SONA Debates: ANC and DA go head-to-head

While Wednesday’s debate saw opposition leaders Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema take centre state in the critique of the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), Thursday saw the ANC MPs rise to the challenge of defending the President’s speech. Today saw Zuma give a measured response to issues raised by opposition parties.

Yesterday, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani spent much of his speech lambasting the DA, accusing the party of being in “opposition to everything ANC”, still having “no understanding of racism” and “playing the quotas game” by placing “black faces [to] sway voters that the DA has their interests at heart.”

“The DA expects our people to trust them and believe in them, but then they turn around and speak in forked tongues. The flip flopping and contradiction on their support for the Employment Equity Amendment Bill and again in relation to the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Amendment Bill, clearly shows how unprincipled they are,” Sizani said.

By quoting DA member-turned-journalist Gareth van Onselen, Sizani went on to take a swipe at Mmusi Mainane by saying “It is hard to determine what is authentic about the man,” adding that his words were clichéd and his arguments were shaped by opinion pools.

Sizani went on to say that the DA had double standards when it came to corruption because while it continuously accused the ANC of corrupt activity it chose to ignore it when it came to its own party. He then mentioned DA Councillor Peter Roberts in the Outdshoorn municipality, who blew the whistle on corruption within the DA ranks.

Next to speak was the DA’s Shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler-Barnard who accused the President of “stretching statistics”, saying the murder rate has increased in the last year, not decreased as he stated in the SONA.

She stated that the country’s criminal justice system was deeply flawed and that murder investigations were often inconclusive, “caused by either the SAPS officer who fails to arrest the perpetrator, or who sells the docket to him or her, or who bungles the case by failing to collect evidence, or by losing it.”

She then added that a SAPS audit showed that 1448 SAPS members have criminal records.

“Mr President you saw fit to laugh at my request in this House that a commission of inquiry be established to determine the root causes of Police brutality. You said it wasn’t necessary, but the families of Andries Tatane, of the 34 murdered during protests at Marikana, Mido Macia… disagree,” Kohler-Barnard said.

In her address, Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini then listed a number of strides government had taken in addressing poverty and inequality through social assistance, which benefited more than 15.9 million South Africans, including more than 11.7 million children.

“The NDP obliges us to develop strategies and programmes to ensure minimum acceptable standards for all citizens. In line with this, the social sector will intensify its efforts to deliver better results for vulnerable groups such as children,” Dlamini said.
She went on to mention the “1000 Days” campaign, which will target the development of children by providing maternal support to expectant mothers and nutrition to children in their early stages of development. Dlamini said, “Honourable Members, the ANC has declared Early Childhood Development (ECD) a public good. In the next five years, our priority will be on expanding access to ECD services to at least forty percent of children between 0 - 4 years by 2019.” Minister Dlamini also said that the government would be looking into providing grants to poor seasonal farm workers in the six months that they did not have work. Patricia Kopane, the DA Shadow Minister for Social Development spent a lot of her speech accusing the ANC in general and the Department of Social Development in particular for buying votes during the recent national elections.

“We found that the Department of Social Development and its agency, SASSA, jumped on the ANC’s election bandwagon, distributing food parcels and blankets at ANC rally… attempts to buy votes are unjustifiable and an assault to our Constitution,” she said.

Earlier, Kopane also said that President Zuma made no mention of the problems facing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in his speech and stated that National Director of Public Prosecutions, Mxolisi Nxasana, “is being pushed out because he refuses to bend to the will of the ANC.”



She also said that the President undermined Chapter 9 institutions because he had failed to implement the recommendations of the Public Protector’s Nkandla report, which found him “Improperly benefiting from the misuse of public funds”.

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi began his speech by accusing the DA of being one of the only parties to outwardly reject the National Health Insurance (NHI) during election. He added the NHI is not just about rights to healthcare but also about a “stabilising health care system [that] is a vital cork in the development of economies of the world” because having a sick work force was bad for production.

Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Stevens Mokgalapa responded to Motsoaledi, saying, “Although the principle of the National Health Insurance strategy is noble, the NHI will not address the fundamental problems of our health system, which include: bad management, lack of equipment, drug shortages and high vacancy rates.”

He also accused the ANC government of failing to pay service providers and for the dire state of hospitals in the country.

Moving on to education, Mokgalapa argued that government had failed to fulfill its promise to eradicate 496 mud schools in three years and that by its deadline in March this year it had only eradicated 47 mud schools.

While many of the speeches saw DA and ANC MPs go head to head, what did the smaller opposition parties have to say?

EFF MP Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala impressed politicians and members of the public alike by delivering a speech without notes. Her radical attack on white monopoly capital included suggesting that that EFF is prepared to work with the ANC in order to achieve radical economic transformation, in particular voting with the ruling party to provide a two-thirds majority to make changes to the Constitution where necessary.

Freedom Front Plus Leader, Pieter Mulder, contested the idea that Afrikaners ever had economic power. He said that while they had political power that was no longer the case and they should not be punished accordingly. He then told the President that as it was his last term of office he was concerned with his legacy, hence the emphasis on economic freedom and land reform.

However, during his speech EFF MP Andile Mgxitama interrupted Mulder to accuse him of being a “land thief”.

Mandla Galo, leader of the AIC began his speech by rebuking those who said that his party only had seats because voters had confused the ANC with the AIC, who were in similar colours and just above them on the ballot box. He said his party got support because they were “pro-poor”. During his speech, Galo stated that he was concerned about the state of Matatiele, which was recently incorporated into Galo’s home province of the Eastern Cape from KZN.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe accused Zuma of repeated and empty promises and said that the President's plans to improve local government and service delivery at the municipal level required a plan of action rather than support meanly though “throwing money at the problem." He was also concerned that not enough was being done to address farm murders.

The Pan African Congress (PAC) Parliamentary leader, Alton Mpheti criticised government's land reform programme saying that, rather than creating a million jobs in the agricultural sector, government should concentrate on land reform and restitution.

AGANG Parliamentary leader Michael Tshishonga spoke out about the mudslinging that had taken place in the National Assembly over the past few days. He said, “My son said please do me a favour, don’t howl at anybody and don’t insult anybody, they are all human beings and they are equal, and that is what I am going to do.”

This morning President Zuma took to the podium ostensibly to respond to the SONA debates. However, instead of responding to the arguments raised by opposition parties, he provided a summation of other ANC MP’s speeches and add-ons to his original address on Tuesday night, namely how each department is improving service delivery.

He reiterated that that South Africa would achieve a “growth target of 5% by 2019”. Staying with the economy, he elaborated on the implementation of Operation Phakisa, which is based on the Malaysian model and will fast track and “deliver on promises of the National Development Plan”. The first phase will be led by the Department of Environmental Affairs, which will “unlock the economic potential of South Africa’s oceans”, which are estimated to contribute R177 billion to the GDP by 2033, compared to R54 billion in 2010.

One of the points addressed in his response touched on citizens. The President said government needed to “achieve the goal of being a government that is accessible and responsive to citizens”. He went on to mention his Presidential hotline set up in 2009 that is aimed at doing just that. According to the President, to date more than 190 000 citizens utilised the system and that citizen hotlines have helped government to understand how important it is to have a responsive complaints systems.

Furthermore, he said that members of the public seeking services needed to be treated with respect, which will be improved through the promotion of the new Public Service Charter. He added that all departments have public outreach programmes “for people to raise concerns and suggestions directly with government”.

President Zuma concluded his response by saying that rather than insulting individuals, South Africans needed a debate that “helps us push our country forward”. He added that he respects a constructive opposition because we all want a successful South Africa but that parties that had seen a decline in support “did not take their voters seriously”.

Watch President Zuma’s response to the SONA Debate in the National Assembly here.