The African National Congress (ANC) says the State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Cyril Ramaphosa comes at a time when the country faces economic headwinds, but progress has been made in some of the programmes of the State.
The ANC said the economy has been facing challenges, but they have been taking measures to address some of the challenges.
But the party said the sixth administration, which began its term in 2019, had gone through the Covid-19 pandemic and other global crises in the past five years.
Ramaphosa will be delivering his Sona before the elections.
Vincent Magwenya, the spokesperson for Ramaphosa, said the president would announce the election date in the next 15 days.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) said it was starting to prepare for the elections.
More than 27.4 million people have registered to vote in the elections.
The ANC said government has set up specialised units to clamp down on the construction mafia, illegal mining and sabotage to economic infrastructure.
Fighting crime and corruption was one of the priorities of government.
“Twenty specialised SAPS Economic Infrastructure Task Teams have been established to work with business, private security and state-owned enterprises to tackle illegal mining, construction site extortion, cable theft and vandalism of economic infrastructure.
“By November 2023, the task teams had made over 4,000 arrests for damage of critical infrastructure, 70 arrests for extortion at construction sites and over 3,000 arrests for illegal mining, and confiscated significant quantities of copper cable, rail tracks and other metals,” said the ANC.
The ANC said Ramaphosa’s administration was also faced with economic challenges. The economy recorded negative growth in the third quarter. The economy contracted by 0.2% between July and September.
“Despite these hurdles, South Africa has demonstrated notable economic resilience. While the economy experienced contraction, the nation remains on an upward trajectory, supported by various economic measures and policies,” said the ANC.
The ruling party said the issue of Palestine was also on top of their agenda this year.
This follows the ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel must halt its military operations in Gaza.
But Tel Aviv has continued its bombardment of the besieged city, despite the court judgment.
Minister of International Relational Naledi Pandor called on the international community to get Israel to stop the attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
The ANC said the Ramaphosa administration has also been fighting crime and corruption.
The National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament recently to make the Investigating Directorate a permanent unit.
The party also said it was forging ahead with the National Health Insurance (NHI) after the Bill was approved by Parliament.
Magwenya said this week Ramaphosa was still applying his mind on the bill.
The ruling party said it was addressing the energy crisis with more megawatts added to the grid.
Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said a few months ago there were 66GW of renewable energy projects in the pipeline.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics