Beyond the fisticuffs - 5 things from Zuma's SONA speech you need to know

Beyond the insults‚ fisticuffs and other WWE Smackdown moments during the state of the nation address were more serious issues buried in the speech read out by President Jacob Zuma.

Here are five take-away points for you to mull over:

1. Zuma outlined a “new chapter in radical economic transformation”. This would require a fundamental change in the structure‚ systems‚ institutions and patterns of ownership‚ management and control of the economy in favour of all South Africans‚ especially the poor. “Twenty-two years into our freedom and democracy‚ the majority of black people are still economically disempowered… We are saying that we should move beyond words‚ to practical programmes.”

• WATCH: SONA erupts in chaos as EFF and security trade blowsParliament erupted in chaos on Thursday evening as opposition MPs traded blows with parliamentary security personnel. 

2. How? “The state will play a role in the economy to drive that transformation. In this regard‚ government will utilise to the maximum‚ the strategic levers that are available to the state‚” he said. “This includes legislation‚ regulations‚ licensing‚ budget and procurement as well as broad-based black economic empowerment charters to influence the behaviour of the private sector and drive transformation.”

3. Renewable energy. Zuma signalled that government had not turned its back on this “important part of our energy mix” to focus only on its nuclear ambitions. “Government is committed to the overall independent power producers programme and we are expanding the programme to other sources of energy including coal and gas‚ in addition to renewable energy.”

• WATCH: ‘We are prepared to leave this Parliament in a coffin' – MalemaEFF leader Julius Malema says his party members will not be intimidated and are prepared to leave Parliament “in a coffin” if need be. 

4. Zuma was optimistic that the economy would grow‚ slightly. “We anticipate an economic growth rate of 1.3% in 2017 following an estimated 0.5% in 2016‚” he said. But‚ he added: “The economy is still not growing fast enough to create the jobs we need.”

5. #Datamustfall. “We assure the youth that the lowering of the cost of data is uppermost in our policies plans‚" said Zuma.

• Chaos nation: Lots of sound and fury but Zuma unscathed''Racist, criminal, sellout, scoundrel, delinquent.'' These are some of the slurs that MPs hurled at one another in the chaos that preceded President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech last night.

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Graphic courtesy of The People’s Assembly http://www.pa.org.za/

– TMG Digital