A day after a bruising Budget Vote debate in which his governance track record was sharply questioned, President Cyril Ramaphosa in his reply chose to highlight the centrality of his Presidency in government - and how its 'innovative' interventions were delivering.

In a seemingly lacklustre reply lasting 45 minutes or so, President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday managed a couple of giggles and a pun about Wednesday's "'electrifying" debate.

IFP president emeritus Mangosuthu Buthelezi got a thanks, largely in return for thanking the Presidency. DA leader John Steenhuisen, who had called Ramaphosa a "confidence trickster" over the dissipated New Dawn, got a brickbat for lacking perspective and having forgotten the impact of Covid on South African lives and livelihoods, the July 2021 public violence, and more.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Groenewald got both - an acknowledgement for proposing water issues should be treated like the electricity crisis and a klap for describing the old Republic Day as one of liberation for the Afrikaners from the Brits when it was "a day of humiliation for black people in this country".

That's about as good as it got. Only one of the four Presidency ministers who spoke in the debate got a presidential mention - that was Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who had presented lists of targets for megawatts to be put on the grid over 90 days and by the end of December 2023.

"... (I)f one considers the work that is...