Zuma must use Sona to address national issues, not ANC policies

A statement issued by the ANC provides a strong feeling that the ruling party seems to have lost focus on the distinction between a political grouping and governmental leadership and responsibility.

President Jacob Zuma, under fire from several quarters within his party, as well as his political opponents, has been urged by the ANC to use the state of the nation address (Sona) this week to “give expression to the 12 urgent tasks of the movement” in respect of economic transformation.

This opens two disparate avenues of debate, exposing the president and his party to accepting direct culpability in the embattled economic circumstances this country finds itself in, and neatly sidestepping the fact that the president’s Sona is more about the nation as a whole than it is about one powerful element of the parliamentary process.

Many would argue that there remain many areas where the ANC might improve its performance in governing this country, but those deficiencies need to be debated – and rectified – within the confines of party channels.

Zuma’s Sona is not that platform.

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