Opposition parties pulled no punches when they debated President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Tuesday, while ANC MPs sang the party’s praises and listed the achievements of the government over the past 30 years.
This year’s debate took place in the absence of the EFF after the party staged a boycott when its leader, Julius Malema, and another five MPs lost a court bid to have their suspensions suspended for disrupting last year’s Sona.
Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Mondli Gungubele described the Sona debate as a blissful address in the absence of “rowdy neighbours”.
The debate went smoothly as MPs largely adhered to the rules, except for DA MP Michael Bagraim, who was ejected for showing the middle finger to ANC MPL Cameron Dugmore, and his colleague Leon Schreiber, who received a tongue-lashing for displaying a poster inside the Chamber.
Load shedding was the big talking point, as was the so-called democracy child Tintswalo, who Ramaphosa referred to in his Sona address.
Kicking off the seven-hour debate, ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said what the government had achieved would not be known by those who chose to be blind to the achievements. Majodina blamed this on 2024 being an election year and the “moonshot pact” wanting to eject the ANC from power.
She said Ramaphosa gave detailed undertakings from the 2023 Sona.
“This government has done what it could. The president gave an honest and balanced reflection,” she said.
She took shots at the moonshot pact, saying the conglomeration of opposition parties would entrench wealth among the few and inequality would grow under them.
“The moonshot pact is an alliance to take us back to the old days of apartheid,” Majodina added.
DA leader John Steenhuisen provided his alternative version of Tintswalo, whose life story did not end after childhood.
“Mr President, whether you like it or not, you have betrayed Tintswalo’s South African dream.
“Hearing the president speak about her life without acknowledging that the same people who once gave her permission to dream went on to shatter those dreams, only made Tintswalo more resolute that the time for change has come,” Steenhuisen said.
He said Ramaphosa’s singing of praises of a country that no longer existed made South Africans more resolute that 2024 was the year to remove the ANC.
“When the ANC says that 2024 is the year we must defend our freedom, they are right. We must defend our freedom – from the ANC,” Steenhuisen said.
IFP leader Velenkosi Hlabisa said 1994 could not be pointed to as a measure of how far the country had come under an ANC government because the governing party did not govern alone between 1994 and 2004.
“It was only when the ANC gained unfettered power that governance began to falter,” Hlabisa said.
He added that Ramaphosa’s last Sona was not about the current South Africa as the country was in crisis and on autopilot mode.
“The ANC, and the ANC alone, gave us state capture. The ANC gave us load shedding. The ANC gave us ‘nine wasted years’. The ANC gave us close to eight million unemployed citizens,” Hlabisa said.
Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald said the legacy of Ramaphosa’s six-year term was a sombre picture of utter decay.
“The country has drastically declined in nearly every single respect. Every citizen’s quality of life has drastically deteriorated, and through the decay seen and experienced by all daily runs the ANC’s trail of destruction.
“It cannot be denied. Figures, such as independent economic indicators and government’s own crime statistics, offer clear proof of the country’s decline under Ramaphosa,” Groenewald said.
ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said the reality was that things were worse off for the country compared with 2019.
“There has been an increase in load shedding unemployment, crime and cost of living,” Zungula said.
PAC leader Mzwanele Nyhontso said the critical challenges in the economy were made more difficult by load shedding and the failures on the part of the government don’t offer hope.
As each minister took to the podium, they listed the achievements of the ANC government but were thin on steps to be taken to tackle some of the challenges facing the country.
With the exception of Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, he said the path to achieve a stable and sustainable energy landscape has been fraught with obstacles, uncertainties and setbacks.
“With each passing day we continue to register progress as we chart the path to energy security,” Ramokgopa said.
He used his address to list the interventions under way to end load shedding and ensure energy security and provided some time frames.
Drawing on the Tintswalo metaphor, Ramokgopa said he knew her anger, felt her pain, understood her cries and how load shedding constrained her capability and slowed her opportunities.
“The end of load shedding is, indeed, in sight and the future is bright,” he said, borrowing the famous statement of ANC president Oliver Tambo.
Cape Times