SONA 2025 Preview: Successes, Shifts, and the Path Ahead

On Thursday, 6 February 2025 at 7pm, President Cyril Ramaphosa will present his State of the Nation Address from the Cape Town City Hall.
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“We’re expecting this year’s tone to be more positive as we move further away from problems present during the 2023 and 2024 SONAs,” says Roxanna Naidoo, Head of Global Strategy at Latita Africa.

These are the topics she feels are more likely to be the highlights of the address.

GNU
Obviously, with the Government of National Unity serving its first term, the SONA is the ideal platform to spotlight both its success as a multiparty coalition and its achievements since it came into power. “It’s likely the GNU will feature strongly in the introduction with references to it peppered throughout the speech to expand public support,” says Naidoo.

Energy security
While 2023’s SONA described the need and plan to end load shedding, the 2024 SONA was more optimistic, with work towards solving the crisis nearing completion. In 2025, load shedding is almost a distant memory with only a small risk of returning. “The President will probably frame this as a resounding success, assuring the achievement of other energy projects, such as the Just Energy Transition, and private energy investments and developments,” says Naidoo.

TransNet
A key problem area in the last two SONAs, TransNet is expected to turn a profit in 2025. However, this will reportedly arise from it selling off some of its property. “I think South Africans are more interested in whether or not TransNet can reliably deliver critical services for business, and we are expecting the President to share progress on its operational rehabilitation,” says Naidoo.

Global leadership
South Africa’s G20 presidency, its pioneering role in BRICS and the organisation’s continuing expansion, as well as its hosting of the G20 summit later this year, promise to project the country as a capable world leader. “This gives us the opportunity to shape global policy while promoting South Africa’s reputation on the international stage, and the President is sure to touch on how this will benefit the nation,” says Naidoo.

The usual suspects
Concerns like economic growth, water security, corruption, crime and gender-based violence have also featured heavily in the two previous SONAs, and remain far from resolved. Although the President will probably highlight the jump in the matric pass rate from 80.1% (2022) to 87.3% (2024), youth unemployment is still a major issue. So is unemployment in general, poverty and the struggle to create jobs faster than workers enter the market. “Although we aren’t expecting any sudden leaps forward in progress on these issues, we’re at least hoping for encouraging improvements,” says Naidoo.

Cautious optimism?
SONA 2025 should be more celebratory than previous years, without marginalising the work that still needs to be done to secure economic growth and equity, political and social stability, foreign investment, and other imperatives.
“That said, we’re seeing further tectonic shifts in the world order and this could lead the President to be more cautiously optimistic in his outlook for 2025,” says Naidoo.
 
ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, [email protected], 082 573 9219, www.atthatpoint.co.za 
 
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