There is a greater public sense of anticipation about what President Thabo Mbeki will say in his State of the Nation address on Friday than before any previous such speech he has delivered since assuming office in 1999.
This is in part due to the recent dramatic twist in Mbeki’s political fortunes, which, in December last year, saw him lose the presidency of the African National Congress (ANC) to Jacob Zuma, the man he fired 18 months earlier from the post of deputy president of South Africa.
It is also a result of the ongoing electricity crisis, with state-owned utility Eskom’s failure to supply enough power — provoking unprecedented levels of anger from previously imperturbable consumers.
Further, there is great curiosity about what Mbeki will say of the government’s plans to disband the Scorpions, the elite investigating unit that many believe is to be incorporated into the South African Police Service because it was too successful in its independent pursuit of senior ANC figures.
And there are the perennial issues of housing, health, crime and unemployment, among others, which many feel the government has either neglected or failed to perform on and deliver on at the level promised.
Expectations of what Mbeki will actually pronounce on in his address span a spectrum as broad as the country’s political landscape.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it will be looking to the speech for signs of a shift away from the ”pro-business and pro-rich” policies it claims the government has pursued to date.
The 1,9-million member trade-union federation said it looked forward to Mbeki’s announcement of a ”bold programme of action to implement the progressive policies agreed upon by the historic ANC conference in Polokwane in December”.
Delegates at the conference had rebelled against their exclusion from the economic boom they had kept hearing about over the past five years, Cosatu said.
”They demanded a change from previous pro-business and pro-rich policies, and now expect the government to implement the new progressive policies they voted for. Unemployment, poverty and inequality must now be at the top of the political agenda,” it said.
Solidarity trade union said it had identified 10 crucial issues that Mbeki needed to address, chief of which was crime.
”Mbeki disappointed the nation last year when he failed to announce a comprehensive anti-crime plan, and we hope that he will do so this year,” the union said on Thursday.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said she wanted Mbeki to announce that the government would defend the Scorpions, and oppose the absorption of the National Prosecuting Authority’s investigating unit into the police.
‘We do not want spin or denial’
Speaking earlier this week in Johannesburg, she said the president should also announce the appointment of a judicial commission of inquiry, with full powers of subpoena, to investigate the multibillion-rand arms deal that was ”bleeding South Africa”.
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille said Mbeki needed to announce he was acting against those responsible for the current energy crisis.
”We do not want spin or denial, but instead we want him to own up to the crisis his government has created and act against those responsible for creating this mess.”
De Lille also called on Mbeki to come up with a clear plan for job creation.
”The president should focus on how the poor have been subjected to a reduction in their livelihoods over the past year through a substantial increase in the price of basic foodstuffs and fuel. In particular, he should announce measures to prevent a repeat of the bread and milk price-fixing scandals,” she said.
Inkatha Freedom Party chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Thursday that the first question to ask when it came to the content of Mbeki’s address was who was saying it.
”Is he saying it, or is it Mr Zuma saying it,” he said, a reference to Mbeki’s ousting as ANC president and subsequent speculation about ”two centres of power” within the ruling party.
”Has Mr Mbeki been reduced to an oracle?”
Asked what he would most want to hear Mbeki say in his speech on Friday, Van der Merwe replied: ”Goodbye!”
Meanwhile, the parliamentary precinct was a chaos of contractors and cleaners on Thursday afternoon, all hurriedly completing their tasks ahead of the official opening.
Formal proceedings — including the traditional procession up Parliament Avenue and the national salute — start at 10am, although MPs and dignitaries are expected to start arriving from as early as 8am.
Mbeki’s address is set to be delivered in the National Assembly from 11.01am.
‘Don’t panic’
Meanwhile, Mbeki said on Thursday South Africans should not panic about the current problems plaguing the country.
Mbeki told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that the country should not panic about the current power cuts and other problems, saying ”we cannot pretend that the country does not have problems” — yet South Africa had progressed well for the past 13 years after apartheid governance.
”There are many concerns that people feel quite legitimate about, the situation of electricity and other things. Do not panic, we are ready as a country to maintain a steady pace to address all the problems and challenges in a very determined manner.” — Sapa