[imagesource: Gallo Images / ER Lombard]

Later today, President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

Proceedings have been moved from Parliament to the Cape Town City Hall so it’s worth checking out all of the road closures if you’re going to be in the CBD.

A number of roads in the Newlands area will also be affected.

One of the minor joys of SONA 2021 was that the whole charade only cost R100 000 because it was held virtually. That money went towards setting up the virtual platform, and the candles lit in honour of the 46 000 South Africans who had lost their lives to COVID-19 at that time.

I should say cost us R100 000, because taxpayers foot the bill, which brings us to the splurge we’ve just dished out on today.

TimesLIVE below:

The state of the nation address (Sona) this week will cost South Africans R4m, and about R1.2m on Thursday alone…

During a media briefing on Tuesday, acting secretary Penelope Tyawa and speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said this year’s Sona had exceeded budget because technologies readily available in parliament needed to be outsourced to the new venue.

R4 million, just like that.

What does the military flyover cost? And setting up the red carpet? If taxpayers cover the costs, can we not have some sort of say as to how it’s spent?

I’d be fine with paying for the political bigwigs to be interviewed on the red carpet, provided we could go the Dutch route and hurl rotten eggs at them to show our disgust. Money well spent.

When Mapisa-Nqakula was asked why we couldn’t again do SONA virtually to save money, she said that “government could not allow the devastating fire that destroyed parts of the parliamentary precinct to sabotage plans to do its work and deprive its members of an opportunity to engage Ramaphosa”.

I’m sure we are in for some mature, fruitful political discourse.

[source:timeslive]