Durban - A Showdown is expected in Parliament this week when President Cyril Ramaphosa takes to the podium to deliver his State of the Nation Address (Sona). The EFF has vowed to disrupt the president’s speech again and instead wants him to resign.
Ramaphosa’s reputation has been sullied by the Phala Phala scandal, in which millions of dollars were found stashed in furniture at his private game farm, instead of it being declared to the authorities. He has also been unable to deal with the ongoing electricity crisis that has crippled the economy. These are among the reasons some political parties, the EFF chief among them, want him gone.
Sinawo Thambo, the EFF’s spokesperson, was adamant that they would not allow the president to speak. “He intends to repeat the same empty promises he has made and we will not even allow him to speak. He must resign. We will not allow him to give a Sona. The sitting is physical, so we will be in the Chamber,” Thambo said.
The EFF is known for its previous disruptions, as in 2016 during former president Jacob Zuma’s Sona, when they refused to let him speak due to the Nkandla scandal. The speech got under way almost an hour later, after EFF members were ejected.
In 2020, they disrupted Ramaphosa’s Sona when they demanded that then Speaker Thandi Modise eject FW de Klerk, whom they referred to as a murderer. Thambo was not forthcoming on their strategy to ensure Ramaphosa does not deliver his Sona on Thursday.
Other political parties in Parliament have warned that the time had come for Ramaphosa to implement tangible plans to salvage the country from the state of collapse under his rule, particularly the energy crisis.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh said they did not want Ramaphosa to tell them what state the country was in. They wanted to see tangible and implementable plans being put on the table to correct the “unacceptable situation” the country was in. “Our transport sector is collapsing, the rail system has collapsed completely.
In the energy sector, electricity is collapsing, water provision throughout the country is collapsing, there are environmental issues with the E.coli in our waters.
There need to be solutions for this,” Singh said. The African Transformation Movement (ATM) said South Africans needed to understand the character of the person they called president. ATM president Vuyo Zungula said Ramaphosa had not kept his promises.
“He’s lied blatantly and has kept on lying. He once promised to build a bullet train, there’s no bullet train. He promised a smart city and there is no smart city. He promised to end load shedding and we still have load shedding.
“What’s important is that people need to move beyond empty speeches and empty rhetoric and see South Africa for what it truly is, a country that is becoming a failed state,” Zungula said. DA MP Kevin Mileham said the energy crisis should be the single most important issue in the Sona.
“The president and the ANC need to acknowledge that load shedding and the electricity crisis are the primary cause of our economic stagnation and … the fact that South Africa has the highest unemployment in the world.
“The president should take further steps to address the incompetence and the political unwillingness to deal with the crisis,” Mileham said. He added that Ramaphosa needed to fast-track the unbundling of Eskom, and ensure there was sufficient funding for the utility to do the necessary grid upgrades and purchase the diesel to keep the open cycle gas turbines running.
“I’d also like to see him opening up the market to independent power producers and to domestic and commercial producers who are able to produce more electricity than they consume.”
Tripartite alliance partner Cosatu said some of the outcomes of the recent ANC lekgotla should form the gist of Ramaphosa’s speech. “The reality is that we don’t need new policies, we need implementation and we need a budget that speaks to the commitments that have been made, that’s what we expect,” said Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla.
At its recent lekgotla, the ANC national executive committee proposed that the government should declare a national state of disaster in an attempt to get resources to end load shedding. “We expect the government to focus on implementing the plans,” Pamla said. Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had not responded to questions sent on the upcoming Sona at the time of going to print.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE