While some in the Government of National Unity were happy with the measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday night, opposition members said his speech was merely a repeat of previous promises.

Opposition political leaders on Thursday criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa's Opening of Parliament Address, accusing the President of failing to address the real issues facing South Africans.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba dismissed the address as mere propaganda for the Government of National Unity (GNU).

"The President did everything possible to sell this pipe dream of GNU rather than actually dealing with the issues facing people of our country," said Mashaba.

He questioned how the President planned to handle the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) stance on the economy, noting, "The DA believes that inequality will be addressed by a growing economy, but black people are not poor because we want to be poor; it is because of many years of colonisation, and we need intervention."

uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela labelled the address as "lies, lies, lies, continuous lies". He accused Ramaphosa of making false promises about job creation, calling out the President's statement that the Presidential Employment Stimulus had created almost 2 million "work and livelihood opportunities".

"There is no such thing as 2 million jobs; he is referring to the Expanded Public Works Programme where people are rotated in the same jobs," said Ndhlela.

He predicted the GNU's...