Chief Economist at Econometrix Dr Azar Jammine says South Africans have lost hope in government’s promises and this is because year in and year out, the living conditions of millions of South Africans don’t seem to change that much.
And in some cases, it gets worse, as the scourge of unemployment, poverty and inequality continue to prevail.
There is a worry that South Africans are becoming weary around promises made every year, many of which come to nought.
“Now in every one of the State of the Nation Addresses since then a lot of these promises have been kind of reiterated but people have become extremely disillusioned that they are not seeing those promises being implemented. [If] they’re being translated into properly implemented forces of action that would have seen a turnaround in the economy.”
Meanwhile, the energy sector was a key priority area in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA address last year, in which he also announced his decision to create the position of a Minister of Electricity to help resolve the country’s load shedding problems.
Executive Director at Inkunzi Wealth Group, Owen Nkomo says Ramaphosa will need to use this year’s SONA to account for the progress that’s been made so far in the country’s energy sector.
“We want to see if Eskom is now turning the corner or when the President expects Eskom to turn the corner and obviously with Eskom the numbers will tell the truth. You can’t try and create things that are not there, so we’ll be expecting an update on what’s going on at Eskom, in particular with the government support to Eskom’s balance sheet, if that’s been rolled out and if it’s visibly starting to have an impact on the operation at Eskom.”
