Former president Jacob Zuma’s party, uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) has strongly rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA), calling it an insult to South Africans.
The party claims Ramaphosa’s speech is an attempt to mislead the public with what they called blatant lies, contradictions and unrealistic promises that lacked financial backing.
Ramaphosa outlined the Government of National Unity’s (GNU) priorities for the first time since its establishment during a speech on Thursday night in Cape Town City Hall, following the 2024 general elections.
MK Party national spokesperson, Nhlamulo Ndhlela pointed to Ramaphosa’s 2024 claims that the government had created "millions" of jobs through various stimulus programs, yet in his 2025 address, he offered no update on these promised job creation efforts.
“Why? Because unemployment remains rampant, and those “millions of jobs" were nothing but short-term, unsustainable placements meant to deceive the public ahead of the elections,” Ndhlela said.
He further criticised Ramaphosa for not addressing the ongoing unemployment crisis, which the MK Party claimed had reached an extended rate of 42%, leaving many job seekers in dire straits.
However, the current unemployment rate is currently sitting at 32.1%.
Ndhlela also took aim at Ramaphosa’s statements about the stabilising of state-owned power utility Eskom, especially after he said South Africa’s had enjoyed "300 days without load shedding".
According to Ndhlela, this is a misleading claim, “South Africans continue to experience power outages, disguised as 'load reduction', a bogus term used to mask the ongoing crisis".
In addition, Ndhlela expressed skepticism about Ramaphosa’s remarks on securing R940 billion in infrastructure investment over the next three years, calling it “pure fantasy".
He questioned where the funding would come from, saying: “South Africa is already drowning in debt, and the government is struggling to pay civil servants.”
Ndhlela also voiced concern about the conditions of municipal infrastructure, which he said is insufficient to deliver essential services such as water, electricity and sanitation to communities.
“Yet Ramaphosa wants to privatise water and electricity by introducing entities which will be privatised through loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, camouflaged as grants,” he added.
Ndhlela criticised Ramaphosa’s talk of expanding housing in city centres, pointing out that the government failed to address longstanding housing blockages.
“The very same government he leads has failed to deliver on housing backlogs for decades, including the one million houses promised to the people of Alexandra.”
According to Ndhlela, the government's spending on human settlements exacerbated the housing crisis.
“Ramaphosa said the only 'expansion' that has occurred is more people being forced into informal settlements due to rising costs, mass retrenchments and government corruption siphoning off funds meant for public housing.”
Ndhlela said while South Africa’s population have increased by about 1.3% in recent years under Ramaphosa’s administration, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person has declined by 0.7%, indicating that South Africans are becoming increasingly poorer.
He said Ramaphosa's 2025 SONA is an insult to the intelligence of South Africans.
“His government has presided over economic collapse, mass job losses and declining public services."
Ndhlela accused Ramaphosa of avoiding responsibility for economic challenges and public service failures, accusing him of distracting the public with empty promises.
“He refers to the digitisation of the citizen identification (ID) with gusto, as their aim is to introduce electronic voting systems that will allow them to further seamlessly rig and tamper with elections IT systems.”
Ndhlela called on South Africa to reject what he described as the government that has failed at every turn.
“We will continue fighting for real economic transformation and policies that serve the people - not the interests of corrupt elites and foreign powers,” he added.
IOL Politics