Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula,
Chairperson of the National Council
of Provinces, Mr Amos Masondo,
Deputy President Paul Mashatile,
Former President Thabo Mbeki,
Former Deputy President Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka,
Former Speaker of the National
Assembly, Ms Baleka Mbete,
Chief Justice Raymond Zondo,
Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya,
Mayor of Cape Town, Cllr Geordin
Hill-Lewis,
Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and
Regional Deans,
Heads of Institutions Supporting
Democracy,
Eminent Persons representing our
nine provinces,
Members of Parliament,
Fellow South Africans,
As we were preparing for this State of the
Nation Address, we were deeply saddened to hear of the tragic passing of Dr
Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia.
President Geingob was a dear friend of the South
African people and a comrade in arms in the struggle for our freedom. He was a
champion of African peace, progress and development.
May I ask that we observe a moment of silence in
his honour.
[Moment of Silence]
Fellow South Africans,
This State of the Nation Address takes place in
the 30th year of our democracy.
On the 27th of April 1994, millions of South Africans
cast their ballot in a democratic election for the first time in their lives.
That momentous day was the culmination of
centuries of struggle, the struggle to liberate our people from suffering and
oppression, from dispossession and exploitation, from poverty and
inequality.
As we stood in the long, winding queues to vote,
we turned to one another and spoke of our joy.
We embraced friends and strangers alike,
encouraged by a sense of a common future that we were about to determine for
our country with our vote.
We placed into those ballot boxes not just a
vote, but a dream of the country we wanted to build.
It was the dream of a South Africa that, in
every sense, belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
The world watched as Nelson Mandela, the father
of our nation, cast his vote in Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal; the land of uShaka, a
hero whose name echoes across the ages; the birthplace of John Langalibalele
Dube, the first President of the ANC, which united the African people; and the
home of Chief Albert Luthuli, the first African Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
After casting his ballot, Madiba said:
“This is the beginning of a new era. We have
moved from an era of pessimism, division, limited opportunities, turmoil and
conflict. We are starting a new era of hope, reconciliation and nation
building.”
It is this dream, of a free and united people,
that is woven into our democratic Constitution.
It is this Constitution that has guided our
collective efforts over the last three decades to fundamentally change our
country for the better, and it must stand at the centre of the work we do now
to build a better life for all.
Over the last three decades, we have been on a
journey, striving together to achieve a new society – a national democratic
society.
We have cast off the tyranny of apartheid and
built a democratic state based on the will of the people.
We have established strong institutions to
protect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all people.
We have transformed the lives of millions of
South Africans, providing the necessities of life and creating opportunities
that never existed before.
We have enabled a diverse economy whose
minerals, agricultural products and manufactured goods reach every corner of
the world, while creating jobs in South Africa.
As a country, we have returned to the community
of nations, extending a hand of peace and friendship to all countries and all
peoples.
Just as we cannot deny the progress South
Africans have made over the last 30 years, nor should we diminish the severe
challenges that we continue to face.
We have endured times of great difficulty, when
the strength of our constitutional democracy has been severely tested.
There have been times when events beyond our
borders have held back our progress.
The global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008
brought to an end a decade of strong growth and faster job creation.
More recently, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has
contributed to rising prices of fuel, food and other goods across the world –
and has, as a result, made life more difficult for all South Africans.
There have also been times when events at home
have shaken the foundations of our constitutional democracy.
Perhaps the greatest damage was caused during
the era of state capture.
For a decade, individuals at the highest levels
of the state conspired with private individuals to take over and repurpose
state owned companies, law enforcement agencies and other public institutions.
In some cases, these activities were enabled by
local and multinational companies.
Billions of rands that were meant to meet the
needs of ordinary South Africans were stolen. Confidence in our country was
badly eroded. Public institutions were severely weakened.
The effects of state capture continue to be felt
across society, from the shortage of freight locomotives to crumbling public
services, from the poor performance of our power stations to failed development
projects.
