Cape Town - President Cyril Ramaphosa will need no reminder that his previous State of the Nation Addresses have led to little to no change in the lives of millions of South Africans.
In fact, his critics may want to take that argument further and say that life under his leadership has become worse.
Why argue with them when they cite the price of fuel, rising cost of living, unemployment, rampant corruption, including the president being implicated in the Phala Phala farm scandal, and violent crime, especially against women and children.
One of those critics is the DA’s John Steenhuisen, who states: “The reality for ordinary South Africans – as opposed to the pampered ANC elite who have insulated themselves from the government failures they engineered – is that life has progressively become harder and harder over the past five years.
“If Thursday is truly about setting out the State of our Nation, we’re going to have to look past the carefully crafted smoke and mirrors and the cherry-picked stats, and take in the bigger picture of the full five years of this administration.”
Ramaphosa will not have a good story to tell South Africans, and the less said about his promised smart cities and bullet trains, which obviously have yet to materialise, the better.
His biggest downfall is the failure to keep the lights on while shielding his handsomely paid Cabinet ministers from blackouts at the cost of an already overburdened taxpayer.
What makes things worse for him is that he was the man his predecessor Jacob Zuma entrusted with resolving Eskom’s problems, including load shedding.
We know he fell far short, but still continued giving South Africans a false sense of hope.
People have heard enough of empty and unfulfilled promises. They want to see real action, and want to see it now.
To say that the president has nowhere to hide would be stating the obvious. His well-chosen words have proved to be worthless.
South Africans will watch Thursday’s address with great interest and anticipation.
Hopefully Eskom plays along.
Cape Times