Ramaphosa unable to push through reform agenda - economist

All eyes will be on President Cyril Ramaphosa this evening as he delivers his State of the Nation Address, the final SONA, before the country heads to the polls later this year. 

The annual address, meant to list the achievements of the government over the past 12 months and set out the plans for the next year, comes as the country marks 30 years of democracy.

It also comes as the country faces a myriad of issues, including high unemployment, slugging economic growth, crime and crumbling infrastructure. 

Krugel said while Ramaphosa is not solely to blame for the country's economic failures, he is responsible for the slow pace of economic reforms.

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"The president prefers consensus, task teams and centralising more decision making within the presidency, and he has been unable to crack the whip over ministers who should be moving much faster with reform agenda.”

Krugel said the growing number of retrenchments has also now been added to the president’s list of concerns. 

"He has appealed to companies to stay this process, but when you are facing rising costs and declining profits, often the only way to stay viable is through retrenchments.”

He said Ramaphosa's administration’s economic record is a bit hit and miss. 

"The main ones are the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought the economy to a complete standstill and the crisis of load shedding and logistics compounded that. As a consequence, the economy is very stagnant with very slow growth predicted."