DA leader Mmusi Maimane appeared stunned when a diplomat told him that business people seem impressed by the work that President Cyril Ramaphosa is doing to boost the economy and "are ready to take their votes from the DA and give them to the ANC".

This was after Maimane delivered a 48-minute speech which was billed as an alternative state of the nation address and which took place on Wednesday, a day before Ramaphosa is set to deliver his state of the nation address on Thursday.

In his speech Maimane thrashed the governing ANC for corruption, failure to create jobs and an environment for job-creation, other governance failures including at Eskom, a failure to fight poverty and to act against wrongdoers, some of whom are cabinet ministers.

The event was attended in the main by DA public representatives, diplomats and journalists.

The consul general of Portugal in Cape Town, José Carlos Reis Arsénio, told Maimane that contrary to his speech about a failing ANC, various business people who are in contact with the consulate, including some from the Cape Town-based Portuguese community, were "quite pleased" with Ramaphosa's performance as far as business and the economy were concerned.