President’s address nothing we haven’t really heard before
The opening of parliament on Thursday, on a day commemorated around the globe as Nelson Mandela Day in honour of democratic South Africa’s founding president, would have left many with a sense of déjà vu.
There were moments in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address that elicited some excitement and applause from the combined sitting of the two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
Often, South Africa or rather the post 1994 governments, of which this one now in the guise of a government of national unity (GNU) is the seventh, has come in for criticism for having plans worthy of applause on paper but that often turned out not to be worth the paper they were written on due to lack of implementation.
One of the announcements that drew applause during the speech was the mention of the change in policy in the appointment of qualified people to run local government, the coalface of service delivery.
In that regard he mentioned a national government initiate to revive, for instance, the City of eThekwini in an attempt to restore the metro to its past glory. Similar initiatives await other local governments with problems that have often seen cities and towns fail to meet the delivery requirements of their people.
It remains to be seen how the president will navigate intra-party politics that have in the past seen incompetent people appointed to crucial positions only to fail in their tasks, leading to such issues as decaying infrastructure, lack of maintenance and similar problems that led to failing municipalities.
Ramaphosa promised to turn SA into a giant construction site with the roll-out of a build project that will see largescale construction of dams, roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure.
The last politician to make such a pledge was one-time premier Mbhazima Shilowa, who, true to his word, turned Gauteng into a construction site that culminated in the glorious launch of the Gautrain that nearly was named Shilowa Express had he not fallen out of favour with the ruling elite by the time the trains started running.
Today much of the gains made by that provincial administration have fallen into decay due to lack of maintenance and political will to safeguard public property that often sees us take two steps forward and three backward.
Hamstrung as Ramaphosa is by a senior partner in the GNU that would for ideological reasons block initiatives meant to correct the economic wrongs done to the majority, he needs to start making a difference. The constraints were evident when he spoke of land restitution. It was obvious that there was a departure from the old rhetoric of confiscation without compensation. In its place was talk of using state-owned land for land restitution.
That must have emboldened those holding on to land usurped from the African majority, closing a chapter without a care for real justice.
Also, if those overly resourced find no room on this giant construction site and other projects to accommodate those reduced by years of oppression and denial of their humanity into beggars best suited for menial Verwoerdian roles in the land of their forebears, then all the nice speeches will be in vain.