But South Africans, including many honest and
dedicated public officials, fought back and worked together to defeat state
capture.
Even then, attempts to thwart the country’s
recovery continued.
We recall with great anguish the events of July
2021, when individuals loyal to their own interests sought to provoke a popular
insurrection, leading to a tragic loss of life and widespread
destruction.
Again, they were unsuccessful.
These efforts to undo the hard-won gains of our
freedom failed because the people of South Africa stood firm, together, in
defence of our Constitution and its promise of a better life for all.
It was the same determination that enabled the
country to endure the devastation of COVID-19, the worst global pandemic in
over a century.
More than 100,000 South Africans lost their
lives to the disease and two million people lost their jobs.
Yet it would have been far worse if we had not
acted together as one to stop the spread of the virus, to support our health
workers, to protect the most vulnerable, and to roll out an unprecedented
vaccination programme.
We were able to unite society around a common
effort to save lives and livelihoods.
I want to pay tribute to the many thousands of
South Africans who made financial contributions to the Solidarity Fund, to the
workers who produced medical supplies, and to the nurses, doctors and other
health workers who risked their lives to care for those who were ill.
Another major challenge we had to address is
gender-based violence and femicide which we characterised as the second
pandemic.
As the government, we have introduced laws and
directed more resources to prosecuting perpetrators, providing better support
to survivors, and promoting women’s economic empowerment.
As a society, we must intensify our collective
efforts to bring gender-based violence and femicide to an end.
In recent years, the country has had to confront
the effects of climate change.
We have had devastating wildfires in the Western
Cape, destructive floods in KwaZulu-Natal, unbearable heatwaves in the Northern
Cape, persistent drought in the Eastern Cape, and intense storms in Gauteng.
Much of the task of this administration was to
get our country through these great challenges and to work to regain our way.
While each of these events has left its mark,
our country has weathered every storm.
Yes, we have the scars to show. But in every
case South Africans have been resolute.
We have not only persevered, but we have come
back stronger and more determined.
All these efforts have demonstrated how South
Africans value the freedom that was won after decades of struggle.
The story of the first 30 years of our democracy
can be best told through the life of a child called Tintswalo born at the dawn
of freedom in 1994.
Tintswalo – democracy’s child – grew up in
a society that was worlds apart from the South Africa of her parents,
grandparents and great-grandparents.
She grew up in a society governed by a
constitution rooted in equality, the rule of law, and affirmation of the
inherent dignity of every citizen.
Tintswalo, and many others born at the same time
as her, were beneficiaries of the first policies of the democratic state to
provide free healthcare for pregnant women and children under the age of
six.
Tintswalo’s formative years were spent in a
house provided by the state, one of millions of houses built to shelter the
poor.
Tintswalo grew up in a household provided with
basic water and electricity, in a house where her parents were likely to have
lived without electricity before 1994.
Tintswalo was enrolled in a school in which her
parents did not have to pay school fees, and each school day she received a
nutritious meal as part of a programme that today supports 9 million learners
from poor families.
The democratic state provided a child support
grant to meet her basic needs. This grant, together with other forms of social
assistance, continues to be a lifeline for more than 26 million South Africans
every month.
With this support, Tintswalo – democracy’s child
– was able to complete high school.
Through the assistance of the National Student
Financial Aid Scheme, Tintswalo attended one of our TVET colleges and obtained
a qualification.
When Tintswalo entered the world of work, she
was able to progress and thrive with the support of the state’s employment
equity and black economic empowerment policies.
With the income she earned, she was able to
save, to start a family, to move into a better house, and to live a better
life.
This is the story of millions of people who have
been born since the dawn of our democracy.
But it is only part of the story.
For despite the remarkable achievements of the
last 30 years, many of democracy’s children still face great challenges.
Millions of young people aged 15 to 24 years are
currently not in employment, education or training.
There are many who have a matric, a diploma or a
degree who cannot find a job, or do not have the means to start a business.
While economic growth is essential to reduce
unemployment, we cannot wait to provide the work that many of democracy’s
children need.
