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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma will deliver his seventh State of the Nation (Sona) address on the evening of Thursday February 12, laying down the policy bits to plug in the all-encompassing vision he presented at his second inauguration early last year.
His address is likely to pay more attention to the economy, which is really not doing well and whose prospects are not great either.
This is particularly important considering that South Africa is faced with load shedding, which will have a negative impact on business confidence and consumers alike.
State-owned power utility Eskom this week admitted that the power grid remains under pressure.
Most of Zuma’s speech will likely centre on what the government plans to do about his critical second-term initiatives such as growing the economy, creating jobs, addressing income inequality and assisting those who have been without jobs for a long time in a deteriorating economy.
He will also focus on the middle class. I raise this because Zuma, addressing the ANC 103rd birthday celebrations in the Western Cape last Saturday, said a bigger and more influential middle class must be created in South Africa.
Perhaps the most critical part of his address will be a more vigorous plan than ever before of how he plans to tackle these and other items currently bedevilling his presidency.
Some areas in which Zuma will look to take serious action include infrastructure spending, job training and education.
South Africans have been promised these for many years but the country’s roads are degenerating rapidly, unemployment continues to surge and education standards continue to drop.
Yet another not-so-good story to tell?
Zuma will try to frame the debate in terms of the well-known phrase that government is finally getting something done. But we have heard this before and nothing ever gets done in this country.
The speech comes at a key moment in the Zuma’s presidency. In 2014, it emerged that he had become the most unpopular president of democratic South Africa, and ill-health took its toll on him.
If he is to push aside a tumultuous 2014 and move forward in 2015, he has a small window to do that.
Parliament, which was disrupted a couple of times last year by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and other opposition parties, is likely to face the same challenge, starting from when Zuma delivers his Sona.
That is, if anything said by the EFF this week is any guideline.
The EFF is determined to disrupt parliamentary proceedings during Zuma’s address if the speaker of the National Assembly, Baleka Mbete, does not convene an early special session, it emerged this week.
According to media reports, EFF leader Julius Malema has written to Mbete to ask her to convene a special session before the speech to ensure that Zuma will respond to the EFF’s demand that he answer questions, particularly regarding the R246m renovations at his Nkandla private homestead.
The EFF has threatened to chant “Pay Back the Money” again if Zuma fails to respond appropriately. Zuma is faced with some of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, and surely the poorest leading up to a state of the nation address.
But he still has a chance to improve many things in the country. What he needs to do is purge his presidency of its current advisers and find new ones.
