The DA says promises made by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his address at the party's election manifesto launch showed no sense of urgency. 

"All of his solutions are long term and slow when South Africa needs urgent change now," DA leader Mmusi Maimane said in a statement shortly after Ramaphosa’s address.

Ramaphosa delivered the party's annual January 8 statement to a thousands of ANC supporters who gathered at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban on Saturday. 

Maimane said Ramaphosa’s delivery was “full of more empty promises”, adding that he offered no leadership on how the country could come together and build “One South Africa for All”.

"Today’s ANC Manifesto Launch confirmed three things of vital importance to the people of South Africa: The ANC has not changed, Cyril Ramaphosa cannot deliver the immediate change our country needs, and his promises are empty," Maimane said.

He added that most of what the Ramaphosa promised had already been promised by previous presidents but was not delivered. 

"Nothing shows this more than his empty, pointless words on job creation. Ramaphosa promises 275 000 new jobs a year, but in his first year in the Presidency, South Africa lost 278 000 jobs," Maimane said.

He said even though the target of 275000 jobs would be reached, it would take 35 years to defeat unemployment. 

"It will also take 35 years to deal with all outstanding land claims at the current wait, despite many promises to speed it up. Land reform claimants do not have 35 years to wait," said Maimane.

Maimane added that Ramaphosa had made no mention of how the party would deal with the fighting the access to job opportunities unfairly by those who were "connected". 

"On education, the President spoke of teaching young children coding and the “internet of things”, while 78% of 10-year-olds cannot read for meaning, and children are dying in school pit latrines. The President is totally out of touch with the real problems our country faces." 

"What is clear is that President Ramaphosa is Mr Delay rather than Mr Deliver, as he hides his inability to take action on any issue behind endless talk shops and summits. He is simply not able to make a clean break from the corrupt ANC that brought our country to the brink of a failed state. But more crucially, he cannot introduce the bold reform our economy needs to create jobs and access to opportunity" said Maimane.

During his address, Ramaphosa amongst other issues, acknowledged that state capture and corruption have "weakened" some public institutions, "undermined effective governance and contributed to the poor performance of our country"

However, Maimane said Ramaphosa had no plan on how to tackle corruption urgently.