As government we have taken steps to address the
youth unemployment challenge.
Three years ago, building on the success of the
Expanded Public Works Programme, we launched the Presidential Employment
Stimulus.
Through this programme, we have created more
than 1.7 million work and livelihood opportunities.
Through the stimulus, we have placed more than 1
million school assistants in 23,000 schools, providing participants with
valuable work experience while improving learning outcomes.
Through the Presidential Youth Employment
Intervention, we established SAYouth.mobi as a zero-rated platform for
unemployed young people to access opportunities for learning and earning.
Over 4.3 million young people are now engaged on
the network and 1.6 million have so far secured opportunities.
We have, working together with the National
Youth Development Agency, set up a number of initiatives to provide
opportunities for young people including the National Youth Service and the
Youth Employment Service.
These programmes matter because work matters to
people. The NYDA has played a key role in assisting a number of young people to
start their own businesses.
Having a job does not only provide an income –
it is fundamental to people’s sense of self-worth, dignity, hope, purpose and
inclusion.
From the depths of deprivation and inequality,
we have worked over 30 years to ensure that all South Africans have an equal
chance to prosper.
It is not enough to recognise the injustices of
the past; we need to correct them.
We have introduced laws and undertaken
programmes to enable black South Africans and women to advance in the
workplace, to become owners and managers, to acquire land and build up assets.
The proportion of jobs in executive management
held by black people increased almost five-fold between 1996 and 2016.
One of the overriding challenges this
administration had to deal with when it took office was state capture and
corruption.
Our first priority was to put a decisive stop to
state capture, to dismantle the criminal networks within the state and to
ensure that perpetrators faced justice.
We had to do that so that we could restore our
institutions and rebuild our economy.
We appointed capable people with integrity to
head our law enforcement agencies, government departments, security services
and state companies, often through an independent and transparent processes.
The credibility and efficiency of a number of
institutions like the South African Revenue Service have been restored and
their performance improved.
We set up the Investigating Directorate as a
specialised and multidisciplinary unit within the National Prosecuting
Authority to investigate corruption and other serious crimes.
Great progress has been made in bringing those
responsible for state capture to justice.
More than 200 accused persons are being
prosecuted. More are under investigation.
Stolen funds are being recovered.
Freezing orders of R14 billion have been granted
to the NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit for state capture-related cases, and around
R8.6 billion in corrupt proceeds have been returned to the state.
A restored and revitalised SARS has collected
R4.8 billion in unpaid taxes as a result of evidence presented at the
Commission, while the Special Investigating Unit has instituted civil
litigation to the value of R64 billion.
We have taken steps, including through new
legislation, to strengthen our ability to prevent money laundering and fraud
and secure our removal from the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task
Force.
With the assistance of business, we have set up
a digital forensic capability to support the NPA Investigating Directorate,
which in due course will be expanded to support law enforcement more broadly.
Legislation is currently before Parliament to
establish the Investigating Directorate as a permanent entity with full
investigating powers.
But there is much more work to be done to
eradicate corruption completely.
Based on the recommendations of the National
Anti-Corruption Advisory Council, we are determined to introduce further
measures to strengthen our anti-corruption agencies, protect whistle-blowers,
regulate lobbying and prevent the undue influence of public representatives in
procurement.
We will not stop until every person responsible
for corruption is held to account.
We will not stop until all stolen money has been
recovered.
We will not stop until corruption is
history.
The real tragedy of state capture was that it
diverted attention and resources away from what government should have been
doing, which is to grow our economy and create jobs.
Over the past five years, we have worked to
revive our economy from a decade of stagnation and protect it from both
domestic and global shocks.
We have made progress.
Our economy is today three times larger than it
was 30 years ago.
The number of South Africans in employment
increased from 8 million in 1994 to over 16.7 million now.
Over the last two years, the number of jobs
being created has been increasing every quarter, and we now have more people in
employment than before the pandemic.
Yet, our unemployment rate is the highest it has
ever been.
