EDITORIAL: Dreaming of a warm Sona
President Jacob Zuma needs to explicitly unify the country in his state of the nation address — emphasising that SA belongs to all
Today, President Jacob Zuma delivers his state of the nation (Sona) speech, a ritual now sadly infused with cynicism. Once, there was a nine-point plan; before that, there was the National Development Plan, the Industrial Policy Action Plan, Operation Phakisa and so on. They all promised more growth, more development, more prosperity, better education and healthcare and more jobs. Alas, far from the 5% economic growth recorded as the necessary quantum for real poverty alleviation in the National Development Plan, over the past decade, growth has averaged less than half that – and it’s falling. Growth over the past five years was on average 1.75% a year, down from the decade-long average of 2%. That is about half the average growth recorded since democracy. The year 2016 was dominated by the local government elections, which underlined the sense of disappointment many South Africans feel with their government. The most notable meme of 2016 was "state capture". Finance Minister Pravin...
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