Yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered an economic-focused State of the Nation Address in front of the Cape Town Parliament. For those, who watched to see just another edition of clowns.com in action where disappointment as the president diffused the usual belligerent atmosphere created by the EFF. By offering to sing the EFF Anthem in parliament in case the EFF wins the elections and to form a band togetehr with Mmusi Maimane, he had the humour in his side and the sympathy of the EFF delegates to stay and listen.
The address was focussed and addressed most heated topics determining the path of the country, but lacked definitive plans of actions or visions for any jind of implementations. However, the following key quotes are worth mentioning:
h2. 1. Election Day
“In line with the time window given by the constitution South Africa will hold the sixth National general Elections on 8 May 2019.”
h2. 2. Unbundling Eskom
“To bring credibility to the turnaround and to position South Africa’s power sector for the future, we shall immediately embark on a process of establishing three separate entities – Generation, Transmission and Distribution – under Eskom Holdings.”
h2. 3. Hosting another Investment Conference
“Based on our experiences over the past year, and to build on the momentum achieved, we will host the South Africa Investment Conference again this year.”
h2. 4. Major Brulpadda Oil and Gas find
“This could well be a game-changer for our country and will have significant consequences for our country’s energy security and the development of this industry.”
h2. 5. Investor Confidence
“Last year, a number of stakeholders raised their concerns about policy uncertainty and inconsistency. We have addressed these concerns and we continue to engage those stakeholders who raise concerns about our policy direction.”
h2. 6. State-owned Enterprises
“Where SOEs are not able to raise sufficient financing from banks, from capital markets, from development finance institutions or from the fiscus, we will need to explore other mechanisms, such as strategic equity partnerships or selling off non-strategic assets.”
h2. 7. Job Creation
“Our greatest challenge is to create jobs for the unemployed of today, while preparing workers for the jobs of tomorrow.”
h2. 8. National Health Insurance
“By applying the principle of social solidarity and cross-subsidisation, we aim to reduce inequality in access to health care.”