Parliament’s Presiding Officers inspected the Cape Town City Hall on Wednesday afternoon, 8 February where President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the 2023 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.
They said they are satisfied with the preparations that are being made for hosting SONA.
Speaker of the National Assembly Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqcakula said they are happy with the arrangements which are made by the team, in Parliament, the public works and working together with the team of the security cluster.
Meanwhile, organisations and unions have come out to express their expectations from Ramaphosa, they said despite their lack of confidence, they nonetheless would like the SONA to address several issues, such as Job creation, end austerity, cleanse corruption feasible solutions to the energy crises and the rebuilding of the health system, amongst other things.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (DENOSA) said they need the President to feature the National Health Insurance (NHI) plans and address the deteriorating healthcare services.
DENOSA Secretary-General, Kwena Manamela said the public healthcare system was experiencing a shocking shortage of about 27 000 nurses when there were about 5 000 nurses who were just sitting at home looking for employment.
He said their major concern is that, due to South Africa’s unresolved challenge of producing specialist nurses from its system, the country is well on its way to becoming the disruptor of healthcare services in many African countries, as many nurses in those countries would be willing to come to South Africa when their countries can barely afford to produce specialist nurses.
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) Secretary-General Zwelinzima Vavi said for the government to deliver quality education, quality healthcare, effective rehabilitating and correcting correctional services, and adequate psychosocial services from social work the government has to commit more expenditure.
The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) said they hope, in his address Ramaphosa will tackle a few issues pertinent to local government.
SALGA’s spokesperson Sivuyile Mbambato said they request that the President give a status update on the introduction of renewable energy independent power producers (IPPs) in the country’s energy sector as well as plans for ending persistent load shedding, which has hurt municipalities, consumers, and small businesses.
