Sona 2022: ‘Expect the same rhetoric’ – analyst

South Africans shouldn’t expect anything new in this year’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) but more promises on issues such as job creation, said political analyst Professor Andre Duvenhage.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday deliver this year’s Sona at the Cape City Hall. It will be the first time ever that the event takes place outside Parliament. The National Assembly was destroyed by a fire last month, prompting officials to seek another venue for the Sona event.

Duvenhage said South Africans have lost hope in a state headed by a president who was battling party infighting. He said he feared that the ANC factional rifts could turn violent for the country’s citizens, especially as the governing party heads to an elective conference in December.

“I am expecting a lot of rhetoric. I think Ramaphosa is not thinking about South Africans, but is concentrating on the ANC battle lines. There will be the same rhetoric on unemployment and poverty alleviation.”

“I fear that Ramaphosa is going to be the central hot spot of conflict and violence. The combination of the negative economy, poverty and the lack of social cohesion could be catastrophic,” said Duvenhage.

He added that the latest R11 billion World Bank loan to South Africa added more problems as the country buckles under heavy debt while government struggled to service the loans.

Between former president Jacob Zuma and Ramaphosa, not much has been done to significantly decrease the national debt, said Duvenhage.

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‘No political will to take tough decisions’

Political parties decried the rampant corruption, poor governance and Ramaphosa’s “lack of the resolve to take tough political decisions.”

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said it expected Ramaphosa’s Sona to be “a carbon copy of the usual grandiose, verbose, statement of intent that we are subjected to year-in, year-out.”

“It is our hope that the President does not make the mistake of delivering a ‘State of the ANC’ – rather than a ‘State of the Nation’ – address, given that it’s an election year for him.

“It is not the time to placate the country and attempt to manage the internal warring factions within the ANC. President Ramaphosa needs to step up to the plate as the President of the county and speak to the collective challenges of our people,” said IFP spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa.

The party wants Ramaphosa to concentrate on economic recovery and growth, job creation and infrastructure maintenance to improve service delivery.

Said Hlengwa: “As the IFP, we will support initiatives with clear timeframes and deliverables, with transparent accountability mechanisms and that will ensure resources end up with the people and not line the pockets of those entrusted to govern.”

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DA leader John Steenhuisen this week delivered what he called “the true state of the nation address” in which he lamented the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

South Africa was yet to feel the devastating impact of the pandemic, he said.

“The lockdown restrictions were particularly devastating because they were implemented after a decade of state capture, which wiped out any gains made in reducing poverty post-1994.

“An epidemic of relentless corruption, facilitated through the long-standing ANC virus of cadre deployment, hollowed out the state and destroyed the economy.”

He said Ramaphosa will blame the pandemic for most of the country’s woes, and what he won’t pin on Covid-19, he “will chalk up to global conditions or apartheid.”

“I know this because we have seen this movie many times before. Without fail, as we move further away from Sona and its lofty promises, the same script plays out year after year.”

The National Freedom Party (NFP) echoed the same sentiments, saying Ramaphosa never detailed the outcome of the plans he spoke about in the previous years because they were never achieved.

“There is absolutely nothing to report except more corruption by the ANC government he leads. This country is in a crisis at all fronts, people are disillusioned and have no confidence in the state. We are in a mess, and we don’t see another Sona speech resolving this crisis,” said spokesperson Canaan Mdletshe.

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