With suspensions, court battles and controversial bills, brace yourself for a lit SONA 2024
The annual State of The Nation Address (SONA) date has been announced as Thursday, 8 February 2024.
This will be President Cyril Ramaphosa’s eighth SONA and isn’t without the usual drama.
The annual address provides the President with an opportunity to speak to the nation on the general state of South Africa, reflect on a wide range of political, economic, and social matters within the domestic and global contexts, account to the nation on the work of Government, and set out the Government’s program of action.
A joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament, SONA has, in recent times, been marked by (sometimes hilarious) disruptions from opposition parties. The most famous of these was the 2023 SONA, when six members of parliament (MPs) from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), including party president Julius Malema, rushed the stage to protest while the president delivered his speech. They were calling for Ramaphosa’s resignation following the Phala Phala scandal.
Last year, Parliament’s Powers and Privileges Committee found the six EFF MPs guilty of contempt of Parliament and issued them a month-long suspension from 1 to 29 February 2024. It also recommended that they be docked pay. This would mean that the suspended members would miss Thursday’s address.
The EFF then approached the Western Cape High Court to have their suspension overturned. This failed Tuesday when the Court struck the matter off the roll with costs. EFF spokesperson Sinawo Tambo, who is one of the six suspended MPs, said the ruling was politically motivated. “The partisan and draconian decision to suspend the president of the EFF, Julius Malema, the deputy president Floyd Shivambu, secretary-general Marshall Dlamini and commissars Sinawo Tambo, Vuyani Pambo and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi for contempt of parliament is clearly politically motivated and aims to intimidate those who seek to hold the government accountable,” said Tambo. The EFF has launched another application to challenge the new rules.
But is what the six MPs did a criminal offence? Criminal law expert Professor Stephen Tuson told News24 that a crime did not appear to be committed, stating there was a fine line between criminal conduct and legitimate protest.
Traditionally, the President makes key Government announcements during SONA. Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshaveni told journalists that the President will likely sign off on the controversial National Health Insurance Bill before this year’s national elections.
Ntshavheni said, “We think it’s a priority that it must be signed during this period so that the full implementation can take place” under the new administration. Ramaphosa’s cabinet held a strategy meeting in Pretoria on Thursday, the last one before the elections.
Attribution: David Harrison, Flickr
