, we must appreciate that he is not addressing
members of Parliament only. Its a message to the whole country. It is an insult to the people of
South Africa that he [Zuma] should be distracted, said Buthelezi.
However, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivhambu said it was the EFFs duty to speak out about
issues of corruption.
We cant be complicit by leaving a corrupt president to go on as if is business as usual. We are led by
a corrupt individual and we must expose that. If they [the DA and IFP] want to be part of that
corruption its, let them go on. When we first got to Parliament in 2014, they [DA and IFP] said we
are chaotic, but now that we have made progress [in holding Zuma accountable and took him to the
Constitutional Court], they want to jump into the bandwagon.
Matuma Letsoalo is a senior political reporter at the Mail & Guardian.
http://mg.co.za/article/2016-02-12-maimane-on-sona-the-president-was-not-bold-enough/