Note to editors: BOSA Leader Dr Mmusi Maimane MP made the following remarks while outlining the party’s expectations for the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
As South Africa approaches the State of the Nation Address (SONA) this Thursday evening, citizens do so with a deep sense of urgency and concern. Every nation reaches a moment when the old ways no longer serve the people, and the cost of delay becomes too high.
For South Africa, 2026 is that moment – our Zero Hour. This SONA cannot be business as usual. We have no time for caution and incremental tinkering. This must be a moment of decisive action and national reset.
South Africans are experiencing poor governance that greets them outside their doorsteps. Communities face collapsing services, rising costs of living, unaffordable electricity, and crumbling infrastructure. Millions live below the poverty line. Confidence in the state is being eroded as citizens increasingly feel unsafe and unheard.
At the same time, our politics are stuck in a false binary. We are asked to choose between an ANC-DA arrangement under the GNU, or an ANC-EFF-MK alternative.
In each scenario, South Africans are left with ANC policy and worldview, while the other parties wait, hands open, for ministerial posts and blue lights. It’s the same policies and absence of accountability. Changing coalition partners without changing the system is not reform. This must be a moment of decisive action and national reset.
It is Zero Hour for defeating the criminal state. Citizens are alarmed by mounting evidence that criminal networks have embedded themselves in key institutions of the state. The Madlanga Commission has revealed how criminality has captured parts of government and compromised the criminal justice system itself. This follows years of State Capture, yet still accountability remains absent.
South Africa cannot continue as a consequence-free society. With nearly 80 murders and over 130 rapes every day, crime is both a safety issue and an economic issue. No country can grow its economy and attract investment while functioning like a criminal network.
This SONA, the President must move to restore integrity and independence to policing and the justice system and demonstrate that no one – regardless of political office – is beyond the reach of the law.
We therefore reiterate our call for Ramaphosa to use this SONA to announce the immediate removal of Senzo Mchunu and the appointment of a permanent Police Minister who is demonstrably tough on crime, independent of political factionalism, and singularly focused on restoring integrity to the justice system.
This SONA is Zero Hour for job creation and economic growth. With an expanded unemployment rate of 42.4% and 11.5 million South Africans without work, economic recovery is mission critical. Citizens expect a clear plan to grow the economy at 4–5%, in line with our African peers.
This requires cutting red tape, fixing energy, water, and transport infrastructure, reforming labour markets, backing small businesses, and unlocking private investment. Growth and jobs are inseparable from safety, skills, and functioning institutions.
It’s Zero Hour for improving education. South Africa’s education crisis is condemning young people to a life of exclusion. Only 54.7% of learners who start school reach and pass matric. Four out of five children cannot read for meaning by age ten. Most schools lack libraries, and hundreds do not offer mathematics.
Citizens expect education reform that prioritises outcomes first. Reading for meaning by age ten, a credible matric standard, better-paid and supported teachers, and greater parental choice.
Citizens expect a smaller, more effective cabinet, corruption-proof procurement, professionalised state institutions, and an end to governance by inertia.
Finally, it’s Zero Hour for a reset in our politics, policy, and governance. What South Africa now requires is not tinkering at the edges, but a full-on system reset.
For it to be worthwhile, this SONA should mark a break from business as usual. South Africans are demanding leadership equal to the moment, leadership that recognises that 2026 is Zero Hour, and that the old ways of politics, policy, and governance must give way to something new.
The time for caution has passed. The time for reset is now.
Media Enquiries:
Roger Solomons
BOSA Spokesperson
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