Cyril Ramaphosa’s stimulus package gets social media talking

Remember the early days of President Cyril Ramaphosa rise to power?

He was loved across South Africa, and especially on social media. But that love affair, that “ramaphoria” as it was known, has largely abated.

At the Union Buildings on Friday morning, Ramaphosa announced a R400-billion stimulus package that he and his administration hopes will reignite the smouldering South African economy.

President Ramaphosa: The #StimulusPackage has four broad parts:
1 implementation of growth enhancing economic reforms
2 reprioritisation of public spending to support job creation
3 the establishment of an Infrastructure Fund
4 addressing urgent matters in education & health

— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) September 21, 2018

The country is currently in a technical recession, with the last two quarters seeing economic contraction rather than growth. Clearly, something is needed.

Some on Twitter supported Ramaphosa’s vision of that something. If not that, they appreciated said vision.

It’s easy to be cynical about the #StimulusPackage, but this is arguably the biggest & most important post democratic economic project we’ve embarked on. My personal opinion is that pres Ramaphosa deserves our backing and buy-in with this. For all our sakes.

— Bradley Hendricks (@bradhendricks) September 21, 2018

What a hopeful stimulus package posited by Cyril Ramaphosa. It is so refreshing to hear policy certainty in terms of legislation in the mining sector as well as an inclusive expertise based decision making approach to attend to our economic issues #StimulusPackage

— K♌belo Thabo ♍ekoa (@kabzmekoa) September 21, 2018

Other were more cynical…

CR : We are going to spend a lot of money on boosting the economy.

SA : Where is the money coming from?

CR : Will get back to you on that one.#StimulusPackage #Ramaphosa

— Simon Grindrod (@SimonPGrindrod) September 21, 2018

#StimulusPackage is just another way of saying that government will attempt to save the economy without admitting that government is the reason for our economic woes.

— Daniël Eloff (@DJEloff) September 21, 2018

I wouldn’t be too excited about the #StimulusPackage …., governing party is not known for distributing money in places & projects that are deserving.

Year from now there’s gon be a ‘commission ‘ on how funds were misappropriated 😪

— private figure (@Ndilegraphy) September 21, 2018

What a load of wank #StimulusPackage

— Roman Cabanac (@RomanCabanac) September 21, 2018

The “#StimulusPackage” won’t stimulate our economy…but it will definitely stimulate the pockets of politicians and rent-seeking crooked cronies!#Ramaphosa is simply announcing more DEBT and more BUREAUCRACY!

Dont fall for this nonsense, we need reform not more of the same!

— Sihle Ngobese (@BigDaddyLiberty) September 21, 2018

Every six months, we get a ‘new’ economic plan, which is just a repackaged old economic plan, thin on details. ‘Prioritising infrastructure’ has been a ‘priority’ since ‘94. The old ones are out of ideas, we need new blood. 😏 #StimulusPackage

— Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh 📚 (@SizweMpofuWalsh) September 21, 2018

I wouldn’t be too excited about the #StimulusPackage …., governing party is not known for distributing money in places & projects that are deserving.

Year from now there’s gon be a ‘commission ‘ on how funds were misappropriated 😪

— private figure (@Ndilegraphy) September 21, 2018

…and questioned Ramaphosa’s and his cabinet’s credentials as president and government respectively.

What did we expect from #Ramaphosa, I mean this is a guy who gave us a glorified constitution that oppresses us til today. If it wasn’t for shares “donated” to him by his masters he wouldn’t even be rich. The guy bit more than he could chew, I mean WTF is a #StimulusPackage pic.twitter.com/DQTiyapChJ

— Tokzen (@ZikodeThokozani) September 21, 2018

It’s hard to adopt this because some of us have lost confidence and uncertain on [ANC] government. Those investments will hardly be utilized for the effect to the plan and its administrators will channel and procure this amongst themselves. #StimulusPackage

— Ntethelelo Gonya (@Ntethelelogonya) September 21, 2018

Others wondered where all the money was coming from.

If it was Zuma who announced #StimulusPackage, the same journalists who gave #Ramaphosa a standing ovation as he exited the chamber, would have asked “Where is the money going to come from?”

— Hloni Nyetanyane (@HloniNyetanyane) September 21, 2018

However, it seems that investors like the sound of the stimulus package. The rand strengthened on Friday to R14.25 at the time of writing.

Feature image: ITU Pictures via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)