SONA 2024
Cyril must take a hike, shows readers’ poll, while alternative survey highlights president’s likeability
Ahead of Thursday’s State of the Nation Address, we asked how you rate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s performance – 1 indicates it’s time for a new president while 10 means he deserves a second term. It didn’t turn out well for the head of state. As the graphic shows, 75% of you are calling a timeout on the president, with only 2% saying he should stay on for a second term.
From your questions and comments in a Daily Maverick readers’ survey, it’s clear that the cost of living, crime, corruption and unemployment are taking a toll. The government doesn’t govern well and our national infrastructure collapses are visceral.
A separate baseline survey commissioned by one of the countries newest parties, Change Starts Now, and released this week, shows that Ramaphosa is still South Africa’s most positively regarded politician by a country mile.
Granted, his likeability has come down from the highs when he took office in 2018 to a positivity rating of 54% but that’s still 24 percentage points higher than official opposition leader John Steenhuisen. EFF leader Julius Malema has the second highest positivity rating but more people regarded him negatively.
Suppose the ANC gets between 48% and 51% in the national election later this year – it will do so only because Ramaphosa has a much higher likeability factor than the governing party. On Wednesday, ahead of Sona, he was dancing to Tyla’s Grammy-winning hit, Water.
The Presidency has released a 24-page audit of what he has done well in the previous five years. Here are some of the hits, misses and claims of easy victories.
Hits
- Regulations have been changed to allow municipalities to procure power independently.
- 5,000 MW of rooftop solar has been installed – a factor in lower levels of load shedding (the Presidency attributes this to incentives for households and businesses).
- 2,000 MW of solar and wind has been connected to the grid.
- The lifting of the power production licensing cap means there is 12,000 MW expected over the short to medium term (it’s a lot).
- HIV/Aids treatment has been successful – 79% of people living with Aids get treatment; HIV infections have declined substantively (73% fewer among adolescent males, 60% fewer among adolescent females).
- Conviction rates are going up: 91% in the high court, 82% in regional courts, 95% in district courts, and there is a 95% conviction rate in femicide prosecutions.
- For women who have been raped or abused, there are now eight Thuthuzela Care Centres, 83 sexual offender courts and 1,159 victim-friendly rooms at police stations.
- Ramaphosa is now SA’s most significant employer – presidential employment schemes for young and indigent people put 2.7 million people into work opportunities (this could also fall under misses).
- Government closed 60,000 illegal liquor outlets.
- The criminal asset recovery fund took receipt of R5.4-billion in recovered and returned loot.
- The Asset Forfeiture Unit has frozen assets to the value of R14-billion pending investigation and prosecution.
- Government will fund 30,000 “missing middle” university students who fall outside the NSFAS household income limits.
- Blue, Green and No Drop water reports were published for the first time since 2014.
- Eskom finally has an independent National Transmission Company – necessary because grid expansion is urgently needed to get the 12,000 MW from power plants to homes and businesses.
- The African Continental Free Trade Area is sailing.
Misses (not in the Presidency audit)
- Load shedding was at its worst ever in 2023.
- Rail logistics crashed as Transnet hit a wall.
- Crime and organised crime hit new highs as mafia syndicates captured more ground.
- Unemployment remained stubbornly high.
- Consumer and business confidence tanked.
- Interest rates are at the highest in years, while GDP growth is stagnant.
- Critical skills lists and work visas for people the economy needs are stuck in inertia (the Presidency calls this a hit, but that is not true).
- Not a single State Capture case has been successfully prosecuted, and the governing party is prevaricating on disciplining its cadres named by the Zondo Commission.
- Has not made abuse of political office a criminal offence as recommended by the State Capture Commission.
Hits or misses (depending on where you stand)
- Minimum wage introduced.
- NHI patient registration installed at 3,200 facilities.
- Just Transition Investment Plan – a multi-billion EU/US-funded programme to wean SA off coal – way off track as SA stakes its immediate energy future on old king coal.
- R230-billion in infrastructure projects at various stages – we put it here because rollout is slow and often dogged by special interests. DM
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Not really a very scientific Maverick survey, so the heading is a little naughty. Could say more about our readership than our President? Still as always a very good article.
He and his entire cabinet are welcome to leave
All very well concluding he should walk, but who is there, realistically, to take over?
That seems to be the question no-one is asking!
Whilst CR might be ineffective at least he is not dangerous/uneducated/greedy!
Infact, I believe as a businessman and negotiator he is well meaning and better suited to the Presidency than any other candidate on the list! Perhaps a second term will give him the clout to make some real positive changes? A more realist Cabinet from across the entire SA political spectrum might be a good start! Perhaps a coalition between the ANC and DA – although that is but a dream!
There is a pack of manipulative and greedy wolves snapping at his heels for his job….
Rather the devil you know etc!
He’s been around just to enrich himself
5,000MW Rooftop Solar installed due to incentives, you gotta be joking!
That’s not a one year figure, but a good ball park figure. Mid 2023 reliable estimates were 4 to 4.4 GW, with about 3.5 GW installed between March 2022 and June 2023. Eskom now report that they can see the effect of all this roof top solar, so it is substantial.
This is not necessarily 5GW into the grid, but it could well be 5GW reduction in demand during the day on a sunny day.
If all that’s true then the reduced load shedding levels are not entirely attributable to Eskom.
Ferual you know all these surveys of yours are meaningless. You focus on the elite who live in urban areas while majority of citizens reside in rural areas. Almost all of them have never had the publication called Daily Maverick. But you fellas keep engaging in these futile exercises.
How very correct you are. The opinions of the meaningless few. (Including my own)
That is incorrect. Presently, 67% of the population lives in an urban setting. Our rate of urbanisation is 4%, which is twice the global average. By 2050, eight out of ten people will be living in an urban environment. As of 2021, 99.9 percent of the population in South Africa had access to the 3G mobile network. (Read: 3G cellular coverage of populated areas is virtually total;) 4G/LTE coverage increased significantly from 53 percent in 2015 to 97.7 percent in 2021. This trend was accompanied by rapidly growing smartphone penetration that more than doubled to 91.2 percent over the four-year period from 2016 to 2019. (Read: 91.2 percent of the population can access the internet). Accessibility is not the issue here, living hand-to-mouth is. This perception that DM is elitist and ‘preaching to the choir’ is a false narrative and you’re not helping. Dare I say, your learned helplessness is showing …
And even within elites, especially black elites, parties who speak with forget tongue on the murder of Palestines will never be forgotten. The reason they cannot condemn Israel is because they get money from Zionist sympathizers like Martin Moshal. DA, Action SA, BOSA, etc. We shall never forget. Our freedom is not complete until Zionist project in Palestine is defeated.
And yet, Piccanini, you subscribe to DM, and you can still bring yourself to read Ferial’s articles. So clearly DM is not that bad is it?
Well, best you head off to Palestine Piccanini. Don’t forget to take your tongue. You’ll need it to lambast those awful Zionists over there.
Funny how there is never any mention of Hamas who are behind all this misery in Palestine (they new that the October 7 slaughter would provoke an attack by Israel and thus mayrter the Palestinian people). A completely henious thing to do and they continue to launch rockets into Israel trying to kill civilians like they have been doing the past few years. Also no mention of how Hamas fighters change into civilain clothing and then if killed are counted as Palestinian civilians. And where is the evidence that the DA, Action SA, Bosa etc have supplied any funding to black elites and who are these “black elites”??? Come on, enough with the fake information.
I also dont see any vitriol’s against Russia who are apparently doing the same thing to innocent Ukrainians! Double standards based on religion abounds! This eternal outcry against Israel smacks of something bigger than outrage against them defending themselves from terrorists…I just cant work it out!
