EFF on the 2026 State of the Nation Address

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have listened to the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) presented by Cyril Ramaphosa today with deep concern and profound disappointment. What South Africans witnessed was not a decisive break from the past, but a continuation of the same rhetoric that has characterised successive addresses — ambitious promises made without accountability for those that remain unfulfilled. This address was predictable in its tone and in its failure to confront the widening gap between commitment and delivery.

In reflecting on the 2025 SONA delivered in February last year, we are reminded of the extensive undertakings made by the President before the people of South Africa. Those commitments were framed as the foundation of renewal and accelerated progress. Yet one year later, the structural crises facing our nation remain largely unchanged.

In 2025, the President committed to lifting economic growth above 3% through infrastructure investment, structural reforms, and measures to stimulate inclusive growth and employment. The promise was that higher growth would translate into jobs and tangible improvements in living standards. In 2026, that target has quietly disappeared, and instead, we are told that the economy is “growing again” and that growth is “gathering pace,” while at the same time acknowledging that for more than 15 years South Africa has experienced low growth and that unemployment remains a national crisis.

The reality is that growth has remained weak and inconsistent barely reaching 1,5%, far below what is required to absorb millions of unemployed South Africans. Unemployment, particularly among the youth, continues to define the lived experience of millions. There has been no decisive shift in economic direction, and no mass job creation programme capable of reversing the crisis.

The President celebrates fiscal consolidation, two primary budget surpluses, improved credit ratings and a stronger rand. Yet these macroeconomic indicators are presented as proof of recovery while communities sit without water, municipalities collapse, and violent crime spreads. A budget surplus in a society marked by mass unemployment and collapsing infrastructure is evidence of misplaced priorities. The people cannot eat improved credit ratings.

The President declared that load shedding has ended and that a resilient energy system has been built while simultaneously announcing further restructuring of Eskom, the establishment of a fully independent transmission entity, the commencement of independent transmission projects, and a dedicated task team to manage the restructuring process. A crisis that is truly resolved does not require emergency-style oversight and structural reconfiguration.

The reality is that the energy sector is being progressively liberalised, with private transmission and generation introduced under the banner of reform. Government claims to preserve public ownership while fragmenting Eskom’s integrated structure which is a contradiction that will have long-term consequences for tariffs and access for the ordinary person.

The 2025 address placed significant emphasis on infrastructure investment, announcing hundreds of billions of rand in planned spending over three years to revitalise roads, ports, rail, water systems, and energy infrastructure. Infrastructure was presented as the engine that would unlock industrial expansion and restore confidence in the economy. In 2026, this has escalated into over R1 trillion in public infrastructure commitments and the launch of infrastructure bonds and new publicprivate partnerships. Yet roads remain in disrepair, rail networks underperform, and ports remain inefficient. If the previous commitments were effective, why must the same promises be repackaged at an even larger scale?

In 2025 the President spoke of professionalising the public service and restoring the credibility of strategic institutions. However, inefficiency, political patronage, and instability remain prevalent within the state in what we are currently experiencing in the Madlanga Commission and Ad Hoc Committee on infiltration of our policing and intelligence networks. In 2026 the President declares organised crime the greatest immediate threat to democracy and deploys the SANDF to gang-affected provinces.

He promises more police officers, consolidated intelligence, firearm reforms, and sweeping criminal justice restructuring. This, however, comes alongside claims that institutions have been restored and strengthened, however, a state that must deploy soldiers domestically to contain gang violence cannot claim institutional normalcy. The GNU has deliberately ignored appeals and motions from the EFF to establish Ad Hoc Committees to confront criminal mafias in construction and protections fees, as well as the crime in the DA-run Cape Town but the President is grandstanding with interventions such as the military which are well known to be ineffective.

The 2025 address acknowledged the crisis in local government and pledged to restore the functionality of municipalities through coordinated intervention and partnerships. Commitments were also made to strengthen water security through new institutional arrangements and infrastructure initiatives. Yet millions of South Africans continue to experience unreliable access to clean water, and implementation of water infrastructure projects remains slow and inconsistent as we are witnessing in the dismal failure to provide water across Johannesburg today.

In 2026, the President admits again that water is now the single most urgent issue facing communities, that poor planning and inadequate maintenance have crippled municipalities, and that criminal charges have been laid against dozens of municipalities. A National Water Crisis Committee, chaired by the President himself, is now being established signalling that the gap between policy pronouncement and execution continues to widen.

Transformation and inclusion were central themes in 2025, including commitments to a multi-billion rand transformation fund to support black-owned enterprises and reform procurement to drive inclusive participation. However, small and emerging businesses continue to struggle to access finance and state opportunities. Inequality remains present, and the structure of ownership in the economy remains fundamentally unchanged. The review of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment framework now announced is an implicit admission that previous measures have failed to meaningfully transform economic power; and we have nothing to look forward to in his regard.

Education and skills development featured prominently in the 2025 address, with commitments to strengthen early childhood development, literacy, technical training, and student support. While improvements in certain education indicators have been noted, systemic challenges persist, including infrastructure backlogs, overcrowded classrooms, uneven teaching quality, and limited post-school opportunities.

The education system continues to reproduce inequality rather than decisively dismantle it.  The announcement of a “fundamental overhaul” of the skills development system and reform of SETAs confirms that the existing framework has not delivered, while we have witnessed ourselves that SETA boards are merely for the placement and reward of political cronies and family members of ANC politicians, with no regard for qualifications and a strategy for transformation.

The President reaffirmed progress toward the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) and improvements in public healthcare. Yet public health facilities remain under strain, understaffed, and under-resourced, with no visible progress made towards implementing the NHI whatsoever. Long waiting times, shortages of medical staff, and uneven quality of care continue to define the experience of many South Africans who depend on public healthcare. In fact, the President appeals to public and private financing institutions to revitalise hospitals, as if his own government is divorced from the implementation process.

This 2026 SONA address oscillates between celebration and emergency. We are told the economy is recovering, yet public employment programmes are being expanded. We are told institutions are rebuilt, yet crisis committees, military deployments and revetting processes are required. We are told SOEs are improving, yet their core functions are concessioned to private operators. We are told water reforms were underway, yet water has now become a national emergency.

Essentially, as we all expected, the 2026 SONA did not provide a sufficiently honest account of why so many of these commitments remain incomplete. It did not offer a rigorous explanation for missed targets, nor did it present a fundamentally new strategy capable of altering the trajectory of stagnation and decline. Instead, it repeated familiar language of reform, partnership, and investment without confronting the structural weaknesses in state capacity and economic direction.

South Africa does not need another vision speech detached from measurable delivery. It requires transparent reporting on what has been achieved, what has failed, and why; and it requires enforceable timelines, decisive leadership, and a capable developmental state.

Critics argue that the EFF’s policies could lead to economic instability.

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