On Tuesday, MPs debated the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered for the first time in our sixth administration.

The debates were lively, especially from the young people, which is a sign that finally our parliament will be active.

However, the views raised by some MPs that the president should have been clear on how he will deliver on the programmes he outlined falls short of critical reasoning. It is not the job of the president to do that.

We have ministers who have the task to do that in their budget speeches. They, too, know this very well but they just wanted to be relevant for the sake of playing their opposition roles.

The president pointed out the dream that he envisaged for this country going forward. However, some think that the dreams will not take us anywhere. They even went further to call for the president to wake up. Without dreams, we are nothing.

If opposition parties want our sympathy, they must heed the call by the president to join forces and grow South Africa.

Tom Mhlanga, Braamfontein