Sorry, but DA leader John Steenhuisen very clearly does not have the next highest thumbs up – that ‘honour’ falls, of course, according to this rather dodgy poll, to, wait for it, Grinch of the year himself, Julius Malema (although this is balanced a little by him having the highest negative score). He scored 15 more then the DA leader, and, interestingly, even Musi Maimane scored 1 more than Steenhuisen. Also the fact that Steenhuisen scored 23 on ‘not heard of’ – remember this is the leader of the official opposition party – shows his dreadful lack of connection with the people. Malema was streets ahead of him in this, just behind CR, and even Maimane scored marginally better. Put this all together with the more serious and credible national polls on the parties themselves and it really does look like the DA will battle to hold even the Western Cape, without some spurious coalition agreement. A bit late for the DA to bring back Musi, and he wouldn’t do it anyway, but JS is an enormous handicap to the DA – well he and HZ together of course :). If nothing is done in the next 5 years to change the leadership radically and genuinely the DA can kiss goodbye to any further influence in our messy political space. They have had their chances but squandered them dreadfully.
Just a final couple of thoughts: For the last 15 years at least the ANC has been busy handing the country on a platter, with full garnish including obligatory sprig of coriander and glass of the Cape’s finest bubbly on the side, to the DA. For some strange reason the DA has systematically refused the offer and dug its heels and brains into a 19th century concept of control politics with a very strong element of white superiority. The current sardine run of hopeless, mini, single-issue ‘parties’ is at least as much a testament to the failure of the official opposition as it is to the failure of the ruling party. Actually given the quagmire that masquerades as SA’s political space, and to which we have been condemned by the 2 largest parties, I think the DA has finally lost it and may as well go home and watch the inevitable chaos from their private box, high in the wings.
Are you a Civil Servant, not civil of course, but an ANC cadre.
I’m afraid I have to largely agree with you Lawrence, regarding the DA’s inability to seize the moment.
That sadly totally sums up the current situation with the DA
I think there’s something in this. The ANC are clearly a divided party with a poor record and worse finances. You’d think they’d be easy pickings, yet nobody seems to be able to unseat them. And there’s not one party that could push the ANC aside by itself in 2024.
When I look around, I don’t see much inspiring leadership amongs the opposition parties. I do see some very capable individuals, but they’re not in leadership positions nor near the top of party lists. Chris Pappas is an example.
Opinions like these are repeatedly circulated in the DM to explain why the DA is unable to replace a governing party that has increasingly demonstrated its failure for 30 years. I think these are narratives from the failures themselves and their supporters with a nostalgic left-wing intellectual attitude from the 1970s who still haven’t gotten over the failure of Soviet imperialism. Racist enemy images of the past are deliberately cultivated in order to keep the uninformed, poor masses of voters in line. Isn’t it the case that an unbiased system of political education doesn’t even exist? An education system that synoptically treats the different state and economic systems, the different ideologies and religions in a historical context? An education system in which teachers encourage students to think self-critically and act responsibly?
Oh Wow, what a wonderful distortion of anything approaching truth – sorry, Dietmar, but you are so far off the mark, despite the lovely ringing phrases. As of course is Geoff, who is himself rather less than civil. No the simple fact is that the DA, to which it seems the majority of commentators on this platform belong – may the good lord (whoever that is these days) deliver us – has signally failed to read or understand the complexities of this society, and is locked in a narrow, parochial, and yes, mostly white, view of the world, rendering it essentially useless to the majority population.
You are the usual strategically placed troll or perhaps even AI controlled bot. The ANC is too dumb to have it there so they will have paid someone ( someone is always ready to accept the right payment.) The ANC got a whole lot of money from Iran for their election because they have spent themselves dry. Worried about genocide? Never !! Good propaganda by sponsoring a court case the outcome of which will take years for Iran Read RW Johnson for the real politik of the current Middle East. Personally I am happy with the DA taking the Western Cape which they probably will. Read the Mayor of Cape Town on how it will take “ years” to rectify the damage the ANC has done to the rest of the country. Bot at least you can’t feel disappointed when your predictions are proved wrong. As for all those people saying the DA is finished The DA national vote may well go down but the DA is still by far the best organised party and the vote doesn’t destroy that organisation. To those Freedom fronters moaning about the DA on this web site , be careful what you wish for. Unfortunately although you are a practical portion of the voting public perhaps purporting to represent conservative Afrikaans speakers you are too small a portion other than to be part of a coalition or the voice of a small faction. Don’t believe I ‘mwide of the mark but let’s wait and see.
