People from all walks of life across South Africa have expressed what they hope will feature during this year’s State of the Nation address.
From the environment to education, university fees and better living conditions, many people took to different social media platforms to share their thoughts
A concerned @TLSNkosi said that all he wanted hear about was youth debt, tertiary education and trade deals that benefit black people, while @Neli_Ngqulana voiced that she was worried about the state of the youth and hoped this would be addressed.
@NgcoboEmpire wished that President Jacob Zuma would put “special emphasis on the arts and creative industry” of this country.
Listing what key areas needed to be addressed during Sona, @De_Powerhouse put education at the top of his list followed by land, health, the economy and sustainable jobs.
@PlkFlash added that immigration, drug cartels and corruption were some of the main issues he wanted the president to deal with.
From the environment sector, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in South Africa have listed some agricultural, water and wildlife issues which they hope will also be addressed.
Inge Kotze, a senior manager of sustainable agriculture at the WWF explained that with drought placing our agricultural sector, and associated jobs, at severe risk, the government needed to be placing far greater emphasis and policy direction on sustained food production, safeguarding better production and yields from existing agricultural production.
“This includes addressing the ongoing policy uncertainty around the land reform process, and linking these policies to more of an emphasis on land reform support.
“In the agricultural sector, we need to sustain and improve existing yields and production to ensure that all available high potential agricultural areas produce,” she said.
“The government also needs to promote climate-smart agricultural production focused on soil reform and the production of nutritious food options to secure long term food security.”
On water, Christine Colvin senior manager of fresh water at WWF said that nationally “our dams are still almost half empty (55%), and in some areas such as the Western Cape (38%), serious water shortages persist”.
“There is significant scope for the government to act strategically and decisively in turning around this crisis and ensuring that South Africa is better prepared for a more drought-prone future affected by climate change.
“If this drought has taught us some early lessons on coping with scarcity and high temperatures, then it has come just in time,” she said.
Colvin emphasised that the government needed to review the coping capacity of local and national departments and prioritise urgent amendments to our drought-response strategy.
“This should not be a fall-back to building more dams or raising dam walls, but look to strategically sustainable solutions like driving demand management with more concrete metrics, looking for drought-buffered supplies underground, and incentivising diversified water sources at consumer level,” Colvin said.
Regarding wildlife Jo Shaw, manager of the WWF rhino programme, said they were concerned wildlife seemed to have fallen off the government’s agenda.
“The vital role that our flagship species play in tourism and economic development deserves more focus as well as an on-going commitment to address wildlife trafficking along the entire international trade chain.
“It is vital that the government communicates consistently on this topic,” Shaw emphasised.
@Lanc_02