In his inaugural state of the nation address (Sona) in 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to usher in a new dawn.
The lyrics of late music legend Hugh Masekela’s Thuma Mina (Send Me) were etched in the minds of 57-million hopeful South Africans as Ramaphosa asked them to allow him to deal decisively with fraud and corruption, low investor confidence, lack of service delivery and unemployment.
But now, on the eve of this year’s address, he is under unprecedented pressure.
Much like in 2018, Ramaphosa references the rising cost of living, a weak economy, record unemployment, whether state security structures can keep the country safe and a health sector plunged into crisis by the Covid-19 pandemic.
His speech also comes seven months after deadly riots shook the nation to its core.
Ahead of his address on Thursday Sunday Times Daily looks back at some of Ramaphosa’s plans since his inaugural address.
2018 Sona — Rebuild broken trust
His maiden address was held in February 2018, after the political transition which saw former president Jacob Zuma unseated. Ramaphosa pleaded with South Africans to leave behind “the era of discord, disunity and disillusionment”, a period that resulted in “diminishing trust in public institutions and weakened confidence in our country’s leaders”.
His vision was clear: “Build factories, roads, houses, clinics for 57-million South Africans.”
The aim was to reduce the cost of living for the poor and create jobs, a refrain he has since repeated and one his predecessors also trotted out.
Ramaphosa inherited a country with a dire economy outlook. He promised to address this by promoting investment in key manufacturing sectors.
It was during this address that the president promised to tackle corruption, fraud and state capture head on. He also wanted to turn around the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and stabilise the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
To address transformation he promised to improve capacity to support black professionals through radical economic transformation, an ANC policy. His plan was to launch Youth Employment Services, which would see the placement of a million unemployed youngsters in paid internships.
The president pledged his administration would focus on the mining sector and, in line with ANC policy, expropriation of land without compensation.
He promised to introduce a minimum wage on May 1 and said he would appoint a presidential economic advisory council to ensure co-operation in implementing economic policies, which he did.
On higher education, Ramaphosa referred to Zuma’s commitment to phasing in fully subsidised free higher education for the poor over five years.
It was during this address that the president promised to tackle corruption, fraud and state capture head on. He also wanted to turn around the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and stabilise the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
2019 Sona — Part 1
A year later, in February 2019, Ramaphosa gave an update on his promises, which included convening the jobs summit and addressing policy uncertainty and inconsistency.
“In response to the dire situation at several of our state-owned enterprises (SOEs) — where mismanagement and corruption had severely undermined their effectiveness — we have taken decisive measures to improve governance, strengthen leadership and restore stability in strategic entities,” he said.
The government had begun the mammoth task of dealing with state capture, particularly at law-enforcement agencies. This with Ramaphosa’s appointment of advocate Shamila Batohi “to lead the revival of the NPA and to strengthen our fight against crime and corruption”.
He said the state was implementing recommendations of the Nugent commission of inquiry into Sars and was appointing a new commissioner.
Issues at the State Security Agency (SSA) were also focused on by a high-level review panel to enable reconstruction of a professional national intelligence operation, including the re-establishment of the National Security Council.
Outlining his priorities for 2019, Ramaphosa said he wanted the government to accelerate inclusive economic growth and job creation.
He told the nation that the first investment conference (2018) attracted about R300bn in pledges from South African and global companies.
Continuing the land theme, he said SA still had large areas of fallow land. To address land reform the constitutional review committee began reviewing section 25 of the constitution to set out provisions for expropriation of land without compensation.
Ramaphosa said since the launch of Operation Phakisa’s Oceans Economy in 2014, the country had secured nearly R30bn in investments and created more than 7,000 direct jobs.
On infrastructure, the president said more than R1.3-trillion had been invested to build schools, two universities, houses and generate electricity. The government had committed to contribute R100bn to the Infrastructure Fund over 10 years. This to leverage financing from the private sector and development finance institutions.
In a key announcement, Ramaphosa said the government had begun to unbundle Eskom into three separate entities: generation, transmission and distribution.
Giving an update on the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill, he said it was ready to be submitted to parliament.
