After President Zuma regaled the masses with his grand plan for the nation in the 2012 version of the state of the nation address, I chatted to Al-Jazeera about how exactly the speech was received among the chattering/twittering classes.
Khadija Patel, a journalist at the online news website Daily Maverick told Al Jazeera that there was a lot of activity on the social media platform Twitter all week, building up to Thursday’s address.“I think the speech this year disproved apathy in South African politics among the chattering classes. All week there has been a great deal of discussion on what exactly President Zuma should say.
“Expectations were not very high. Most people didn’t expect the President to say anything especially poignant or even useful and yet they tuned in their droves – some to complain about Zuma’s poor oratory skills, others to complain about his pronunciation – but at the end of the speech many feel Zuma acquitted himself well.
“The speech was by no means perfect, it lacked detail on crucial points and failed to acknowledge foreign policy altogether but it was enough to inspire a lukewarm reception from the public.”