Mulder said an announcement that the public service would be reduced or that Eskom will be privatised would have been seen as significant and would have sent a very strong message that government is serious about reducing expenditure. “The opportunity to do this has unfortunately been missed by the president. The Sona was largely a repetition of what has been said in previous years without any new initiatives. The president and the ANC was consistently subdued and without enthusiasm. It is clear that the gas is out of the bottle,” he said.
He added that the president recognised the seriousness of the drought, but there were no suggestions on how commercial and small farmers will be helped to stay on their farms. Mulder said proposals of the president that foreign trips, receptions and conferences will be limited, send a symbolic message of saving and are welcomed. “This is, however, not really going to lead to huge financial savings, but it is a step in the right direction, ” Mulder said.
Meanwhile Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane said the speech failed to deliver plan for jobs for South Africans. Maimane said bold decisions were needed to uplift economy. “President repeated the old plans. You can’t just cut food and travel but there is a need to downsize the size of the cabinet,” Maimane said. He said Zuma should have been much bolder in service delivery and should have announced drought as national emergency. Maimane said the president never came with any innovations to revive the economy and never touched to issues pertaining basic education and that more should have been said in the investments in the motoring industry. Maimane was not impressed by the conduct of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who left the house. “The decision was misprioritization, it was a wrong decision,” Maimane said.
African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe said he was not worried about members including Congress of the People (Cope) president Terror Lekota who walked out of parliament. “They were not raising concerns but disrupting parliament. They deprive themselves the opportunity to present their constituency,” Mantashe said. He also added that ANC have full confidence in President Zuma till the the next general election in South Africa, in 2019.
Meanwhile Inkatha Freedom Front (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said he liked the fact that the president was frank with the South Africans about the government’s challenges such as the economy crisis insead of giving people false hopes. And that government will not achieve National Development Plan 2019 goals of five percent growth. The old statesman who has been a member of parliament since the dawn of democracy in 1994 was also critical to the members who disrupted and left parliament. “At my age people would laugh at me if I would leave the house. It was a disgrace to the nation to leave the house,” he said.
Furthermore African Christian Democratic Party leader, Kenneth Meshoe Meshoe said he thought president would have touched on downsizing the cabinet and the empowerment of SMMEs.
He also said, “We were disappointed by the disruptions. He is still a president, we need to show respect.”
