President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared Friday, December 15, a public holiday.
Ramaphosa said he understood that people wanted to celebrate the Springbok World Cup victory immediately but because of a complex situation and the start of the matric exams, that could not be done.
“I know that many of us want us to have a holiday now to celebrate. But we should all agree that we should give our matriculants time to focus on their exams and celebrate afterwards.
“In celebration of the Springbok’s momentous achievement, and the achievements of all our sports men and women, and as a tribute to the resolve of our united nation, I am declaring Friday, the 15th of December 2023, as a public holiday.”
“We declare this to be the day of hope, a day of celebration and unity. Our sportsmen and women have shown us what is possible. We will succeed and we will ensure that, we leave no one behind,” he said.
Ramaphosa, who returned from the Rugby World Cup in Brazil on Sunday, addressed the nation on the significance of the Springbok victory as well as other issues affecting the country.
Ramaphosa said the SAPS Infrastructure Task Teams had been unleashed to protect the country’s dilapidating infrastructure from criminals and construction Mafias.
“The South African Police Service has established 20 Economic Infrastructure Task Teams throughout the country to protect critical infrastructure and tackle the ‘construction Mafia’. We are seeing results in arrests for illegal mining, cash-in-transit hikes, cable theft, drug smuggling and similar crimes,“ he said.
In what appears to be some kind of electioneering, Ramaphosa also used the speech to indicate that more than two million new jobs were created in the past two years, returning unemployment levels to pre-Covid numbers.
“As we reflect on these achievements, we must also reflect on the recovery of our economy and the further steps that we are taking to revive our economic growth and improve the lives of our people. As the latest census figures show, we have achieved great feats of achievement and human development since the beginning of democracy. Millions of South Africans, have been raised out of poverty,” he said.
Ahead of the address to the nation, the EFF criticised Ramaphosa for granting his address to eNCA instead of the SABC as the country’s public broadcaster.
On Sunday, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya, announced that the president would be addressing the nation via eNCA, which was given the privilege to broadcast the address while the SABC, a known public broadcaster and other government-affiliated media platforms, are set to receive the feed from eNCA.
The EFF described this move as “callous” and representative of “capture” and a sign of how Ramaphosa seemed to advance private interests at the expense of his mandate to advance public interests.
“In a decision that represents the capture of the presidency of SA, of Cyril Ramaphosa as a person and a president, and a nefarious relationship between eNCA and the state … the decision is callous, arrogant and representative of a reciprocal relationship between eNCA and Cyril Ramaphosa.”
“The EFF is of the firm belief that this is a reward and promotion of a private broadcaster that is embedded, and is backed by the funders of Cyril Ramaphosa,” the party said.