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The Speaker and Deputy Speaker are being disingenuous and dictatorial in contending that Cope and other opposition parties should be held accountable for fruitless and wasteful expenditure given our stated intention, on principle, not to attend the SONA function this year.

Cope wishes to make it clear that the first time that it became aware of Parliament’s preparations for SONA was on Thursday, 5 February 2015. In other words, a week before the event. There was no consultation with us.

Cope has set out its reasons for not attending these functions and wishes to reiterate its reasons:

Spending R4,5 million, approximately R2500 per guest for the SONA is unwarranted. Repeated requests by COPE on questions of costs went unanswered by the ANC. Therefore, for the Speaker to determine unilaterally to hold opposition parties accountable for losses arising from not attending the reception is bluster. We were not consulted and the decision to spend millions was not ours.

The Congress of the People has argued consistently and vociferously for consumption side expenditure and futile spending by the ANC government to be brought to an end.

COPE, in keeping with its principled position, will therefore not attend the SONA cocktail and demands that President Zuma stops the wanton wastage of scarce public resources.

We believe that in a country crying out for social upliftment, poverty eradication and service delivery, optimal resources must flow to the people to transform their lives.

Everyone with a social conscience should decline the President's invitation to eat and drink at the expense of the poor.

The Congress of the People (COPE) makes common cause with other political parties of the same view.

Cope further notes the general lack of consultation between Parliament and opposition parties in respect of SONA

Issued by COPE