Ramaphosa’s speech ‘moves people around – creating the illusion of action’

Although labour federation Cosatu has adopted a six-month wait-and-see attitude to monitor the implementation of commitments made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in the State of the Nation Address (Sona), political and economic experts on Thursday expressed differing views on the speech.

Wits Business School economics professor Jannie Rossouw was concerned about too much power centralised in the presidency. Rossouw said the announcement of a minister of electricity was “a bad idea”.

“I found the idea to appoint the minister of electricity a really bad idea – too much power being centralised in the presidency. I also don’t support the declaration of a national state of disaster and found no plan to restore economic growth.”

Leadership efforts

University of Nelson Mandela politics lecturer Dr Ongama Mtimka said: “Our challenge is the complex task of providing leadership, decision-making and follow-through to deliver results.

“The reason we are in a crisis that is seemingly intractable is precisely because our leadership efforts are failing to yield the right results.”

Policy analyst Dr Nkosikhulule Nyembezi slated Ramaphosa for leadership indecisiveness.

“The president’s speech moves people around – creating the illusion of action. He should have announced the name of the minister of electricity he intends to appoint.

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“He should have spelt out the collective role of South Africans in ensuring we get out of the disaster– instead of portraying citizens as passive spectators.

“Lack of details to demonstrate decisiveness reflects the choice by a leader who is not serious about positioning the ANC as fit to govern.

“It is a classic symptom of intellectual paralysis in a tired administration.“

Why Ramaphosa cannot catch up

There are two separate, but related reasons why Ramaphosa cannot catch up. He has no social partners to help, given the failure to conclude the social compact promised in the past speeches.

“[And] he has no united support from his party, given the appetite to retain and increase coal power plants at the expense of accelerating clean energy.”

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Describing it as “another disappointing Sona”, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse chief executive Wayne Duvenage said: “We’d like to believe the president, but a lot of his speech is wishful thinking and the broken promises we’ve heard before.

“The president sought to inspire hope, but he succeeded in reminding us how bad the situation really is.”