Pleas, advice for Zuma ahead of speech

2012-02-08 16:45

Johannesburg - Pleas for water and advice on why to study if there are no jobs, and politely written notes of anguish from remote towns around the country, filled the presidency's Facebook page ahead of the state of the nation address on Thursday.

"Msholozi [President Jacob Zuma's clan name] do something about drugz nd improve our education system create more job stop telling us about skills shortage ppl r loosing their jobs were else they got skills ... so do something [sic]," wrote Sphijo Nkosi.

He hoped his appeal would make it onto the president's to-do list for the next year.

Msikeleli Nkosiyabo Tumelo, of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, wrote of the despair of graduates not getting interviews for the most junior of jobs.

They did not have start-up capital to set up their own enterprise as an alternative and were not seeing the benefits of the youth development fund or rural employment plans.

Aids fund

He suggested that government pay more attention to non-governmental organisations and co-operatives in rural communities as a way of creating jobs, and allocate a percentage of the value of tenders granted in communities to co-operatives there.

Siphelele Duma suggested forming an HIV/Aids fund through a R5 a month salary deduction for individuals and R100 a month for companies to make the country less dependent on donors and to avoid deaths.

There were requests that volunteers carrying out home-based care be given something, that in the light of a teachers' strike in the Eastern Cape education be de-unionised, and that beer advertisements be removed from television so children could not see them.

A social worker asked that something be done about their low occupation-specific dispensation; another asked that blacklisted youths have their financial records cleared.

Small town opportunities

There was also a plea for electricity connections and for a faster turnaround time for work permits for foreigners.

Musa Marawu wanted a focus on stock theft.

"As a rural man, you should know how much it hurts for ordinary man, whose bank is their kraal [animal enclosure] to wake up with an empty kraal," he wrote.

One man asked that job opportunities be brought closer to small towns and villages so that families were not torn apart when people left to go to the cities for work.

Drienie de Villiers wanted to know what Zuma was doing to prevent the "genocide" of white people and the country's food security as farmers were killed.

Some said reducing Chinese imports would create more jobs and prevent a Chinese "colony". Others wanted to see the building of special pullover points for taxis.

One woman wrote that she no longer wanted to drink from the "same water as cows" and begged for taps.

The speech is due to start at 19:00 on Thursday.

- SAPA