National police commissioner Fannie Masemola said the army would play a supporting role to the South African Police Service
The acting police minister also stressed the need to tackle organised crime, which President Cyril Ramaphosa last week singled out as ‘the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and economic development’
For many, Sona feels less like a turning point and more like a reminder of how far removed political speeches are from daily life
Even before his speech on Thursday, many opposition parties had already given the president a ‘fail’
A year after the president’s first State of the Nation address as the leader of a coalition government, performance has been good and bad
The Lanseria smart city remains a dream and hunger, unemployment and crime continue to be high but there has been progress in Eskom’s turnaround
Perhaps the most tangible area of progress since SONA 2025 has been energy stabilisation. The marked reduction in the frequency and severity of load-shedding, including extended periods without outages, reflects the cumulative impact of the Energy Action Plan and improved maintenance discipline at Eskom
South Africa’s creative sector went into the State of the Nation address with a clear demand: recognition, reform and rescue. What it received was silence. Just days before President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the podium, hundreds of film and television workers marched under the banner “Save SA Film Jobs”, warning that the industry was in […]
In a pointed message to powerful nations, the president declared that South Africa’s sovereignty was “sacrosanct” and would not be compromised
The president announced a mass vaccination drive of the country’s entire cattle herd as the government moves to limit economic damage, export bans and further losses to farmers
The government is moving to establish a national water crisis committee, intervene in failing municipalities and hold municipal managers criminally accountable for persistent water outages
The most recent statistics show that more than 1. 15 million children (68,4%) aged 3 – 5 years are not in ECD centres
Across the country, prices remain stubbornly high … Electricity bills feel designed not for service delivery but for punishment
The move, which marks a further deterioration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, was announced by US secretary of state Marco Rubio in a post on X late on Friday
Debt service costs and civil servant wages account for 61% of total government spending, reducing budgets for, say, education, infrastructure and health
This marks the second consecutive drop in the jobless rate, and the lowest since the third quarter of 2023
The president said the pain of the apartheid past necessitated redress but it will happen within constitutional bounds
The department of international relations and cooperation said the order failed to recognise South Africa’s ‘profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid’
The president was applauded for his stance on Trump’s backlash against South Africa, saying racial redress, equality and diversity would not be abandoned
The president warned about nationalism and protectionism and said South Africa would not change its values or policies
Without mentioning US President Donald Trump by name, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday sent a message to Washington in his State of the Nation address that South Africa will not abandon policies which its new administration this week branded “anti-Americanism”. Ramaphosa said the world was contending with climate change and violent conflict while “witnessing the […]
In his 2025 State of the Nation address the president promised improved healthcare access and infrastructure
In the address, President Cyril Ramaphosa sets out government’s key policy objectives and deliverables for the year ahead, flag challenges and outline interventions to unlock our nation’s potential
The uMkhonto weSizwe party and the Economic Freedom Fighters used the debate on Cyril Ramaphosa’s opening of parliament address to accuse him of ‘selling out to white’ interests
The president largely blamed the state of the country on the legacy of apartheid and the Zuma era but said the ANC was not finished yet
The debate on the State of the Nation address, predictably, became a campaign stump for all parties
The president promised that load-shedding would soon be under control and that service delivery would be improved. Again
The president said ‘every person responsible’ must be held to account, in a state of the nation address made with the election in mind
Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation speech will count in the long term, if he survives the elections, but it is too late to buy him voters, experts say
President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce an election date at this year’s Sona
Those who suggest private entities working with the government are propping up corruption are making ill-informed and dangerous statements
There is a tendency to think of the president as ineffective. But his first term has seen a marked hastening of structural reforms, which could change the economy forever