SONA: What the President’s speech failed to address

President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening, 17 June 2014. People’s Assembly has already reported on the main themes of the Presidents speech including commentary from opposition MPs. A lot has been written about Zuma’s comments on the economy and labour sector, but what didn’t he say?

On Tuesday evening DA leader Mmusi Maimane pointed out that the President failed to mention South Africa’s recent credit downgrading; however, this was picked up by the Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe in his SONA debate speech yesterday.

People’s Assembly revisited the President’s speech and took a closer look at the important issues that received scant attention. The first of these was the National Health Insurance (NHI).

“The campaign to reduce child and maternal mortality ratios will continue. This will require the implementation of the National Health Insurance and the improvement of the quality of care in the public sector,” Zuma said. However, he did not give any indication of how the NHI pilot projects are progressing or when Cabinet will respond to the Green Paper. Soon after, in his address the President said, “We will take forward the advances we have made in promoting women’s empowerment and development. The Minister in the Presidency responsible for women’s development, Ms Susan Shabangu, will work with other government departments, agencies, the private sector and Non-Governmental Organisations, to promote women’s socio-economic empowerment, development and human rights.”

This was the only mention of civil society (NGOs) in his entire speech and while he flagged women empowerment he failed to mention any substantive steps that had been taken by the government to address gender equality. The rights of the LGBTI community were also neglected in terms of homophobia, and gender-based violence in the form of ‘corrective rape’ etc.

However, the President needs to be given credit for spending time discussing the rights of people with disabilities.

While sport was mentioned briefly, the arts and culture sector also seemed to be ignored.

On more serious security related issues, the President said, “progress has been made over the past five years in reducing the levels of serious crime such as murders, aggravated robberies, crimes against women, children and other vulnerable groups, but they remain unacceptably high.”

However, according to Africa Check, violent crimes such as murder have actually increased.

The President also neglected to mention the challenges facing the police, notably the culture of impunity and allegations of heavy-handed responses to strikes and protests.

He went on to say, “The Special Investigating Unit, the Anti-Corruption Task Team, the Asset Forfeiture Unit and the Hawks, have made notable progress in our quest to combat corruption in society broadly and in the public sector. This work will continue in the next five years.” However, he did not elaborate on how corruption has been tackled.

Outside the National Assembly on Tuesday evening after Zuma’s address, the DA’s Mmusi Maimane was asked what the most glaring omission in the President’s speech was. He replied, “[There was] no discussion on corruption… R36 billion is wasted [through corruption] every year. That is South African’s tax payers money that should have been spent on their development.”

Later People’s Assembly asked Cosatu’s Zwelenzima Vavi if he thought the President had neglected addressing corruption.

Vavi responded, “Ja, except in passing. I don’t think the issue of corruption is a matter we should mention in passing in the country. The crisis of corruption is such that in each and every State of the Nation we must be appraised of the commitments that have been made in the previous speeches and what progress has been achieved in ensuring that we eradicate this cancer in society.”