Ramaphosa is delivering his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Parliament this evening against a grim backdrop of a staggering economy, deepening unemployment and a stalled vaccine rollout.

He said the four overriding priorities were:

1) Defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. That is primary in everything we have to do.

2) Accelerating economic recovery.

3) Implementing economic reforms to drive inclusive growth.

4) Fighting corruption and strengthening the state that has been weakened

In terms of defeating COVID-19, Ramaphosa said the first phase would use the J&J vaccine which had shown to be effective against the second variant of the virus.

He said government has managed to secure 9 million doses. “Some 80,000 doses are due to arrive in SA next week.”

The president said the government had also managed to secure 12 million vaccines from the Covax facility to complement other vaccines available to the country, while Pfizer had committed 20 million vaccines to be delivered at the end of the first quarter.

EWN