Action SA leader Herman Mashaba has expressed disappointment over President Cyril Ramaphosa's speech at the Opening of Parliament.
Ramaphosa outlined the priorities of the 7th administration at the OPA, which sat at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday night.
This marked Ramaphosa's first speech under the 7th administration, which is constituted under the guise of the Government of National Unity (GNU).
Last month, ActionSA declined an invitation to join the ANC-led GNU, saying that it was important for parliament to have a strong opposition to the government.
In an interview with eNCA, Mashaba expressed disappointment with Ramaphosa’s speech, citing that it did not live up to his expectations.
“I know and I am aware that the president is facing huge a challenge after the drop of ANC’s support base after the elections. And unfortunately, he is working with the very arrogant partner, the DA, and has massive policy differences,” he told the broadcaster.
Mashaba expressed uncertainty about whether the ANC and DA will manage to resolve their policy differences.
“Because ANC’s 30 years of corruption and mismanagement on one hand, and on the other hand you got the DA that says no black people inequality in this country must be addressed by a growing economy.”
He said that Ramaphosa’s speech lacked details on how he intends to tackle inequality, improve governance, and implement policy interventions to address the legacy of colonialism, apartheid, and the ANC’s governance over the past three decades.
“How are going to bring black people into the economy so that we can that can also enjoy the fruits of our country? How are we going to deal with the high levels of crime, with the murder capital of the world and rape capital of the world,” he said.
Asked about ActionSA's stance on the issues he mentioned, he emphasised the need for an effective economy, stressing that achieving this requires prioritising the involvement of the private sector as the primary driver.
“But, obviously it's not the private sector without government intervention. Government intervention is very important to ensure that we create an enabling environment where particularly small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) can operate.”
“Look at what’s happening right now in our townships, and black communities, we have people running businesses who we don't know how they came into our country in the first place, how they operate these businesses, and (whether) pay taxes (or not),” he said.
Mashaba highlighted these urgent concerns and said that Ramaphosa seems to overlook them.
“How can you run an economy when people are being murdered? Women are being raped and when the future of our youth is destroyed, and international drug cartels operate with absolute impunity. So these are issues that need to addressed and what we are saying as ActionSA is that these issues we must confront them and confront them directly.”
He said that allowing people from other countries into the country solely to engage in criminal activities is unacceptable.
“This country we recognise and accept the fact that South Africa was built at the back of migrants but people must come here legally and when they are here, they must respect our laws. We need a policy framework that can allow small businesses to operate and we as ActionSA late last year came up with the concept of spaza for locals,” he said.
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