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Highlights of the State of the Nation Address

Only eight million hectares (ha) of arable land have been transferred to black people, which is only 9.8 percent of the 82 million ha of arable land in South Africa.

There has also been a 19 percent decline in households involved in agriculture from 2.9 million in 2011 to 2.3 million households in 2016.

President Jacob Zuma says tourism is a key job driver with tourist arrival numbers for 2016 increasing to nine million.

“We are thus pleased that our tourist arrival numbers for the period January to November 2016 increased to nine million, an increase of just over one million arrivals from 2015,” the President said during his State of the Nation Address.

This represents a 13 percent growth in tourist arrivals, the President said.

With President Jacob Zuma making bold announcements on radical economic transformation in his State of the Nation Address, Ministers believe the interventions are a call to action for government to make the economy inclusive.

Starting from August 2017, South Africa will chair the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and use its tenure to fast-track the implementation of the SADC Industrial Strategy.

 The country is accelerating the integration agenda through the implementation of the SADC-Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa-East African Community Free Trade Area.

President Jacob Zuma delivered the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday, 9 February 2017.

The President mentioned that in this 23rd year of freedom, government’s mission remained the quest for a united, democratic, non-sexist, non-racial and prosperous South Africa.

On 21 March, our nation will again observe Human Rights Day – a day on which we normally focus on the many rights enshrined in our Constitution; rights that did not exist when the apartheid regime perpetrated the Sharpeville Massacre of anti-pass law protesters on March 21, 1960.

During the State of the Nation Address (SoNA), President Jacob Zuma announced that the state will increase its power to use the Expropriation Act to pursue land reform and land redistribution, in line with the Constitution.

“It will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve true reconciliation until the land question is resolved.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that the national minimum wage has been set at R20 per hour or R3 500 a month for those who work a 40-hour week.

Those who work a 45-hour week will have their minimum wage set at R3 900.

President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the National Address (SoNA) at a time when the economy is not growing fast enough to create much-needed jobs. Despite this, the President delivered a speech that gave a positive outlook on the country’s future.

When Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks arrived at the Dunoon Primary to hand over a new cyber lab, 9 year-old Milani Mthandeki grabbed her new tablet, switched it on and browsed through the content in a matter of seconds.