Sona contained nothing substantial

I LISTENED to our president’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Thursday as he went on and on, reading and ticking all the right boxes from his wish list to his to-do list.

He spoke about all the wonderful things his speechwriters wrote for him, which more or less were the same platitudes for the past couple of years and regurgitated others that were even older.

By the time he finished I was practically in tears. He was telling us what he would do on some future date like it was a pre-election speech full of promises.

I was expecting to hear what he has done since he took office. But due to the vast disconnect between reality, the ANC’s lies and the grandscale looting, little was done and there were hardly improvements, with our shocking moribund economy, corruption levels and unemployment hitting new records and crime going through the roof. State-owned entities are terminally ill and sinking the country.

Compare Cyril Ramaphosa with US President Donald Trump, who is not my most favourite person in the world, but who, during his State of the Union Address, said: “Tonight I stand before you to share incredible results that we have achieved. Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging and our country is thriving and highly respected again. I promised you before I took office to make America great again and here we are.”

That’s the difference between Trump and our president with all he has delivered. It has been dreams, spin, sugar-coated bitter pills and fairy tales.