President Cyril Ramaphosa may have bought his governing party a reprieve from the voters, if the reaction to his state of the nation address is anything to go by.
His second since ascending to the highest office in the land after booting out his predecessor Jacob Zuma exactly a year ago, Ramaphosa's speech was a breath of fresh air after almost a decade of chaotic rule. Ramaphosa spoke of his desire to make this country live up to its early promise, addressed a number of challenges that are facing us and, most important, he attempted to connect with the hopes, dreams and aspirations of ordinary South Africans.
While the reaction was mostly positive, there are those who felt that Ramaphosa and his ANC still do not have answers to the many questions being asked of this country. While they welcome the promises he has made, many feel strongly that Ramaphosa and his administration do not have what it takes to deliver on them. You may not agree with these sceptics, but there is some justification for their pessimism. South Africans have heard so many promises from the very same podium that Ramaphosa used for his speech on Thursday evening.
Who can forget Zuma's first promise in 2009 after his election as state president a few weeks earlier? At the heart of our worst recession, Zuma stood in front of the nation promising to create 500,000 jobs a year. He never delivered, despite repeating this promise of creating jobs every year of his nine years in office.
So those who were underwhelmed by Ramaphosa's promises can be forgiven. While we understand them, we also have hope that, after a long period of stop and start, we are finally heading somewhere. Even if Ramaphosa can deliver on only three of the main pledges he has made, he will still go down as one of our best presidents yet.
He has a more difficult task than any of his predecessors. He took over at a time when his own party's fortunes were declining as more and more people lost faith in the ANC. He still does not enjoy the full support of everyone in his party. Despite all this, Ramaphosa still has to lead the party to the polls three months from now.
Of the promises that he has made, it is his pledges to improve and overhaul the education system, accelerate economic growth and return this country to the rule of law that have caught our attention. Among the raft of changes to the education system, including taking early childhood development back from the department of social development and returning it to the department of basic education, Ramaphosa announced that he would like to see every child at school owning and using a tablet. He has set himself a target of six years to achieve this.
"We will provide every school child in SA with digital workbooks and textbooks on a tablet device. We will start with those schools that have been historically most disadvantaged and are located in the poorest communities, including multigrade, multiphase, farm and rural schools." This is admirable and should be supported by all of us as it is long overdue.
One of the many steps we will have to take in returning the country to the rule of law will be the establishment of an investigating directorate within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Ramaphosa wants this unit to bring prosecutions arising from the evidence of state capture at the Zondo commission of inquiry.
The president has made it crystal clear that if we are to turn the fortunes of this country around and accelerate the economic growth that we all so desire, we should join hands to fight corruption in all its forms. This is what we have been saying all along. The Hawks do not have the capacity to deal with the extent of corruption being uncovered by the various commissions. And if we are to prosecute those who have stolen billions from our state coffers and urgently recover the stolen public funds, swift moves to establish this unit are required...