Civil rights organisation Action Society is perturbed that President Cyril Ramaphosa is being afforded another chance to deliver the State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Cape Town today.
The organisation has lambasted the president’s exertion as a statesman, saying he has failed to deliver on his previous SONA promises.
Ian Cameron, the Director of community safety at Action Society, said the organisation is not expecting anything tangible from the president, noting that his address will not discourse the real state of the country.
According to Cameron, the address will be about the president’s deceit of South Africa, saying Ramaphosa sold the country to hoodlums.
Said Cameron: “We do not expect President Ramaphosa to refer to the real state of the nation during his address tomorrow night.
“When the most vulnerable citizens, children, aren’t safe, no one is. The president, as leader of South Africa, has failed. He sold out this country to a gang of thugs and gangsters. His SONA will be a lie.”
Cameron raised concerns about the rising crime rates, saying that in his SONA 2022 speech, Ramaphosa promised to intensify the fight against crime, particularly gender-based violence (GBV), but has failed in his mandate.
“During last year’s Sona, in his only mention of the crime situation, President Ramaphosa said that the government would be ‘intensifying the fight against [GBV] and femicide’ through various plans and legislation. He said the ‘legislation will go a long way to ensuring that cases are successfully prosecuted, that survivors are protected and that there are more effective deterrents in place’. He also praised the ‘significant progress in DNA processing’.
“However, during the past year, 26 370 people in South Africa were murdered. That is more than 3 000 more murders than the previous year. In the past year 1, 216 children were murdered. That is 200 more murdered children than the previous year. In the past year, sexual offences increased with more than 1 000 cases to 53 125.
“This past December, the Western Cape Department of Community Safety reported that more than 200 violent crime cases – including rape, sexual assault, attempted murder, and other contact crimes – have been struck off the roll because of incomplete investigations linked to delays in processing DNA evidence,” he said.
Cameron said Action Society will not tolerate the president’s lies any longer.
“We want to hear no more lies. Stop making promises, plans, and committees and start effectively making South Africa safer,” he said.
Today Ricardo Grysman was found guilty of the rape and murder 4 year old Chantelle Makwena from Rocklands in Eastern Cape on 2 Aug 2019. He raped and killed and dumped her mutilated body in an abandoned, broken pit toilet. He will be sentenced on Friday. Rest in Peace Chantelle. pic.twitter.com/37le1uwCi5
— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) February 8, 2023
The biggest reason for the state of South Africa is not government or the ANC, it due to apathy and silent diplomacy. The fact that we don't show the world what happens to good men like Terrance Tegg and innocent little children like Chantal Makwena. pic.twitter.com/2YqFCWo1Qy pic.twitter.com/5qLMWmTTIx
— Ian Cameron (@IanCameron23) February 19, 2022
Also read: SA Canegrowers call on Ramaphosa to save industry
Pressure piling up on Ramaphosa ahead of his address
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