It’s very easy to look past Cyril Ramaphosa’s shortcomings when you consider what the alternative to his presidency might have looked like and what destruction that would have wrought on the country.
But surely as a citizenry, we have long recognised that the “New Dawn” PR slogan that was bandied about when the president was first elected following the (again, another PR slogan) “lost decade” under the Zuma administration, was just another empty promise from a politician.
Ramaphosa has promised us so much but has delivered so little during his four years at the helm and with the State of the Nation Address (SONA) set for Thursday evening, he will need to be bold in his delivery of the speech. That seems unlikely given Ramaphosa’s inaction, indecisiveness and constant need to seek consensus with the various factions of the ANC rather than to offer leadership and direction as the head of the organisation.
There is a multitude of problems facing South Africa: the economy, social grants, Eskom and load shedding, the appointment of the next chief justice of the ConCourt, and most recently a new report that is scathing in its rebuke of the “intelligence failures” that led to the July riots last year. The report places Ramaphosa at the centre of much of the failure and the president will have to address these issues when he takes to the podium at Cape Town City Hall tomorrow night.
As Tony Leon writes in his latest column (for subscribers), Ramaphosa should be given credit for forming the panel that investigated the July riots and that he published the findings but “it will be to his eternal discredit if, when he lumbers up for this speech on Thursday, he does not immediately announce the steps he will take to account (and who he holds accountable) for the massive failures on his watch: the worst insurrectionary violence to engulf the country since 1994.”
And he will have to front up and be brutally honest with the nation about what is necessary to continue the social relief of distress grant, an increase in taxes argues Michael Sachs.
And Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis hopes that with just a few clarifying sentences in his SONA speech, Ramaphosa might shed some light on some unresolved and unclarified regulatory issues around procuring energy from independent power producers. Hill-Lewis wants the president to state clearly what is being done to ensure that Cape Town and all municipalities can procure electricity that does not have to come from Eskom and elevate some of the burden on the national grid.
“Load-shedding costs the national economy about R500m per stage, per day. Last week’s episode alone amounted to at least R6bn in value wiped from our economy. To put this large, abstract amount in more concrete terms, this could have paid about 460,000 South Africans the national median monthly salary of R13,044. With rising poverty and an unemployment rate now sitting at 46.6%, energy security is rapidly becoming the pressing SA social justice issue of our time.”
Here’s hoping Ramaphosa can meet the moment and deliver a SONA that will make his presidency but looking at his track record, one could easily argue that it might just be filled with vague promises of renewal, reform and action that somehow never seems to see the light of day.
Here’s a roundup of interesting opinions, analyses, and editorials:
Sona 2022: Social Relief of Distress grant hangs in the balance — cancelling it is a very bad idea – Daily Maverick
Melanie Verwoerd | Mind your manners please, politicians – News24 (for subscribers)
JUSTICE MALALA: Why ActionSA can’t be allowed to fail – Financial Mail (for subscribers)
CAIPHUS KGOSANA | Too many in SA aim for money. They should aim to be like Mane – Sunday Times Daily (for subscribers)
Ramaphosa left with tricky choices as South Africa bungles Chief Justice appointment – The Conversation
A requiem for the Judicial Service Commission – New Frame
GARETH VAN ONSELEN: The destructive naiveté of ActionSA’s EFF infatuation – Business Day
Image: GCIS
