President Jacob Zuma will deliver his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) at 19h00 on Thursday, 9 February 2012.
The SoNA is part of the opening of Parliament during a joint sitting of the two houses namely the National Assembly (NA) and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), which is convened by the President in terms of section 84(2)(d) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, read with Rule 7(1)(a) of the Joint Rules of Parliament.
Primarily, the State of the Nation Address provides the President with a platform to communicate to Parliament and the Joint National Assembly but also very importantly the address allows the President to communicate with the people of South Africa.
With SoNA, the President does not only address the nation in his capacity as Head of Government, but also as Head of State. The President takes stock of the previous year’s achievements and charts a common direction for the country for the coming year.
The SoNA is largely informed by the annual Cabinet Lekgotla in January where Cabinet assesses the impact of government programmes and deliberates on the forthcoming Programme of Action.
The 2012 January Lekgotla also served as a mid-term review during which Cabinet assessed progress made on the six New Growth Path job drivers - infrastructure development, agriculture, mining and beneficiation, manufacturing, the green economy and tourism, which aim to enhance growth, employment creation and equity.
The 2012 Cabinet Lekgotla also reported that Government had made notable progress across its five key priority areas of education, health, rural development, safety and crime prevention, as well as job creation.
This year’s SoNA takes place against the background of the celebration of 100 years by the ruling party, the African National Congress, which is regarded as part of the celebration of the country’s rich political heritage.
In addition, the President was last week at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos where the threat to the world economy emanating from the seemingly inadequate steps to resolve the Eurozone crisis dominated the discussions, and the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which was grappling with the challenge to make the AU a sharper instrument for the development of the continent.
In this context the President is likely to focus on the critical need for our country to move decisively and systematically in the implementation of policies and programmes that so far have helped us withstand the impact of the externally generated impediments to our development agenda.
The SoNA also takes place against the background of the bid by South Africa to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope. We hope to know before the end of April if we have been successful to host the SKA in Africa. South Africa is competing against Australia. This high-tech facility is about 50 to 100 times more sensitive than any other radio telescope on Earth and will be able to probe the edges of our Universe.
It will help us to answer fundamental questions in the fields of astronomy, physics and cosmology, and may even detect intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. We are immensely proud that this is not just a South African bid but also an African one that involves Namibia, Botswana Mozambique, Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya, Ghana and Zambia. The President will mobilise the country to support the bid.
The President is still working on his speech, and continues to contact Ministers from time to time to clarify and outline inputs from their departments that are aimed at taking forward the programme of action for the year.
The President’s SoNA weekend media programme includes the following:
The New Age SoNA breakfast briefingDate 10 February 2012
Venue: Grand West Casino Complex, Cape Town
(Media accreditation to be done with The New Age)
Date: Friday, 10 February 2012
Venue: De Zalze Golf Course, Stellenbosch
Time: 09h00
Date: Friday, 10 February 2012
Venue: Westin Hotel, Cape Town
Time: 19h00
Date: Saturday, 11 February 2012
Venue: Genadendaal, Cape Town
Time: 11h00
Enquiries on the media programme contact:
Nomfundo Mcetywa
Cell: 072 588 4548
Zanele Mngadi
Cell: 082 330 1148
Enquiries:
Mac Maharaj
Cell: 079 879 3203