Of course you repeat your opinion without responding to my arguments, I didn’t expect anything different. But just try to imagine for a moment that I’m right. What interest would those currently in government have in an electorate that is mature enough to think self-critically and act responsibly? I think the DA certainly understands the complexity of this society but the majority addressed here cannot understand the complexity and expect simple answers and these are presented to them on a platter by those in power and people like Malema.
By the way, your strong reaction shows me that I’ve touched a sore spot and that I’m not entirely wrong.
“Racist enemy images of the past are deliberately cultivated in order to keep the uninformed, poor masses of voters in line”
And do the DA not constantly play into that narrative, by doing whatever it is they do that consistently sees senior black members leaving the party? I’m a middle aged white guy who is loathe to vote for them for this reason – imagine how the majority of our voters feel about them when witnessing this seemingly endless train of black talent exit the party….
These people supported the DA’s policies! If, on the one hand, the faces
that represent a party are at stake, and on the other hand, the fate of
the entire country, why are these personalities unable to offer a convincing alternative that is supported by a larger part of the
electorate?
Good
I for one, shan’t bother to watch.
What poll? I didn’t get a chance to vote. I’d have said keep him on for a second term.
Those hits are mediocre. I’m looking for outstanding accomplishments.
The President is lying. I received absolutely no incentives to install solar other than my sheer frustration and deteriorating quality of life thanks to the ANC-inspired collapse of Eskom. Unless, sir, you think that by collapsing Eskom your party incentivized me …
I got major incentive to install solar. I could not work on my computer and my fridge was off for extended periods!! Cost a lot but it was worth it.
Take a hike?
Likeable?
Whatever. #NotWatchingSONA.
The truth is, the unlikeability of John Steenhuisen is a much bigger electoral factor than the DA’s governance record. He makes the DA virtually impossible to vote for.
myopic view – DA’s achievements speak for themselves
Agreed – surely we are not voting for a party because we ‘like’ the leader? Is this a mature voting choice?
I think it’s a valid choice. I look around and I don’t see many inspiring leaders. The President is statesmanlike but also can’t exert much control. We pick representives (or we should) to make tough calls, and there are plenty of those to be made in South Africa. And this is where leadership comes in, because if the leader won’t grasp the nettle then what will the party do? Also a lot of them don’t seem very clever or well informed about how things are actually run (or should be). Zibi has no chance in this election, his party is too new and has no track record of anything, but at least he gives the impression that if brains were gunpowder he could actually blow his own nose.
I vote for clean tap water, not their sense of humour.
Misses:
1) Lack of a transparent mining cadastre (despite Mantashe announcing one, it’ll doubtless still take a few years to be fully implemented);
2) Refusal of DMRE to fast-track new transmission lines, using the JET-IP money promised by donors;
3) Collapsing water and sanitation infrastructure across the country imperils both lives and businesses;
4) Collapsing roads infrastructure – ditto above;
5) Collapsed port infrastructure – along with rail, killing what’s left of our productive economy;
6) Collapsed Post Office, but solidly refusing to open up the sector;
7) Out of control spending on civil servants, leaving less and less for infrastructure maintenance and expansion;
8) Abysmal primary education system (from the curriculum, to rapist teachers, lack of water and sanitation and transport);
9) All underpinned by cadre deployment: I noted that his electioneering in the Cape on Tuesday, he implored business to hire workers without any requirement for prior work experience; I’m surprised he hasn’t been dragged on social media for this, given it’s how our Ministers, Deputies, DGs, SOEs, MECs, Mayors etc are all appointed!
Most of these issues were there before Cyril became president (like when he was deputy president and supposedly in control of government business!), but pretty much all of them have become significantly worse under his sloth-like ‘leadership’.
