The Speaker of the National Assembly has received correspondence from the parliamentary leaders of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The one letter requests that the State of the Nation Address (SONA) scheduled for 8 February 2018 be postponed and the other that a motion of no confidence in the President be scheduled before the State of the Nation Address.

As SONA is a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, and the request directly affects them, both the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces will consider the correspondence and reply accordingly.

A joint sitting of Parliament on the State of the Nation Address is called by the President of the Republic in terms of the Constitution, through the presiding officers, and is scheduled by the multiparty joint programme committee. In applying their minds, the presiding officers will therefore take into consideration all these factors.

It is incorrect that the 2017 SONA cost over R11 million, as stated in the letter from the DA. A similar claim was made in February 2017 and Parliament issued a statement at the time stating: “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 the R4 million mark in 2017.”
 

Issued by Parliament of the Republic of South Africa