
President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a frank assessment of South Africa’s most pressing challenges on Thursday night, pledging decisive action to confront rampant crime, worsening water outages, dysfunctional municipalities and the next phase of Eskom’s restructuring.
In his 2026 State of the Nation Address at Cape Town City Hall, Ramaphosa said while progress had been made in stabilising the economy and ending load shedding, “we must be honest about the challenges we still face”, warning that “we are still far from where we need to be”.
Watch: 2026 State of the Nation Address
Read: Crime, job prospects drive…
Censorship Issues: While South Africa has a free press, there have been instances
of censorship and pressure on journalists.

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Chad: You have two cows. They will probably outlive you.
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Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to the oldest meteor scar in the world – the Vredefort Dome in a town called Parys. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.