Absolutely agree. Could add a few more that you’ve missed eg Continual implosion of what remains of the State hospitals and medical services etc
I truly hope the people above that seriously consider not voting for the DA will do a major reality check come election day! Particularly those who live in Cape Town and surrounds.
I, personally, cannot live with the shambolic state of affairs that exist within every other province in the country!
Very well said DÉsprit. Lack of transparent educational system development (I was a teacher). Over management rather than oversight.
I disagree with cadre deployment per se being a miss. A new government needs to have CAPABLE people who subscribe to their dreams for the country. A miss would be employing people without a track record in the industry to make rules in it.
This article tells the Maverick reader nothing and is really a waste of time and energy.
It is true about preaching to the choir regarding most of these issues. Daily Maverick journalists are doing a good job. The society has to help and some are helping. Coming from a small town, I haven’t met anyone who has not been negatively affected by the current government. People want change. But if they’ve never heard of you or seen you, they assume they only have one or three choices (ANC,EFF, IFP). The fact that most of the ANC vote likely comes from rural areas is telling. It started with the neglect of the rural areas when dishing out infrastructure and support pre ANC. The ANC as far as some rural people are concerned filled that gap. And they haven’t really seen anyone else since. It’s hard for some to make the connection between corruption and their stagnant and deteriorating situation. Some do. Some say it was better during apartheid. That again is quite sad. It shows the complete lack of understanding of some of how both the apartheid regime and the ANC (mostly of the last two decades) has been bad for ordinary folk. So much education is needed. We all need to do it. With compassion and understanding. Not with patronising arrogance. Calling ANC a terrorist organisation doesn’t help. You can’t be a terrorist if you are trying to free people from an oppressive regime. Some of us lived through that terrible time. Yes that does mean the ANC was a party of government destruction which helped then. New skills were needed to then rebuild. This constant pointing fingers whilst the sky is clearly falling on top of all of us is not helping. Most people are at the centre and want change. Pointing fingers can only drive people to extremes.
I can only agree with this thoughtful and nuanced analysis. If we, no
matter where we come from, do not learn to self-critically reflect on
our own way of thinking and worldview, we will not progress.
The Presidency wants to do the marking without covering all that it controls or influences
Yeah I am not sure about credibility of this data. If you are only sampling Maverick readers then you get one result. If you had to sample a wider demographic in South Africa I am pretty sure this will be a very different picture. The biggest problem in South Africa is that the voting masses are not the ones paying tax so whatever happens to public money doesn’t phase them. Moreover, when it comes to voting, as long as the person seen to be running the country is not white, then nothing else matters. To say that South Africa is the stuff up of the century is putting it nicely. The very definition of insanity (voting the same over and over and expecting a different outcome)
Rubbish, there is the nothing positive that our president has constructively done during his tenure. Instead, things have worsen following the Zuma’s destructive reign.
ANC Goverment has failled to implement and build SOUTH AFRICA to a DEMOCRATIC state that should almost have all the building blocks reflected on policies to drive DEMOCRACY. I guess ANC Goverment does not understand DEMOCRACY, Then what is it that they understand if not SOCIALISM that they are dismally failling at it as well. What is it that they UNDERSTAND????? In 2019 South Africans thought that Cyril understands business and to our dismay that he’s just a Cader. In 2024 South Africans should vote based on realism of the past and current, political party that will not only exhibit democratic intent but policies & execution to the later. South Africa will never have almost if not full democratic state if we vote for one party for 30 years, we need to examine ourselves as well……!
Careful what you wish for… You may well get it. The ANC will probably get less than 50%. They will have to form a coalition. The cadres will want to carry on looting freely so there obvious coalition partner will be the EFF. Which means CiC will at the very least, be VP
I doubt DM is read by too many ANC/Ramaphosa supporters so the readers poll should not be taken to accurate for the country. Most of their supporters will not be too keen to read what is done wrong by their “Leaders”.
RAMAPHORIA HAS BEEN A GREATER MISS!
We’ll be stuck with the anc for another term. I don’t think SA’s economy can survive this. In fact, it is probably irreversibly damaged already.
