“Hugely disappointing” and “not inspiring”.
That was how MK Party leader Dr John Hlophe described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Speaking outside the Cape Town City Hall following the president’s address, Hlophe said the president identified three priorities - poverty, inequality and housing.
However, he did not deal with those priorities at length, Hlophe said.
“We know poverty is worse than ever it was before.
“Every day, when you walk in South Africa, at a robot-controlled intersection, you see a lot of people who are hungry, who are homeless, who have nowhere to stay. So poverty is worse than it ever was before. Mr Ramaphosa made no mention of that,” Hlophe said.
He said Ramaphosa was talking about an ideal nation, a united South Africa, united in diversity.
“No attempts whatsoever are being made by the government of Cyril Ramaphosa to eradicate racism. It’s 30 years in the making,” Hlophe criticised.
“It’s the black people who are the victims of racism in this country.”
Hlophe also said Ramaphosa did not talk about the land issue which was critical in addressing poverty and inequality.
“To him, obviously, that’s a non-issue,” Hlophe stated.
He said last year, in the SONA, Ramaphosa said 25% of the land has been brought back to black people as part of the land redistribution program.
“That is not true. One point nine percent of the land is in private hands, that includes Phala Phala.”
Hlophe said central to uMkhonto weSizwe is the question of land.
“Land is central to us. It is critical,” he stated.
He went on to say that the Expropriation Act is very deceitful to the extent that it creates an impression that land can be expropriated without compensation.
“You only have to read the Act very carefully. There is no such thing as expropriation of land without compensation, as long as you have Section 25 of the Constitution, that’s where the problem is,” Hlophe said.