President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his last of six State of the Union Addresses (SONA).th Democratic government was established before seven countriesth National and local elections will be held later this year. However, he addressed MPs after speeches on various media platforms, all dignitaries present at Cape Town City Hall, and the people of South Africa: “Sizobuya (We will be back)!”
Ramaphosa, who assumed the country's highest office by embarking on the much-publicized Thuma Mina (Send Me) campaign and the promise of a new dawn, has spent the past five years “building a path to recovery, rebuilding and regeneration.” period.”
In his famous first State of the Union address in 2018, Ramaphosa famously quoted the late jazz musician Hugh Masekela's hit Tuma Mina when he said: When they triumphed over poverty. I want to be there when people win the fight against AIDS. I'd like to lend a hand. I want to be around people who are addicted to alcohol. I want to be around drug addicts. I want to be close to victims of violence and abuse. I'd like to lend a hand. send me. “
Ramaphosa says this may be the last SONA of the six elections ahead of what many predict will be a watershed election six years from now.th During the regime, the ANC will remain in power.
Announcing the eighth SONA, Mr Ramaphosa said the ruling party had done enough to ensure that South Africans remained in power.
“After more than a decade of poor economic performance, we needed to revitalize our economy. After a period of state occupation, we had to rebuild our public institutions. , we have had to recover from a devastating global pandemic that has caused great misery and hardship, shutting down businesses and destroying jobs,” Ramaphosa said.
“And we have had to face and overcome a debilitating electricity crisis that is holding back our economy, even though it has improved significantly in recent months. “We have come a long way. We have built on the achievements of the past 30 years and taken decisive steps to address the pressing challenges facing South Africans,” he added.
President Ramaphosa highlighted the “restoration” of law enforcement independence and “progress” in the rights of people living with disabilities as some of his government's achievements.
“We took great pride in making South African Sign Language our country’s 12th official language,” he says.
Mr Ramaphosa compared South Africa's history of democracy over the past 30 years to the metaphorical Tintswalo, who was born in 1994 and lived through the formation of the post-apartheid era, and the democracy that South Africans experience today.
He described Tintswalo as “a child of democracy who grew up in a completely different society than the South African country of his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”
He said Tintswalo and many others born around her time benefited from the democratic nation's first policy of providing free healthcare to pregnant women and children under the age of six.
“Tintswalo's formative years were spent in one of the millions of homes provided by the state built to shelter the poor. Tintswalo lived in a house with basic water and electricity. I grew up in a household where my parents probably lived without electricity before 1994,” Ramaphosa says.
“Mr Tintswalo was enrolled in a school where his parents did not have to pay fees and was given a daily nutritious meal as part of a program that today supports 9 million learners from poor families. .”
Mr Ramaphosa said employment equity and black economic empowerment policies were part of the blueprint and the figurative figure benefited from it.
“With the income she earned, she was able to save money, start a family, move into a better home, and live a better life. This is a testament to the millions of people who have been born since the dawn of our democracy. “It’s a story about people,” he says.
President Ramaphosa will deliver his 2024 State of the State address as follows: