WATCH | Election year ‘anaesthesia’ numbs opposition, says Premier Saul

Northern Cape premier Zamani Saul has called out opposition parties in parliament for being “numb” to the positive trajectory the country was heading in and using the State of the Nation Address debate to campaign for local government elections instead of adequately engaging the contents of the speech. According to Saul, the opposition parties felt compelled to disagree with the Sona just for the sake of disagreeing because it was election year, calling this behaviour the worst form of deception, and self-defeating. The opposition parties knew very well the country was on a positive trajectory, but could not admit to that because their voters might realise the government was actually working, he added.

“Regrettably, the address of the President is delivered during an election year. During this season which is marked by elections, the opposition benches are heavily spiced with politics of self-deception and thereby miss an opportunity to substantively engage with the address,” said Saul. “In a chorus yesterday and today, the opposition parties deceptively see nothing, they hear nothing, and they feel nothing that is positive about the country.” He said the opposition was “completely numb” to the fact that there was positive developments in the country simply because of “election anaesthesia”.

“This a crude form of politics of self-deception, and is self-defeating and modern brinkmanship,” said Saul. “What South Africans can see is a desperate opposition that convince themselves of false narratives. Opposition parties that are twisting facts.

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Opposition parties that are playing blame games. Opposition parties that are creating alternative truths. Opposition parties that are Monday morning quarterbacks.

And opposition parties that are loyal disciples of empty rhetoric.” In their rejection of the Sona, the opposition parties, he charged, were merely bluffing in an attempt to catch headlines. Saul said in his Sona that President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged the challenges South African people were confronted with on a daily basis. “But this cannot erase the fact that on the developmental front there are major strides and positive indicators that suggests that the country is moving in the right direction.”

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