President Cyril Ramaphosa poked fun at EFF leader Julius Malema while applauding BET Award winner Sho Madjozi during his reply to the debate on the state of the nation address (Sona) on Wednesday.

"In Madjozi's words, 'Where I come from,' - which is Limpopo, which is honourable Malema's province - 'I just want to say, you don't need to change who you are, you can still be big,' - like honourable Malema is almost big as well," said Ramaphosa to laughter in parliament.

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Ramaphosa also stood firm on his dream of a new "smart city".

"We now need to imagine a future where our people are going to live. Every successive wave of people coming to our cities live further and further away from the centre - far away from jobs, services and transport infrastructure," he said.

"This situation is not sustainable and unless we find effective solutions, it's only going to get worse. It's time to confront reality."