President Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament address has been met with mixed reaction. He detailed plans to fix local government, address poverty and the high cost of living, and infrastructure maintenance to reignite the slow-growing economy, with opposition party leaders saying he did not write the speech himself.
His address has been welcomed by the DA.
Impeached judge John Hlophe, leader of the official opposition, the MK party, said Ramaphosa’s speech at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening was “appalling, to say the least”.
“It's very clear the president did not prepare the speech himself. My guess is that it was prepared by DA members. As the president was busy delivering the speech it’s the white DA members who were busy applauding. It was all about pleasing the GNU parties particularly the DA,” Hlophe, the former Western Cape judge president, said.
He said the speech was riddled with lies: “I regard this president a serious liar, a serious-minded liar. Firstly, he says the ANC that he leads has created more than 2-million jobs ... we know he is lying, that’s not true. If anything, the rate of unemployment in this country is almost 35% now. We’ve lost more jobs than we have created.”
It's very clear the president did not prepare the speech himself. My guess is that it was prepared by DA members.
— John Hlophe, MK party
EFF leader Julius Malema echoed Hlophe, saying: “I won’t be shocked if I’m told that speech was written by [DA federal council chair] Helen Zille, because the DA [MPs] kept on clapping until the [end].”
Malema said Ramaphosa appeared to be speaking from a weakened position and his “confidence and arrogance has gone out the window. He speaks like a man who has no confidence or belief in what he’s talking about”.
The red berets would consolidate progressive forces in parliament and make sure that “we hold this government accountable”, Malema said, adding: “We give this government just a year and if it doesn’t collapse within a year it will not go beyond two years. We can guarantee South Africans, a progressive government is coming, which will transform the land, nationalise the banks and ensure that there are enough jobs for all our people.”
DA leader and agriculture minister John Steenhuisen said the party welcomed the “progressive announcements” by Ramaphosa during the opening of parliament address. “The alignment with DA policy in the list of priority areas announced is a clear indication that our call for a programme of based on rapid economic growth and job creation has been heeded,” he said.
We give this government just a year and if it doesn’t collapse within a year it will not go beyond two years.
— Julius Malema, EFF
"The DA has advocated for some of these policies, and thanks to the votes of millions of South Africans who backed the DA's cause, these breakthroughs have landed in the agenda of the GNU [government of national unity]."
However, ActionSA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said the opening of parliament address sounded like “so many of his previous speeches. [It was] pie in the sky and lots of promises. We wanted to hear him talk about our international reputation, the fact that we are greylisted, that we are a violent country, that we are a corrupt country”.
Bosa deputy president Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster criticised the opening of parliament address for being “thin on actual plans and bold reforms”.
“We wanted to hear more reforms, fresh ideas. In the portfolio committees that we seat in, we are going to hold government accountable,” she said.
Rise Mzansi leader and Scopa chair Songezo Zibi, said: “His speech seems to be grounded on the realities that we are experiencing. When the medium-term budget policy statement comes out in October, we want to see whether what he said is going to be borne out by the numbers in the Treasury.”
However, IFP president and co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Velenkosini Hlabisa said the opening of parliament address was straight to the point and was the outcome of the GNU engagements during the recent cabinet lekgotla. He commended the president for asserting the need to fix dysfunctional municipalities, as that would help attract investment, create jobs and enable councils to honour their financial obligations.
PA president and sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie said the opening of parliament address was “one of the best speeches by the president. He spoke about the future, what we lack, and how we are going to fix that”.
Former public protector Thuli Madonsela said the speech left her “elated”, while ANC chief whip Mdumiseni Ntuli commended the president for presenting a blueprint of national agenda that was based on the continuation of the policy trajectory “to speech up the process of change in our country”.
Cosatu parliamentary co-ordinator Matthew Parks said the labour federation appreciated the “many progressive commitments” Ramaphosa articulated in the speech, such as a commitment to respecting labour laws and protecting workers’ hard-won rights, and continuously improving their working and living conditions.
“This needs to be met with investments in the CCMA, the modernisation and overhauling of the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation Fund [governed by the Compensation for Occupation Injuries and Diseases Act] to clamp down on pilferage and ensure monies due to workers reach them quickly,” Parks said.
Correction: July 19 2024
Opposition parties asserted that President Cyril Ramaphosa did not write the speech himself.
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