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South Africa President Outlines Ambitious Viral and Economic Plans in Annual
Address

Anita Powell

   JOHANNESBURG - As president of South Africa since 2018, Cyril Ramaphosa
   has dutifully delivered his annual address before Parliament, outlining
   government priorities in the year ahead.

   None have been like this one, though, he said late Thursday, speaking
   to a thinned-out, well-spaced crowd of masked lawmakers in Cape Town.
   Before speaking, he led the assembly in a moment of silence for the
   more than 47,000 people who have been killed by the virus since it
   landed in South Africa last year.

   Then, with hope and determination threaded through every sentence, he
   spoke.

   "This is no ordinary year, and this is no ordinary State of the Nation
   address," Ramaphosa said. "I will therefore focus this evening on the
   foremost, overriding priorities of 2021. They are not many, but they
   are focused.

   "First, we must defeat the coronavirus pandemic. That is primary in
   everything we have to do as a nation. And second, we must accelerate
   our economic recovery," the president said.

   "Third, we must implement economic reforms to create sustainable jobs
   and drive inclusive growth.

   "And finally, and not leaving other things aside, but these are the key
   ones, finally we must fight corruption and strengthen the state that
   has been weakened."

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