SA's geopolitical concerns likely to eclipse domestic issues in Ramaphosa's SONA, says analyst

CAPE TOWN - While South Africans expect President Cyril Ramaphosa to focus on various domestic issues in his State of the Nation Address, it's likely that he might also have to speak on various geopolitical concerns involving the country.

Ramaphosa will deliver his eighth SONA at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening.

This follows a week of the country making global headlines after US President Donald Trump claimed that the government was confiscating land and "doing terrible things".

Last week, 14 of the country’s soldiers, who were part of a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), died in a combat zone – their remains are yet to be repatriated.

After several weeks of making international headlines, this week's SONA might find critical domestic issues, such as unemployment, the ongoing water crisis and the state of local government eclipsed by geopolitical concerns.

President Ramaphosa is likely to use the address to give the country some assurance regarding its troops in the eastern DRC, with the University of the North West's Professor Kedibone Phago saying it'll have to be a fine balancing act between matters here at home and South Africa's standing on the global stage.

He said that many must be made to understand the implication of lobbying for the US to get involved in our issues.

"The very same people with access to US markets through the trade deals SA has with the US, such as AGOA, may be the people who are going to suffer."

This will be Ramaphosa’s first SONA since the formation of the Government of National Unity following the African National Congress (ANC)'s massive electoral decline in last year's elections.

The GNU, which has experienced several tensions but remains intact, is likely to be one of the president's highlights.