Cape Town - The speaker of South Africa’s parliament said on Tuesday that parliament was working to ensure that a budget speech by Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba would go ahead on February 21, despite the president’s state of the nation address being postponed.
“This postponement has taken into account the scheduled tabling of the national budget in the next two weeks and we are going all out to make sure that the budget is not disturbed or postponed at all,” Baleka Mbete told reporters.
Mbete was addressing journalists outside Parliament to announce the official postponement of SONA. She was with Thandi Modise, the chairperson of the National Council Of Provinces.
Have you read: #SONA2018 postponed
She confirmed that they were continuing their interaction with the president of the ANC Cyril Ramaphosa.
Jackson Mthembu said the ANC caucus welcomed the decision to postpone SONA. This latest development comes after rising calls for President Jacob Zuma to step down and to not deliver SONA, both from within his own party and the opposition.