A minor quibble. You need to contrast the attitudes graph with the overall support of the part involved….the 30% for Steenhuisen, for example, is striking in the context of the DA’s overall popularity and the rather negative media coverage he gets. In that context, Cyrils numbers look appaling.
“In a multi-racial society where power must eventually be transferred into the hands of the numerically stronger Bantu, not only Whites, but also Coloured and Indians will go under. Over time even the Bantu masses will not benefit because on the strength of what has happened elsewhere in Africa, it must be taken into consideration that South Africa will develop into an autocracy or dictatorship. On account of their lack of ability to manage complicated administration, the country will moreover administratively and economically be destroyed and everyone – White and Coloured – end in chaos.”
Dr H.F. Verwoerd
No need to hide behind Verwoed. Speak your mind! Nonetheless…they occupied foreign lands, already with a modus operandi from wheth they came. Installed and developed complicated governance systems that benefited their own. Excluded the natives from those benefits and in the development of these complicated structures and systems. Ofcourse the natives couldn’t work the systems… they didn’t know how! They had a different way of life that brutally interrupted. Thus, Verwoed’s et al. was a self fulfilling prophecy guaranteed by the then regime and used to continue oppression. It did not and does not take away from the right of people to be freed and empowered. If the ‘Bantu’ were treated faulty they would not have rebelled. Wanting freedom and knowing how to run a country are two different things. Each legitimate. Continued ignorance of the black governments is also not excusable. But it’s wilful ignorance to divorce it from the foundations of colonialisation.
The USA was once a colony. Australia was a colony. New Zealand was a colony. Botswana was a colony. Canada was colonised. India was colonised. China was colonised. How come have they all done so well and the Afro ex-colonies not so well? And by the way, Liberia is still a basket case, even though it was never colonised – in fact, it was territory bought from surrounding African tribes to establish a free state for emancipated American slaves! I bet their descendants wish their ancestors had never left the USA!
Quoting an architect of apartheid to support legitimate criticism of the current government is not helpful. On the contrary, it plays into the hands of those who counter any criticism of a black government with the insinuation of racism and thus evade argumentation on the matter. There is no doubt that the cause of the ongoing division in society in SA lies in the system of the past and there is no doubt that the quote deepens the division. Is that the intention?
Too slow. CR is a likeable fellow but the ANC are out of touch with the reality. That generation that can’t find work are our future in jeopardy- and a time bomb,
This low rating of the President says more about the political leanings of your readership than the performance of the President. The media want to bring him down but is there a serious, viable alternative? John Steenhuisen haha Julius Malema, really??
No need to hide behind Verwoed. Speak your mind! Nonetheless…they occupied foreign lands, already with a modus operandi from wheth they came. Installed and developed complicated governance systems that benefited their own. Excluded the natives from those benefits and in the development of these complicated structures and systems. Ofcourse the natives couldn’t work the systems… they didn’t know how! They had a different way of life that brutally interrupted. Thus, Verwoed’s et al. was a self fulfilling prophecy guaranteed by the then regime and used to continue oppression. It did not and does not take away from the right of people to be freed and empowered. If the ‘Bantu’ were treated faulty they would not have rebelled. Wanting freedom and knowing how to run a country are two different things. Each legitimate. Continued ignorance of the black governments is also not excusable. But it’s wilful ignorance to divorce it from the foundations of colonialisation.
Your inference that Verwoerd was a “coloniser” shows one of two things: either you do not understand the anthropological history of this country, or you are a racist who believes all white people are immigrants and need to be repatriated somewhere else. You have the right to choose whichever one it is you want to be.
The “whites” in this country are part of the country in my opinion. But the are still the people who colonized the country and have impressed their world view on the people the colonized. But then the same with Shaka Zulu. But that is all in the past. Whilst we need to acknowledge all the advantages certain people have (not because the are better but because the have been given more) and build up the disadvantaged till the can compete on an even footing we cannot still think of them as colonizer but rather as people that do not realize they are advantaged and are not prepared to give up that gift given to them at the expense of other people and give them a hand up