Khaya Sithole | Tintswalo's dilemma: Where the SONA fairytale falls flat

The last State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by the sixth democratic administration will be remembered for the nostalgic throwbacks of the first 30 years of democracy and the bittersweet reflections it evoked across society.

Cyril Ramaphosa himself – who has spent those three decades vacillating between constitutional drafter; party politician, businessman, philanthropist and statesman – represents a story of possibilities that once defined the potential of a post-democratic dispensation.

The idea that a black citizen, groomed from a mining industry that formed the bedrock of the economy - who managed to harness legal skills used to advocate for better workplace conditions for mining workers and leading them through multiple conflicts - could end up crafting the blueprint for a Constitutional democracy, was far removed from the mission that the National Party of 1948 had contemplated.