National Coloured Congress leader, Fadiel Adams, expressed his low expectations for the State of the Nation Address (SONA) in an interview outside Cape Town City Hall on Thursday. His comments set the tone for a night filled with political skepticism and critique, as the country awaited President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech. This would be the first SONA delivered under the seventh administration’s Government of National Unity (GNU), following the results of the historic 29 May 2024 elections. With the government grappling with issues such as poverty, inequality, unemployment, and illegal mining, many had little hope that Ramaphosa’s address would provide substantial solutions to these persistent problems.
Adams reflected on the previous SONA, where Ramaphosa had welcomed the Democratic Alliance (DA) into the GNU, hoping this would signal a progressive shift for the country. However, Adams argued that the DA had consistently opposed crucial bills, including the Bela Bill, Land Expropriation, and the National Health Insurance (NHI). According to Adams, this resistance from the opposition contradicted the president’s claims of acting in the best interest of South Africa’s poorest citizens. Given this political impasse, Adams confessed he didn’t expect anything new or beneficial to come from the president’s address.
Furthermore, Adams predicted that the speech could be the final SONA for Ramaphosa and his Government of National Unity, describing the event as potentially signaling the “euthanization” of both the president’s tenure and the coalition government. His comments suggested that the country was at a crossroads, and the speech might mark the end of an era for Ramaphosa’s leadership.
Meanwhile, the MK Party took an even harsher stance, calling SONA a “fake” event. MK Party parliamentary chief whip, Mzwanele Manyi, declared that former president Jacob Zuma would not be attending the speech due to a court matter, adding that it wouldn’t make a difference since he deemed the event a façade. According to Manyi, the address would be nothing more than a performance lacking substance.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba also made his voice heard by issuing an alternative SONA address. He criticized the tradition of SONA, calling it “nothing more than a grand production filled with distractions, illusions, and lies repeated year after year.” Mashaba’s frustration reflected a broader sentiment of dissatisfaction among many South Africans who felt that their leaders had repeatedly failed to deliver real change. “South Africans are tired of being lied to!” Mashaba concluded, underscoring the disillusionment that many felt about the political status quo.
