A request from South African opposition parties to postpone the president's State of the Nation Address "is receiving consideration", the parliament's speaker Baleka Mbete said in a letter to the country's main opposition party seen by Reuters.

Opposition parties want the state of the nation speech, which President Jacob Zuma is scheduled to deliver on Thursday, postponed until after a no-confidence vote on Zuma's leadership. The speaker of parliament has scheduled the no-confidence vote for February 22.