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By Kekeletso Nakeli

Columnist


Sona has really become a showpiece

These political parties speak; but their words do not translate to anything tangible.


The Democratic Alliance (DA) hosted the Tsona, the national government is hosting the Sona. There seems to be parallel governance in the country.

We’ve always seen this, from the way in which the Western Cape is considered a separate country to the rest of SA. And now, we have a state of the nation addresses, done in multiples. One done as tradition and the other done as cheap politicking.

In the middle of it all, a population that is disillusioned and hopeless. While the games are being played, the one does the bare minimum and the other wants to pull political stunts.

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The ANC may be dismally out of touch with its youth, but this still does not absolve the youth from being invested in its health.

The Economic Freedom Fighters uses the youth as foot soldiers to walk the streets as a loud voice on its mandate – and still the youth remain largely unemployed. I, for one, cannot recall or think of what the DA’s vision is for the youth.

These political parties speak; but their words do not translate to anything tangible. The State of the Nation Address has really become a showpiece.

More abhorrent is the money allocated to this do, where members of parliament break the bank at their tailors and dressmakers, where makeup artists make enough money to catch up on unpaid rent.

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It is a beauty extravaganza, that the public watch and hope that in its delivery, a spark of hope of better days will be mentioned and that our governing leaders will release us from the monotony of the struggle.

But every year we are disappointed. Political parties no longer give hope. The hope that we have is placed in civil organisations who have the funds and resources to confront the nature of hopeless we now find ourselves in.

The quagmire of living in SA in 2023 is that you see the nation on its way to a failed state, with capital resources that can avert this discourse; but greed by those in power sends us straight to the iceberg.

Yet, yearly, we must gather and listen to the lies of a better tomorrow; and yet they somehow believe that we remain dense enough to keep believing this? This government exhausts me!

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