EFF: Zuma report misleading country on true state of economy

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has described President Jacob Zuma’s surprise mid-year report as nonsensical and confusing.

Addressing the media at the Union Buildings on Tuesday as part of a feedback session on the progress of the nine-key points raised during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in February, Zuma stated he expects the economy to grow by three percent over the next three years, despite the current energy crisis and escalating rate of unemployment.

He also denied allegations that the country is on the brink of an economic collapse, saying that many global economies have continued facing hardships after the 2008 / 2009 recession.

In a rebuttal, EFF Acting National Spokesperson Fana Mokoena stated that Zuma’s report was simply a way of bolstering his image and painting a rosy economic picture, when the opposite is in fact true.

“In this environment, it would be interesting to find out where the President gets his incredible 3% growth from. National Treasury has cuts its growth forecast even below a prevailing consensus to dismal 2% in 2015, 2.4% in 2016, and 2.8% in 2017, this has not been revised,” Mokoena said in a statement.

“We also question the timing of the President’s impromptu appearance after he was humiliated in parliament by the EFF who exposed his limited knowledge of the country’s economic status”.

Mokoena also added that the majority of Zuma’s topics boasted findings from 2014, and that the country knows he is “incapable and incapacitated [of dealing] with tougher questions of the economy”.

“The President is an embarrassment to the whole country including the majority in the ruling party and the most effective way to address this national embarrassment is to remove him,” he said.