In this summary sourced from BusinessDay SA, Dave Chambers highlights the top 12 priorities outlined by South Africa’s new President Cyril Ramaphosa in his maiden state of the nation address on Friday, February 16, 2018.

1. 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”.

2. Young people

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

3. Infrastructure

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

4. Mining

Ramaphosa said mining 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.”

5. Land redistribution

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

6. Technology

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

7. The economy

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

8. Health

An extra 2-million HIV-positive people will be on antiretrovirals 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.

9. Government restructuring

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

10. 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.”

11. Justice

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

12. 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”.

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