Parliament confident SONA will not be disrupted

National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise says no disruptions are expected during the upcoming State of the Nation Address. Modise says the SONA will be guided by the implementation of the Joint Rules of Parliament.

Modise was responding to questions from the media during a briefing by Presiding Officers on preparations for President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address.

“The question on whether we are expecting any disruptions, we are not expecting any disruptions. We have not been given any indications that there is going to be any disruptions. Have we any contingency measures or extraordinary measures? No, we will not. We will stick to what we usually do, our rules. We will ensure that there is decorum. If anything happens we will fall back on our rules and do what we usually do, strictly going through the session, relying on the Rules of a Joint Sitting of Parliament,” says Modise.

Meanwhile, Parliament will spend about R2 million on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address (SONA) next Thursday.

President Ramaphosa will address a Joint Sitting of Parliament on the 20th of June.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker Lechesa Tsenoli says the budgeted amounted is far less than what was previously spent five years ago, ” Parliament has budgeted a total of what will likely be R2 million plus or so, for the State of the Nation Address ceremony and indications are that we will spend significantly less than the budgeted figure. For the February SONA ceremony, we budgeted over R2 million and closed with total spending of R1.6 million. Parliament has been tightening SONA budgets in the last few years, which has despite the price inflation came down from R9.5 million five years ago, to R2 million for this SONA ceremony.”