Cape Town – There has been mixed reaction to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech at the official opening of Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday, 18 July.
Members of Ramaphosa’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and his Cabinet were predictably more receptive, with Minister of Sport and Culture Gayton McKenzie, the leader of GNU member Patriotic Alliance, labelling it as “one of the best speeches by the President”, adding that “the GNU is going to fly”.
“And I can tell you, we have our ducks in a row. When he said South Africa is going to look like a construction site, I nearly stood up and clapped, I’m very excited,” he was quoted by IOL as saying.
DA leader and Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, was more muted in his response, telling eNCA the President had touched on all the key points.
On the vexing issue of the National Health Insurance (NHI), which the DA has slammed in the past, Steenhuisen said he was sure the parties would ‘find one another’.
“I am confident that we can find each other. We all want the same thing. There is just disagreement on the best model to get there, and there are elements of the NHI that are good but there are elements we also disagree with. We seek to refine those so that we can begin the rollout of fixing primary healthcare facilities.”
Freedom Front Plus leader Corne Mulder told SABC that Ramaphosa made the right commitments in relation to job creation and growing the economy.
The leader of Rise Mzansi, Songezo Zibi, said the GNU must act with speed: “We need action, urgency, change of thinking and change of attitude from the executive.”
Opposition reaction
Reaction from the Opposition camp was not as soft-hitting or complimentary.
“This was a waste of state resources, because there was nothing new that the President had said,” said Julius Malema, the leader of the EFF, now the fourth-biggest party in Parliament.
“It’s very clear that the president has got no plan to transform South Africa for the better –nothing about international relations, because that is a point of disagreement for this GNU – nothing about the judiciary, and nothing about the land,” he added.
Former judge John Hlophe, now the parliamentary leader of Jacob Zuma’s MK party, SA’s third-biggest party after the elections on 28 May, said the GNU was a desperate attempt by the ANC to retain power.
“That’s what it’s all about and everybody is excited because of the bluelight brigade. We are truthful to our voters, we said all along that we are not going to part of an ANC that is led by Cyril Ramaphosa. For that reason we have nothing to do with the GNU,” he said.
“The speech was appalling to say the least. It is very clearly the president did not prepare the speech himself. If anything, it is the parties in the GNU, my guess is that it was prepared by DA members,” he told IOL.
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