Even as employment is growing, more people are
entering the job market each year than jobs are being created
We have laid a foundation for growth through
far-reaching economic reforms, an ambitious investment drive, and an
infrastructure programme that is starting to yield results.
Companies continue to invest, thousands of
hectares of farmland are being planted, new factories are being opened and
production is being expanded.
We are on track to resolve the most important
constraints on economic growth by stabilising our energy supply and fixing our
logistics system.
As these obstacles are removed, the true
potential of our economy is unleashed.
We set out a clear plan to end load shedding,
which we have been implementing with a single-minded focus through the National
Energy Crisis Committee.
We have delivered on our commitments to bring
substantial new power through private investment on to the grid, which is
already helping to reduce load shedding.
Last year, we implemented a major debt relief
package which will enable Eskom to make investments in maintenance and
transmission infrastructure and ensure its sustainability going forward.
Since we revived our renewable energy programme
five years ago, we have connected more than 2,500MW of solar and wind power to
the grid with three times this amount already in procurement or construction.
Through tax incentives and financial support, we
have more than doubled the amount of rooftop solar capacity installed across
the country in just the past year.
We have implemented sweeping regulatory reforms
to enable private investment in electricity generation, with more than 120 new
private energy projects now in development.
These are phenomenal developments that are
driving the restructuring of our electricity sector in line with what many
other economies have done to increase competitiveness and bring down prices.
Through all of these actions, we are confident
that the worst is behind us and the end of load shedding is finally within
reach.
But we are not stopping there.
To ensure that we never face a similar crisis
ever again, we are reforming our energy system to make it more competitive,
sustainable and reliable into the future.
We are going to build more than 14,000km of new
transmission lines to accommodate renewable energy over the coming years.
To fast-track this process, we will enable
private investment in transmission infrastructure through a variety of
innovative investment models.
Last year, we tabled the Electricity Regulation
Amendment Bill to support the restructuring of Eskom and establish a
competitive electricity market.
As we undertake these reforms, we are
positioning our economy for future growth in a world shaped by climate change
and a revolution in green technologies.
In the last three years, our country has seen an
increase in extreme weather events, often with disastrous consequences.
This is why we are implementing a just energy
transition, not only to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change, but
to create growth and jobs for our own people.
We will undertake this transition at a pace,
scale and cost that our country can afford and in a manner that ensures energy
security.
With our abundance of solar, wind and mineral
resources, we are going to create thousands of jobs in renewable energy, green
hydrogen, green steel, electric vehicles and other green products.
The Northern Cape, with its optimal solar
conditions, has already attracted billions of rands in investment.
We are going to set up a Special Economic Zone
in the Boegoebaai port to drive investment in green energy. There is a great
deal of interest from the private sector to participate in the boom that will
generate green hydrogen energy projects.
We have decided to support electric vehicle
manufacturing in South Africa to grow our automotive sector, which provides
good jobs to thousands of workers.
We have decided to give special focus to regions
like Mpumalanga to enable the creation of new industries, new economic
opportunities and sustainable jobs.
And in the past year, we have increased the
financing pledges for our Just Energy Transition Investment Plan from around
R170 billion to almost R240 billion.
To address the persistent effects of global
warming, which manifest themselves through persistent floods, fires and
droughts, we have decided to establish a Climate Change Response Fund.
This will bring together all spheres of
government and the private sector in a collaborative effort to build our
resilience and respond to the impacts of climate change.
To deal with severe inefficiencies in our
freight logistics system, we are taking action to improve our ports and rail
network and restore them to world-class standards.
We have set out a clear roadmap to stabilise the
performance of Transnet and reform our logistics system.
Working closely with business and labour, we
have established dedicated teams to turn around five strategic corridors that
transport goods for export purposes.
The number of ships waiting to berth at the Port
of Durban – which has experienced severe congestion in recent months – has
reduced from more than 60 ships in mid-November to just 12 ships at the end of
January.
