KwaZulu-Natal residents have expressed mixed views about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address on Thursday.
While some say Ramaphosa’s speech was not convincing, others say there is hope that government will resolve the country’s energy crisis.
The current rolling blackouts remain the biggest challenge.
Ramaphosa spent a considerable amount of time in his address detailing government’s plan to resolve the power crisis.
On the ground, people were not entirely convinced the plan will bring about change and soon.
“He is repeating his last SONA address. We would like problems to be solved and disasters to be managed in a short way. Accountability should be held for those in power (sic),” a resident said.
“I actually have no hope in the leadership. They have found another revenue to distribute more money into their pockets. Why would you have a new electricity minister?” asked another resident.
“He keeps on promising that he’s going to do better but everything is getting worse now,” another resident explains.
Some residents expressed optimism at the announcement of the National State of Disaster.
“We hope that something will come out of that but after all, I think there’s still hope,” another resident said.
However, many South Africans were left in the dark.
“There’s no cellphone signal where I stay and we had load shedding last night so I couldn’t listen to the president speech,” a resident explains.
Parts of the province have experienced ongoing water shortages. The Ethekwini municipality is amongst worst affected.
In light of this the President announced more water projects to increase capacity for the Hazelmere Dam.
The president also announced that constructions of 24 bridges are currently underway in Kwazulu-Natal, with a further 24 on the cards.
Post-SONA 2023 analysis | Prof Dirk Kotze & Dr Nthabiseng Moleko:
