This year’s State of The Nation Address focused on inclusive economic growth and implementing solutions that can be tracked for results. The South African youth seems to be at the top of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s priority list and an inception of hope for a bright future for the country is evident. On the 13th February 2020, South Africa waited in anticipation for the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Updates on progress from strategies announced in the previous year and solutions to current crisis that the country is facing were high priority on our lists however, South African citizens were equally excited to hear about the opportunities that would foster an inclusive economy.

Load shedding has been an issue that has needed attention for the past couple of years and even though the president still hasn’t given a clear solution on how to prevent the power outages, he has provided high level strategies in an effort to manage the situation. A Section 34 Ministerial Determination will be issued shortly to give effect to the Integrated Resource Plan 2019, enabling the development of additional grid capacity from renewable energy, natural gas, hydro power, battery storage and coal. Supplementary power purchase agreements will be negotiated in order to acquire additional capacity from existing wind and solar plants. Measures will be put in place to enable municipalities in good financial standing to procure their own power from independent power producers. The president also announced that Eskom has started the process of divisionalising its’ three operating activities into generation, transmission and distribution.

There has been no economic growth for the past ten years, youth unemployment is at an all-time high and government is yet to reach a consensus on an economic recovery plan.  However, we see progress where our youth has more access to education with 81% of learners passing matric and 720 000 students being awarded funding for TVET colleges and universities in 2019.  2.4 million Children are said to be enrolled in early childhood development and pre-school. 1200 Medical doctors have graduated from the Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro Medical School in Cuba and a further 640 students are due to graduate in the year 2020. In addition to the milestones mentioned, a further 9 TVET college campuses will be built while coding and robotics will be introduced to students from grade R to grade 3 in 200 schools.

This year’s State of The Nation Address focused on inclusive economic growth and implementing solutions that can be tracked for results. The South African youth seems to be at the top of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s priority list and an inception of hope for a bright future for the country is evident. On the 13th February 2020, South Africa waited in anticipation for the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Updates on progress from strategies announced in the previous year and solutions to current crisis that the country is facing were high priority on our lists however, South African citizens were equally excited to hear about the opportunities that would foster an inclusive economy.

Entrepreneurs were encouraged by the news that they’ll have more opportunities to trade as the company registration process will take 1 day through the Bizport platform. Acquiring a water licence can now take 90 days. The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), will provide funding to 1000 young entrepreneurs in the next 100 days. The SheTradesZA platform will be rolled out to assist women-owned businesses to participate in global value chains and markets. Further to this, South Africa was announced as the new chair of the AU and will host the Free Trade Agreement Summit this year, which further presents intercontinental trade opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

A sovereign wealth fund has been developed in an effort to preserve and grow the endowment of the nation. The government is also proceeding with its plan to establish a state bank promising to extend access to financial services for all South Africans. State owned enterprises will be rationalised to serve strategic, economic or developmental purposes. R1.4 Billion will be invested into modernising the PRASA rail network.