Transnet has appointed an international terminal
operator to help expand and improve its largest terminal at the Port of
Durban.
And we are overhauling the freight rail system
by allowing private rail operators to access the rail network.
With the current conflict in the Middle East
affecting shipping traffic through the Suez Canal, South Africa is well
positioned to offer bunkering services for ships that will be rerouted via our
shores
We completed the auction of broadband spectrum
after more than a decade of delays, resulting in new investment, lower data
costs and improved network reach and quality.
These reforms have a profound impact in a
society in which access to the internet has risen dramatically over the last
decade.
Less than half of all households had internet
access in 2011, compared to 79 percent of households in 2022.
Just this week, we published new regulations to
reform our visa system, which will make it easier to attract the skills that
our economy needs and create a dynamic ecosystem for innovation and
entrepreneurship.
We raised R1.5 trillion in new investment
commitments through five South Africa Investment Conferences, of which over
R500 billion has already flowed into the economy.
To support growth in the mining sector, we are
moving ahead with the modernisation of our mining rights licensing system and
are launching an exploration fund to support emerging miners and exploit new
mineral deposits.
Through this, mining, which was the bedrock on
which the South African economy was built, will once again become a sunrise
industry.
Participation of previously disadvantaged black
people is increasing.
Black ownership stands at approximately 39
percent when compared with 2 percent in 2004.
Investment in infrastructure is gaining
momentum.
New and innovative funding mechanisms will be
utilised to increase construction of infrastructure. The Department of Water
and Sanitation aims to enhance water resource management by initiating
infrastructure projects to secure water supply and diversifying water sources
to reduce dependence on surface water.
Bulk water projects are under construction
across the country to improve water supply to millions of residents in
villages, towns and cities.
The following water infrastructure projects are
in progress or completed:
Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Umzimvubu,
Hazelmere Dam, uMkhomazi Water Project, Clanwilliam Dam, Tzaneen Dam, Loskop,
Mandlakazi, pipeline from Jozini Dam, Giyani, pipeline from Nandoni Dam to
Nsami Dam, Pilanesberg Water, Vaal Gamagara and pipeline from the Vaal River to
Hothazel.
In the Eastern Cape, the Msikaba and Mtentu
bridges are beginning to rise over the landscape, and will be among the highest
in Africa once complete.
The steel used for part of the project is
fabricated in Mpumalanga, and the iron ore comes from the Northern Cape.
In the past five years, SANRAL, which manages
nearly 25,000 km of roads, has awarded more than 1,200 projects to the value of
R120 billion.
In November last year, Cabinet approved a
framework for high-speed rail, focusing initially on the Johannesburg to Durban
corridor.
As we grow the economy, we are making it more
inclusive.
Through redistribution, around 25 percent of
farmland in our country is now owned black South Africans, bringing us closer
to achieving our target of 30 percent by 2030.
In the last 5 years, we have supported around
1,000 black industrialists with funding and other forms of support. These
black-owned firms employ more than 90,000 workers and contribute many billions
of rands to our economy.
At the same time, about 200,000 more workers
obtained ownership of shares in the companies they work, bringing the total
worker ownership in companies in the South African economy to well over half a
million workers.
We see this trend continuing to grow as more and
more companies realise that it is beneficial to their operation that their
workers should have a stake in the businesses they work for.
The reforms that we have initiated and the work
that is underway will enable us to end load shedding, to improve our logistics
system, to achieve water security and ultimately to create jobs.
While our challenges have never been greater,
our response to these challenges will lead us to greater prosperity than we
have ever known.
One of the worst injustices of apartheid was the
manner in which education was used as a tool to perpetuate inequality.
Over the last 30 years, we have sought to use
education as a tool to create equality.
Our basic education outcomes are steadily
improving across a range of measures.
The latest matric pass rate, at 82.9%, is the
highest ever.
And with each new year, learners from no-fee
schools are accounting for more and more of the bachelor passes achieved.
At the same time, fewer learners are dropping
out of school.
