Overview
- In a national message, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged South Africans to work together, acknowledging persistent unemployment, poverty, inequality, crime, and gender-based violence.
- He cited easing inflation, a stronger rand, and the first sovereign credit-rating upgrade in nearly two decades as signs of a recovering economy.
- Ramaphosa reported steadier Eskom performance with months without load shedding and confirmed more than R1 trillion budgeted over three years for transport, energy, water, rail, and port infrastructure.
- Youth employment remained a priority through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention, and the private-sector-backed Youth Employment Service, which has created over 200,000 work-experience opportunities.
- Rooting out corruption was described as the overriding priority, with billions recovered by the SIU and AFU, specialised task teams targeting illegal mining and infrastructure crimes, planned policing reforms informed by the Madlanga Commission, and ongoing National Dialogue efforts following South Africa’s profile-boosting G20 host role.