Parliament aims to keep SONA costs in line with budget

Parliament does not expect to exceed last year’s R7m budget for this week’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the government’s blueprint for the year ahead at the Cape Town City Hall on Thursday evening, with all the military pomp and ceremony that usually accompanies the occasion.

The event has been held at the City Hall since the 2022 fire, which gutted the National Assembly chamber, adding to the cost of hosting the annual event, which traditionally marks the start of the parliamentary year.

Over the years, Parliament has tried to cut back on the cost of the State of the Nation Address as austerity bites across State departments.

National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza says Parliament intends to keep this year’s event in line with others held at the City Hall.

"What Parliament has actually earmarked for the budget of SONA is more or less the same as last year, which is around R7m, and there are also sponsors that Parliament receives".

Presiding officers are hoping this will be the last SONA to be delivered away from the parliamentary precinct.

Didiza said delays to the start of the construction of the new Parliament have now been overcome.

"There was obviously a little delay in how the demolition must be done, given that it’s a heritage site and you needed to have heritage specialists of the built-environment who will be there all the time," she said.

Next week, members of Parliament (MPs) will debate the SONA in a dome tent erected across the road from Parliament, which was formally handed over by the Department of Public Works on Friday.

After initially being erected on the site a year ago, the dome has now been reinforced to withstand the erratic Cape Town weather, at a cost of around R30m to improve safety, acoustics, and temperature control, which MPs were unhappy about when it was briefly in use last year.