SONA 2020 in a nutshell

“Madam Speaker we have a murderer in the building. De Klerk is a murder who is unrepentant. We please request that he leaves this house for us to have peaceful proceedings.”

This statement by EFF leader Julius Malema, right at the start of proceedings, made it instantly clear that the State of The Nation address had no chance of proceeding smoothly, as expectations the past week had already suggested may be the case.

But though the EFF managed to significantly disrupt proceedings, they may come off poorer from it, since several calls were made for them to be hit where it hurts, namely their pockets.

The attack on former president FW de Klerk was followed promptly by a switch to their arch-nemesis, Pravin Gordhan, minister of Public Enterprises.

Several EFF members echoed their persistent calls for the president to fire Gordhan, forcing an unprecedented suspension of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA, with Speaker Thandi Modise ringing the bells in the House of Assembly to halt the session, after a non-stop series of points of order and interjections.

After the suspension of nearly 20 minutes, the session resumed, only for the EFF to resume their calls for Gordhan’s head. This time their protest was short-lived, however, and the EFF decided to leave the building.

This led to MP’s including the DA’s John Steenhuisen and ANC Chief Whip Pemmy Majodina demanding that the EFF be referred to parliament’s powers and privileges committee to be disciplined for disrupting the house.

Some, like the Good party’s Patricia De Lille and African Transformation Movement’s Vuyolwethu Zungula, however, also laid the blame at Modise’s own door, accusing her of allowing the EFF to undermine her authority.

All were in agreement though, that action needed to be taken, with the suggestion that the offending MPs should have their salaries docked.

A masterclass in remaining relevant:

Political analyst Xolani Dube believes the EFF was a monster of the ANC’s own making, that: “The ANC created this monster of the Eff and it is now beginning to eat them.”

Dube said there was no need for the EFF to demand de Klerk be booted from the house, as he had been attending house sittings before and they never raised any objection to his presence. This proved that this display was simply a masterclass in marketing.

“If they said De Klerk murdered people during his time, how many people had been killed under the new dispensation. For them to have such free airtime for an hour is good for marketing the party,” Dube said.
He said the EFF targeted De Klerk and Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan because it needed somehow to remain relevant.

“Because there is no enemy, they are creating a scape-goat. South Africa is in a crisis which is not related to the past that was led by De Klerk but a crisis caused by the ANC after 1994.
“The EFF is trying to attract attention because they have no more scape goat because Zuma is not there anymore,” Dube said.

Time for electoral reform?:

Dube said the brief postponement of the sitting was a victory for the EFF, at the same time displayed how the all members did not understand the rules of the House.
The analyst said it was high time that South African voters debated the question of the electoral system reform because the chaos  left voters powerless as they could not do anything about the MPs and the chaos they caused.

“As voters we can’t call those we voted for to account for their failure, we can’t summon them and this shows how disempowered we are. We end up being docile spectator in this came. Our electoral system is disempowering and that is wrong. We need to ask ourselves who guards the guardians who are our MPs,” Dube said.

A grim speech:

When Ramaphosa did eventually get an opportunity to speak, it was a rather grim affair.

The president had no choice but to address the massive elephant in the room, which is the country’s stark economic growth prospects, which threatens to derail attempts at decreasing poverty and unemployment, and the electricity crisis, which is at the centre of it all.

“This year, we fix the fundamentals,” Ramaphosa promised, vowing to pursue critical areas of growth.

“For over a decade, South Africans have had to contend with the effects of a constrained energy supply. I have spoken extensively about the critical role that Eskom plays in the economy of our country and in the livelihood of every South African.

“The load shedding of the last few months has had a debilitating effect on our country.

It has severely set back our efforts to rebuild the economy and to create jobs. Every time it occurs, it disrupts people’s lives, causing frustration, inconvenience, hardship.”

Ramaphosa was forced to concede that “load-shedding is the inevitable consequence of Eskom’s inability over many years – due to debt, lack of capacity and state capture – to service its power plants.”

He echoed Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter’s warning two weeks ago, that load shedding would unfortunately be here to stay for the foreseeable future, as Eskom undertakes crucial maintenance.

