Ramaphosa’s 2026 SONA was polished, but we’ve heard this song before

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2026 State of the Nation Address was confident in tone and expansive in scope. 

It painted a picture of a country turning a corner after years of crisis, with economic recovery underway, crime being confronted and local government finally facing reform. On paper, it was reassuring. 

For many South Africans, however,  it also felt deeply familiar.

The President’s strongest claim was that the economy is back on track. 

He cited four quarters of growth, falling inflation, lower interest rates, improved credit ratings and the end of load shedding. These are significant achievements. Fiscal discipline and energy stability and the work done through Operation Vulindlela has removed some long-standing blockages.

Yet economic recovery in South Africa has a credibility problem. 

Millions of people remain unemployed - particularly the youth. Most new work has come through public employment schemes that offer short-term relief rather than lasting security. Infrastructure spending promises have featured in successive SONAs, but communities still wait for functioning roads, rail and water systems. 

On crime and corruption, Ramaphosa struck a harder note.

Organised crime was described as the most immediate threat to democracy. He announced SANDF deployments to gang infested areas in Cape Town and Gauteng, new task teams, lifestyle audits, procurement reform and stronger whistle-blower protection. 

South Africans have heard this before. Commissions of inquiry have exposed corruption in painful detail but there has been not one conviction or person has been jailed for wrongdoing. 

Promises of zero tolerance lose meaning when senior figures escape accountability. Until consequences are visible and consistent, there will be no public trust.

The most striking part of the speech was the section on local government and basic services. 

Here, the President was unusually frank.

He acknowledged that water shortages, failing municipalities and collapsing infrastructure stem from poor planning, neglect and patronage. He promised a revised White Paper on Local Government, differentiated municipal powers and criminal charges against officials who fail to deliver water.

This is where the real fault line lies.

Local government is the very reason the ANC lost its majority at the last general election. It is at local government where cadre deployment has hollowed out technical capacity and where communities experience the state as absent or hostile.

Ramaphosa is right. Reforms are necessary and they are also long overdue. But warnings from the Auditor-General on these very issues have been ignored for years.

A confident Ramaphosa said all the right things on Thursday night but too many of his promises echo earlier speeches that did not translate into change.

Mr President, South Africans are not short of plans. We are short of results. 

IOL Opinion

** Lee Rondganger is the deputy editor of IOL.