SONA – MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
by Professor Sipho Seepe
The State of the Nation Address serves three purposes. First it is supposed to be a report on how government has performed in fulfilling its promises to the nation. Second, it provides the President with an opportunity to reflect on some of the major challenges facing the nation. Third, it sets the government’s agenda for the next three to five years.
It is with this contextual understanding that media and analysts reviewed Cyril Ramaphosa’s performance as Head of State and President of the ruling party ahead of his appearance this week. Mindful of the fact that 2020 was atypical, many reviews have looked at Ramaphosa leadership since he took over government three years ago. Unlike previous years, the reviews have been scathing. A conspicuous pattern of failure and non-delivery emerges.
Reflecting on promises Ramaphosa made since assuming office, Justice Malala (Financial Mail, (11/02/2021) points out that it would “be fair to say most of the promises of that heyday have come to naught…Three years after he ascended to power, the fine words are beginning to sound hollow. The president of SA sounds increasingly apologetic about the position he holds.”
The honeymoon is over. It would seem also that the master narrative of “9 wasted years” has outlived its purpose. It no longer serve as an alibi for the current administration’s glaring incompetence.
This time around the State of the Nation address lacked the confident exuberance of yesteryears. The country had become weary of unfulfilled promises. Whether by design or not, Ramaphosa was correct to limit the government’s efforts to only four priorities; defeating the coronavirus pandemic, accelerating economic recovery, implementing economic reforms to create sustainable jobs and drive inclusive growth, and fighting corruption.
Having too many priorities dilutes focus and is less effective. But a closer look at the priorities unmasks the fact that apart from the challenge of defeating coronavirus, there is nothing new about the rest. Even the most partisan analyst cannot cast his or her eye away from the reality that Ramaphosa has failed dismally on these priority areas. The country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is a case in point.
In July last year Peter Bruce (Sunday Times 19/07/2020), previously a strong Ramaphosa supporter was scathing as he described Ramaphoasa’s handling of COVID19 as nothing short of an omnishamble – “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a string of blunders and miscalculations”.
This brutal assessment was made months before the recent bungling in the sourcing of the vaccine to fight the virus. Ramaphosa failed to own up to this mess. Curiously Ramaphosa had sought to blame rich countries for his administration’s ineptitude. This type of scapegoating is nothing new. Columnist Barney Mthombothi (Sunday Times, January 31, 2021) contemptuously observes that such “cynical tactics are the currency of leaders who are reluctant to face up to their own faults…Ramaphosa’s speech to the World Economic Forum denouncing what he called the hoarding of COVID 19 vaccines, seemed to follow the same script……[This is] disingenuous, misleading and self-serving. This government has absolutely no credibility when it comes to issues around acquiring a vaccine. It’s been downright criminally negligent and irresponsible.”
The Ramaphosa administration has consistently fallen short of providing confidence-inspiring leadership when it comes to coronavirus.
The picture is not any different on the economic front. This is particularly damning for someone who was touted as business friendly. Ramaphosa was presented as business leader that purportedly understood the mechanics of the economy. Few months into his presidency, the country hosted well-publicized investor conferences. Economic envoys were appointed. A target to raise $100 billion (US dollars) in new investments in five years was bandied around. All that proved to be nothing more than expensive public relations exercises.
Ramaphosa’s attempt to use the Corona virus as the new scapegoat for poor economic performance does not wash. The economic disintegration occurred long before the onset of the pandemic. As early as March in 2019, a newspaper sympathetic to Ramaphosa noted its disappointment with the country’s economic performance. It pointed that “economic growth in 2018 came in at a paltry 0.7%. Not only is this far from the levels of about 5% that are needed to make inroads into the country’s unemployment crisis, it is only just more than half the rate achieved during Zuma’s last year in office, when the economy expanded 1.3%.”
The pandemic simply exacerbated the country’s economic woes. As a result, “in the third quarter of 2020, our economy was 6% percent smaller than it was in the last quarter of 2019. There were 1.7 million fewer people employed in the third quarter of 2020 than there were in the first quarter, before the pandemic struck. Our unemployment rate now stands at a staggering 30.8%.”
Ramaphosa boldly announced government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. But the efficacy of this plan has already been called into question. The Thabo Mbeki Foundation has called for the reworking of the plan arguing that in it is un-implementable in its current form.
A closer look at the plan reveals that there is nothing new in pursuing aggressive infrastructure, re-industrialization, localisation, export promotion. This is a mere repackaging of certain aspects that were propounded in the 9 point-plan developed by the previous administration. Even with this understanding, Ramaphosa has failed to reverse the country’s economic fortunes.
The fight against corruption remains a key priority of Ramaphosa’s presidency. Reference to the testimonies before the Zondo Commission was to be expected. However, Ramaphosa curiously failed to mention that he has also been heavily implicated. Eye-witness accounts, not just mere allegations, have emerged that put him at the centre of Eskom’s collapse, the current scene of the crime. Testimonies presented at the Commission suggest that he may have been conflicted in his role as deputy President. Chillingly disturbing are suggestion that he might have placed the interest of multinationals above those of the country’s economic interests. His silence on this matter is worrisome, especially after the fancy footwork he had to perform by hastily availing himself to a flurry of media interviews during Brian Molefe’s testimony at the Commission. This was seen as an attempt to divert attention from the damning testimony.
The Democratic Alliance which had seemed hitherto committed to shielding Ramaphosa from accountability changed its tune. Testifying before the Zondo Commission it pointed out that Ramaphosa’s seeming posture of ‘knowing nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing’ is no longer sustainable. This time around, Ramaphosa avoided claiming that he is shocked. Neither should we shocked by his lacklustre performance and that of his administration. It is all about smoke and mirrors.
Professor Sipho P. Seepe is the
Deputy Vice Chancellor – Institutional Support at the University of Zululand and a political analyst
– an abridged version of this article was published in The Star on 15 February 2021
THE UNCAPTURED TRUTH 