SONA 2026 expectations

Statement by Karabo Khakhau MP and Jan de Villiers MP:

As a party in the Government of National Unity, the DA has very high expectations for President Ramaphosa’s SONA on Thursday to deliver reforms and actions, not plans and proposals. The time for plans and proposals, and visions and hopes, has long passed.

The reforms and announcements that the DA expects from the President, are the following, because they are desperately needed for our economy to grow:

• Review and Replace BEE. Foreign investors simply do not invest in South Africa when they have to give-up part of their ownership.
• Unlock ports and rail immediately to private operator concessions, not just private users. End Transnet’s monopoly; it is a bankrupt entity ruining our rail network. We can’t continue to see millions of rands in fruit and produce rotting at ports across SA, due to port failures.
• ⁠Outlaw Cadre Deployment, immediately, and set South Africa on an unstoppable course to merit-based, non-political appointments for all officials in government and entities.
• ⁠Devolve Policing Powers, so that competent governments can run local policing competently, including full investigative powers locally.
• End the culture of waste across government, by making accounting officers personally liable for local government spending that fails the annual audit. If it’s unauthorised, irregular, wasteful or fruitless, the accounting officer should bear the cost.
• Ring-fence Power and Water revenue, in local governments, so that water and electricity payments by residents fund water and electricity infrastructure, instead of those payments cross subsiding wasteful spending leaving water pipes to fail and power lines to collapse.
• Undo the backtrack on breaking Eskom’s monopoly. The privatization of parts of Eskom’s grid, under the unbundling, was a very positive move to stabilize electricity supply, but Minister Ramokgopa’s backtrack on this must be stopped by the President.

These reforms are essential to set South Africa’s economy on a path to create jobs and prosperity.

The DA is a committed part of the GNU to rescue South Africa from 30 years of one-party failures and service collapse, and to be the bulwark against a disastrous EFF/MK coalition government – a Doomsday Scenario for our country.

The DA is also in the GNU to fight corruption from the inside. Much corruption cannot even be seen from the outside, and only inside the GNU can the DA truly uncover and stop corruption.

The GNU is making real progress. Signs and indicators point in the right direction:

• Currency strength
• Off the grey list
• ⁠Inflation is down
• ⁠Investment is promising
• ⁠Government debt is stabilising

But there is much more needed from the President on Thursday to unlock the real potential of this economy.

And finally, the DA holds a very serious expectation that the President will not announce any of the job-killing and destructive programmes which have been on the table from the ANC, but against which the DA strongly objects. These include the NHI and Transformation Fund.