#SONA2018 | President’s top 12 priorities

These were the top 12 priorities outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his state of the nation address.

• Jobs. There will be a jobs summit this year‚ an investment conference within three months and urgent action on youth unemployment‚ which Ramaphosa described as “our most grave and pressing challenge”.

• Young people. A youth working group representative of all young South Africans will be set up “to ensure that out policies and programmes advance their interests”.

• Infrastructure. “I will assemble a team to speed up implementation of new projects‚ particularly water projects‚ health facilities and road maintenance.”

• Mining. Ramaphosa said it should be seen as a sunrise industry. “I am certain we will be able to resolve the current impasse and agree on a mining charter that both accelerates transformation and grows this vital sector of our economy.”

• Land redistribution. “[Our] approach will include the expropriation of land without compensation.”

• Technology. “We will soon establish a digital industrial revolution commission‚ which will include the private sector and civil society.”

• The economy. A presidential economic advisory council “will draw on the expertise and capabilities that reside in labour‚ business‚ civil society and academia”.

• Health. An extra two million HIV-positive people will be on anti-retrovirals by 2020‚ a “huge” cancer prevention campaign will be launched in the next three months‚ and the National Health Insurance Bill will be submitted to parliament within a few weeks.

• Government restructuring. “We will initiate a process to review the configuration‚ number and size of national government departments.”

• State-owned enterprises. “The recent action we have taken at Eskom to strengthen governance‚ root out corruption and restore its financial position is just the beginning.”

• Justice. “We will urgently attend to the leadership issues at the National Prosecuting Authority.”

• The South African Revenue Service. A commission of inquiry will “ensure that we restore the credibility of the service and strengthen its capacity to meet its revenue targets.”