{"id":95782,"date":"2026-02-12T16:33:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T16:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges"},"modified":"2026-02-12T18:22:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:22:50","slug":"ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa Says SA Turning the Corner Amid Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed a cautiously optimistic view about the country\u2019s trajectory ahead of this year&#8217;s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking exclusively to Cape Talk&#8217;s Lester Kiewit at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre on Wednesday, a historic day marking 36 years since Nelson Mandela walked free, Ramaphosa acknowledged that many people believe the country is turning a corner.<\/p>\n<p>However, he warned against excessive optimism, noting that South Africa still faces &#8216;huge problems&#8217; after a difficult decade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many people do say that we&#8217;re turning the corner. We&#8217;ve turned the corner, and things are beginning to look a lot better. But we should not be so optimistic, because there are still huge problems that we have to deal with. The past few years, 10 years or so, have been very difficult, and our people have gone through great challenges and great difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, we need to reflect on all that, but we also need to reflect on what the future portends, because this moment gives us an opportunity to look back and to look at the present and look forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed a cautiously optimistic view about the country\u2019s trajectory ahead of this year&#8217;s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday. Speaking exclusively to Cape Talk&#8217;s Lester Kiewit at the Drakenstein Correctional Centre on Wednesday, a historic day marking 36 years since Nelson Mandela walked free, Ramaphosa acknowledged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ramaphosa Says SA Turning the Corner Amid Challenges - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed a cautiously optimistic view about the country\u2019s trajectory ahead of this year&#039;s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramaphosa Says SA Turning the Corner Amid Challenges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed a cautiously optimistic view about the country\u2019s trajectory ahead of this year&#039;s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T16:33:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T18:22:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770907932.393218.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ramaphosa Says SA Turning the Corner Amid Challenges\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T16:33:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-12T18:22:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\"},\"wordCount\":205,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770907932.393218.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-says-sa-turning-the-corner-amid-challenges\",\"name\":\"Ramaphosa Says SA Turning the Corner Amid Challenges - 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