The annual State of the Nation Address (SoNA) was presented by President Jacob Zuma to Parliament on the 11 February 2016. The theme was: “Following up on our commitments to the people”. A key focus of concern to all South Africans is the lower economic growth currently being experienced. President Zuma acknowledged that the “International Monetary Fund and the World Bank predict that the South African economy will grow by less than 1% this year. The outcomes and outlook suggest that revenue collection will be lower than previously expected.”

Poor global growth, the contraction of the economies of South Africa’s key partners in BRICS, Brazil and Russia, slower growth in china, the prices of gold, platinum, coal and other minerals, electricity constraints and unstable industrial relations all have contributed to this situation.

Consequently, these factors have a negative impact on the government’s ability to continue to implement projects specified in the National Development Plan, which are pivotal to South Africa’s socio economic growth.

President Zuma announced a number of initiatives to counter this poor economic growth. These include the:

• Marketing of the country as a preferred destination for investments.
• Development of a One Stop Shop/Invest SA initiative aimed at removing red tape and reviewing any legislative and regulatory blockages to investment.
• Establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Investment Promotion
• Phasing out of underperforming and irrelevant state-owned companies (SOCs) as well as the monitoring and evaluation of SOC key projects identified.
• Promotion of domestic tourism by SA Tourism
• Adjustment of the migration policy in order to import scarce skills.
• Establishment of the department of Small Business Development to provide support to small business.
• Launch of the Black Industrialists Scheme to promote the participation of black entrepreneurs in manufacturing.
• Establishment of a centre of excellence for financial services and leadership training by the Banking Association of South Africa
• Curtailment of overseas trips and those requesting permission will have to motivate strongly and prove the benefit to the country. The sizes of delegations will be greatly reduced and standardised.
• Restrictions on conferences, catering, entertainment and social functions.
• Budget vote dinners to no longer take place.
• Evaluation of the need to maintain two capitals; Pretoria as the administrative one and Cape Town as the legislative capital.
• Renewal and expansion of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides a platform for the enhancement of industrialisation and regional integration. All outstanding issues around AGOA are being attended to.

President Zuma also reported on the progress of the Nine-Point Plan presented in SoNA 2015. Many of these initiatives, which are aimed at transformation of the South African economy, are still ongoing, they include:

• Stabilisation of the electricity supply through private public partnerships
• Progress in investments in the manufacturing sectors especially textiles, leather and the automotive sectors through incentives
• Agri-Parks Programme aimed at increasing the participation of small holder farmers in agricultural activities.
• Progress in the lodging of land claims for people who missed the 1998 deadline
• Building of water infrastructure which is critical for additional water supply
• Agreement on the principle of a national minimum wage
• The creation of a Sovereign Innovation fund, a Public-Private funding partnership aimed at commercialising innovations that are from ideas from the public and the private sectors.
• Establishment of State-owned pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela that will supply anti-retroviral drugs to the Department of Health from the 2016/17 financial year.
• Back to Basics local government revitalisation plan which will have more active monitoring and accountability measures. This includes unannounced municipal visits, spot checks of supply chain management processes, the implementation of recommendations of forensic reports, site visits of Municipal Infrastructure Grant funded projects, and new wide-ranging increased interventions to assist struggling municipalities.

The nuclear energy expansion programme has been a particular point of contention. President Zuma announced that this programme would now be undertaken “on a scale and pace that our country can afford”.

The importance of Nation building was also emphasised. President Zuma said that “Human Rights Day, 21 March, will be commemorated as the national day against racism this year. It will be used to lay the foundation for a long-term programme of
building a non-racial society.”

For the full text: www.gov.za/speeche