Save SA to host 'real' Sona in Cape Town

8th February 2017 By: News24Wire

Save SA to host 'real' Sona in Cape Town

Save SA convener Sipho Pityana

The Save South Africa campaign will host a People's Assembly on the “real” State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Cape Town on Wednesday.

The event will be held in St George's Cathedral, opposite Parliament, starting at 10:00.

Save SA convener Sipho Pityana said last week that the event is designed to allow South Africans to share their grievances about the current African National Congress government.

In its invite, the campaign listed six objectives in holding the alternative address a day before President Jacob Zuma is due to open Parliament on Thursday.

The campaign hopes to get a diverse crowd of people from all sectors of civil society to demand Zuma’s resignation, increase political accountability, and to stop the nuclear energy deal.

“The real Sona is a dynamic and vibrant discussion that highlights the real issues facing South Africa, as well as the solutions to our crisis,” it reads.

“Come armed with your ideas for the real Sona and pin them to our Sona wall.”

The official Sona will deny the real problems facing South Africans, including service delivery, the economy, political unrest, and corruption, the campaign said.

It hoped to cement a partnership with the Energy Justice campaign to create wider awareness of the pending nuclear energy deal and lay a foundation for a national campaign to halt the nuclear deal this year. It called it “Zuma’s greatest tender grab”.

Save SA urged South Africans to attend the event, to sign the “People's Motion of No Confidence” online and to write to or contact their MPs about the nuclear deal.

It said it would publish the list of all MPs and their contact details on its website.