Africa-Press – South-Africa. ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina has expressed concern that the “energy crisis” could disrupt the State of the Nation Address (SONA) next month.
“I hope we will have the necessary backup as we are facing the energy crisis of load shedding,” said Majodina.
She was speaking at the first meeting of the National Assembly Programming Committee on Thursday, where the SONA was discussed. The SONA will be held on 9 February at 19:00 in the Cape Town City Hall.
Secretary to the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso responded to Majodina: “The necessary backup is in place, so we shouldn’t have problems.”
He didn’t elaborate on what the backup plan was.
Majodina proposed that the debate on the SONA – on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the following week – be rescheduled to start at 10:00 rather than the traditional 14:00 to avoid the worst bouts of load shedding. She was particularly concerned about women Members of Parliament arriving home late at night.
Xaso said rescheduling the debates would have to be discussed with the National Council of Provinces, at its joint sitting, but added that he did not foresee any problems.
Xaso also said there would have to be a sitting before SONA to pass a motion that would allow Parliament to sit at the Cape Town City Hall. He said it would be a general motion so that they wouldn’t have to do it every time they were going to use the City Hall.
The City Hall will also be used for the budget speech on 22 February and a commemoration of the first speaker of the democratic Parliament, Frene Ginwala.
National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the presiding officers had proposed a joint sitting to pay homage to Ginwala on 6 February. She said it would be unusual to hold it before SONA, but they thought it wouldn’t be timely to have it later.
Mapisa-Nqakula said:
The initial idea was to have the Ginwala commemoration on 2 February, but they learnt that there would be a Cabinet lekgotla on the same date.
Ginwala died on 12 January at the age of 90.
Following the fire that razed the National Assembly on 2 January 2022, the 2022 SONA was hosted at the Cape Town City Hall.
Some National Assembly plenaries were held in the Good Hope Chamber on the parliamentary precinct, but it can’t accommodate all MPs from both houses and the guests attending SONA and the budget speech.
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