Johannesburg - Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) has been met with criticism from various organisations including experts.
Some said Ramaphosa failed to come up with solutions to the key issues facing the country and continued to make empty promises, while others said Ramaphosa used his Sona to centralise power in his office.
Ramaphosa’s address came at a time when the country is in a snowballing crisis – including unemployment, corruption, load shedding, deepening economic crisis, and poverty, among other social ills.
The organisations and experts said they expected Ramaphosa to come up with solutions to the problems facing the country, and a progress report since the last Sona in February 2022. During Sona in 2022, the President highlighted several issues in his address including the electricity crisis, job creation, and social relief grants.
He said Eskom had established a separate transmission subsidiary. Ramaphosa further said the unbundling of the power utility would be finalised by the end of the year. He said Transnet would soon open its terminals to private partners to address cable theft and vandalism on the freight rail network.
The country hit a bleak milestone of 102 consecutive days of load shedding on Thursday, with rolling blackouts hitting every single day since October 31, last year.
However, Ramaphosa stuck to his old plans that he announced last year, except for declaring the energy crisis a State of National Disaster, and announcing that he would appoint a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency to oversee all aspects of the country’s electricity crisis response.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’s Union (Nehawu) general-secretary Zola Saphetha said Ramaphosa’s speech lacked vision and a detailed plan to take the country and its people out of this depressing situation. Saphetha said instead, the country heard the same old promises.
He said they were deeply dismayed and annoyed by the fact that Ramaphosa missed an opportunity to outline progress towards the full implementation of the National Health Insurance when the project had been elevated to the presidency.
Saphetha said while Nehawu noted the declaration of a State of Disaster to respond to the electricity crisis, they condemned the creation of a new Ministry of Electricity. He said this seemed to be a continuation of using the state to address party factional divisions and ballooning the executive.
The sentiments were echoed by the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, who said they were disgusted that Ramaphosa showed his pro-corporate bias. He said Sona just celebrated a few scattered investments that did not even lead to sustainable creation of employment.
“Further, Sona was mum on the job guarantee scheme, aside from the emergency Covid short-term measures which Treasury is now erasing through austerity,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the federation noted various commitments made to reduce and end load shedding, including the declaration of a State of Disaster. He said they expected to see real progress in the next months.
Business Unity SA (Busa) chief executive officer Cas Coovadia said it was of concern to business that Ramaphosa referred to the nation as being defined by hope and resilience.
“He also said ‘better late than never’ in the context of delays in implementing numerous commitments. Our nation should not have to depend on hope and, in the crises we face, we cannot afford to be late in implementation,” Coovadia said.
He said Busa was not convinced that declaring a State of Disaster over the energy crisis would help address the problem.
Investec chief economist Annabel Bishop said the measures that Ramaphosa put in place to address the energy crisis were the same measures that harmed the economy during the Covid-19 crisis.
“It is unclear how it will help now besides removing or adding legislative barriers as the state has not been as strongly pro-private sector expansion of energy capacity for South Africa in the renewable space as has been needed to prevent load shedding,” she said.
Political analyst Sandile Swana said the new post of Minister of Electricity would open doors for confusion and lower productivity. Swana said this created a super presidency and concentration of power.
Another political analyst Sethulego Matebesi said Ramaphosa presented a long-winded speech that was not about achievements, but lofty promises about new plans, such as a new Minister of Electricity within the presidency and a national State of Disaster.
“At this rate, we may soon end up with a presidency with as many ministers as parliament,” Matebesi said.
For energy expert Adil Nchabeleng, the Sona was the declaration of the full privatisation of Eskom. He said the State of Disaster was declared to protect the pace of privatisation. “The president is under a heavy lobby and influence, as well as pressure from the renewable energy IPP lobby, which is very powerful. It is an international lobby that is run by the World Bank."