We have increased funding for poor and
working-class students in universities and TVET significantly over the past
five years.
Over the next five years, we will focus our
attention on expanding access to early childhood development and improving
early grade reading, where we are already beginning to see progress.
Moving early childhood development to the
Department of Basic Education was one of the most important decisions as we
were now able to devote more resources to early childhood development and
ensure that through cooperative governance various departments of government
get involved in early childhood development augmented by the Department of
Basic education.
Our policies and programmes have, over the
course of 30 years, lifted millions of people out of dire poverty.
Today, fewer South Africans go hungry and fewer
live in poverty.
In 1993, South Africa faced a significant
poverty challenge, with 71.1 percent of its population living in poverty.
However, under the democratic government, there
has been a consistent decline in these numbers.
By 2010, the poverty rate had dropped to 60.9
percent, and it continued to decrease, reaching 55.5 percent in 2020, as
reported by the World Bank.
This progress has been made possible by
extensive support to those in society who need it most.
Five years ago, we introduced a further measure
to tackle poverty by introducing National Minimum Wage as envisaged in the
Freedom Charter.
The decision by key role players, being business
and labour and communities, to introduce the minimum wage immediately raised
the wages of over 6 million workers.
In the midst of the pandemic, we introduced the
special SRD Grant, which currently reaches some 9 million unemployed people
every month. We have seen the benefits of this grant and will extend it and
improve it as the next step towards income support for the unemployed.
These grants and subsidies do much more than
give people what they need to live.
They are an investment in the future.
Social assistance has been shown to increase
school enrolment and attendance, lower drop-out rates, and improve the pass
rate.
South Africans are living longer than ever
before.
Life expectancy has increased from 54 years in
2003 to 65 years in 2023.
Maternal and infant deaths have declined
dramatically.
We have built more hospitals and clinics,
especially in poor areas, providing better quality care to more South
Africans.
Today, 95% of persons diagnosed with HIV know
their status, 79% of those receive antiretroviral treatment, and 93% of those
are virally suppressed.
New HIV infections among young people have
declined significantly.
And yet, while our health system has had a great
impact on people’s lives, we are working to improve both the quality of
healthcare and equality of access.
The National Health Insurance will provide free
health care at the point of care for all South Africans, whether in public or
private health facilities.
We plan to incrementally implement the NHI,
dealing with issues like health system financing, the health workforce, medical
products, vaccines and technologies, and health information systems.
One of the most visible, impactful and
meaningful achievements in the first three decades of freedom has been in
providing homes to the people.
Today, nearly nine out of every ten households
live in a formal dwelling.
Where there were once shacks and mud houses,
there are now homes of brick and mortar.
These are homes with water to drink and to wash
with, homes with electricity for lighting and cooking.
At the end of apartheid, only 6 out of 10 people
had access to clean drinking water. Today, that figure has increased to nearly
9 out of 10 South Africans.
We are working to ensure that subsidised housing
is located close to work, education and services.
But for services to be delivered, local
government has to work.
Too many municipalities are failing on
governance, financial and service delivery measures. These constraints affect
every aspect of peoples’ daily lives.
We have started the implementation of a number
of measures to address this problem by providing support to local government,
including professionalising the civil service and ensuring that people with the
right skills are appointed to key positions.
The Presidency, National Treasury and COGTA are
working together to enhance technical capacity in local government and to
improve planning, coordination and fiscal oversight.
Through the Presidential Izimbizo that have been
held across the country, we have seen how the District Development Model has
brought together all spheres of government and key stakeholders to address the
service delivery challenges in communities.
The District Development Model has proven to be
an effective instrument to enhance cooperative governance and collaboration. We
will continue to broaden and deepen this process.
Tackling crime and insecurity is a key
priority.
South Africans deserve to be safe and to feel
safe, to walk freely and without fear in their neighbourhoods and public
spaces.
During this administration, we have focused on
equipping our law enforcement agencies, which had been systematically weakened,
to do their work effectively.
