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ActionSA denounces President Cyril Ramaphosa using his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) – the seventh of his presidency – to announce a National State of Disaster (SoD) and centralise power to his office. This is clear executive overreach and will undoubtedly open the state’s coffers to looting as we witnessed during COVID-19.

The irony of the SoD is that it is a crisis entirely of the ANC’s making. Despite load shedding first being implemented in 2007 – and President Ramaphosa promising to end it in 2015 – South Africa’s energy situation is no far worse off than it was prior to his presidency.

ActionSA reiterates its opposition to a SoD and the powers it will afford the Executive to abuse state resources, as seen with the PPE and Digital Vibes scandals during COVID-19. We simply cannot afford to go through this again.

This makes it imperative that a SoD and a super presidency must be accompanied by an equally empowered Parliamentary Oversight Committee to ensure that there are sufficient checks and balances to limit the ANC’s kleptomaniac tendencies.

The invocation of a self-created SoD, and the broader events at SoNA this evening, notably the anarchy brought on by the EFF, is another reminder of how the political establishment and Parliament have failed the people of South Africa.  A new class of ethical political leadership committed to public service is needed to prioritise the needs of all citizens.

ActionSA reiterates that South Africa can be fixed. That we can rise out of the depths of our national depression, and that we can achieve a future where South Africa works. But to do this, the ANC has to be removed because South Africa cannot succeed and South Africans cannot prosper as long as the ANC is in government.

This week, I shared ActionSA’s dream for South Africa, a vision to create an inclusive and prosperous future, where we are freed of the continued corruption and incompetence of the ANC, giving all South Africans the opportunity to live a dignified and prosperous life.

This is a dream for a South Africa that works for everyone that calls our beautiful country their home.

Over the coming months, ahead of our inaugural Policy Conference, ActionSA will be sharing this vision for a future where we have been freed from the ANC with all South Africans – community by community, street by street.

We can fix South Africa, but to get South Africa working we must work together to consign the ANC to the dustbin of history.

Issued by ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba