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Parliament of the Republic of South Africa wishes to reject as selective analysis, one sided and misleading, the allegations that Parliament has spent over R11 million in organising and staging the State of the Nation Address on 9 February 2017.

Premier annual events held in Cape Town like SONA pump millions of rands into the economy of the City of Cape Town and the Province of the Western Cape, a fact that is regrettably often not acknowledged by critics of Parliament. A factual study in this regard is being conducted to expose the actual statistical economic impact including tourism, economic development and job creation.

Parliament had made a commitment over a number of years to progressively reduce expenditure on SONA through more prudent management and had been succeeding as it reached a R4m mark in 2017. Parliament is confident that when all bills are paid and everything reconciled it may be even far less than the target. Parliament has ensured that high quality and delivery standards of this spectacle event in its corporate events calendar are maintained and improved.

Issued by Parliament of the Republic of South Africa