Following tonight’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), AfriForum said it seemed as if Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa was determined to stick to the ANC’s recipe for failure, to rule the country over the abyss of socialism and poverty. This is clear from his emphasis on policies such as expropriation without compensation, national health insurance (NHI), black economic empowerment and increased state interference.
“If Ramaphosa laid down concrete plans on how to, amongst others, stimulate economic growth (which currently stands at 0%), reassure international investors and tackle unemployment, one would be able to take this SONA seriously. However, Ramaphosa’s SONA is comparable to giving poison to a sick patient with the promise that it would heal him/her,” says Ernst Roets, AfriForum’s Head of Policy and Action.
The president particularly emphasised the ANC’s commitment to expropriation without compensation. “It however remains a mystery to AfriForum why the government would insist on holding on to a universally failed policy,” says Roets.
The SONA once again shows that the government is the problem, while the solution is rooted in civil society. “For this reason, AfriForum encourages communities to grow increasingly self-sufficient and independent from the state. In pursuit of this, we are establishing neighbourhood watches and branches throughout the country, we have a Private Prosecution Unit, we fight against socialist policies such as NHI, and we tackle corruption and hate speech cases in the courts,” concludes Roets.