THE state of the nation address (Sona) is probably the most widely viewed event in South Africa, definitely when it comes to politics. The Sona has become the Oscars of South Africa, with just the right mix of pure opulence, tension and drama. I mean it has it all – the red carpet, protests, riot squads, grandstanding and sound bites.
It’s incredible, people who ordinarily are not politically minded, stop and ask “did you watch the Sona last night?” There is a real interest in this event and the potential outcomes, so let us look at those. Economically – well the good news is that we have a nine-point plan, it’s not a new plan, but it has nine points. The not so good news, is that our economy is not doing too well and about that five per cent growth, uhm well that’s not going to happen until about 2019 or the next general election.
But before we get too upset, government will save by not sending people overseas unless it has significant benefit for the country. Which is cool except what exactly constitutes significant benefit?
It has come to the president’s attention that having two capitals, Pretoria as the administrative and Cape Town as the legislative, is not cost effective. The travel between the two, the need for the executive to have two houses, two cars etc.
Ah yes, it does seem to make sense to join the two, oh except if you think of all the unintended consequences thereof, like all the people working in Cape Town having to move to Pretoria, or visa versa. The more likely scenario is them loosing their jobs. That’s all the office workers, researchers, security guards, cleaners, secretaries and the list goes on.
The nuclear deal is still on the table, but at a rate that the country can handle (not sure what that means) and China is going to be so kind as to invest $10-billion in infrastructure (I think I should learn Mandarin) so it looks good, we are doing well and things should, maybe, definitely, probably get better.
At least that’s what the president will have us believe. But can we believe him? Didn’t he just this week get caught in contravention of the Constitution? Yes the president did a political turn-about and now says that he never said the public protector’s report was wrong. He always planned to pay some of the Nkandla money back.
Of course, its like a two-year-old with chocolate covered fingers, standing protesting, “I never ate the chocolate” when his face is clearly covered in it. And so ends another Sons, with COPE taking a stand and EFF chanting a slogan, the DA opposing and the ANC approving.
