Politicians had mixed reactions to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2025. It was also his first SONA under the Government of National Unity (GNU).

His SONA was met with a mix of disappointment and praise.

The EFF and MK Party in the City Hall ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SONA). | Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers

1. EFF leader Julius Malema

Malema criticised Ramaphosa’s SONA dismissing it as “nothing but waffle and empty words”.

“There is no plan. The president doesn’t account for what he said before this State of the Nation Address. The previous one was ‘Tintswalo,’ the other one was ‘Thuma Mina,’” Malema said.

He claimed Ramaphosa’s address lacked accountability.

“He uses this platform to just come and waffle,” he said.

The MK Party made a grand entrance at the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2025 at the Cape Town City Hall. | Ian Landsberg/ Independent Newspapers

2. MK Party leader Dr John Hlophe

Hlophe described Ramaphosa’s SONA as “hugely disappointing” and “not inspiring”.

“No attempts whatsoever are being made by the government of Cyril Ramaphosa to eradicate racism. It’s 30 years in the making,” Hlophe criticised.

“It’s the black people who are the victims of racism in this country.”

3. Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi

Zibi said Ramaphosa needed to mention each of the fallen soldiers, killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by name.

“I think it was really important because for decades South Africans, since the arms deal, have not really cared much about the military. It’s under-resourced, there are leadership problems, governance problems and it's an enormous sacrifice that the soldiers make when they go on these missions, so I thought it was really good,” Zibi said.

“Overall I thought it was a really good speech….”

4. MK Party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela

Ndhlela described Ramaphosa’s SONA as a “disaster”.

“The speech is a disaster. He talks about local municipalities. What he is doing, he is privatising water and electricity. He is setting up entities and we have spoken out about this because we could see this was another way of privatising water and electricity by introducing grants to fund these entities. Meanwhile, these are actually loans from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank.”

5. DA leader John Steenhuisen

Steenhuisen approved of Ramaphosa’s commitment to tackling economic growth and job creation. But also called for swift action to ensure the successes materialise before the next election cycle.

“We recognise the good work that’s been done and we are particularly encouraged to hear about plans to turn the economy around,” Steenhuisen said.

6. Fadiel Adams of the National Coloured Congress

Adams said: “We are very disappointed and we've got a feeling it's only going to be worse.”

7. ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe

Meshoe pointed out that Ramaphosa, who is accused of hiding millions of US dollars at his Phala Phala farm has no moral authority to pronounce himself as the champion of corruption when he has not answered for his Phala Phala farm scandal, in which more than 4 million USD was stolen from his farm.

“The speech was a mixed bag. I think he was embarrassed about how he is opposed to corruption. For as long as he has not come clean regarding the 4 million USD that were found on his farm, people will not trust him. I will not trust him. I do not trust him when he says he will fight corruption. Corruption will continue to be a challenge in South Africa until the President comes clean,” Meshoe said.

8. GOOD Party’s Brett Herron

Herron said he thought the speech was “optimistic and hopeful”.

“Out of the eight or nine that he’s delivered, probably the most detailed in terms of the economic recovery and how we achieve it, how we are addressing the obstacles to economic growth in our country,” Herron said.

He said the strong focus on the economy was welcomed, and the detail in which the president unpacked the different sectors that would play a role in growing the economy, what the obstacles were to those sectors contributed to economic growth and how they were going to remove those obstacles is encouraging.

9. MK Party’s Papa Penny

Papa Penny said: “It’s empty promises to our people.”

“He’s lying. He never named where they are going to build the school, because he’s lying.”

10. ATM leader Vuyolwethu Zungula

Zungula said the SONA did not move the ATM.

“We need to ask hard questions. And the biggest question we need to ask is to say, what is the state of our country? What are the people in the villages, in the township saying about the state of the country? Are they happy living in poverty, in unemployment, or they’ve basically given up? They do not even hope.”

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za