The Freedom Front Plus welcomes President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address. He approached current issues such as crime, corruption, poor health services, education and poverty.

Below is an article published by International Online Trading:

The Freedom Front Plus generally welcomed President Jacob Zuma's state of the nation address on Wednesday [27 May 2009], saying it gave the overarching impression of "back to the basics".

"Where government had in the past denied problems such as crime, Zimbabwe and HIV and Aids and got stuck in ideological debates, President Zuma identified core problems and made proposals as to how it could be addressed," FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder said.

This included issues such as crime, corruption, poor health services, education and poverty.

The impression was created that new management with new ideas was now in charge.

However, if there was not also renewal in the public service, many of the proposals would only create confusion and not be enforced in practice.

Proposals to reduce red-tape for small business enterprises and to make it easier to do business in South Africa were welcome.

It was necessary to make it easier to create new job opportunities in this time of economic recession and the FF Plus hoped this would apply to the agricultural sector.

"It is however still not clear from the President's speech which economic direction the government will be following with the different economic schools of thought presently represented in government," the deputy agriculture, forestry and fisheries minister said.

The FF Plus believed co-operation between the police and the private security industry would combat crime more successfully.

"In that light, we are concerned about the reference of the President to stricter regulations for the private security industry.

"It is not clear whether it entails closer co-operation or more alienation between the industry and government," he said.

If Zuma's reference to name changes meant clear guidelines and a cut-off date regarding all the different name change proposals would be established as soon as possible, the FF Plus welcomed it.

However, if it meant a further long and drawn out struggle from town to town about name changes, it would lead to greater polarisation and alienation between groups in South Africa, Mulder said.