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February 12 2024

Last week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa didn’t impress too many analysts, The prevailing feeling is that the President was electioneering as opposed to speaking about how SA has dealt with challenges in the past year.

You’d expect a head of state to try to garner votes at his national address in an election year especially as SA’s plethora of ills show no sign of abetting.

Right now investors really want good news. There has been talk of the economy genuinely gaining momentum towards the latter half of the year or in early 2025. If the election is free, fair and leads to some kind of effective coalition government, the prospects of a boost in investor confidence and economic confidence will be higher. We just maybe shouldn’t expect the president to report much good news until the election then. We don’t have a date for it yet but analysts’ hunches are for a date in April or May.

Before then we best hope that Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana tells the truth about what the economy is facing and what his party is doing to keep it in check.

This year marks SA’s 30th year of democracy. Ramaphosa has mentioned how his party has dealt with a post Apartheid society. While millions have been lifted out of poverty and people of colour have been able to access a higher quality of life, the extreme unemployment, culture of corruption and skills drain is alarming. Further we don’t have a reliable power grid and too many people on powerful positions have stopped enough renewable energy solutions from coming on board. 

Ramaphosa has dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic mostly admirably. Yet SA has deteriorated in terms of pretty every notable metric during Ramaphosa’s administration.

Let’s hope the election brings fresh ideas.

alistair@propertyflash.co.za

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