On the Zondo commission, Ramaphosa said he had begun to receive a disturbing picture on the “breadth and depth of criminal wrongdoing” in the country.
2019 Sona — part 2
Shortly thereafter Ramaphosa delivered his second Sona of 2019. This because of the provincial and general elections in May that year.
In his June address, the economic picture had not changed.
“Our economy is not growing. Not enough jobs are being created,” said Ramaphosa.
His focus would shift from announcing new ideas to implementation. He said there were seven priorities, which were not dissimilar to his previous ones.
They included economic transformation and job creation; education, skills and health; consolidating the social wage; spatial integration, human settlements and local government; social cohesion and safe communities; building a capable, ethical and developmental state; and a better Africa and world.
To urgently improve the quality of the health system, Ramaphosa announced that the government was finalising the Presidential Health Summit Compact and was at an advance stage in reviewing a detailed NHI plan.
He noted that “Eskom’s serious financial, operational and structural problems” were contributing to a “lacklustre economic performance”.
Of the R300bn in investments announced at the inaugural investment conference, Ramaphosa said more than R250bn in projects had entered the implementation phase.
That year Ramaphosa also received a presidential advisory panel report on land reform and agriculture.
2020 Sona — Pre-pandemic address
The president’s 2020 address was delivered a month before Covid-19 hit SA shores. Little did he know that some of his plans and promises would grind to a halt.
He again painted a bleak picture of an economy which had not grown.
“Even as jobs are being created, the rate of unemployment is deepening. The recovery of our economy has stalled as persistent energy shortages have disrupted businesses and people’s lives. Several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are in distress and our public finances are under severe pressure,” he said.
In the third quarter of 2020 our economy was 6% smaller than it was in the last quarter of 2019. There were 1.7-million fewer people employed in the third quarter of 2020 than there were in the first quarter, before the pandemic struck. Our unemployment rate now stands at a staggering 30.8%.
— President Cyril Ramaphosa, Sona 2021
His aim for 2020, which was plagued by rolling blackouts, was to “fix the fundamentals and pursue areas of growth”.
He said the government would open bid window five of renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and work with them to accelerate the completion of window four projects.
He told the nation a smart city was taking shape in Lanseria which would be home to 350,000 to 500,000 people in 10 years.
Giving an update on land reform, he said the government had released 44,000ha of state land for the settlement of land restitution claims and 700,000ha for agricultural production was released.
2021 Sona — “No ordinary year”
In 2021 Ramaphosa delivered his address during the Covid-19 pandemic, which had, at the time, killed 45,000 and infected more than a million people in SA.
Because “this was no ordinary year and Sona”, Ramaphosa told the nation his priorities would be to tackle the pandemic, accelerate SA’s economic recovery, implement economic reforms to create sustainable jobs and drive inclusive growth, while continuing to fight corruption and strengthen the state.
The president was faced with the challenges of saving lives and livelihoods, accelerating the vaccination procurement process and massive unemployment.
“In the third quarter of 2020 our economy was 6% smaller than it was in the last quarter of 2019. There were 1.7-million fewer people employed in the third quarter of 2020 than there were in the first quarter, before the pandemic struck. Our unemployment rate now stands at a staggering 30.8%,” he said.
To address these challenges the government introduced the social and economic relief package in April 2020.
“It identified measures worth a total of R500bn — or about 10% of our GDP — to provide cash directly to the poorest households, to provide wage support to workers and to provide various forms of relief to struggling businesses,” he said.
At the time, more than R57bn in wage support had been paid to more than 4.5- million workers through the special Unemployment Insurance Fund Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (Ters).
“More than R1.3bn has been provided in support mainly for small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, more than R70bn in tax relief was extended to businesses in distress. About R18.9bn in loans has been approved for 13,000 businesses through the Loan Guarantee Scheme,” said Ramaphosa.
He presented to parliament an economic reconstruction and recovery plan on how the government planned to save the country during the crisis.
On land redistribution, Ramaphosa said the government had handed over more than 5-million hectares of land, totalling about 5,500 farms, to more than 300,000 beneficiaries.
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