ActionSA has voiced strong criticism of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national address on illegal migration, arguing that the speech offered reassurances without the actionable framework needed to address the country’s border security challenges.
Speaking on behalf of the party, spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni said ActionSA had reviewed the address with high expectations but left disappointed by the absence of measurable commitments. “We were hoping for much more punch,” Ngobeni stated, noting that many South Africans have grown wary of presidential responses that prioritize tone over tangible outcomes.
Ngobeni stressed that rhetoric must be matched by implementation, adding: “The proof will be in the pudding.” She pointed to the Phala Phala incident from over two years ago as an example of a prior high-profile presidential address that, in ActionSA’s view, yielded limited concrete results.
The party outlined three specific gaps it identified in the President’s messaging:
1. Authentic acknowledgment of public sentiment
ActionSA wanted the President to move beyond what Ngobeni termed a “glib passing comment” and offer a more robust validation of the concerns many South Africans hold regarding migration pressures. While the President did reference public sentiment, the party believes the treatment lacked the depth and defensiveness citizens expected.
2. Defined implementation timelines
With civil society marches having set a public deadline of 30 June for government action, ActionSA argued the President should have reciprocated with clear, date-bound milestones for policy rollout and border reform. The absence of such timelines, the party says, undermines accountability.
3. Resourcing the Border Management Authority
Perhaps most critically, Ngobeni highlighted that the Border Management Authority currently operates at approximately 25% capacity. “Everything that he said to us this evening, all these measures that he’s talking about, will never actually come to pass because we have a border management authority that is really underresourced, chronically underresourced,” she explained. Despite references to support measures during the State of the Nation Address, ActionSA contends that the Authority has not received the sustained investment needed to reach full operational capability.
ActionSA maintains that without addressing these structural and communicative shortcomings—public trust, time-bound deliverables, and institutional capacity—new policy directions on migration risk repeating a cycle of announcement without execution.
The party has called for follow-up briefings that detail budget allocations, staffing plans, and performance indicators for the Border Management Authority, insisting that transparency on these fronts is essential to restoring public confidence in the government’s migration strategy.