{"id":249442,"date":"2023-02-08T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/sona-2023-a-watershed-moment\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T07:13:10","slug":"sona-2023-a-watershed-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/sona-2023-a-watershed-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"SONA 2023 a ‘watershed’ moment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acting Director General (ADG) of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Michael Currin, says this year\u2019s State of the Nation Address (SONA) is not only one of the most important for the sixth administration but will also serve as a rallying call for all citizens to build South Africa together.<\/p>\n

The ADG was speaking exclusively to SAnews<\/strong><\/em> ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s speech tomorrow evening, at City Hall in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It is] certainly one of the most important SONAs we\u2019ve ever had. Firstly, we do find ourselves in a global context of a very low economic growth. I hope that South Africans generally [and] business and labour particularly, understand that at this SONA we have to make interventions that will bring about growth in our economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecondly, it\u2019s a watershed moment because there are many issues that we are conscious of. We are conscious of the constraints on energy; conscious of the rampant criminal activity and other challenges [and] we have to make decisive interventions on that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Currin highlighted that throughout the past year, government and South Africans have faced many challenges.<\/p>\n

These include the ongoing effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, Eskom\u2019s power generation challenges and the devastating flooding in parts of the country.<\/p>\n

He emphasised that although government is doing much work to address these challenges, communities can come together to add their solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very hard in tough times to look for rays of hope. But when we had the floods, we saw so many South Africans from all walks of life\u2026that came with food, blankets and so forth. We are going through tough times. Inflation is rising and\u2026there are a range of issues exacerbated by global conflicts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at the state of our nation, we need to ask ourselves what it is that we can do? I appeal that we use this point to reflect on making sure that we look out for the needs of others\u2026like getting involved in a [community based organisation] or an NGO or a faith structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of our nation is not just something that the President must speak about. The state of the nation is also about who we are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ADG called on public servants to also play their part to ensure that governmental plans are executed and frontline services are delivered to citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is also up to us. The sense of urgency, the sense commitment and passion in many public servants needs to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have brilliant public servants. We saw during COVID-19 we had amazing nurses who worked extensively long hours, putting their own lives at risk and\u2026also educators who went back early and had to deal with very complex schooling.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo by no means am I saying that there isn\u2019t good public servants. This SONA … must be a wake-up call to public servants to say that we\u2019ve got to do better because the future of our country as much as it\u2019s in the hands of our publicly elected officials\u2026it\u2019s in our hands as public servants as well,\u201d the ADG said.<\/p>\n

Currin said although government is not immune to criticism, much can be achieved if citizens rally together and work with government.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the South African public we are saying, speak out, hold us to account. But at the same time look around to see where you can make a contribution to build our country. It is our country\u2026let\u2019s build our country together,\u201d Currin concluded. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acting Director General (ADG) of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), Michael Currin, says this year\u2019s State of the Nation Address (SONA) is not only one of the most important for the sixth administration but will also serve as a rallying call for all citizens to build South Africa together. The ADG was speaking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-249442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/sona-2023-a-watershed-moment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}