Pretoria - It's going to be a busy week for President Jacob Zuma as he prepares for the State of the Nation Address (SONA), due to be presented in Parliament on Thursday, 9 February at 7pm.
Primarily, the State of the Nation Address provides the President with a platform to communicate with Parliament and the Joint National Assembly. Just as importantly, the address gives the President an opportunity to communicate with the people of South Africa.
The speech, which is largely informed by the annual Cabinet Lekgotla in January, takes stock of the previous year's achievements and charts a common direction for the country for the coming year.
The 2012 January Lekgotla also served as a mid-term review during which Cabinet assessed progress made on the six New Growth Path job drivers - infrastructure development, agriculture, mining and beneficiation, manufacturing, the green economy and tourism - which aim to enhance growth, employment creation and equity.
The 2012 Cabinet Lekgotla also reported that government had made notable progress across its five key priority areas of education, health, rural development, safety and crime prevention, as well as job creation.
Zuma's office said this year's SONA takes place against the background of the celebration of 100 years by the ruling party, the African National Congress, which is regarded as part of the celebration of the country's rich political heritage.
In addition, the President was at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos last week, where the threat to the world economy - emanating from the seemingly inadequate steps to resolve the Eurozone - crisis dominated the discussions.
He also attended the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit in Ethiopia, which was grappling with the challenge to make the AU a sharper instrument for the development of the continent.
"In this context, the President is likely to focus on the critical need for our country to move decisively and systematically in the implementation of policies and programmes that so far have helped us withstand the impact of the externally generated impediments to our development agenda," the Presidency said.
