South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his second state of the nation address in parliament on 7 February. It was also the fifth – and final – Sona address of the current administration before this year’s national elections in May.

But did the president get his facts right as he listed the government’s achievements? Africa Check partnered with 24-hour news channel eNCA to fact-check his claims on the night.

The economy

Claim: “In 2017, we recorded an inflow of foreign direct investment amounting to R17-billion.”

Verdict: correct

Foreign direct investments are made by companies or individuals from one country into businesses in another country.

Data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development shows that US$1.325-billion of foreign money was invested in South Africa in 2017. This is about R17.3-billion at the 30 June 2017 exchange rate.

It’s a however a decrease from US$2.235-billion – or R29.2-billion – in 2016. 

The figures sounded “about right“, said Prof Jannie Rossouw, head of the school of economic and business sciences at Wits University. But “it’s nothing in the bigger scheme of things… it’s less than a percentage [point] of our economy”.  – Cayley Clifford 

Infrastructure

Claim: “Over the past five years, we’ve made significant progress with the provision of infrastructure. More than R1.3-trillion has been invested.”

Verdict: mostly-correct

Some R1.26-trillion was spent on infrastructure in the last five financial years, according to numbers from the national treasury.

Spending on public infrastructure in South Africa from 2013/14 to 2017/18

Financial year                                                     Spend (R billion)

2013/14                                                                244.8

2014/15                                                                262.2

2015/16                                                                261.2

2016/17                                                                249.8

2017/18                                                                241.8

Total                                                                     1,259.8

SOURCE: NATIONAL TREASURY

These amounts include infrastructure spending at all levels of government, by state-owned companies and other public entities (such as  the Property Management Trading Entity in the department of public works) as well as public funds spent in public-private partnerships.

The treasury says capital items such as equipment, machinery and vehicles are excluded. But public housing, maintenance and repairs are part of the definition of infrastructure spending applied here. – Liesl Pretorius

Claim: “ Over the past five years..more than R1.3 trillion has been invested to build [infrastructure including] hundreds of thousands of new homes…”

Verdict: correct

Public housing is included in the national treasury’s definition of public-sector infrastructure spending.

According to the department of human settlements, close to 500,000 homes, or “housing units”, were delivered in the past five financial years.

Government-funded houses built (2013/14 to 2017/18)

Financial year                                               Houses/units

2013/14                                                          105,936

2014/15                                                          94,566

2015/16                                                          99,904

2016/17                                                          89,186

2017/18                                                          86,006

Total                                                               475,598

SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS

Subsidised houses, rental accommodation, hostel upgrades and council houses where ownership was granted were counted as units built, departmental spokesperson Xolani Xundu confirmed. – Liesl Pretorius

Jobs

Claim: “We have launched the Youth Employment Service, which is placing unemployed youth in paid internships in companies across the country.”

Verdict: correct

The Youth Employment Service initiative was launched on 27 March 2018 with the aim of creating a million jobs for young people using “innovation and technological best practice”.

Only 6,939 ‘work experiences’ committed so far

The initiative is a partnership between the government, business, labour and civil society. It will provide work experience, job placements (or the option for businesses to “sponsor” work placements) and training for people aged 18 to 35.

According to its website, 319 companies have registered for the service so far but only 6,939 “work experiences” have been confirmed. – Naphtali Khumalo

Social grants

Claim: “Every month 17.5 million social grants are provided to South Africans.”

Verdict: correct

The South African Social Security Agency administers social grants. Its most recent data on grants is from December 2018, when 17,731,402 social grants were paid.

The lowest number of grants delivered in 2018 was 17,396,831 in January. The average for the 2017/18 financial year ending in March 2018 was 17,509,555 grants. The number has however grown steadily – in 2007/08 the average was 12,423,739.

Growth in social grants in South Africa from 2013/14 to 2017/18

Financial year                                                     Number of grants

2017/18                                                                17,509,995

2016/17                                                                17,200,525

2015/16                                                                16,991,634

2014/13                                                                16,642,643

2013/14                                                                15,932,473

SOURCE: SASSA 2017/18 Annual Report

Grants help counteract the effects of poverty in South Africa, Prof Jeremy Seekings, the director of the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town, told Africa Check.

“There is abundant evidence that grants improve nutrition – especially for children – and health, and provide dignity to otherwise marginalised social and demographic groups,” Seekings said.  – Lee Mwiti

Education

Claim: “Over 700,000 children [accessed] early childhood education in the last financial year…”

Verdict: understated

This isn’t the first time Ramaphosa has underestimated the number of children in early childhood development facilities in South Africa.

In last year’s State of the Nation address, he put the number at “nearly one million children”. This year, his figure is “over 700,000”.

Both are way below the actual numbers.

Martin Gustafsson, an economics researcher at the University of Stellenbosch, says there are “widespread misperceptions around how many children in South Africa attend some form of ECD institution”. He has researched and written extensively on the economics of education and pre-school participation.

‘How seriously South Africa takes education’

Using data from Statistics South Africa, Gustafsson estimates that 2,409,953 children were in some kind of pre-school in 2016. (Note: These were children who were younger than eight at the start of 2016.)

The 2017 general household survey reported that just over 2-million children under the age of four were attending a “day care centre, crèche, early childhood development centre (ECD) playgroup, nursery school or preprimary school”.

Knowing how many children are in these facilities is important for the government’s policy planning. Gustafsson adds that the existing underestimates may send the wrong signal to international investors about “how seriously South Africa takes the education of its citizens”. – Kate Wilkinson

Claim: “Over the past five years… [we’ve built] two new universities.”

Verdict: correct

In 2014, Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, Northern Cape, and the University of Mpumalanga in Nelspruit opened their doors to students.

According to the public infrastructure update in the 2018 Budget Review, construction at these institutions is ongoing. “New facilities include lecture rooms, laboratories, sport and recreation amenities and student accommodation.” – Liesl Pretorius

Claim: “We launched the Safe initiative in August last year…”

Verdict: correct

The Sanitation Appropriate For Education (Safe) initiative was launched on 14 August 2018.

Partners in the project include the department of basic education, National Education Collaboration Trust and Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Its main objective is to replace unsafe school toilet facilities – like pit latrines – with safe ones.

A national government audit of schools in May and June 2018 found that at 3,898 schools the only toilets available were pit latrines. Another 3,040 had “proper sanitation”, but pit toilets were still on the premises. – Lloyd Hazvineyi

Tourism

Claim: “In the past year we had 10 million tourists who came to our country, which is a huge increase .”

Verdict: unproven

Statistics South Africa defines a tourist as “an overnight visitor who stays at least one night in collective or private accommodation in the place visited”.

In 2017 South Africa had 10,825,197 tourists, according to the agency. It had 10,044,163 tourists in 2016 and 8,903,773 in 2015.

Full data for 2018 is not yet available but, from January to November 2018 there were 9,464,950 tourist arrivals, according to Stats SA’s tourism and migration report released in January 2019.

It seems likely that the figure will increase to 10-million tourists. But in the absence of data for the full year we rate the claim unproven. – Naphtali Khumalo

Researched by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website