We have strengthened the ranks of the police
through the recruitment of 20,000 police officers over the last two years and
another 10,000 in the year to come.
An extra 5,000 police officers have been
deployed to Public Order Policing.
The SAPS has launched Operation Shanela as a new
approach to target crime hotspots, which resulted in over 285,000 arrests since
May last year.
The Economic Infrastructure Task Teams that are
operational in all provinces have had important successes in combatting cable
theft, damage to critical infrastructure and illegal mining.
Through close collaboration with the private
sector, we have seen a reduction in security incidents on the rail
network.
We launched the new Border Management Authority
last year to improve the security of our borders, and have already stopped over
100,000 people who tried to enter our country illegally.
Together with civil society, we developed the
National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence, together with civil society,
as a society wide response to this pandemic.
Around R21 billion was dedicated over the medium
term to the implementation of the six pillars of the plan, including the
economic empowerment of women.
New laws were introduced to strengthen the
response of the criminal justice system to gender-based violence and provide
better support to survivors of such violence.
Our ultimate goal is to end gender-based
violence altogether by mobilising all of society. As part of this, we support
the call for a pledge that men in South Africa are invited to take to
demonstrate their personal commitment to ending this scourge.
Women are also in the process of developing
their own pledge.
We still have a long way to go to build safer
communities, prevent violent crime, and protect our infrastructure.
But there is no doubt that a professional,
well-trained and properly resourced police force, working closely with
communities, will make our country a safer place.
Today, every South African can hold their heads
high, confident that we have assumed our rightful place on the world
stage.
We remain committed to playing a constructive
role on our continent and around the globe for the realisation of a better
Africa and a better world.
We will continue to play an important role to
silence the guns throughout our continent.
Our engagements with parties in the
Russia-Ukraine conflict through the Africa Peace Initiative are progressing. We
engage in these peace efforts because we believe that even the most intractable
conflicts can be brought to an end through negotiations.
Guided by the fundamental principle of human
rights and freedom, we have taken up the Palestinian cause to prevent further
deaths and destruction in Gaza.
We have welcomed the ruling of the International
Court of Justice that Israel must take all measures within its power to prevent
acts of genocide against Palestinians.
We condemn the killing of civilians on all sides
and call on all parties involved in the conflict to commit to a peace process
that will deliver a two state solution.
We will use our foreign policy to pursue our
development goals. During our leadership of BRICS last year, we witnessed a new
chapter for the BRICS family of countries.
The expansion of the group from five to ten
members presents opportunities for trade and a strengthening of political and
diplomatic ties between countries in the global South.
We will build on the progress we have made in
establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will transform
South Africa’s economy and that of the continent by creating new jobs and
increasing economic participation.
And we will place Africa’s development at the
top of the agenda when we host the G20 in 2025.
The achievements over the last three decades are
a testament to the power of collaboration and partnership to address our most
pressing challenges.
Our country has a vibrant civil society, a
powerful union movement and an engaged private sector.
Over the last five years, we have worked with
these social partners to address challenges such as to keep people safe and to
distribute vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to mobilise a
society-wide response to gender-based violence.
In the past year, we have come together with
social partners to end loadshedding, address the challenges in the logistics
sector, tackle crime and corruption, and accelerate job creation.
This is the South African way of building a
social compact working together on tangible issues, and it will be the key to
building a new society in the years to come.
Fellow South Africans,
This is the last State of the Nation Address of
the 6th democratic administration.
The last five years has been a time of recovery,
rebuilding and renewal.
We have had to revitalise our economy after more
than a decade of poor economic performance.
We have had to rebuild our public institutions
after the era of state capture.
We have had to recover from a devastating global
pandemic that caused great misery and hardship, that closed businesses and cost
jobs.
And we have had to confront and overcome a
debilitating electricity crisis that, despite significant improvement in recent
months, continues to hold back our economy.
We have come a long way in the last five years.
We have built on the achievements of the last three decades and we have taken
decisive measures to address the immediate challenges facing South
Africans.
