{{South African President Jacob Zuma delivers the first State of the Nation address of his second term on Tuesday, under pressure to outline plans for reviving growth and creating much-needed jobs in Africa’s most advanced economy.}}<\/p>\n
A double blow from ratings agencies last week underlined the precarious state of the economy, which contracted in the first quarter. <\/p>\n
South Africans will also be closely watching Zuma himself after he was hospitalised this month with fatigue.<\/p>\n
The 72-year-old was quickly discharged after “routine tests”, his office said a week ago. <\/p>\n
However, he handed over the reins to his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa for five days to give himself time to recover from the rigours of preparing for the May 7 election.<\/p>\n
Zuma’s African National Congress (ANC) won a 62% majority in the vote, the fifth since the end of apartheid in 1994, but the ruling party has had little to cheer about since the result.<\/p>\n
A five-month strike in the platinum mines is dragging the economy towards recession and the impact on broader growth and government finances prompted Fitch to put South Africa on a negative outlook and Standard & Poor’s to cut its credit rating on Friday.<\/p>\n
Hitherto, Zuma had relied almost exclusively on a National Development Plan (NDP) drawn up in his first term as his broad blue-print for promoting long-term growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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