South Africa will make difficult decisions in 2019 to confront challenges bedevilling the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday.
The country will have to double its efforts in 2019 to realise its dreams and aspirations, Ramaphosa said In his New Year message.
“In 2019, we will be called upon to work with greater focus and determination to confront our problems and create new opportunities for all South Africans.
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“We will need to take some extraordinary measures and work together to take some difficult decisions given the challenges that lie ahead,” he said.
Mr Ramaphosa cited sluggish economic growth and gender-based violence as some of the challenges bedevilling the country.
“We will need a huge national effort to build on the progress made this year in restoring our country to a path of growth and progress,” he said.
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“Having welcomed the new dawn at the beginning of this year we can be certain that the sun is indeed rising even higher in the South African sky,” Ramaphosa said.
“It is our shared responsibility to ensure that all our people bask in its warmth.”
South Africa will hold presidential elections in 2019. Ramaphosa encouraged his countrymen to register to vote.
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Earlier, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Lindiwe Sisulu said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and Africa as a whole will remain a strategic foreign policy priority for South Africa in 2019.
“We believe that stability in the SADC region and the continent is the cornerstone for socio-economic development in our country and in Africa,” Mrs Sisulu said in a Christmas Eve message.
She said her country will work with all in the region and continent to achieve an Africa free of conflict.
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And also to fast-track the implementation of the African Union’s Continental Free Trade Area Agreement so that business people in the SADC region and the rest of the continent can do business easily with one another.
South Africa, Mrs Sisulu said, is striving to become the business capital on the continent and a transport and technology connection hub.
“Our sophisticated financial and modern transport sector is playing an important role in developing the SADC region’s infrastructure,” the minister said.
The SADC must be connected through road, rail and air transport, as well as technology and communications, for business to grow, Mrs Sisulu said.
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Beginning from next year, South Africa will take its non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council for the next two years.
Mrs Sisulu said she will engage diplomats early next year to discuss her country’s approach and the issues it should focus on during its tenure.
Among the issues are silencing the guns in Africa, addressing the scourge of extremism and terrorism; and protecting women, children and civilians in conflict situations, Sisulu said.
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Reviewing the diplomatic achievements South Africa has made in 2018, Sisulu said South African diplomats across the world have done a great deal of work in promoting and protecting the image of their country.
“As we approach 2019, our diplomats will continue to lead in mobilising investment and promoting South Africa as an investment and tourism destination, thus contributing to job creation and poverty eradication,” she said.
In 2019, South Africa will also continue to focus on development, peace and security on the continent, Mrs Sisulu said.
Xinhua/NAN
