Johannesburg - President Cyril Ramaphosa says he takes the recent reactions to his State of the National Address address, in which he revised former president Thabo Mbeki’s iconic 1996 “I am an African” speech seriously.
“I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas, and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land,” Mbeki said in 1996.
Many on social media reacted with shock following this take on what defines South Africans, with some South Africans saying he took a jab at former president Thabo Mbeki’s “I’m an African” speech. Mbeki was also in attendance on the day of Ramaphosa’s delivery of his annual Sona in the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday.
Hope and resilience dominated Ramaphosa’s opening address as he underscored the many challenges the country faced, including the Eskom load-shedding crisis, which he described as an existential crisis for the economy.
“For we are a nation defined not by the oceans and rivers that form the boundaries of our land. We are not defined by the minerals under our earth or the spectacular landscape above it.
“We are not even defined by the languages we speak, the songs we sing, or the work we do. We are, at our most essential, a nation defined by hope and resilience.
“It was hope that sustained our struggle for freedom, and it is hope that swells our sails as we steer our country out of turbulent waters and into calmer seas,” Ramaphosa said.
However, following concerns over the speech, Ramaphosa, in a statement issued by his office on Sunday, said he took the concerns of South Africans to heart and wished to leave no one behind.
“It is through you and citizens’ reactions on social media that we have over this weekend been able to see the nation’s response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address.
“We are a listening Presidency at the apex of a listening government, and we welcome feedback and engagement as part of democratic participation and the national discourse."
"Leaving no one behind requires us to listen and respond effectively to the concerns, wishes, and experiences of individual citizens and stakeholder constituencies,“ Ramaphosa said.
The Star