General: No surprises and promises galore in Sona

A State of the Nation Address (SONA) focusing almost entirely on last year’s achievements and the noble plans, hopes and dreams announced on countless other occasions may have come as a disappointment to South Africans expecting at least one ground-breaking revelation. There were none, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. Even government’s intention to ‘immediately embark’ on the process of unbundling Eskom into separate generation, transmission and distribution entities came as no surprise. There has been widespread media speculation about this for some time (Daily Maverick), as Legalbrief Today has regularly reported. Interestingly, however, the President made it very clear that there will be no ‘disposal’ of state assets ‘strategic to the wellbeing’ of the country’s economy and ‘people’.

Regarding imminent new legislation, a ‘B’ version of the 2018 Competition Amendment Bill will be signed into law ‘soon’, as Legalbrief Today predicted when draft price discrimination and ‘buyer power’ regulations were released in December for comment. According to the President, the new statute is expected to ‘open up new opportunities for many South Africans to enter various sectors of the economy and compete on an equal footing’ – facilitating increased investment and ‘greater inclusion’ in a system ‘designed to keep assets in a few hands’.

In the light of yesterday’s announcement (IoL) by ‘oil giant Total’ of a ‘new world-class ... gas discovery’ in SA’s Outeniqua Basin, ‘government will continue to develop legislation for the sector so that it is properly regulated … (in) the interests of all concerned’. It remains to be seen if this potential ‘game changer’ and its possibly ‘significant consequences’ for SA’s energy security will add impetus to a drafting process under way for several years. A separate oil and gas Bill was first officially mentioned in 2016 by former Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson (IoL), as Legalbrief Today reported at the time.

Ramaphosa also confirmed that, ‘after extensive consultation, the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill will soon be ready for submission to Parliament’. By introducing NHI and ‘a multi-pronged quality improvement programme’ to improve ‘every clinic and hospital’ contracted by the NHI system, government is already working towards ‘a massive change in the healthcare experience of South Africans’. The President nevertheless acknowledged ‘the magnitude of the challenges’ entailed.

Other imperatives for the coming year include: the imminent announcement of ‘urgent steps to enable the reconstitution of a professional national intelligence capability’; the introduction of an ‘infrastructure implementation model’ to more ‘fully integrate’ new housing developments with socio-economic opportunities and amenities and the bulk infrastructure required to sustain them; and the ‘reconfiguration of the state’, work on which is apparently ‘at an advanced stage’. ‘We are pleased to note that, in the spirit of active citizenry, many South Africans continue to show ... great interest in the future reconfigured state,’ the President said – presumably referring to the process of reviewing the number and size of national government departments.

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