We have restored the independence and capability
of our law enforcement agencies to tackle corruption and crime.
We have worked to advance the rights of persons
with disability. We took great pride in making South African Sign Language the
12th official
language of our country.
We have safeguarded and promoted the basic
rights in our constitution, such as freedom of speech, association and belief.
We have defended media freedom and the independence of the judiciary.
We have protected and advanced the rights of
members of the LGBTQI community, and continue to combat all forms of prejudice
and intolerance.
We have made significant progress on measures to
grow the economy, create jobs and reduce poverty.
While we have set in motion the process of
renewal and reform, there is more work to be done to see these reforms through
to the end.
We will see through the work underway with our
partners to end load-shedding and revive the performance of our ports and rail
network.
We will continue to strengthen our law
enforcement institutions, tackle gender-based violence and fight corruption to
make South Africa a safe place for all.
We will continue to strengthen local government,
professionalise the public service and ensure that public officials are held
accountable for their actions.
We will continue to position our economy to grow
and compete in a fast-changing world, to support small businesses, to give
young people economic opportunities and to provide social protection to the
vulnerable.
We will continue the work to improve the
country’s fiscal position and hold firm to a sound macroeconomic trajectory.
We will use the opportunities provided by the
African Continental Free Trade Area to increase our trade and expand our
industries.
We will continue to build an inclusive economy,
focusing on the empowerment of black and women South Africans, advancing
workers’ rights, intensifying land reform and pursuing a just energy transition
that leaves no-one behind.
Fellow South Africans,
As we celebrate 30 years of freedom, we must
remain steadfast in our commitment to our constitutional democracy and its
promise of a better life.
We should not give in to those who resist the
responsibility that the Constitution places on us all to correct the injustices
of the past and fundamentally transform our economy and society.
We must remind these people of the obligation
that the Constitution places on the state to progressively realise the rights
of everyone to housing, health care, food, water, social security, safety and
education.
By the same measure, we should not allow anyone
to diminish vital democratic institutions, to denigrate the judiciary or to
challenge the constitutional authority of this Parliament.
We should not give in to those who seek to
divide our nation, incite violence and undermine our democracy.
As in the past, as in the future, the people of
South Africa should stand together against any attempt to reverse the
achievements of our democracy.
As the Chairperson of the Constitutional
Assembly, I worked with many great leaders of our country to craft a
constitution that truly reflects the will of the South African people.
As President, I see it as my primary duty to
defend our Constitution, and to work every day to realise its promise.
As we move forward, let us remember that it is
up to us – not anyone else – to determine the future of South Africa.
We are not passive observers of our
history.
We are its authors.
We are the builders of this country we call
home.
As we look towards the next 30 years of freedom,
we must choose the kind of country, and indeed the kind of world, we want to
create for ourselves and for our children.
We are committed to a South Africa in which our
common identity lies in our recognition of each other’s humanity.
We want a country in which every person is free
to be exactly who they are, regardless of their race, gender, sexual
orientation, ethnicity or religion.
We want a country in which the same
opportunities are available to every child, whether they are born in Sandton,
in Mdantsane, in Sekhukhune, in Mitchell’s Plain or in Phoenix.
We want a country in which the rule of law
applies to everyone, no matter how wealthy they are or what position they
hold.
As we continue the journey together to make this
vision a reality, we are inspired by democracy’s children, by their energy, by
their creativity and by their enthusiasm.
We are inspired by the young people who have
carried our hopes onto the global stage, from the Springboks to Banyana
Banyana, from the heroic Bafana Bafana to Grammy Award winners like Tyla.
As we mark the 30th anniversary of our freedom, we are
reminded of the words of President Nelson Mandela, who said that after climbing
a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
He said:
“I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a
view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I
have come.
“But I can rest only for a moment, for with
freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not
yet ended.”
While we have come far, we have a long way still
to go.
Like Madiba, we must keep moving, always
forward, always onwards, towards the country of our dreams. Always believing
that victory is certain.
I thank you.
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