The environmental advocacy group, The Green Connection has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to rethink his climate action response.
The group reacted to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation address and says South Africa’s future energy plans should not include oil and gas exploration.
Strategic Lead at the Green Connection Liziwe McDaid says more emphasis should be placed on using renewables to address energy challenges.

McDaid says future development should be more environmentally-focused.

Follow the full State of the Nation address here.

Related articles:

Taxpayers are set to fork around R4-million for this year’s State of the Nation Address proceedings.
This year’s SONA will, like in 2020, be hosted in a hybrid fashion.
Some delegates will attend the event in person at the Cape Town City Hall, while others will attend the event virtually.
The acting secretary of Parliament, Baby Tyawa says extra expenses have to be budgeted for, this year, after the fire at Parliament in January.

The amount includes the cost of proceedings for the post-SONA debates and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reply.

Tyawa says the 2020 SONA cost taxpayers around R208,000.

Access the full Parliamentary briefing here.

Related articles:

The speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula says the State of The Nation Address (SONA) will not be postponed.

On Sunday morning shortly after 6 am a fire broke out in the offices of the Old Assembly and quickly spread to the National Assembly.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is meant to deliver the SONA to the Joint Sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces on Thursday, 10 February at 7 pm.

In a briefing that took place while firefighters were still battling to contain the blaze, Mapisa Nqakula said: “Ours is to find an alternative venue to now hold this State of the Nation Address.”

President Ramaphosa was being briefed throughout the day about the fire and the initial extent of the damage.

Mapisa-Nqakula also asked that people not speculate as the cause of the fire until this has been determined as the result of an investigation that has already begun: “My plea with those on social media is that, until such a time that a report has been furnished that there was arson, we have to be careful not to make suggestions that there was an attack.”