South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament speech successfully captured the spirit of a diverse and cohesive multi-party government ready to get down to work. But it failed to tell South Africans how the new dispensation will do things differently, and better.
In the May 2024 national and provincial elections, Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party received just over 40% of the national vote, triggering a multi-party coalition government for the first time in 30 years. The results signalled frustration with the ANC’s inability to promote job-creating growth, achieve significant reductions in poverty and inequality, and demonstrate clean governance.
Ramaphosa’s speech should have been cast as a delivery re-set. It should have signalled to the country how the new government of national unity will do things differently and better than previous ANC administrations. Instead, Ramaphosa set out the problems that are already well known to most South Africans.
