SONA in a nutshell

Union and business representatives have welcomed President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address to Parliament and, while the speech was held by some observers to be uninspiring it contained a lot of detail about the government's plans to boost jobs and invest in infrastructure.

(Image: GCIS)

The key facets of the government's current plan are:

R300bn in capital projects for Transnet. Transnet says its balance sheet is sufficiently strong to finance this investment;
Expanding the rail network in Mpumalanga and Limpopo to carry coal to power stations or for exports;
A R83 000 subsidy for home-buyers who do not qualify for bank finance;
Spending R300m on two new universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape;
The implementation from April this year of a R1bn housing fund to guarantee home loans;
Phased development of a new manganese line to export the mineral from Port Ngqura (Coega) in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Negotiations with Eskom to reduce the electricity prices while investing in renewable energy projects
Five geographically-focused programmes in different provinces to increase mining and agriculture and improve transportation
No details were released on the planned National Health Insurance but hospitals and nurses homes are being refurbished.
Land reform targets had not been met with just 8% of land targeted for redistribution changing hands out of a target of 30%.

The projects are aimed at creating millions of jobs in South Africa.

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