SONA

What About the Women?

Monday 22 February, 2016 - 12:47

The 2016 State of the Nation Address (SONA) yielded no surprises when President Jacob Zuma failed to single out South African women as a vulnerable group, much less present reforms constructed to address injustices against women.

The SONA is meant to set out the government’s key policy objectives and deliverables for the year ahead, which is the basis for executive action during that calendar year. These objectives inform budget allocation and service delivery and they should affect the realisation of women's rights and impact on their social and economic position.

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SONA

governance

SONA 2016: Will Government 'Do Things Differently'?

Wednesday 17 February, 2016 - 12:52

And so South Africa has seen yet another state of the nation address (SONA) come and go. Since the violent eviction of members of Parliament (MPs) and signal-jamming last year, SONA will never be the same.

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politics

South Africans Want Zuma to Create Jobs

Tuesday 17 June, 2014 - 11:47

South Africans want President Jacob Zuma to focus on job creation in his State of the Nation Address.

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos, 90 percent of respondents believe unemployment is serious and need to be dealt with urgently.

Sixty-one percent of the people questioned felt the government is not doing well in reducing unemployment by creating jobs, while 61 percent of the people feel the government is not doing well in reducing unemployment by creating jobs.

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SONA 2017 – The Silver Lining

On 9th February 2017 President Zuma will deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA). We expect that media coverage and public debates around the address will focus on the failures of the government and the challenges confronting our country. Regular readers of our reports and users of our briefing services will know just how serious those challenges are. However, those readers will also know that a lot has gone right in South Africa and that the successes we have achieved as a society are often overlooked.

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SONA: What President Zuma Needs to Tell SA

Wednesday 10 February, 2016 - 13:15

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma will give his 2016 State of the Nation Address on February 11 to outline key government business for the year ahead. The event will be keenly watched to establish what the president and the governing African National Congress consider to be the most important challenges facing the country, and how they plan to tackle them. Politics and society editor Thabo Leshilo asks three political scientists what to expect.

What are the most important issues the president should be addressing?

Andre Duvenhage:

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Call for Zuma to Focus on ‘Big Five’

Thursday 14 February, 2013 - 11:52

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) expects job creation to be one of the top priorities addressed in President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation speech.

COSATU spokesperson, Patrick Craven, points out that the federation expects Zuma to base his speech on jobs, education, health, crime and corruption and rural development.

"On decent work, we hope to hear that progress is being made on the decent work agenda, particularly in the light of last week's grim figures from Statistics SA on employment," he explains.