Here’s why this year’s Sona will cost millions more than the last

The state of the nation address (Sona) this week will cost South Africans R4m, and about R1.2m on Thursday alone, much more than the R100,000 spent last year.

According to former National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise, the only costs parliament incurred last year were for the virtual platform for capturing the proceedings, and candles for a candlelight ceremony in honour of more than 46,800 people who succumbed to Covid-19.

In previous years, the event cost as much as R9.2m, but in 2019 spending was capped at R2.2m.  

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.

“The city hall is a place where we have to invest wall to wall in broadcast, ICT, catering, furniture and interpretation facilities. We have put aside, and this is a budget estimate, R4m and that includes the debates until the response from the president. On the day itself, we are anticipating an expenditure of about R1.2m,” Tyawa said. 

Last month, secretary of the National Assembly Masibulele Xaso told MPs that despite the need to move the Sona to Cape Town City Hall in the aftermath of the fire in the parliamentary precinct in January, this year’s event would cost about R1.9m “but that figure is being refined and could go down”.

It was not clear if this budget included the costs of the Sona debates and president’s address, which has been factored into this year’s R4m budget.

Why not go completely digital?

Asked why the event isn’t held virtually to save money, Mapisa-Nqakula said 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 on his address.

“It was important for us to take that political decision that no burning of a parliamentary building, no amount of sabotage will keep us from holding the Sona. It’s the only event where the head of state interacts with MPs,” said Mapisa-Nqakula. 

The speaker said Covid-19 regulations meant parliament could host the event.

“There is no way that when we are in level 1, we will not have an event. It was a political decision consciously taken, well debated and agreed that it is important for South Africans to have an appreciation that our work will not be distracted by what happened,” said Mapisa-Nqakula.