Ramaphosa's 2026 SONA Pledges R1 Trillion Infrastructure Drive, National Water Committee, and 5,500 New Police Officers
CAPE TOWN, 12 February 2026. President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his annual State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of Parliament at Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening, presenting an agenda centred on infrastructure investment, a new national response to South Africa's water crisis,...
Ramaphosa's 2026 SONA Pledges R1 Trillion Infrastructure Drive, National Water Committee, and 5,500 New Police Officers
CAPE TOWN, 12 February 2026. President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his annual State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of Parliament at Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening, presenting an agenda centred on infrastructure investment, a new national response to South Africa's water crisis, crime reduction, and local government reform, and declaring that South Africa had "turned a corner" from years of economic decline.
The centrepiece of the address was a commitment to R1 trillion in public infrastructure investment over three years, described by Ramaphosa as "the largest allocation of its kind in our country's history", paired with a target to attract R2 trillion in new private and public investment over five years. The programme would fund expanded port and rail capacity, high-speed rail initiatives, and a commitment to derive 40% of South Africa's electricity supply from renewable sources by 2030.
Ramaphosa announced the creation of a National Water Crisis Committee, which he said he would chair personally, together with a commitment of R156 billion in water and sanitation infrastructure over three years and a R54 billion performance incentive for metropolitan municipalities willing to undertake structural water-services reform. He identified water security as "the single most important issue" for many South Africans, with widespread service delivery protests driven by unreliable and inadequate access to water.
On public safety, Ramaphosa committed to recruiting 5,500 additional police officers and authorised the deployment of the South African National Defence Force to address gang violence in the Western Cape and Gauteng. He announced a criminal justice reform initiative modelled on Operation Vulindlela, the existing inter-departmental unit credited with breaking administrative bottlenecks in the electricity and logistics sectors.
Local government reform featured prominently. The President pledged a revised White Paper on Local Government with what he described as "fundamental changes" to municipal governance structures, including mechanisms to insulate senior municipal officials from direct political interference in their appointments. He also announced plans for redesigning the Social Relief of Distress grant to provide broader livelihood support and committed to ending child stunting by 2030.
The address was delivered before a full parliamentary chamber and a national television audience. The GNU parties broadly welcomed the commitments, while opposition parties including the Economic Freedom Fighters and the MK Party, which boycott Parliament, were absent. The Democratic Alliance indicated it would scrutinise implementation rather than commitments.
The State of the Nation Address is delivered annually by the South African President at the opening of Parliament, outlining government priorities and performance for the year ahead.