Persuasive strategies and ideological framing in Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2026 State of the Nation Address: a critical discourse analysis

This study examines persuasive strategies and ideological framing in the 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative research design and was grounded in Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive and ideological discourse framework. Purposive sampling was utilised to identify and select salient Excerpts from the 2026 SONA that exemplify significant rhetorical and ideological features. These Excerpts were analysed through the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis to explore how linguistic choices operate as persuasive strategies and as vehicles of ideological construction. The findings reveal that Cyril Ramaphosa employed multiple persuasive strategies to construct a coherent narrative of national identity, governance legitimacy, and collective responsibility. The strategies included positive self-presentation, inclusive pronouns, and national in-group construction, framing government and citizens as a unified, resilient collective. Controlled negative presentation acknowledged challenges while sustaining credibility, and ideological polarisation contrasted the in-group with threats such as crime. Historical appeals, repetition, parallelism, and future-oriented promises reinforced moral legitimacy, civic values, and policy competence. These strategies intertwined linguistic, rhetorical, and ideological devices to construct representations of public trust, collective participation, and national cohesion, while simultaneously negotiating the challenges of political legitimacy, coalition governance, and socioeconomic inequality.