South Africans are taking their power supply into their own hands with backup systems that don’t rely on power utility Eskom.
Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The challenge to deliver a persuasive speech comes firstly in the context of intense doubts as to whether President Ramaphosa is truly in charge of the ANC.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech failed to inspire confidence.
EFE-EPA/ANC handout
President Jacob Zuma shouldn’t be allowed to detract from the momentum that Cyril Ramaphosa, the new president of the ruling ANC, has started to build.
President Jacob Zuma during his 2017 state of the nation address to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
President Zuma’s speech is historically meaningless in that it is not a milestone of any professed historical mission.
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is president of the country as well as the African National Congress. He is under pressure on all fronts.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
It is unlikely President Zuma will announce a structural changes in his State of the Nation Address. This, despite education being in dire need of fundamental restructuring and an economy in decline.
Environmental activists demand a fair climate change deal outside the United Nations Climate Change conference in South Africa recently.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
The 2016 State of the Nation Address provides President Zuma with the ideal opportunity to be statesman-like. That would require bold action of his part, something that he is unlikely to do.
Chair of the Board of Trustees and Head of African Futures & Innovation at the Institute for Security Studies. Extraordinary Professor in the Centre of Human Rights, University of Pretoria