“All of his solutions are long term and slow when South Africa needs urgent change now,” DA leader Mmusi Maimane said on Saturday in a statement shortly after Ramaphosa’s address.
Ramaphosa delivered the party’s annual 8 January statement to thousands of ruling African National Congress party’s supporters who gathered at the capacity filled Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday.
Maimane said Ramaphosa’s delivery was “full of more empty promises”, adding that he offered no leadership on how the country could come together and build “One South Africa for All,” the DA’s new slogan for the upcoming campaign in May 2019.
Maimane added that Ramaphosa had made no mention of how the party would deal with the fighting of the access to job opportunities unfairly by those who were “connected”.
He added: “On education, the president spoke of teaching young children coding and the ‘internet of things’, while 78 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read for meaning, and children are dying in school pit latrines.
The president is totally out of touch with the real problems our country faces.
“What is clear is that President Ramaphosa is Mr Delay rather than Mr Deliver, as he hides his inability to take action on any issue behind endless talk shops and summits. He is simply not able to make a clean break from the corrupt ANC that brought our country to the brink of a failed state.
“But more crucially, he cannot introduce the bold reform our economy needs to create jobs and access to opportunity.”
During his address, Ramaphosa among other issues, acknowledged that state capture and corruption have “weakened” some public institutions, “undermined effective governance and contributed to the poor performance of our country”.
However, Maimane said Ramaphosa had no plan on how to tackle corruption urgently.