South Africa’s challenges are immense. We are beset by high levels of unemployment and poverty, rampant crime and corruption and the failure of local government to deliver basic services. President Cyril Ramaphosa did not ignore the crises in his state of the nation address (Sona) and committed the government to a concrete programme of action.
The message, while invariably positive and hopeful, was starkly differently to the “Tintswalo” fantasy he sold in 2024 about the idealised life of a typical born-free.
This speech was less about praising the achievements of the past and more about what decisive measures will be taken to overcome the obstacles to development. Interspersed between that was the usual summary of programmes already under way by the various government departments, such as the infrastructure investment drive to boost economic growth and the introduction of private sector participation in rail and ports systems.
Naturally, recent positive developments were highlighted: sustained, albeit tepid, economic growth; credit ratings agency upgrades; the lifting of the Financial Action Task Force’s greylisting; the strengthening of the rand; budget surpluses and debt stabilisation; low inflation; the robust performance of the JSE and rising confidence among investors, businesses and consumers.
But the daily struggles that people face, glaringly manifest in Johannesburg’s water supply crisis, were honestly acknowledged.
Or perhaps they could simply no longer be ignored. Violent crime, water outages and failing municipalities have persisted for years and are now untenable. As is so often the South African way, solutions have not met problems with the urgency they demand.
“Organised crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development,” Ramaphosa said when announcing a series of measures to tackle both it and gang violence. This would include consolidating National Intelligence and the deployment of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops to gang-infested communities in Gauteng and the Western Cape; tightening gun control; the recruitment of 5,500 more police officers this year; establishing an anti-illicit-economy programme involving the private sector; and the vetting and lifestyle audits of senior South African Police Service (SAPS) management by the State Security Agency. A dedicated team will be created in the presidency to ensure that reforms are implemented.
Also to be welcomed is the establishment of a permanent, independent anti-corruption body and the declaration of foot and mouth disease as a national disaster.
On water provision, Ramaphosa announced the formation of a National Water Crisis Committee chaired by himself, to consolidate national efforts and ensure that action is taken swiftly and effectively to address the problem. Municipalities will be held to account for failing to provide water.
One has to ask, however, what happened to the Water Task Team that Ramaphosa established two years ago under the leadership of Deputy President Paul Mashatile, and why there is a need for another structure without any accountability for the previous one?
Encouragingly, Ramaphosa resolved the deadlock between electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa and business over the independence of the transmission company, by revoking his revised Eskom unbundling plan and announcing that a fully independent state-owned transmission entity would be created. A dedicated task team under the National Energy Crisis Committee has been established to address issues relating to the restructuring process, including clear timeframes.
While the president’s announcements on urgent initiatives on crime prevention, water provision and local government reform are to be heartily welcomed, much will depend on implementation and the availability of budgets from a financially constrained fiscus, capacity and human resources.
They will also take time to implement — time that an impatient populace might be unwilling to give and time that Ramaphosa might not have if the ANC performs badly in the local government elections and he is booted out before the end of his five-year term of office.
Time will also tell whether Ramaphosa is right in saying “our nation has reached a turning point” and that “we are leaving behind an era of decline and turning towards an era of prosperity and growth”. The plans sound good and the political will is there but it is the result on the ground that finally counts.
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