Zuma out of touch with reality: Afriforum

President Jacob Zuma is out of touch with the reality of South Africa, AfriForum said following the State of the Nation Address on Tuesday.

The speech Zuma gave was a series of agreeable promises, most of which could not be realised, said AfriForum spokesman Ernst Roets.

"It seems as if he would like to apply radical intervention in all the wrong places."

Roets said areas that required radical intervention were ignored due to lack of understanding of the true scope of the issues the country faced.

The organisation said the president had failed to acknowledge the fact that farmers were being forced to abandon the sector due to violence.

It was unrealistic to expect the agricultural sector to create a million employment opportunities while farmers were regularly attacked.

"Unemployment indeed is one of the country's most serious crises. the root of the problem actually is to be found in state interference."

Roets suggested that youth unemployment should be tackled through the education department.

"The undertaking that the number of matriculants with exemption will be increased cannot be achieved unless education standards are lowered."

The organisation claimed that no plan of action was provided to ensure the increase would be reached.

"The focus is on attaining numbers instead of improving on the quality of the education provided.”

AfriForum was also concerned that nothing much was said about high levels of crime in the country. - Sapa