Although no election date was announced, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address left no doubt that 2024 is an election year. Opposition parties remained unmoved by the presidential listicles of his administration’s achievements and those of the governing ANC since 1994.
From the IFP to the Freedom Front Plus, the African Christian Democratic Party , the African Transformation Movement and the DA, the general sentiment was that the State of the Nation Address President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered on Thursday was little more than a stump speech for his governing ANC. The opposition parties called on voters to ensure it was Ramaphosa’s last Sona.
A day before the Sona, petrol and diesel prices went up by 75 cents per litre and 73 cents per litre, respectively, which will increase the cost of food and put more pressure on consumers already hard hit by the cost-of-living crisis. “The reforms that we have initiated and the work that is under way will enable us to end load shedding, to improve our logistics system, to achieve water security and ultimately to create jobs,” Ramaphosa said. “While our challenges have never been greater, our response to these challenges will lead us to greater prosperity than we have ever known.
Rampahosa hinted at an extension of the Covid-era R350 Social Relief of Distress grant. “We have seen the benefits of this grant and extend it and improve it as the next step towards income support for the unemployed.”That this was an electioneering speech was underscored by the labour federation Cosatu’s gentle and generous support, tempered with a hint of impatience about the lack of infrastructure development.
Ramaphosa on Thursday was determinedly glass half full, detailing how his government had overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, and was dealing with stubborn unemployment and other “challenges”. 1) Scrapping the limit on own generation to allow thousands of MW of renewable energy to be fed into the grid.1) Gwede Mantashe giving two fingers to the country by not efficiently increasing transmission capacity from these sources, by refusing to use US$8.5bn given by the WEST to roll out the JET-IP. Ramaphosa’s claim that 14,000km of new transmission is being rolled out is a bald lie: it’s a fraction of that.
SONA was a few watery half-truths from before his day used as fig leaves to cover up the collapsing state we live in. Put another way, a pack of complete lies.Mr President, with the utmost disrespect, your SONA address shows how much you, your cabinet, the ANC, are out of touch with the reality that is the failed state that is South Africa.
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