Ramaphosa defends government's progress during SONA debate reply

President Cyril Ramaphosa says there's no denying that his government had made significant progress.

Ramaphosa added that the last 30 years of democracy had yielded a lot of positives, which benefited the majority of South Africans.

Ramaphosa made the remarks while replying to the two-day debate on his State of the Nation Address (SONA), where Members of Parliament (MPs) from both houses picked apart his speech.

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“There can be no doubt that we have made progress. Even those that deny we have made progress know that we have made progress,” said Ramaphosa.

He said while the last three decades had seen improvement in the lives of South Africans, state capture took its toll on state institutions.

“Over the last eight years, our country faced some of the most intractable and difficult challenges, but working together, we have undertaken a programme of institutional renewal by stabilising what was weakened through state capture.”