'Ramaphosa's speech was probably written by DA'

Leader of the Umkhonto weSizwe party in Parliament, John Hlophe has described President Cyril Ramaphosa's address on the opening of Parliament as "appalling".

Reacting to Ramaphosa's speech given on the grand occasion of the opening of Parliament in Cape Town, the former Western Cape judge president poured cold water on Ramaphosa address.

"The speech was appalling to say the least. It is very clearly the president did not prepare the speech himself. If anything, it is the parties in the GNU, my guess is that it was prepared by DA members.

"We were watching very closely in Parliament, as the president was delivering his speech, it was the white members of the DA who were busy applauding. It was all about pleasing the GNU parties, particularly the DA," he said.

"There is so much lies contained in the speech. I regard the president as a serious liar, a serious-minded liar. Firstly, he says his government, the ANC that he leads has created more than two million jobs, we are South Africans we know he is lying. That is not true. If anything, the rate of unemployment in this country is almost 35 percent now. So, we have lost more jobs than we have created," he said.

"The speech didn't address critical issues like the issue of Palestine. We know why he is not addressing that. It is because the DA is watching him in the GNU. He can't address it because the policies differ in respect of Palestine. So the speech was empty in that regard."

On the other hand, leader of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen who is now Agriculture Minister in the government of national unity has said he is optimistic that despite some differences, the GNU members will negotiate and find each other on divisive issues like the National Health Insurance (NHI).

Reacting to Ramaphosa's address in Cape Town, Steenhuisen said there is no consensus yet on the implementation of the NHI, but the parties will continue to negotiate.

"I do not think that any party to the GNU does not believe that we need to have universal access to basic healthcare for every South African regardless of their economic status.

"The differences of opinion is on the the best way to achieve this, how to fund it and whether you need to remove the choice for citizens around the private healthcare sector as well," Steenhuisen spoke to journalists.

"I think that we can find each other. I think there is a commitment by the president, both in the Cabinet lekgotla and again tonight, that we will consult each other, we will consult industry players to try and find a way in which we can achieve the goal that we all want - universal access to basic healthcare for all South Africans regardless of their economic status.