Zuma attempts to mislead the nation in the SONA

As Zuma and his government cannot solve the challenges facing our country, he has resorted to misleading the public with his “facts” and “figures”. Let’s look at a few examples; Zuma said that it is now looking positive on the jobs front. He stated that based on Stats SA employment figures for the last quarter of 2014 indicate that there are now 15.3-million people who are employed in South Africa and that jobs grew by 203,000. The latest employment data from Stats SA shows that from October to December 2014 an additional 203,000 people were employed compared to July to September last year. This thus brought the number of those employed to 15.32-million, the number of unemployed people decreased by 242,000. Although Zuma quoted correct figures, they were quoted out of context. Zuma compared the third and fourth quarters of 2014. Africa Check interviewed the acting executive manager of labour statistics at Stats SA, Desiree Manamela who stressed the importance of focusing on year-on-year trends and not quarterly comparisons. She said that the trend in labour market data shows that seasonal factors result in an increase in employment during the 4th quarter [October to December] of every year. This is ahead of the planting season for many crops and also the festive period during which retailers hire additional staff. Thus many of the jobs created in this quarter would have been temporary in nature. A year-on-year comparison of the fourth quarters of 2013 and 2014 show that employment still increased but only by 143,000 and the number of unemployed people actually increased by 79,000. Africa Check also interviewed Dr Nicolas Pons-Vignon, a senior researcher at Wits University’s School of Economic and Business Sciences. He said that was important to look at other long-term trends, such as the unemployment rate, which Zuma didn’t mention. Stats SA data shows that the narrow unemployment rate increased by 0.2% to 24.3% between the fourth quarters of 2013 and 2014. Pons-Vignon confirmed that South Africa has an incredibly high unemployment rate; one of the highest in the world and that this trend hasn’t changed. For me the biggest faux pax was when it came to the biggest crises South Africa is currently confronting: the Electricity crisis. In his speech, Zuma said: “The construction of the three new power stations Kusile, Medupi and Ingula, will add 10,000 MW of capacity to the national grid.” This is simply wrong! The country is currently building two power stations, not three as stated in his address. Africa Check’s research confirms that the truth is that Ingula, between KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State, is a pump storage scheme, not a power station. It can assist with load peaks but the power supplied to the grid has to be pumped back into the scheme. This means that Ingula’s four 333 MW generators (1332 MW) will not contribute to South Africa’s base-load capacity, as it is not able to produce energy at a constant, or near constant, rate. Kusile (six 800MW units) and Medupi (six 794MW units) will however add 9,564 MW to the base-load capacity, according to Eskom figures. As it is not delivering, Zuma and his government are simply twisting facts to created new “facts” that make his government look good. South Africa will not be misled.