Tag: State of the Nation Address (SONA)

Public sector staff expands and retail jobs disappoint. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported on that South Africa’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 29.1% during the fourth quarter of 2019. With this reading, South Africa has the fourth-highest unemployment rate out of 182 countries tracked by Trading Economics, after Namibia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Angola.

One-liners and sweeping statements about the importance of tourism to the South African economy are not enough for the 2020 SONA. While the sector is undoubtedly one of the major contributors to the development of the economy, the Tourism Fund doesn’t have a lot of money in its coffers.

In their 2014 Harvard Business Review article titled 'What VUCA Really Means for you', Nathan Bennett and James Lemoine warned us not to use the VUCA acronym as a crutch. Sadly, looking at the South African context today, this has indeed become a reality. It is important to understand that just because we can’t prepare for a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world, does not mean we cannot lead our businesses through it.

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on 20 June. The speech was filled with rousing language as well as conciliatory offers to work together with members of the opposition. Unfortunately, no new details of his ostensible reform agenda were released, including details of how his dream for South Africa will come about.

Citing seven priorities, President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to restore the National Development Plan to its place at the centre of our national effort, to make it alive and to make it part of the lived experience of the South African people.

Public schools in South Africa can look forward to joining the digital education revolution as some of their private school counterparts have been experiencing for the past few years, but education experts have cautioned against a rush to provide tablets and other digital infrastructure before a solid strategy and fundamentals have been put in place.

In the 2019 State of the Nation Address, our President set out an ambitious agenda for our nation. It is an agenda that speaks to the South Africa that we can be. It is a task list for all of us. It lays out a series of interventions that will put South Africa on a bold new path.

When Finance Minister Tito Mboweni gives his Budget Speech for the 2019/20 tax year next week (20 February), I hope to hear examples of how the government will work towards boosting South Africa’s ranking in The World Bank's annual 'Doing Business Report'. Given that India climbed 23 positions in this year’s ranking and that South Africa ranked 32nd just a decade ago, this goal is highly achievable.

As an election year, a second State of the Nation Address (SONA) will probably be held during June 2019 wherein the newly elected government will present their programme of action for the 2020 financial year. The SONA address that was delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday 7 February 2019, accordingly reflected on the Medium Term Strategic Frameworks designed and implemented in the past five years.

Somewhat ironically, each new year launches into the same old news cycle: the WEF meetings at Davos, the State of the Nation (Sona) speech, presentation of the national Budget to Parliament. Those a bit longer in the tooth may feel that it’s all over-hyped – 'sound and fury, signifying nothing' – because invariably these events don’t become watershed moments, just brief intermissions that change little, if anything.