Pretoria - Members of Parliament from both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces will from today participate in a two-day debate of President Jacob Zuma’s 2016 State of the Nation Address.
The debate will be held in the National Assembly Chamber on Tuesday and Wednesday at 14h00.
President Zuma delivered the SONA last Thursday, where he focused mainly on the economy, something which was welcomed by the banking sector.
He conceded South Africa would not achieve its growth target of 5% per year by 2019 and acknowledged the risk of the country losing its investment grade status from ratings agencies.
He attributed this to volatile markets, weak currencies of emerging markets and the falling price of commodities.
While many of South Africa’s state owned companies (SOCs) are performing well, the President also announced that those that are no longer relevant will be phased out.
The President also announced austerity measures in the public sector, saying there was a need to curb spending in non-essential areas like entertainment.
He also said the issue of two capitals – Pretoria as the administrative capital and Cape Town as the legislative capital – needed to be discussed soon as part of reducing administrative costs.
It was also announced that government has established a state-owned pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela, which will participate in the supply of anti-retroviral drugs to the Department of Health from the 2016/17 financial year.
The President will reply to the debate on Thursday. - SAnews.gov.za
