In 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa promised a new dawn in his inaugural state of the nation (Sona) address. Six years later, South Africans say they are living a nightmare.
When Ramaphosa delivers his Sona address in Cape Town on Thursday many South Africans may not be able watch it on TV thanks to load-shedding.
In his last two addresses, Ramaphosa promised to alleviate the rising cost of living and address record unemployment rates and a crumbling economy.
This year's address comes after he cancelled an important visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos last month because of load-shedding — not the first time he has cancelled a trip abroad to deal with the energy crisis.
ESKOM
Ramaphosa has asked Eskom to temporarily suspend the implementation of an 18.65% tariff hike by the National Energy Regulator from April 1, which had South Africans up in arms and political parties heading to court.
Here is a look at some of Ramaphosa’s previous promises and how they panned out.
In his 2021 Sona, Ramaphosa said restoring Eskom to operational and financial health and accelerating its restructuring was a top priority. Reviewing and resolving municipal debt was also on his radar.
He promised the department of mineral resources & energy would announce the bids for 2,000MW of emergency power and the government would initiate the procurement of an additional 11,800MW from renewable energy, natural gas, battery storage and coal.
He assured the nation of “firm steps” to bring in additional generational capacity and announced that several new energy projects would come online in the next few years.
In an October 2022 progress report on the commitment made that year, the government said bid window 6 of the renewable energy programme had been completed by April 2022.
Energy specialist Lungile Mashele said Ramaphosa had been promising to end load-shedding since 2015, before he was head of state.
“In 2018 he said load-shedding is a thing of the past and it’s over, and in subsequent Sonas he said they will end load-shedding. However, 2022 was the worst year on record for load-shedding. Eskom, in its 100-year history, has never had an energy availability factor that low.”
In 2018 he said load-shedding is a thing of the past and it’s over, and in subsequent Sonas he said they will end load-shedding. However, 2022 was the worst year on record for load-shedding
Load-shedding was “exponentially worse” under Ramaphosa, she said, adding that she expects Ramaphosa to again blame state capture.
“To be honest, I am not expecting him to take accountability as he should. Nor am I expecting any executable plan in the short term.
“I think he will announce a state of disaster on the energy crisis, which can be used for good. However, the president will have to outline to the nation the plan for this state of disaster and what it aims to achieve.”
UNEMPLOYMENT
Amid the Covid pandemic, which led to the loss of 2-million jobs, Ramaphosa told the nation in his 2021 address that the unemployment rate stood at a staggering 30.8%.
He boasted that the presidential employment stimulus had supported more than 430,000 jobs by the end of January 2021 and a further 180,000 were in the recruitment process.
The following year he said the first two phases of the programmes supported over 850,000 job opportunities and would enable the department of home affairs to recruit 10,000 young people.
By the end of October 2022, 50,000 new work opportunities were created through the social employment fund.
However, Cosatu’s Sizwe Pamla says while Ramaphosa’s stimulus programme was a good idea until it was hit by budget cuts.
“We do believe that the economy is resilient because the unemployment rate moved from 46% to 43% last year and many of the sectors these jobs were created in have been hit by load-shedding. What it tells you is that if there was no load-shedding they would have created more jobs.”
Until load-shedding is resolved, “any promise to create jobs would sound hollow to the nation because without electricity, there is no economy and without an economy, you cannot create jobs”.
“The country will continue to suffer job losses if he does not resolve the electricity crisis.”
BASIC INCOME GRANT AND R350 SOCIAL RELIEF OF DISTRESS GRANT
In 2020, Ramaphosa announced a special R350 social relief of distress (SRD) grant for people who had lost all income during the pandemic. Later that year the ANC confirmed a basic income grant (BIG) was on the cards and the department of social development began working on a proposal to extend the grant until the BIG was finalised.
In his 2022 Sona, the SRD grant was extended until the end of March 2023 and consultations and technical work continued to find the “best options” to replace it.
Duma Gqubule, economist at the centre for economic development and transformation, said: “The government must bite the bullet because a lot of people are under strain and the quickest way to offer humanitarian support is just to increase the amount to above the poverty line, to R650 a month.”
Gqubule said Ramaphosa would probably extend the SRD grant to 2024.
“He will never scrap it before the 2024 elections. But what they should do is to increase the amount from R350 to R650 a month and make it more permanent.”
He has done nothing. There was no social compact. I would give him a zero for his performance
SOCIAL COMPACT
Last year, Ramaphosa called for collective responsibility between government, labour, businesses and communities to finalise a social compact within 100 days “to grow our economy, create jobs and combat hunger”.
This would lay the foundation for the economic reconstruction and recovery plan. But the plan never took off.
Black Business Council president Elias Monage said Ramaphosa failed to execute the plan and he expected nothing new on Thursday.
“He has done nothing. There was no social compact. I would give him a zero for his performance.”
SERVICE DELIVERY
In 2021, Ramaphosa spoke of signing ministerial performance agreements with the aim of holding executives accountable, and professionalising the public service. Last year he said the government was well on its way to professionalising the public service and accelerating the implementation of lifestyle audits.
In 2022 he said an infrastructure investment project worth R340bn was under way to develop energy, water, transport and telecommunications infrastructure. This included two major human settlements projects intended to accommodate 68,000 households in Gauteng.
He said the government was upscaling the Welisizwe rural bridges programme to deliver 95 bridges a year.
He assured the nation that the rural roads programme would construct or upgrade 685km of rural road over the next three years.
But Wits University school of governance associate professor William Gumede said the only way to get service delivery going was to deal with corruption, employ qualified officials or vote the ANC out of power.
“There has been very little substantial delivery and I don’t expect much. It’s going to be the same gimmicks and theatrics but nothing really serious because anything serious needs dealing with corruption, incompetence, bringing in the private sector and civil society and professions to co-govern.”
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