THE State of the Nation Address (Sona) will be a dull event!
This is according to opposition parties, as they expressed their views ahead of the family meeting to be addressed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, 8 February at Cape City Hall.
Congress of the People (Cope) President Mosioua Lekota said Ramaphosa’s lackluster performance pattern and the collapse of governance were compelling reasons not to expect anything dramatic.
“His last State of the Nation Address can predictably be a damp squib even before he delivers it on Thursday,” he said.
Lekota said the negative impact of the “9 wasted years” timeline of shame is still felt in 2024 and will continue in the future.
“Crippling levels of load shedding have a destructive effect on the economy, jobs, lives, and livelihoods. Nationwide water problems, collapsing ports, roads, railways, and other critical economic infrastructure have led to stagnant economic growth. Businesses, the engines of growth, are collapsing while some have closed shop. The 6% budget deficit and empty fiscus impose unpopular austerity measures, leading to service delivery deterioration,” he said.
Rise Mzansi President Songezo Zibi said little of the Sona will reflect the real state of Mzansi, and the difficult conditions in which South Africans live under Ramaphosa’s and the ANC’s leadership.
He said the country cannot produce enough electricity to power its economy or people’s homes because Eskom was and continues to be broken despite promises to improve it.
“The mooted turnaround has not happened, while there remains no credible funding plan on the table. The backbone of South Africa’s logistics infrastructure, Transnet, is also broken and without permanent executive leadership even as it needs R100 billion to finance its turnaround strategy. The government will not be able to mobilise this money, but President Ramaphosa will nonetheless strike a baselessly optimistic tone,” Zibi said.
He pointed out that corruption continued to strangle all levels of government, with not a single significant successful prosecution of the grand corruption that has delivered so much misery to millions of South Africans.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) said they expected that Ramaphosa will perform “a cosmetic surgery” to fix Mzansi.
“The president must admit that the new growth path envisaged, only gave us poverty as the country, as we are currently sitting with over 50% of our population living in abject poverty.
“With the economy suffocated by rolling blackouts for the past 335 of 365 days of the year compared to the 30 days of loadshedding in 2019,” said ATM President Vuyo Zungula.
He said if Ramaphosa was a true patriot, in the wake of such dismal failures, he would fall in his sword in shame and refuse the second term in office, to save South Africa from further decay and torment.
“The country cannot collect 75 murdered bodies a day as if in a war ridden society and the President thinks it can be business as usual. The country cannot have a youth unemployment of 58% and it's hunky dory for the ruling party. The country cannot have irregular expenditure to the tune of trillions and it is as if nothing has happened,” said Zungu.
