The Independent Democrats (ID) Parliamentary Leader Joe Mcgluwa says cabinet should bow their heads in shame as they have failed South Africans in executing a successful “year of the jobs”.

Mr Mcgluwa has launched a skating attack on cabinet following weekend media reports of their being concerned at the state’s “lack of capacity” to implement an ambitious job creation plan announced by President Jacob Zuma in his state of the nation address last year.

‘It has become a tendency of government to become excited by setting high targets which they cannot achieve. Instead, the disappointment far exceeds the initial excitement as levels of unemployment still remain high. There are still 4.4 million South Africans without a job,’ states Mcgluwa.

‘The bold announcement by President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet last year was not only premature but without doing the necessary research to determine the capacity and whether the target would be within reach. We call upon the president to apologise to the nation for cabinets colossal failure in this regard.

‘It seems that it was all empty promises as Monitoring and Evaluation Minister Collins Chabane could not provide details of progress made in implementing these initiatives with only a few months left to the end of the financial year,’ says Mcgluwa.

‘The ID welcomes the creation of both a Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission and the Short–Term Job Creation Commission headed by the President Zuma and his deputy Kgalema Motlanthe respectively. We further hope that this will be the much needed platform to address job creation as South Africans deserve better.

‘It is time for the ANC-government to set measurable and achievable targets and stop aiming for unachievable objectives for political gain,’ Mcgluwa says.