Mashaba: Ramaphosa to make same empty promises of progress during SONA

Mashaba on Wednesday detailed his expectations ahead of the State of the Nation Address.

Ramaphosa is due to deliver the annual address at Cape Town City Hall on Thursday.

Mashaba said the current government, under Ramaphosa's leadership, has reversed many of the gains made by previous administrations.

"One cannot hope to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome. It is the same with the government. We cannot continue to vote for the same selfish leaders and expect our country to improve. I voted for the governments of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, and they made some progress, but that progress has stalled,” said Mashaba.

"The president will once again make grand promises and speak of progress. We have heard these promises and lies of progress before, but by almost every measure, South Africans are worse off today than they were six years ago. Unemployment has increased, crime is on the rise, load shedding is more severe, and our infrastructure is in a worse state of decay.”

Mashaba said he believes the solution to load shedding lies in a competitive electricity market.

“ActionSA’s policy on economic prosperity will create a conducive environment for economic growth and job creation through interventions that will stabilise the energy market, develop world-class economic infrastructure and improve the ease of doing business. We will reform our labour regulations to break the stronghold of unions and make it easier to do business to create millions of jobs and lift people out of poverty.

“In 17 years, the ruling party has been unable to end this curse. The little progress that has been made, has been driven by the private sector’s installation of rooftop solar panels. ActionSA will change this by ending Eskom’s monopoly and introducing competition in the electricity market,” Mashaba added.  

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