With no “family meetings” held in recent memory, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa finally appeared in front of the nation on Thursday evening to deliver his state of the nation address (Sona) as the country is in the midst of its worst energy crisis in history.
The president presented his seventh State of the Nation Address in the midst of a crippling energy crisis, a slowing economy, a pandemic of violence against women and children, and rising unemployment.
Ramaphosa said that the electricity shortage has damaged the economy, and declared a State of Disaster with immediate effect. He also announced that a Minister of Electricity in the Presidency will be appointed.
Andra Nel, purpose manager at KFC’s Add Hope said that the president painted a picture of a country that is faced with multiple challenges.
Listen to her reaction to Ramaphosa’s Sona below:
Ramaphosa said that the rising cost of living was deepening poverty and inequality, and millions of South Africans are unable to provide for themselves and their families.
Speaking during his speech, the president said It was the job of the state to provide a minimum level of protection below which no South African will fall.
"Right now in our country, there are more than 25 million people who receive some form of income support," he said.
"There is the single mother in Alex, worried about how she will make ends meet as the cost of maize and taxi fares continues to rise. There is the factory worker in Gqeberha who now faces an uncertain future as load shedding brings the assembly line to a halt," he said.
Ramaphosa said to counter the rising cost of living, the government will continue the Social Relief of Distress Grant, which currently reaches around 7.8 million people.
Frank Blackmore, lead economist at KPMG said that with a new minister of electricity being appointed, it could be a good thing, but as seen with economic growth, if the responsibility is divided too finely, nothing will get done.
“The State of the Nation Address under the banner ‘leave no one behind’, progressed much as expected. The President opened his talk, stating that the nation needed hope to sustain us all. During this time, we needed hope and resilience but we will rise to meet the challenges we face of which there are many including electricity, COVID, unemployment, the floods, violence, crime and corruption – where he did an introductory list of these topics,” Blackmore told Business Report.
“As expected taking centre stage was loadshedding, the need to reduce it and ultimately to solve it as soon as possible. He recapped last year's plans mentioned in the SONA and explained how we have been making progress on these plans – providing reassurance around getting the correct skills and funding etc. And then he went on to a couple of new points which are important,” he further said.
“Firstly, the establishment of a competitive electricity market. I think this is going to be important for a number of reasons, both because of the price of electricity and that fact that it allows other players to generate electricity on the grid. Secondly, the emphasis of rooftop solar and potential feed-in tariffs for perhaps both households and business enterprises or initially perhaps only businesses. I do think more information needs to be provided here,” Blackmore went on to say.
Listen to Blackmore’s reaction to the president’s Sona below:
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