He said that the next few months will see Eskom implementing measure which will “fundamentally change the trajectory of energy generation in our country,” and announced the following measures increase generation capacity outside of Eskom:

• A Section 34 Ministerial Determination to give effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydro power, battery storage and coal.
• Initiation of the procurement of emergency power from projects that can deliver electricity into the grid within 3 to 12 months from approval.
• The National Energy Regulator will continue to register small scale distributed generation for own use of under 1 MW, for which no licence is required.
• The National Energy Regulator will ensure that all applications by commercial and industrial users to produce electricity for own use above 1MW are processed within the prescribed 120 days, while there is now no limit to installed capacity above 1MW.
• Government will open bid window 5 of the renewable energy IPP and work with producers to accelerate the completion of window 4 projects.
• They will negotiate supplementary power purchase agreements to acquire additional capacity from existing wind and solar plants.
• Finally, they will put in place measures to enable municipalities in good financial standing to procure their own power from independent power producers.

He also announced that Eskom has started with the process of being unbundled into its three operating activities – generation, transmission and distribution – each with its own board and management structures.

To achieve the latter process, social partners including Nedlac, unions, and other interested parties were working together to ensure that the unbundling would not lead to mass job losses, or compromise the entity’s financial system. 

Fixing our financial system:

One of the consequences of Eskom’s impact on our economy is low economic growth, and this has led to the country falling short on revenue generation in order to meet its expenses and service its debts.

“We cannot continue along this path. Nor can we afford to stand still,” Ramaphosa said on this matter, and promised that Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will outline a series of measures to reduce government spending.

This will apparently include reduce the public wage bill, reduce waste, improve the prioritisation of resources, and improve the efficiency of the tax system.

There are also plans to improve the functioning of the Auditor-General to reduce irregular expenditure, and have the Treasury and Reserve Bank cooperate on easing pressure on consumers.

The president said there will be focus on repurposing State-owned to support growth and development.

“After years of state capture, corruption and mismanagement, we are working to ensure that all SOEs are able to fulfil their developmental mandate and be financially sustainable.

“In consultation with the Presidential SOE Council, we will undertake a process of rationalisation of our state owned enterprises and ensure that they serve strategic economic or developmental purposes.

“The extent of capture, corruption and mismanagement in SOEs is best demonstrated at South Africans Airways, which was placed in business rescue late last year. The business rescue practioners are expected to unveil their plans for restructuring the airline in the next few weeks.”

He also promised a revitalisation of the country’s rail infrastructure, which transports more than a million commuters daily, pledging R1,4 billion for Prasa’s Central Line in the Western Cape and the Mabopane Line in Pretoria.

Furthermore, there is a focus on creating an operating environment that is favourable to doing business, by lifting barriers to job creation.

Fixing education:

Ramaphosa announced some immediate interventions into improving the education system, including the introduction of a “three-stream curriculum model”, which will see a shift in focus toward vocational and technical training. There are also plans for nine new TVET college campuses countrywide, and an increase in bilateral scholarship agreements, which will see more students being sent overseas to study.

Harking back to his SONA delivered at the start of last year, Ramaphosa said government’s plan to issue tablet computers to all school students was well under way, while the programme to improve reading comprehension among 10-year olds was also gathering momentum.

This year they are aiming even higher, with plans to introduce coding and robotics in grades R to 3 in 200 schools, with a plan to implement it fully by 2022.

There will also be a new University in Ekurhuleni, focusing on science and Innovation.

Infrastructure development:

Ramaphosa said another area of critical importance was investment in projects which would see increased private investment into public infrastructure projects, including student accommodation, social housing, independent water production, rail freight branch lines, embedded electricity generation, municipal bulk infrastructure, and broadband roll-out.

There are apparently projects with potential investment of over R700 billion in the pipeline to this end.

Ramaphosa promised R64 billion for student accommodation projects, and hopes to pull “at least another R64 billion in private investment.”

One of last year’s most contentious issues was his promised “smart city”, and this will apparently rise around Lanseria in Johannesburg’s north, which he said would become home to between 350,000 to 500,000 people within the next decade.

Ramaphosa said the city, which will technologically advanced as well as green, will be a joint venture between the Investment and Infrastructure Office in the Presidency alongside the provincial governments of Gauteng and North West, and  the cities of Johannesburg, Tshwane and Madibeng.

Implementing the National Health Insurance:

Ramaphosa noted the “enthusiastic support from South Africans during public hearings on the National Health Insurance” and said they “putting in place mechanisms for its implementation following conclusion of the Parliamentary process.”

He said more than 44 million people have already been registered at over 3,000 clinics in the electronic Health Patient Registration System, in preparation for the NHI.

