“Many parts of the Eastern Cape continue to face severe water shortages. Access to clean water at home and in schools is essential to safeguarding the health and well-being of teen girls. Lack of access to water creates difficulties for girls during their periods, leading them to skip classes and fall behind with the curriculum. It is important that the President take heed of the call to accelerate action as per the 2025 International Women’s Day theme,” said Thobeka. The President also mentioned that health infrastructure must be improved in provinces like the Eastern Cape. Our fellow, Angel Ntentesa, advocates for social justice and health, and advises the government that “a holistic approach is needed; this includes ensuring proper staffing, workforce planning, and sufficient funding for all health services, including oral health. Without these measures, new healthcare facilities risk failing to deliver the quality care that South Africans deserve.” “We want a nation where there is work for all, where every person can earn a decent living and realize their potential,” said President Ramaphosa during SONA. Our fellow Waldo Visagie, who advocates for the rights of persons with disabilities, welcomes this statement but wants to know how the government plans to address some of the challenges faced by persons with disabilities. “I’m passionate about equal rights for persons with disabilities. So, I welcome the President’s commitment to empower over 10,000 persons with disabilities with tailored training programmes, stipends, specialised tools, and government contracts while collaborating with other stakeholders to enable them to play a vital role in the country’s economy. However, to achieve this, accessible transport for persons with disabilities is needed. Research shows that persons with disabilities face transport challenges that hinder community integration. How will the current transport issues be addressed to meet the needs of persons with disabilities?” Ramaphosa announced that the Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation will create an Innovation Fund to support tech start-ups originating from our higher education institutions.
“While the president’s goal to enhance digital public infrastructure is an amazing one, I think that the priorities need to change a bit because there is still quite a large skills gap, or a large digital skills gap, within certain groups, and because our president emphasised that he is continuing to fight and advocate for the rights of marginalised groups. I believe that bridging that gap in digital skills needs to start with marginalised groups, so that when he advances digital public infrastructure and he gets into a lot more advancements, like he mentioned of digitising a lot of government services, the marginalised groups aren’t left outside and aren’t left behind. And so that when people build those solutions for the government institutions, they include marginalised groups in those solutions so that it makes it a lot more inclusive and accessible. Another thing that I do agree with a lot, and although I do believe it needs to be held in more of an emergency situation part, is the digital forensics lab that the president mentioned in the SONA that would be one of the priorities in regards to the tech industry. I think it needs to be treated as more of an emergency because of a couple of cyber-attacks that we have been experiencing as a country,” said our fellow Precious Mamotingoe Lesupi, who advocates for inclusivity and accessibility in technology.
All eyes remain on the government to see if all the promises will be fulfilled.
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