Opposition parties has lambasted President Cyril Ramaphosa speech during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) that was held at the Cape Town City Hall last night. Ramaphosa recited a positive story of a democracy child Tintswalo who he said benefitted from free housing, basic water, electricity, school feeding scheme, NSFAS and free healthcare. The DA called the story 'Cyril's Wonderland' and Tintswalo's tragedy.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) leader Pieter Groenewald accused Ramaphosa of delivering an election campaign for his party. "It is quite clear, and I have predicted that he was going to misuse the State of the Nation Address to actually have an election campaign to convince the people how the ANC government was over the last thirty years. It is totally unacceptable, and I do believe what people experience in reality will ensure that they also realise that it is time for a change in government," Groenewald said. The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) leader Kenneth Meshoe said that the President failed to address how the government plans to deal with the scourge of crime in the country. "Many South Africans have acknowledged that they are not safe in this country. There are not enough streetlights and nothing is being done. He did not say enough about that, and I think he was not honest," Meshoe said.
UNFULFILLED PROMISES
IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa said this year's son, like in the last five years was not inspiring. He said it was a repetition of what Ramaphosa has been saying in the last five years. "It was an admission of failure if you look at it in totality. He delivered a manifesto, making promises after promises, there is nothing new," he said." Reacting to the speech, Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen as always, had a handful to say about the President's address. He accused Ramaphosa of taking South Africa backwards with unfulfilled promises for the past five years. "None of the promises made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his last five SONA speeches have ever been kept, and not a single piece of pragmatic, workable legislation has been tabled at the National Assembly to realise Ramaphosa's 'New Dawn'. Our economy has all but flatlined, there are no new jobs, corruption is worse than it has ever been, crime is spiralling out of control, and millions of our children are starving to death," said Steenhuisen. Steenhuisen further accused Ramaphosa of turning South Africa into a failed state. "Ramaphosa's recital of the story of Tintswalo, the child of democracy, makes glaring omissions of the ANC-created struggles that many in her generation now face. Tintswalo may die in a state hospital that has no electricity due to load shedding. And when she opens her taps, there is no longer any water coming out. The fact of the matter is that Tintswalo's hopes and dreams as a child of democracy have been stolen by the ANC. Far from a 'New Dawn', South Africa is now at a dusk of despair,"
