Cape Town - South Africans are tired of “empty promises”, Mr President.
This is the rallying cry by civil and political parties before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) during a parliamentary sitting at the City Hall on Thursday.
Scores of parties are expected to stage protest marches calling for an end to load shedding and the implementation of a basic income grant.
SACP secretary-general Solly Mapaila will address a picket, calling on Ramaphosa to act on the multiple crises confronting the country and also open an inquest into the assassination of their leader Chris Hani.
Alliance partners, the ANC and Cosatu, will deliver messages of solidarity at the picket that will be held at Hanover Street between 11am and 2pm.
Also taking to the streets, two hours after the SACP event at the same venue, is civil society organisation #UniteBehind, under the banner of Electricity Action Campaign (EAC).
According to a statement from #UniteBehind, EAC was convened to help fix Eskom, education, mobilisation, litigation and building local government movement.
The DA, ActionSA and other political parties have already expressed their lack of hope in what the president was likely to deliver.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) urged Ramaphosa to deliver on the promises he made since taking office five years ago.
Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage said Ramaphosa would address a nation demoralised by load shedding, frightening levels of unemployment, poverty and crime, the collapse of water and sewerage infrastructure and rail systems, and by politicians who focused on infighting and personal power to the exclusion of delivering services.
“Now that Cyril Ramaphosa has cemented his role as the ruling party president for another five-year term, the time is overdue for the nation to see the results of the previous promises rather than adding to the list with more empty promises,” Duvenage said.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald, who said South Africa had had enough of empty promises and Ramaphosa could not simply repeat the same plans and promises he made in previous Sonas.
“These empty promises by ANC heads of state have formed a pattern where the same plans are rehashed, or tweaked a little, every year to try to fool the public.
“An example is the 2022 promise that more will be done to create a favourable environment for the private sector in order to stimulate economic growth,” Groenewald said.
He said the president must be honest about the ongoing power crisis and put forward the government’s plans to address it in great detail.
The Public Servants Association also urged Ramaphosa to act on his promises.
Cape Times