President Cyril Ramaphosa's response to the debate of state of the nation address at the National Assembly on February 20, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Ramaphosa responded the MPs debate of his maiden SONA speech that he delivered on Friday 16 February 2018. (Photo by Gallo Images / Jeffrey Abrahams)
Although a lot has been said before, during and after last night’s state of the nation address, nothing seems to have made more of a lasting impression than the president’s go-to phrase for the evening…
Among the many announcements he made, which include compulsory pre-school prep for children, the splitting of Eskom into three separate entities, and the establishment of new task teams and prosecution units, his instruction to “watch this space” is what has remained front of mind for most.
The fact that some became annoyed by how often he said the phrase is proof that South Africans were listening keenly to the president, hanging on to his every word.
Some even went as far as capturing the exact moment:
Most Twitter users who were live-tweeting their reactions found it amusing…
… while others found it annoying
To Ramaphosa’s defence, however, he only said it a total of three times; at 4:17:52, 4:18:22 and 5:00:31.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
