President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed positive sentiments about the economy in 2021. South Africa’s economy suffered as government introduced a hard lockdown in late March in an effort to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Businesses were shut down, leading to thousands of job losses.
In his New Year message, Ramaphosa says the government is ready to build the economy.
“We enter a new year ready to build our economy, to revive businesses, to restore jobs and to continue our drive for new investments. Working together in partnership, we are undertaking an ambitious recovery plan to build new roads and water projects, human settlements and power generation plants. We’ve made important progress in vital economic reforms to ensure we have a secure supply of affordable energy, that we have cheaper, faster and more accessible broadband connectivity and that our ports and railways are more efficient and more competitive.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s New Year 2020/21 Message:
Teachers resilience
Ramaphosa has commended learners and educators for their resilience in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Africa went into hard lockdown, prompting a shutdown of schools and education institutions. This is in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
The President thanked the learners and educators for working hard to save the academic year.
“It is, therefore, with great admiration and much respect that I salute the learners and the students of 2020 for having continued with their studies under such difficult conditions. In some instances, they’ve had to continue the academic year into 2021.”
Challenging year ahead
He has also warned that the year ahead will be very challenging and difficult. This as the country entered the second wave of the COVID-19 infections.
South Africa is now on Alert Level 3 of the lockdown and has recorded over 17 700 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, the highest number in one day since the outbreak of the virus. At least over 28 000 South Africans have succumbed to the pandemic.
Ramaphosa says when united the nation will win against the virus.
Full speech on New Year by President Cyril Ramaphosa:
