State of Nation Address postponed
The State of the Nation Address has been postponed, the Speaker of the National Assembly confirmed on Tuesday, 48 hours before the ceremony was set to take place.
Mbete, along with the chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Thandi Modise, addressed the media at the steps of the National Assembly on Tuesday.
"The state of the nation address is an important occasion in the national political programme of parliment. We have been dismayed in the past four years at the disruption, anarchy and chaos that have been characteristic of this annual joint sitting which is in some ways marks the opening of parliament," Mbete says.
Mbete says the threats for SONA to be postponed have caused the National Assembly great concern.
She says they have resigned the fact there is very little likelihood that there will be no disruption.
"With this in mind we decided to approach the president to propose that we postpone the joint sitting," says Mbete.
She says when they met with the president, they learned he was planning on writing parliament for the ceremony to be postponed.
"We need to create room for establishing a much conducive political atmosphere in parliament," she concluded.
A new date is set to be announced soon, but Modise says they hope not to postpone it by more than a week.
Listen to the full speech below:
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Read the full statement below:
State of Nation Address postponed by Jacaranda FM News on Scribd