On February 12th all eyes will be on Parliament when President Jacob Zuma delivers the State of the Nation Address. All the three arms of government, business people, civil society, labour and ordinary citizens will attend the event. Parliament says the assurance from Eskom is however not a guarantee that there will be no black outs.
Secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana says: “ We have got assurances from Eskom on our engagement that there will be no power cuts in order to make sure that the event takes place.”
About four million rand has been budgeted for the event. Gengezi says the number of invited guests has also been reduced. Following EEF’s threats to continue insisting that President Zuma should first answer oral questions which he did not finish last year, there have been unconfirmed reports indicating that parliament will beef up security.
But, Mgidlana would not want to be drawn into this saying no extra ordinary security measures would be put in place for the event and that the relevant security personnel will be deployed as this is a high profile event involving the head of state.
Presiding officers of Parliament- Speaker Baleka Mbete, and NCOP Chairperson Thandi Modise will also brief the media next week on the eve of the opening of parliament.
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