PHUTI MOSOMANE
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to deliver what is arguably the most important speech of his term in office before a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament on Thursday night.
The speech is the residue of collaboration among a large number of officials in the government, including policy advisors, researchers, and speech writers – and outside advisors and thinkers. Traditionally, the Forum of South Africa’s Director-Generals (FOSAD), the ANC’s January 8th Statement, ANC NEC Lekgotla, and the Cabinet Lekgotla also play a central role in shaping the speech.
Ramaphosa is expected to set out government’s key policy objectives and deliverables for the year ahead, flag challenges and outline interventions to unlock the nation’s potential.
During his address this evening at 7pm, Ramaphosa will also highlight what has been achieved since his last address in 2022. He will also reflect on the progress made in implementing the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP).
Ramaphosa, a classical pragmatist, was sworn in as president of South Africa almost five years ago. He rode in on a promise of reform, and was carried to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on a wave of goodwill and euphoria following the ousting of President Jacob Zuma.
Tonight, Ramaphosa has to win the hearts and minds of South Africans who are increasingly becoming impatient with his promises and vague platitudes.
The president is under pressure to detail a comprehensive plan on how to extricate the poor, who are still feeling from the hardship brought on by COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on the Russian-Ukraine conflict on food prices and the increasing cost of living due to sluggish economic growth.
Ramaphosa must provide leadership on solving the country’s energy crisis while driving the country’s Just Energy Transition to achieve low carbon emissions without compromising jobs and livelihoods in the communities heavily depended on coal.
That said, this is a moment for Ramaphosa to prove his critics wrong and deliver on ending loadshedding within the next 12 months, create an enabling environment for businesses to create more jobs, introduce measures on how to provide relief to millions of citizens who are struggling to make ends meets, and most importantly, continue the “good fight’’ on crime and corruption with successful prosecutions.
This is a Ramaphosa moment. The mood from many citizens is that it’s either he uses this year to effectively and efficiently deliver services to the people or pack his bags.
He needs to report back to the people on how far he got, as he promised in the 2022 SONA; on the massive rollout of infrastructure, ensuring substantial increase in local production, on employment stimulus to create jobs and support livelihoods, and the rapid expansion of energy generation capacity.
Whatever he says tonight, millions of South Africans are hoping he will do one thing: provide realistic, achievable, immediate and long-term plans to solve loadshedding.
As Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi puts it: “Mr. President, solve the electricity crisis – and solve it now, or else it’s the end of all us’’.
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