6 February 2025 – Cape Town – President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2025 from Cape Town City Hall. Picture Henk Kruger / Independent Media
Often hailed as the lifeline of the South African economy, President Cyril Ramaphosa said during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) that the government will be setting up a R20 billion fund to empower small businesses in the country.
The president’s SONA aims to provide a country roadmap charting the way forward for South Africa in what one could call a mixed bag of domestic and global circumstances.
This is the first Sona under the seventh administration’s Government of National Unity (GNU) following the outcomes of the May 2024 elections.
Speaking about the injustices of the past and how people of colour were denied opportunities to participate in the country’s economy, during his Sona, the president said that he hopes to unwrite the wrongs of the past that took place during the Apartheid regime.
He said that a R20bn to fund black will be set up to aid black owned small enterprises.
Ramaphosa said, "For many decades our economy has been held back by the exclusion of the vast majority of the South African people. Black South Africans were deprived of land, of capital, of skills, of opportunities. Our economy was starved of the potential of its people. And that is why we needs to transform our economy and make it more inclusive. That is why our focus is on empowering black people, women and persons with disabilities because they were deliberately excluded from playing a key role in the economy of their own country."
The president further added, "We will set up a transformation fund worth R20 billion a year over the next five years to fund black-owned and small business enterprises. We will fast-track the regulations of the Public Procurement Act to ensure businesses owned by women, youth and persons with disabilities receive equitable opportunities in government contracts. We will continue to provide training to women entrepreneurs to enable them to compete for government tenders. In November last year, we launched the National Skills Fund Disabilities Programme. In its first phase, this transformative initiative willempower over 10,000 persons with disabilities through tailored training programmes, stipends and specialised tools. This part of the work we must undertake as business, government, labour and civil society to enable persons with disabilities to play an important part in the economy of our country."
Ramaphosa said that through these programmes, we are not only righting a grave historical wrong.
"We are unleashing the potential of our economy for sustained growth," Ramaphosa further said.
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