Pressure on Ramaphosa to take action on corruption
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa is under pressure from opposition parties and civil society to outline steps to be taken against corruption when he delivers his State of the Nation Address tonight.
Political parties and civil society said yesterday that although the government had other failings that needed to be addressed, a crackdown on corruption should be at the top of Ramaphosa’s agenda in his address.
They said officials and top politicians implicated in corruption at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture should be arrested, and the politicians axed from Cabinet.
Warning that the economy was in bad shape, the DA, National Freedom Party, Cope and the African Christian Democratic Party said Ramaphosa must come up with a plan to turn it around.
While the president is expected to deliver an economic blueprint for the future, he is also expected to announce the date for the national elections. Last week, the Independent Electoral Commission said the date for the polls would be announced this month.
In addition, Ramaphosa is expected to outline a plan to turn around the struggling state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Eskom has a debt of R419 billion, SAA needs R21.7bn to stay afloat for the next two years, and the SABC needs a bailout of R3bn.
Regarding SOEs, Ramaphosa is expected to announce the unbundling of Eskom after a task team recommended that it be split into three entities, one dealing with generation, another distribution, and the third transmission.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane said SOEs were bleeding the state dry through receiving billions of rand in bailouts.
The government had issued guarantees amounting to R670bn to SOEs.
Maimane said 9 million people were without jobs, and urged Ramaphosa to find solutions to the crisis.
ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe said Ramaphosa had been under pressure from the public to act on corruption and he should do so now.
“There was pressure from the public (saying) that the commissions of inquiry are a waste of time. We are not going to take the president seriously unless he arrests ANC politicians involved in corruption,” said Meshoe.
Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem said the economy was in a dire state, adding that the president should deal with corruption, which appeared to have spread across all government departments.
Dirk Kotze, head of politics at Unisa, said Ramaphosa had to address the state of the economy, and focus on ramping up service delivery.
The economy has been projected to grow at about 1.3% this year.
Ramaphosa should find ways to fix the ailing SOEs, and progress needed to be made in finding equity partners for some of them, including SAA.