A major win or weakening of a giant? What Ramaphosa thought of 2024

As South Africans prepare for the festive holidays and welcome a much-needed new year with sceptical optimism, President Cyril Ramaphosa is confident of new hope for 2025.

Writing his weekly newsletter “From the desk of the President” on Monday, Ramaphosa said 2024 was marked by both “triumphs and struggles”.

“We held our seventh successful, free and fair general elections since 1994. Our democracy has evolved and matured. We have a government of national unity comprised of 10 political parties from across the political spectrum. They have agreed on three strategic priorities for this administration.”

Load shedding  

Ramaphosa also highlighted the suspension of load shedding which many South Africans would rather want to erase from their memories as the country hit stage six rolling blackout at times.

“The country has had over 250 days with no load shedding. This is due to a combination of increased maintenance and generation recovery by Eskom, the addition of more capacity to the grid including from renewables, and the large-scale uptake of solar and battery energy solutions by households and businesses.

“The work of the National Energy Crisis Committee continues. It is working to get more power onto the grid, to expand our electricity infrastructure, to diversify the market for the benefit of consumers, and to lay the groundwork for an energy-secure future,” Ramaphosa said.

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SA’s progress

Ramaphosa also spoke about the progress made, including a significant recovery of commuter rail since theft and vandalism during the Covid pandemic nearly destroyed the network.

“Stations have been refurbished, new state-of-the-art trains are on the tracks, and 31 out of 40 key passenger corridors are now operational. There were 40 million commuter rail passengers in the last financial year, up from 15 million passengers the previous year.”

While Ramaphosa admitted that unemployment levels remain “extremely high, more South Africans are finding jobs,” former president Thabo Mbeki on Sunday painted a grim picture of the country, saying the social compact meant to address issues of unemployment and poverty in the country has been abandoned.

In 2023, during his State of the Nation Address (Sona), Ramaphosa admitted that government and its social partners failed to deliver on its promise to establish a social compact.

The second strategic priority of this administration is to reduce poverty and tackle the high cost of living.

‘Long way to go’

While Ramaphosa spoke about the progress the country has made,  he said South Africa has a long way to go.

“The pace of economic growth is still too slow and not enough jobs are being created. Families still struggle with the high cost of living.  While there has been some improvement in the crime statistics and there have been breakthroughs in tackling crime syndicates, crime and violence is still widespread in many communities.

“Disruptions in the supply of electricity and clean water is a major problem in many municipalities. Many local councils are plagued by poor governance, limited capacity and severe financial constraints. This is affecting service delivery to our people. Strengthening local government is our key priority,” Ramaphosa said.

G20 Summit

As the host of the G20 Summit next year, Ramaphosa said  Africa will play an important role in addressing the challenges that many countries across the world experience.

“We will seek common solutions that improve the lives of all our people. Overcoming poverty and underdevelopment, creating more jobs, and addressing societal ills like gender-based violence requires that we must all play our part, where we can.

“On many fronts, this year has been better than the last. We will build on these achievements in 2025. Wherever you may be this festive season, I wish you well, Ramaphosa said.

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