Sona 2025: How has Ramaphosa’s 2024 address aged in 12 months?

Preparations for the pomp and ceremony of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2025 State of the Nation Address (Sona) are in their final phases.

Sona 2025 will be Ramaphosa’s first speech under the government of national unity, and observers will be interested in analysing how he portrays the political challenges of the last six months.

Last year’s Sona was the final address of the sixth administration, a five-year period the president described as “a time of recovery, rebuilding, and renewal”.

The Sona of Tintswalo

Celebrating 30 years of freedom, Sona 2024 was the year of Tintswalo — democracy’s child — who Ramaphosa used as the personification of South Africa’s journey since 1994.

He chronicled her journey from birth in a free society, growing up around freely accessible public services, and a professional life geared towards helping her realise her ambitions.

“When Tintswalo entered the world of work, she was able to progress and thrive with the support of the state’s employment equity and black economic empowerment policies,” Ramaphosa said on 8 February 2024.

ALSO READ: 2024 recap: President Cyril Ramaphosa’s year in Bills

He went on to boast about several other successes, but which topics are still issues today?

State capture

Ramaphosa’s first point of attack was state capture, saying it had been the biggest stain on South Africa’s 30 years of democracy.

“For a decade, individuals at the highest levels of the state conspired with private individuals to take over and repurpose state owned companies, law enforcement agencies and other public institutions,” he said.

ALSO READ: ‘One step forward, one step back’: Corruption and state capture continue to erode SA

However, despite the Zondo commission producing a six-volume report, significant results have been hard to come by.

Hawks Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya revealed last week that 2 241 statements connected to 53 state capture cases had been taken, with only four people convicted.

Load shedding

Eskom was required to suspend load shedding nationally during Sona 2024 as the country was struggling with relentless blackouts.

The appointment of Minister of Electricity of Kgosientsho Ramakgopa has yielded positives results, with South Africa since going on a 10-month run without load shedding.

That streak came to an end last week, but Eskom recently reported maintaining the grid’s integrity without having to expend its diesel budget.

During Sona 2024, Ramaphosa also spoke about Independent Power Producer projects, which have since made good on a promise to add generation capacity to the national grid.

Unemployment

Ramaphosa said in 2024 that the number of South Africans in employment increased from 8 million in 1994 to more than 16.7 million.

When he took office in 2018, the unemployment rate stood at 27.1%. However, it has risen to more than 32% since.

Not including the expanded definition, South Africa has among the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world.

As of August, 60.8% of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 and 41.7% of those between the ages of 25 and 34 are unemployed.

ALSO READ: Unemployment down thanks to post-election optimism

SRD grants

Ramaphosa used his 2024 Sona to remind South Africans of the extended fallout from the 2020 global health crisis.

During this time, the social relief of distress (SRD) grant was implemented, which provided a R350 safety net for nine million people.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 SRD grants will still be paid this month despite Sassa’s court battle

A recent court judgment against the government’s attempt to scrap the payment found 7.5 million people were still receiving the grant, while 18.3 million more could still make use of it.

“Given that the vast majority of those eligible for the SRD grant have dependents, the judgment materially impacts over half the South African population,” stated the Institute for Economic Justice.

Ramaphosa will no doubt address these matters, but has said before that the work is seldom done.

“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb,” the president concluded in 2024.

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