Johannesburg - Promises, promises, and more promises have characterised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s five years of the State of the Nation Address (Sona) as head of state.
With the country’s persistent load shedding, this year’s Sona comes at a critical time for South Africans who are reeling from one crisis to another.
It comes six years after Ramaphosa’s celebrated New Dawn-inspired address on February 9, 2018. Concerned South Africans on social media, opposition political parties and commentators have raised their concerns over the lack of implementation of Ramaphosa’s unending promises ahead of his address this evening.
As promised under the New Dawn theme, Ramaphosa went on a charm offensive, detailing his plan to create jobs, and put an end to crime and corruption.
“At the centre of our national agenda in 2018 is the creation of jobs, especially for the youth. We are going to embark on a number of measures to address the unemployment challenge.
“One of the initiatives will be to convene a jobs summit within the next few months to align the efforts of every sector and every stakeholder behind the imperative of job creation,” Ramaphosa told South Africans in 2018.
Five years later, Ramaphosa has, according to leading opposition parties and other commentators, failed on all fronts of his promises. These include the building of a Smart City, creating one million jobs every year, and ending poverty, except for the three jobs summits, which have yielded minimal results.
African Transformation Movement leader Vuyo Zungula, in his open letter to Ramaphosa ahead of his bowl of “empty promises”, was scathing in his assessment of Ramaphosa’s five-year tenure as president.
“The list of promises is endless. Beyond the 2019 elections, he made new promises in the June 2019 Sona, in particular, to reduce crime. However, the latest report delivered by Minister (Bheki) Cele on August 22, 2022, paints a shocking picture of a country losing the war against crime. In the 2019 Sona, 500 000 housing units were promised and, to date, just under 14 000 have been delivered by the Housing Development Agency. There was also a Smart City promised near Lanseria Airport, where the earmarked land is still a bush.
“The list of empty promises is endless, and as recently as February 2022, he promised a new social compact within 100 days,” Zungula said.
Key among the country’s unresolved problems are the issues of crime, energy and the high unemployment rate.
Tonight will undoubtedly be a difficult juggling act for Ramaphosa.
The Public Servants Association (PSA) said it believed that this was the time for Ramaphosa to reassure the nation of his leadership capacity.
The union said it had been exactly 11 years since the Cabinet adopted the National Development Plan, which sought to achieve a prosperous South African society in 20 years’ time.
“The core priorities were to reduce poverty, unemployment and inequality. The facts, however, indicate that these priorities are not being met. The time for rhetoric and philosophy is clearly over,” the PSA said.
It pointed out that Ramaphosa had been making countless promises while the country continued to suffer under massive unemployment, a declining economy, corruption and an inefficient public sector, all of which were exacerbated by water shortages, load shedding and decaying infrastructure.
Small businesses are also feeling the promise-laden Sona deliveries made by Ramaphosa, as the big voice of small business, the Small Business Institute (SBI) has said, noting that many workers would shrug their shoulders if asked why Sona matters.
The SBI said the government and its leaders had failed.
SBI CEO John Dludlu said every day they were inundated by small business owners suffering from the devastating impact of load shedding.
“Small businesses and households, which cannot afford to immediately get off the national grid, have been the worst affected. Every day we are inundated by small business owners who are suffering from the devastating impact of load shedding.
“We ask the president to ask relevant organs of state to accelerate relief measures for SMEs affected by load shedding,” he said.
Professor Hartmut Winkler, from the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Physics, said Ramaphosa would continue pushing the line that he had a plan, adding that load shedding could not be solved in six to 12 months.
“In my opinion, sorting out load shedding is going to take quite a few years, maybe as much as five years. So anything that sounds like load shedding and the power crisis will be behind us in less than a year is just not going to be believed,” said Winkler.
Professor Theo Neethling from the University of the Free State's Department of Political Studies and Governance said he had read a comparative list of things that had been promised and delivered.
“The point is, you can’t just make promises and more promises and nothing is coming to an end state, and nothing is delivered in terms of what has been said,” added Neethling.
The Star