Ramaphosa gets post-Sona roasting from opposition

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s calls to “watch this space”, as his government gets to work on fixing the economy and rooting out corruption, appeared to have failed to convince the opposition, who instead laid into him for being complicit in the collapse of the state.

Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s reaction to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) summarised the general perception of opposition parliamentarians. He asked why the president’s promises of renewal should be believed.

“Disastrous leadership, corruption and state capture created a technical recession,” he said during yesterday’s Sona debate. “It wasn’t unexpected or unforeseeable. It was completely self-inflicted.

“So we appreciate your admission that under the leadership of the ANC, things went severely wrong. There has indeed been a loss of trust between the people and their government and the needs of the poor, unemployed, marginalised and dispossessed have indeed been forgotten.”

Buthelezi questioned how, after 25 years in power, Ramaphosa could hope to convince citizens that the ANC could deliver on some of the promises in his address, if they have failed to get the basics right.

The veteran politician called for an end to summits and talk shops which did nothing but deliver more promises.

This was echoed by Mmusi Maimane, leader of the official opposition, the DA, who suggested that Sona now stands for “state of no action”.

“We are a state of big promises. We are a state of commissions. We are a state of task teams. We are a state of roadshows for every possible problem, but when it comes to actually doing the hard work, we are a state of no action,” Maimane said yesterday.

Speaker after speaker questioned Ramaphosa’s commitment to eradicating corruption.

Maimane said fear of upsetting the applecart within the ANC prevented Ramaphosa from acting against party members implicated in corruption, such as Nomvula Mokonyane.

“If you cannot even remove the corrupt from your own Cabinet, from the Bosasa benches, then how dare do we as South Africans believe you when you say you are cleaning up government?” he asked. “When you speak of renewal, you don’t speak of the renewal of South Africa. You speak of renewal of your own party.”

He also questioned Ramaphosa’s attempts to absolve himself of complicity in the nine years under president Jacob Zuma, during which he was deputy president.

While these years were disastrous for the country, Maimane said, they were lucrative for the ANC and its members who benefited from corruption.

EFF leader Julius Malema concurred and also warned against Ramaphosa’s plans to unbundle Eskom, describing it as a misdiagnosis of the problem, similar to a “fake doctor handing out wrong prescriptions”.

He added his voice to those of unions, who have vowed to fight the unbundling.

Ramaphosa’s only support came from those within his party, with chief whip Jackson Mthembu promising that a “post-state capture SA is about to be born”.

“As shocking as testimonies in various commissions appear to be, as the ANC we are totally convinced and resolved that we must go through this pain to save our country from clashes of SC [state capture] operatives, both in public and private sectors.”

– earlc@citizen.co.za

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