THEBE MABANGA
CYRIL Ramaphosa will on Thursday reach a defining moment in South Africa’s history and his Presidency when he addresses a joint sitting of Parliament to present government’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In some ways, we have been here before, except this time the stakes are much higher and the country cannot afford to fail.
In September 2009, less than six months into Jacob Zuma’s first term as President, government had to present its response to the Global Financial Crisis, which had started a year earlier with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers.
The task of unveiling the plan fell to newly appointed Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel, who at the time had no government or Cabinet experience.
Patel acknowledged that the formulation of the plan suffered from a number of delays, most notably the election campaigning, which took place that year to prepare for transition
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