President Jacob Zuma on Thursday night was subjected to a barrage of insults and attacks by opposition parties who delayed his state of the nation address for more than an hour, labelling him as illegitimate and a thief who had broken his oath of office.
Zuma, when he was eventually able to speak, outlined what he called "a new chapter in radical economic transformation", which included a range of policies from land to black economic empowerment and the setting-aside of a portion of government procurement for black and small business.
However, there were few new announcements with most of the policies and programmes referred to already announced or in process.
The most lasting impact of the evening, however, was not his speech, but the vehemence with which he was attacked by the opposition. The confrontation was the most visceral yet seen in Parliament with EFF leaders addressing Zuma directly as "a criminal", "rotten to the core" and "a constitutional delinquent".
The DA, which had requested a minute of silence for the 94 victims of the Esidimeni tragedy, held signs of remembrance and then walked out saying that Zuma "had broken SA" and that Speaker Baleka Mbete "had broken Parliament".
Apart from an intervention from chief whip Jackson Mthembu, who reminded the house that a motion to remove Zuma had been previously defeated, the ANC benches did little to come to his defence.
EFF members were violently removed by parliamentary security officers, while the DA and most members of the Congress of the People left after being ordered to do so by the presiding officers.
After more than an hour of mayhem in the house Zuma eventually delivered his speech in his usual halting style.
Noting that there "can be no stability in any economy where the majority is excluded" and that political liberation was incomplete without economic emancipation, he said it was necessary "to move towards
a new chapter of radical economic transformation".
"The state will play a role in the economy to drive transformation. Government will utilise to the maximum the strategic levers that are available to the state including regulations, legislation, the budget, procurement and black economic empowerment charters to influence the private sector and drive transformation," he said.
The majority of blacks remained economically disempowered and the racial disparities in household income remained "shockingly huge".
The pace of transformation in the workplace and the implementation of affirmative action policies remained very slow with white males dominating the top echelons.
These patterns need to be corrected, Zuma stressed.
He said the business community accepted these transformation imperatives. "We are starting a new chapter of radical economic transformation. We are saying that we must move beyond words to practical programmes. The state will play a role in the economy to drivethis transformation."
He cited the high levels of concentration in the economy and levels of collusion and cartels as barriers to transformation as they squeezed out small players and hampered the entry of black entrepreneurs.
Many of the laws and regulations mentioned by Zuma have already been passed.
Zuma insisted undue government delays and unnecessary red tape related to investment — such as licences and visas — would not be tolerated. "We should make it easy to do business in SA," he said.
Among the few significant announcements he made was that Eskom would sign the outstanding power purchase agreements with independent power producers of renewable energy, potentially ending a year long standoff between the private sector and Eskom.
He also said that government remained committed to reaching a deal with the mining industry on a new version of the Mining Charter. Zuma also decided to refer the expropriation bill back to Parliament for reconsideration on the basis that the proposed law might not pass constitutional muster. There had been inadequate public participation during its processing.
In 2016, Parliament passed the expropriation bill, paving the way for the government to pay for land at a value determined by the valuer-general. The bill also allows for expropriation of land for the "public interest", ending the "willing-buyer, willing-seller" approach to land reform.
Zuma said the reopening of land claims was still on hold because the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act, 2014, was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court.
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