AfriForum says President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) was a pitiful denial of the way government is failing its citizens.
AfriForum spokesperson, Ernst Van Zyl says SONA was littered with a series of manipulated figures and lies presented in an attempt to polish the image of the past 30 years of African National Congress (ANC) rule.
Van Zyl says the alarming levels of unemployment, school dropouts, poor school performance and the murder rate can’t be explained away.
He adds that SONA was fraught with big promises, with no sign of learning from past mistakes or changing course.
“Every year an increasing number of people write SONA off, it is just another opportunity for the government to make empty promises. They were proven right again. The President’s address sounded like a reply to previous years with some added promises because it is an election year, therefore citizens are turning to alternative solutions on a community level to solve the problems they face. Afriforum is one of the organizations pioneering such fresh alternatives.”
SONA 2024 | President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address 2024:
Meanwhile, political economist Lebohang Pheko has described President Ramaphosa’s SONA as self-congratulatory and not about the current state of the nation.
Ramaphosa’s address last night focused on the cumulative progress made by the government since the advent of democracy.
Pheko says progress should be determined by the improvement of the lives of the majority population in the country.
“Last night was a bit of a state of the 30 years I suppose, rather than the state of the nation, and a slightly self-congratulatory one. I think the question should be really: what is the quality represented in the majority of African people’s lives in this country.”