On reducing crime:

There was a repeat of last year’s promise to increase police visibility, training and resources at police stations, with a special emphasis on crimes which impact on the economy.

“We will not let up in the fight against corruption and state capture. We need to work together to root out corruption and strengthen the rule of law. We should not solicit or pay bribes or engage in corrupt acts.”

“I have prioritised our response to the growing problem of criminal groups that extort money from construction and other businesses,” he said. “Specialised units – bringing together SgovernmenPS and the National Prosecuting Authority – are mandated to combat these crimes of economic disruption.

“To support the growth of the tourism industry, the SAPS will increase visibility at identified tourist attraction sites.”

There will also be anti-gang units deployed in hotbeds in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Free State, as well as a Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal, to “improve the quality of general and specialised SAPS investigations”.

Ramaphosa believes there has been progress in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV), following the implementation of an emergency action plan and allocation of R1,6 billion toward said plan.

There are also plans to amend the Domestic Violence Act to protect victims of domestic violence, as well as broaden the categories of sex offenders whose names must be included in the National Register for Sex Offenders.

Jobs for the youth: 

With more than half the country’s youth being unemployed, Ramaphosa announced a plan to address this powder keg.

This comprises of six interventions over five years, namely:

1. Creating pathways for young people into the economy, by building solutions to reach young people where they are, and provide them with active support, information and work readiness training and match them to opportunities.
2. The introduction of providing shorter, more flexible courses in specific skills that employers in fast-growing sectors need.
3. The development of new initiatives to support youth entrepreneurship and self-employment.
4. Scaling up the Youth Employment Service and working with TVET colleges and the private sector to increase the number of learners receiving practical work experience.
5. The establishment of the first cohort of a Presidential Youth Service programme that will provide opportunities for youth to earn an income while contributing to nation building.
6. A youth employment initiative which will be funded by setting aside 1% of the budget.

He also promised that the National Youth Development Agency and the Department of Small Business Development will provide grant funding and business support to 1000 young entrepreneurs within the next 100 days.

Developing the agricultural sector:

With land reform being a hot button issue, Ramaphosa announced plans to implement key recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture to accelerate land redistribution, as well as expand agricultural production.

He said that government has thus far released 44,000 hectares of state land for the settlement of land restitution claims, with plans for a further  700,000 hectares of state land being released this year for agricultural production, with compulsory training becoming a new addition to selection criteria.

“We are prioritising youth, women, people with disabilities and those who have been farming on communal land and are ready to expand their operations for training and allocation of land.”

There are also plans underway for the development of the cannabis industry, including opening up and regulating the commercial use of hemp, and the formulation of policy on the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Ramaphosa said these plans will will soon be announced by the relevant ministers.

Immediate Reaction to the SONA:

Good Party leader and public works minister Patricia de Lille seemed optimistic, saying that any economy anywhere in the world needed investment in infrastructure.

“The role of government is to invest in infrastructure, allow for the private sector to help create jobs and also make sure that we lead,” De Lille said.

“Through infrastructure investment, through maintenance, through investing in infrastructure in our rural areas we will be stimulating the economy and create more jobs.”

De Lille said it was also governments job to create those conditions for the private sector to help government create jobs.

“I’m very happy infrastructure is going to be at the centre of job creation, especially in the construction industry,” De Lille said.

What we have seen tonight is exactly what we suspected, said DA leader John Steenhuisen.

“A president who was not able to go the full way. Wasn’t able to put the country ahead of the party”

Steenhuisen said Ramaphosa “fell short of the bold reforms that were required” on Eskom, SAA, and job creation. So, the holding pattern continues. We’re not going to see school governing bodies and parents leading the way in ensuring schools are training their children to meet the demand of the modern economy.

“You’re not going to see labour relations relaxed small to medium micro enterprises and entrepreneurs to be able to be exempt from them so they are encouraged to create jobs,” Steenhuisen said.

“We’re not going to see more professional police training being done, focussing on numbers rather than the quality of policing.”

Environmental activist group, Greenpeace welcomed Ramaphosa’s announcements that the climate crisis is being taken seriously, saying “Restructuring the electricity supply industry away from a polluting monopoly is a step in the right direction.”

“However, it falls short of solving Eskom’s addiction to dirty coal, which is creating our current ‘managed’ blackouts while devastating communities with toxic air and grotesque water wastage.” 

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