'More of the same' - SONA leaves EFF, MKP unimpressed
As the country digests the president's State of the Nation Address, political parties have been weighing in on his commitments.
MK Party MP Mzwanele Manyi told Newswatch shortly after the address that there was little in the speech that deserved praise.
"This was a waste of seven million rand. He could have just sat in his office and done what he did during COVID times. There was really no point in us coming here to hear more of the same, more of the same. Last year, he promised an economic growth of 3%, and what did we have? We don't, we didn't even get to 1%."
On the water crisis, the EFF's Julius Malema said creating another task team isn't the solution.
"Why does he talk about trillions in water? Billions have been thrown into the Giyani projects. There is still no water. So to utter trillions, billions from a speech doesn't translate into our people having water. And this thing of task teams, task team after task team, is a person who's failing to execute their own responsibility, and they shift it to other people."
However, the ANC believes the president addressed the realities faced by citizens, including unemployment, service delivery, and crime.
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The ANC’s first deputy secretary-general, Nomvula Mokonyane, has welcomed the deployment of the army to bolster the police's efforts to fight gang violence and illegal mining in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
"We have to reinforce with those that are capable so that then they can be a multiplier force, and most importantly, that they must not be tolerant of anything that happens, whether it's conspiratorial with those that are in the sector of mining, those are feeding the gangsters, and finally ensuring that we rid South Africa of this scourge of violence and crime."
Agriculture Minister and DA leader, John Steenhuisen, said South Africa must accelerate economic growth to meaningfully reduce unemployment and lower the cost of living.
He has welcomed several interventions announced by Cyril Ramaphosa in the SONA, including restoring accountability in public finances and declaring a state of disaster to combat foot-and-mouth disease.
But Steenhuisen says the speech did not go far enough to deliver action to fix the state of municipalities.
"Citizens around the country are feeling the sharp edge of municipal failure. No water in their taps, no electricity in their homes, their roads are crumbling, and their infrastructure is crumbling. We send billions of rand down to local government every year. A lot of it comes back unspent, and that has to stop. We've also welcomed the ring-fencing that is announced on water services."
