On Thursday, Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the State of the Nation Address during a time when the economic, social, and political state of South Africa has drastically deteriorated.
The President mentioned the horrific unemployment numbers, proposed solutions to fix Eskom and re-affirmed the governing party’s commitment to implement Expropriation Without Compensation (EWC), which is currently being pushed in parliament through the Expropriation Bill.
However not everyone was convinced by the promises of investment and hope that Ramaphosa attempted to produce in a time of crisis.
The IRR Head of Strategic Initiatives, Hermann Pretorius stated that: “Despite these crises being clear evidence of government failures, experienced tangibly and tragically by South Africans, President Ramaphosa’s government has shown no inclination to address the fundamental policy errors that led to South Africa entering the Covid-19 storm in a disastrous socio-economic state.”
Since no vital reforms were introduced by the President, further questions were also raised: “Will President Ramaphosa at last be honest about what ANC ideology and policies have done to the people of South Africa? Will he man up and acknowledge how the expansion of government and race-based policies based on apartheid-era racial classifications have fuelled corruption, state capture, and the mass erosion of the ability of taxpayers to help their most vulnerable fellow citizens?”
While the IRR has been the leading voice on the dangers of EWC, the electricity crises and negative consequences of race-based policies, multitudes of South Africans have also become more vocal about their concerns regarding the state of the nation.