De Beer: “Defeated” Cyril’s “disaster” SONA & the comeback of his “worst nemesis” Zuma 

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A “defeated” President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a “disaster” State of the Nation Address (SONA)  as his “worst nemesis” former President Jacob Zuma is staging a spectacular comeback. Neil De Beer, the president of the United Independent Movement (UIM), a party in the Multi-Party Charter (MPC), dissects the SONA for BizNews. He also lambasts the “outgoing” President for lying about corruption and load-shedding, and labels him a “very sad individual” and a “coward” who is living in “La La Cuckoo Land”. De Beer warns that Ramaphosa will have to call the national election earlier rather than later “because he cannot keep the country together” – and “every day he doesn’t call the date, MK is growing…” Moreover, he thinks Ramaphosa – who once called the Multi-Party Charter “a nothing, a null on a contract – has just realised that 50 plus 1 is possible” for the MPC. – Chris Steyn

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Relevant timestamps from the interview

  • 00:00 – Introductions
  • 00:35 – One word to describe the SONA
  • 02:01 – Ramaphosa taking credit for previous presidents’ achievements
  • 03:23 – State capture
  • 05:42 – Why has the president been a disappointment to the nation?
  • 07:29 – Previous SONAs
  • 10:54 – Poverty and load-shedding
  • 13:40 – More of a campaign speech than a national address
  • 16:34 – Was the country better off under Zuma
  • 20:00 – Is Ramaphosa an impimpi?
  • 21:28 – Will the ANC go into another government
  • 27:04 – Zuma on the way up
  • 28:27 – Conclusion

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Highlights from the interview ___STEADY_PAYWALL___

The SONA:

“Absolute disaster. I…said to so many people that today this president’s going to get up and call it the State of National Apology because he owes this country an emphatic apology. And what we got was a total blank expression of acceptability, accountability…he’s actually distancing himself from taking responsibility….And he really, really was living in La La Cuckoo Land, in my opinion.

“…if you go through it and you really analyse it, he said absolutely nothing…This has become what we will known asSoekie (Looking for) Cyril’s trend of projects and programmes and commissions and committees, and he speaks in that manner of absolutely devoid to the fact that the country has collapsed when he was Vice President and now as President – and I was absolutely shocked.”

“You can see that man is defeated. Can you imagine having to stand in front of a nation, a country that bears so much legacy and history and at times was a global leader? Can you imagine having to go on stage at a SONA with nothing, actually with nothing? And you have to be written a speech to address how you’re going to go to the ballot box. But factually, you have nothing.”

Distancing himself from State Capture:

“when he spoke about State Capture – when he was directly the second most senior citizen in this country – he actually spoke it as if it’s in the third person. 

“…we had to sit for three years, 1.3 billion rand of Zondo Commission, where he declared unilaterally on record that the ANC is accused number one. He said this. Now if he said that the ANC (African National Congress) in State Capture was accused number one, then he was in charge as Number One of Accused Number One. And he didn’t say anything.

“Now, if you know how the structures work within presidencies, there is no way that that person called Cyril did not know about the Guptas, did not know about the Shaiks, did not know about State Capture. There’s no way that a vice president who has access to National Intelligence, the South African Secret Service and all of that, that he can stand in denial.

“Now this is huge alarm bells, massive red flags, no matter you’re pro or con, you have to look at this very sad individual and say to myself, that’s why you’re not a good president, you’re a coward. And not only are you a coward, you do not have the guts…to stand up and say….We made mistakes. I was the President. I was the Vice President. We take accountability and this is how we will fix it.

“And you know what he says: He will not rest until every single rand has been returned. Well, Mr. President, if you just looked off your stage to the people sitting to your right, and you look at all your people in the African National Congress, there are some of them, pardon me, that are sitting in front of you whom you also need to please send The Hawks because they, those that really took, are sitting in front of you – and he didn’t say a word.”

Read more: De Beer: How Zuma-Ace pact will hurt ANC, boost Multi-Party Charter

The myth of CR’s business acumen:

“People are not focusing to the fact that we are losing huge industry because of the absolute lack of understanding from this president and his gurus that we do not and cannot afford on a fiscal position any more red tape, we need red carpet. 

“Cyril Ramaphosa was voted in because the world thought that this man has got a business acumen, that he has the understanding of a fiscal approach. 

“So you’ve got to focus on the fact he got given shares in every company from McDonald’s to his mining entity….He got given shares. He didn’t earn it. And that’s my problem. There was a perception that this man could fiscally, business-wise, turn this country. Instead, that man decided to run state for his pocket instead of creating a pocket for the people.”

CR’s Loadshedding & Corruption “Lies”:

“…while he was standing in Cape Town City Hall telling us that he has beaten, defeated and handled load shedding…While we were hearing this absolute utter rubbish, I’m getting messages on my cell phone saying we just hit stage 3 again. And while that’s happening, they put the camera on the Minister of Electricity. I mean this man has one job. Just one job. He’s the Minister of Electricity. And while this man is clapping like a little seal, because he’s singing for his supper, we are getting messages that we’ve just gone to Load 3, Load 4, and I’m thinking to myself, Mr. President, he is the outgoing president, by the way….is that he is actually saying to us that he also stops loadshedding.

“And then he goes from that to saying that he has now stopped, stifled corruption…Corruption and loadshedding….He lied. It’s not true. 

“And the problem is that…the poorest of the poor, who can’t even understand what they’re saying at SONA, who doesn’t have the capacity to even attend SONA, is sitting today again in a shack, filled with mud, sewage running past them, no jobs, no hope, and all this man can tell us is that there’s a brighter future. What a lot of rubbish.”

Zuma’s MK:

“Jacob Zuma, is going to do tantamount damage to the ANC. There’s no doubt, and I’m predicting this, if they go on like they’re going now in KZN, in Gauteng, in Mpumalanga – clever provinces they’re going for – they are going to go over 5% of the national election. I’m telling you. 

“They have to call this election earlier. He has to make this election May or June, not July or August, because he cannot keep the country together. He can’t keep it together. And every day he doesn’t call the date, MK is growing, Ace Magashule growing. The RET faction is coming. And I think that is where we are stuck. He sat there and he doesn’t know what to do.

“His worst Nemesis is back.  Zuma is absolutely, unbelievably like a recurring mole in your garden.  Hierdie mol kom net terug elke dag. I mean every time you kill it, gas it, sink it, petrol it, môre oggend as jy opkom is daar nog n hobbetjie. This man is just not going away.

“And your problem that you’ve got is you can say what you want but Jacob Zuma is relevant in this country. He’s relevant.

“So the problem that we’ve currently got is that if you thought under the Zuma era that there was State Capture and the pulverizing of our accounts, I am telling you it’s three times worse under Cyril.

“It’s massive. And that’s a fact…So your problem that you’ve got is Jacob Zuma is being funded by whom? Jacob Zuma has taken this country by storm – and this MK Party wasn’t formulated on the spur the moment. In my opinion, it was planned for the past two, three years.”

The Multi-Party Charter: 

“A Multi-Party Charter now that started with six parties and have grown to 11. A Multi-Party Charter that last week stood up in a Jo’burg town hall where we couldn’t fit one more single person. 

“For the first time, every party brought their own supporters and we had a Multi-Party Charter support group sitting there. Normally we would moer each other. Normally we would stick each other. But for the first time, 11 parties’ people sat together, and got up and I said in that speech, if you touch the IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party), you touch us – and I went through every party and the roof lift. 

“Why? Not because we are great in orientation. I’ll tell you why. The time has come for change. Cyril, who called us a nothing, a null on a contract, has just realised that 50 plus 1 is possible.”

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