President declares public holiday: Was it worth the 30-minute speech?

We all know of weddings and other events where guests are held hostage and forced to listen to endless speeches. And only at the end of that are they fed and given something to drink.

That is what it felt like on Monday night as President Cyril Ramaphosa took 30 minutes to let us know that he is declaring 15 December as a public holiday.

Just like at a wedding, we all know that the free food and drinks are the real reason we are in attendance, followed by the less significant milestone of the couple starting their life together.

Of course, we are grateful for an additional holiday, but all we are talking about now is how the first citizen cunningly used the opportunity to once again tell us how much progress his beloved ANC has demonstrated.

As the ruling party, they are patting themselves on the back for ensuring there was an 11% increase in the number of households in formal dwellings from 2011 to 2022.

Ramaphosa did not touch on election campaign

What he did not touch on, as he deviously started the ANC’s election campaign, is that if it was not for their corrupt tender system, way more South Africans would have been in formal housing.

As part of his grandiose speech, “Matamela” also mentioned he is working to reverse his party’s legacy of corruption and mismanagement of state-owned enterprises, which have left us with the load shedding crisis and inefficient ports and rail network.

The question is whether it is progress if you cause the mess and then pretend to be fixing it? Yes, load shedding is improving, but you broke it in the first place!

At a matrimonial ceremony, how forgiving would the bride be of her future hubby if, as part of his vows, he confessed he cheated on her while they were exclusively dating, but he is willing to improve after they get married?

As South Africans, we are extremely proud of the Springboks, Banyana Banyana, the Proteas, our netball team and our national squad who performed spectacularly at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin in June.

Despite the president’s opportunistic words, we still back our teams as they never use their sporting disciplines to sell us something we are not looking to buy.

ALSO READ: Ramaphosa declares 15 December a public holiday to celebrate Springboks victory