By Simon Nare
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address has been described as fancy, laden with recycled promises, hollow rhetoric and dressed up with fanfare delivered by someone who is permanently on reset button.
On the second day of the debate on SONA, opposition political parties continued to rip apart the president’s address, pointing out a lack of substance in his speech which they said was loaded with repeated promises from the past.
EFF MP Omphile Maotwe advised the president to perhaps retire and go look after his Phala Phala farm because since occupying the Union Buildings in 2018, he has not inspired any hope for the youth, men and women who were lingering on the streets in absolute poverty and despair.
“Year in and year out, Mr Ramaphosa comes here and make promises without accounting for the promises he made the previous year. It’s as if he’s permanently on a reset button. And the sad thing is that every time he opens his mouth, more and more people become statistics of unemployment, poverty, rape and murder,” she charged.
Maotwe said in his first and second SONAs, Ramaphosa revealed that he had a plan for critical investment that would support structural transformation, growth and job creation, and yet the nation has experienced nothing but suffering, deepening unemployment and a rising cost of living.
She said that in 2019, Ramaphosa promised to create 275,000 jobs a year and yet currently there was no link between the government budget and job creation. There was also no link between South African Reserve Bank policy and job creation.
MK Party MP Nhlamulo Ndhlela said SONA was not meant to be a ceremonial spectacle or a stage to take account of lost promises, but rather a moment to take responsibility by giving an honest assessment of past commitments.
Ndhlela said the president missed an opportunity to tell the nation the problems the country was facing and how they would be dealt with.
“Instead, we witness yet another episode of political theatrics, a fashion show camouflaged with empty hot air rhetoric. Mr Ramaphosa’s speech was filled with promises eerily similar to those made in 2023, 2024 and even earlier.
“Let us not be fooled by his eloquence. South Africa deserves more Mr President than promises. They deserve more, the deserve results. We have listened to these commitments before and yet the realities on the ground tell a different story. A story of betrayal, neglect and failure,” said Ndhlela.
He pointed to several areas which he said qualified the country to be labelled as a failed state. These included soldiers dying in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a lack of inclusive growth and children being taught under trees and using pit toilets.
“Mr President sir, you lead a failed state,” he said.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi for the ANC lauded Ramaphosa for putting the doomsayers in their place on the National Health Insurance during his speech.
Motsoaledi said there were those who believed that the NHI would never be implemented and yet Ramaphosa had confirmed during SONA that the government was on course to get it off the ground.
“And if I may quote you, you said this year we will proceed with preparatory work on the establishment of the NHI. Some doomsayers still persist in their denial,” he said.
Motsoaledi said there were people who spoke about the NHI without reading it and they distorted its definition. He added that this was not a new system of healthcare as some were going around claiming.
Put simply, argued Motsoaledi, it was about financing a health system that was designed for all, regardless of their socio-economic status.
“… it has got two dimensions. The first one is that all people will be equally cared for. And all means all, regardless of how poor you are. It means all. And the second dimension is that when you receive that quality healthcare you must not suffer financial hardship or what the World Health Organisation calls catastrophic healthcare expenditure,” he said.
Ramaphosa is expected to respond to the debate on Thursday.
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