From fighting corruption to creating jobs: 5 things you need to know from Ramaphosa's Sona

President Cyril Ramaphosa will appoint another council to oversee corruption in government.

Ramaphosa made the announcement on Thursday during his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona). 

He said corruption is one of the greatest impediments to the country’s growth and development and that the testimonies at the state capture inquiry have shown how the criminal justice system was compromised and weakened.

Here are five highlights from Ramaphosa's address.

Fighting corruption

Ramaphosa said the government has started implementing the national anti-corruption strategy, which lays the basis for a comprehensive and integrated society-wide response to corruption.

“We will shortly be appointing the members of the national anti-corruption advisory council, which is a multisectoral body that will oversee the initial implementation of the strategy and the establishment of an independent statutory anti-corruption body that reports to parliament,” he said.

Economic recovery plan

He said a priority intervention of the recovery plan is to support a huge increase in local production and to make South African exports globally competitive.

“All social partners who participated in the development of the economic reconstruction and recovery plan as part of our social compact have agreed to work together to reduce our reliance on imports by 20% over the next five years,” said Ramaphosa.

“They have identified 42 products, such as edible oils to furniture, fruit concentrates, personal protective equipment, steel products and green economy inputs, that can be sourced locally. If we achieve our target, we will significantly expand our productive economy, potentially returning more than R200bn to the country’s annual output.”

Covid-19 vaccine rollout

According to Ramaphosa, SA has secured 9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and rolling out the jabs was the government’s immediate plan.

“The first batch, of 80,000 doses, will arrive in the country next week.”

Further consignments will arrive over the next four weeks, totalling 500,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines in this first stage of rollout.

“The success of the vaccination programme will rely on active collaboration between all sectors of society,” Ramaphosa said.

Load-shedding far from over 

Eskom's electricity supply shortfall of between 4,000 and 6,000 megawatts will continue over the next five years, said Ramaphosa.

“As part of the measures to address this shortfall, we will in the coming weeks issue a request for proposals for 2,600 megawatts from wind and solar energy as part of Bid Window 5,” he said.

“Eskom has already started work to expedite its commercial and technical processes to allow this additional capacity onto the grid without undue delay.”

Job creation through infrastructure projects

He said the Infrastructure Investment Plan identified road projects worth R19bn, covering the spine of the South African road network.

“Resources have been committed from the fiscus to support the construction and rehabilitation of the major N1, N2, and N3 highways.

“These infrastructure projects will lead to the revival of the construction industry and the creation of much-needed jobs,” said Ramaphosa.

FULL ADDRESS | President Cyril Ramaphosa delivers state of the nation address​ 

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