{"id":113236,"date":"2016-02-11T11:48:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-11T09:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/germistoncitynews.co.za\/113236\/what-people-expect-from-the-presidents-state-of-the-nation-address-today\/"},"modified":"2016-03-10T18:29:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T16:29:01","slug":"what-people-expect-from-the-presidents-state-of-the-nation-address-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/news-headlines\/2016\/02\/11\/what-people-expect-from-the-presidents-state-of-the-nation-address-today\/","title":{"rendered":"What people expect from the President\u2019s State of the Nation Address today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The economy and economic growth <\/strong><\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>The economy needs to grow to create jobs; to achieve strategic goals; and to prevent South Africa\u2019s downgrading to junk status. Here the plummeting rand, rising food prices and soaring government debt are major concerns. The reasons for the current crisis, as well as possible solutions, will have to be addressed. The president needs to acknowledge the problems and announce concrete steps to begin to fix the ailing economy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Civil servants\u2019 salaries<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"stream-item stream-item-in-post stream-item-inline-post aligncenter\"><\/div>\n<p>The government\u2019s wage bill simply has to be trimmed. Civil servants\u2019 salaries and benefits consume 35.5% of government\u2019s total budget. This contributed to public debt ballooning by 70% between 2009 and 2014 from 26% of GDP to 44% by 2014.<\/p>\n<p>The return on this investment has been almost non-existent as the civil service remains unproductive\u00a0and service delivery protests\u00a0remain a fact of daily life.<\/p>\n<p>President Zuma must use the speech to signal his willingness to cut this inefficient spending.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Social cohesion <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The current wave of racism sweeping the country falls under the goal of social cohesion. The President should address the racial divide in the country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fees must fall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The president needs to show that he has listened to students\u2019 concerns about unaffordable education. He needs to commit to finding sustainable solutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Land reform <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More radical social and economic transformation, with emphasis on land reform, will be most critical.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Political Violence<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The president needs to address violence within and between political parties. The issue is serious in view of the forthcoming local elections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"stream-item stream-item-below-post-content\">\n<div class='tenancy_slot tenancy_slot_1 jannah_ad' style='display: none;' data-query-id='4b81c5dc1d314efeb3c5c8cf6e6873a8'><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are the top concerns that many hope President Zuma will address at SONA today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7782,"featured_media":115480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Caxton Central","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[9757,3533,1656,9758,3540,6579,9759,9760],"class_list":["post-113236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-economic-growth","tag-jacob-zuma","tag-job-creation","tag-junk-status","tag-president-jacob-zuma","tag-sona","tag-state-of-rhe-nation-address","tag-what-people-want-to-hear"],"amp_enabled":true,"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["economic growth","jacob zuma","job creation","junk status","president Jacob Zuma","sona","state of rhe nation address","what people want to hear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/germiston-city-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}