Several cabinet ministers and premiers defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address, praising him for giving direction for the year ahead.

One of those who applauded Ramaphosa was KZN premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, who said when the province was struck by flooding in April last year, “Ramaphosa came to our rescue”.

Dube-Ncube was one of the MPs that attended a joint-sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) which debated Ramaphosa’s address on Tuesday.

Dube-Ncube said, “We listened to inganekwane (a tale) from the DA and the coalition of corruption led by the DA in Tshwane, Johannesburg and in Ekurhuleni.

“This has been exposed by the auditor-general and these municipalities have literally collapsed and the people are not getting services. The instability and the wholesale failure to deliver quality services to municipal residents is attributed to the DA and its incompetent leaders.”

She said Ramaphosa’s address was apt and reflected the situation in the country as is.

“There was no bending of the facts, underestimating of challenges and cooking of statistics. This Sona was a clear demonstration of respect the ANC-led government has had for the people of SA.

“When we were hit by the devastating floods in KZN, President Cyril Ramaphosa was the first on the ground to rescue KZN. Never has there been a president walking the talk (like Ramaphosa). When Covid-19 hit in 2020, president Ramaphosa led from the front.”

LISTEN | Bheki Cele plotted to kill EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu, claims Malema

Minister of small business development Stella Ndabeni also welcomed the address saying Ramaphosa gave direction. 

“I am not just supporting because he is the president of the governing party and because the Sona is in line with the 55th national conference resolutions, January 8 statement and our strategy and tactics document, which is clear on the issues raised by Ramaphosa.”

Ndabeni said Ramaphosa is committed to unleashing the full potential of small businesses and co-operatives.

“This is in line with the national development plan,” Ndabeni said.

Deputy minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs Thembi Nkadimeng said after the local government elections often political parties were seen to converge.

“Some of you think that serving the resignation of the mayor of Tshwane in the middle of the night is what cracked the coalition. From 2006 to 2021 the Tshwane coalition could not do the basic task of electing ward committee members.”

Nkadimeng said Tshwane mayor Randall Williams left in the middle of the night because “he left a trail of destruction and predecessors also did the same”.

Minister in the presidency Mondli Gungubele concurred with Nkadimeng, saying everywhere the DA governed, the townships were in a dire state.

“When you say the DA does well, it’s because you are obsessed in a very blindfolded way with this metro, which has passed the test of racial exclusion. All the black townships in this metro, the services are in a dire state, go to Khayelitsha, Philliphi and Gugulethu, the police stations are in a dire state.”

Gungubele told DA leader John Steenhuisen that the Western Cape “is a test of resilience of racial exclusion. When Joburg was run by the ANC, look at the financial ratios, you will never pass the test of financial management when it was run by Parks Tau.”

“You can go to Tshwane when it was run by Sputla Ramokgopa, look at the financial ratios, look at the focus and transformative programme. There can be no comparison because you deny facts.”

Fortunately, he said, South Africans were aware that the DA was run on racial exclusion.

Police minister Bheki Cele made a clarion call to all sectors of society, including academia, business, clergy, media and the organised groupings to assist the government to fight crime.

He reminded MPs that Tuesday marked 10 years since Reeva Steenkamp was brutally killed by her athlete boyfriend, Oscar Pistorius. He named other women who were killed in the names of their partners.

Cele thanked Ramaphosa for responding to crime by strengthening the police by giving them 10,000 SAPS officers that were trained last year and another 10,000 this year, to assist with police visibility.

“But it will also give us a pool to train the special units to be able to respond to the crime at different times.

“Last year we arrested 4,990 people that committed GBV. We agree that we need to deal with the issue of illegal firearms. At least 65,952 illegal firearms have been destroyed in the previous year and we will continue to strengthen the law that people must be safe.”

The debate continues on Wednesday and Ramaphosa is expected to reply to the debate on his Sona on Thursday.

TimesLIVE