Ramaphosa targets crime syndicates and water crisis

President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a frank assessment of South Africa’s most pressing challenges on Thursday night, pledging decisive action to confront rampant crime, worsening water outages, dysfunctional municipalities and the next phase of Eskom’s restructuring.

In his 2026 State of the Nation Address at Cape Town City Hall, Ramaphosa said while progress had been made in stabilising the economy and ending load shedding, “we must be honest about the challenges we still face”, warning that “we are still far from where we need to be”.

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Crime and public safety

Crime took centre stage in the address, with Ramaphosa describing organised crime as “the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development”.

“The cost of crime is measured in lives lost and futures cut short,” he said, adding that fear and insecurity were deterring investment and eroding social cohesion.

He announced a stepped-up offensive against criminal syndicates, including the consolidation of intelligence at national level and the deployment of multidisciplinary intervention teams “focused on dismantling criminal networks”.

Ramaphosa confirmed that the South African National Defence Force would be deployed to support the police in hotspot areas. “We have to act to rid our country of gang violence,” he said, noting that deployments would focus initially on the Western Cape and Gauteng.

The president also announced the recruitment of 5 500 additional police officers this year, stricter gun-control enforcement and the establishment of a national illicit economy disruption programme, targeting sectors such as tobacco, fuel and alcohol.

Water outages and infrastructure failure

Water security was identified as “the single most important issue for many people in South Africa”, with Ramaphosa acknowledging mounting frustration in cities such as Johannesburg and towns like Knysna and Giyani.

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“There is no silver bullet to address this challenge,” he said, attributing the crisis largely to “poor planning and inadequate maintenance of water systems by many municipalities” over many years.

To address immediate outages, Ramaphosa announced the creation of a National Water Crisis Committee, which he will chair, modelled on the National Energy Crisis Committee that helped end load shedding. “This structure will bring together all existing efforts into a single coordinating body,” he said.

Government has committed more than R156 billion to water and sanitation infrastructure over the next three years and is advancing projects such as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the Ntabelanga Dam.

Ramaphosa also warned that municipalities failing to deliver would face consequences. “We will not hesitate to use the powers enshrined in the Constitution and in the Water Services Act to intervene,” he said, adding that criminal charges had already been laid against dozens of municipalities and would now be extended to municipal managers in their personal capacity.

Fixing dysfunctional municipalities

The president said water outages were “a symptom of a local government system that is not working” and confirmed that a “far-reaching overhaul” of local government was underway.

Citing the Auditor-General’s assessment of weak accountability, poor financial management and instability, Ramaphosa said government would finalise a revised White Paper on Local Government in the coming months to “reimagine the way that local government works”.

The reforms will introduce a differentiated approach to municipal powers, professionalise senior appointments and strengthen the ability of national government to intervene where councils fail. “These changes may be difficult. But they must be done,” he said.

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Eskom restructuring and energy reform

While load shedding has ended, Ramaphosa said the focus had shifted to securing long-term energy stability and lowering electricity costs.

“We are establishing a level playing field for competition, so that we are never again exposed to the risk of relying on a single supplier to meet our energy needs. We are restructuring Eskom and establishing a fully independent state-owned transmission entity.”

Ramaphosa said the entity will have ownership and control of transmission assets and be responsible for operating the electricity market.

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“Given the importance of this restructuring for the broader reform of the electricity sector, I have established a dedicated task team under the National Energy Crisis Committee to address various issues relating to the restructuring process, including clear timeframes for its phased implementation. It will report to me within three months.”

Ramaphosa confirmed that the first round of independent transmission projects would begin this year to enable private investment in expanding the grid, while work continues to eradicate load reduction linked to transformer overloading and illegal connections.

“We are committed to the path that we have embarked on to modernise our energy system,” he said.

‘Sovereignty is sacrosanct’

In the final section of the address, Ramaphosa turned to South Africa’s place in a shifting global order, stressing that foreign policy would be guided by sovereignty, equality and national interest.

“We are building mutually beneficial relationships with all countries on terms of equality and respect,” he said, adding that South Africa’s “commitment to sovereignty and self-determination is sacrosanct. It is not negotiable”.

Ramaphosa said the country would continue to respect the sovereignty of other nations, but warned that “we must be equally clear that we will not be bullied by any other country”.

He said South Africa would forge stronger partnerships with like-minded states to improve resilience to global disruptions, while advancing the priorities of the Global South through multilateral platforms such as the G20.

Those priorities include “inclusive growth, debt relief, climate action, reform of global governance institutions and the beneficiation of critical minerals at source”, he said.

Striking an optimistic note, Ramaphosa said the country was “leaving behind an era of decline and turning towards an era of prosperity and growth”, pointing to progress made in rebuilding institutions and stabilising the economy.

“We have done much to overcome the effects of state capture, the Covid-19 pandemic, the public unrest of 2021 and the devastating floods of the following year,” he said, arguing that the task now was to convert recent gains into lasting and inclusive growth.

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