SONA: Ramaphosa's administration has little to celebrate, say political analysts
The soaring unemployment, rampant crime and continued corruption, even allegedly involving the president himself, Ramaphosa’s administration has left many South Africans disillusioned.
FILE: President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers his 2023 State of the Nation Address. Picture: GCIS
CAPE TOWN - President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his eighth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.
From his first Thuma Mina speech in 2018, to his New Dawn speech a year later, five years on, political analysts say there’s little to celebrate.
The soaring unemployment, rampant crime and continued corruption, even allegedly involving the president himself, Ramaphosa’s administration has left many South Africans disillusioned.
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So how is he expected to conclude this term of office amid such despair?
2019 was set to herald a new dawn.
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his second State of the Nation Address in which he dared South Africans to dream of bullet trains and a smart city.
He warned that the economy was not growing and that public finances were limited.
Ramaphosa pleaded for patience, saying that not everything government wanted to achieve could happen all at once.
Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy, Profesor Bheki Mngomezulu, said Ramaphosa will find it difficult to defend all the promises he’s made to date and very little’s changed over the past year.
"One of the things I think is going to dominate the State of the Nation Address is a glowing picture of the good things the government has been able to do despite challenges."
Sanusha Naidu, political analyst for the Institute for Global Dialogue said that with an election looming, Ramaphosa can’t admit to the shortcomings.
"What’s not going to be said is that 'we failed you as a leadership' and that is going to be difficult to say because he needs to win an election."
For South Africans who won’t be sitting in darkness on Thursday night, Ramaphosa will once again have to explain to the nation why after all the commitments made to end load shedding during his Presidency, 2023 was the worst year on record.