Ramaphosa's EFF charm offensive was strategic – analyst
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the National Assembly on Thursday.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) vowed to turn his address into a question-and-answer session should Ramaphosa fail to provide clarity the R500 000 donation from Bosasa for his campaign to be elected as president of the ANC.
President Ramaphosa began his speech by joking that he had agreed to sing ‘Thuma Mina’ in the National Assembly should the EFF win the election and leader Julius Malema be election as president.
Political analyst Mcebisi Ndleteyana says this was a calculated move by the president aimed at creating good relations with opposition parties.
"The idea was really to send a message that we not enemies and to preempt what they were thinking of doing, it was a good move to derail them a little from that aggressive stunt they have taken into the SONA.
Malema confirmed his chat with Ramaphosa after the sitting.
There has been plenty of media speculation around the decision by former president Jacob Zuma not to attend the event.
Ndleteyana says he would have been surprised if the former president decided to attend, as the speech was in a large part a critique of the past nine years.
"The content of the speech itself was an attack on what had happened, for Zuma to have been there, he wouldn't have been received well because we are where we are because of him. Had he been there he would have been boo-ed.”
During the speech Ramaphosa announced that he would establish a unit within the National Prosecuting Authority aimed at fighing grand corruption and state capture.
Ndleteyana agrees with opposition parties that the proposed unit is similar to the Scorpions which was disbanded after Zuma won the ANC presidency in Polokwane in 2007.
"Whatever form it takes it quite encouraging that the ANC and this current president is prioritising dealing with corruption.”
Malema accused the president of plagiarising the EFF manifesto with the provision of tablets to all pupils.
"It was not unexpected that the president would say his government would provide tablets for all the schools because the Gauteng government has started doing that and stated their intention to do that, so it was not an EFF idea per se," Ndleteyana says.