ITS ALL SYTEMS GO FOR THE SOPA, SAYS SPEAKER 
GPL Speaker Ntombi Mekgwe.
On Monday, 26 February 2018, in my capacity as Speaker of Gauteng Provincial Legislature, I will preside over the Sitting of the House to mark the Official Opening of the Fifth Session of the Fifth Legislature, where in terms of Rule 14 of the Standing Orders of the Legislature, the Honourable Premier David Makhura will deliver the State of the Province Address (SOPA).
SOPA is an important event through which the Legislature provides a platform for the Premier to outline and account on the Programme of GPG which is Transformation, Modernisation and Re-Industrialisation (TMR), for the year ahead. This is an opportunity for Government to inform the people of Gauteng on the progress and challenges in the implementation of the TMR and to further outline the Gauteng Provincial Government’s contribution to the National Development Plan (NDP), Continental and International commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.). The tabling of SOPA will be followed by the debate on the Thursday the 01 of March in which all the parties are afforded an opportunity to critique and make further inputs to the speech by the Premier. Subsequently, the Premier will reply on Friday the 2nd of March, to the inputs made and this will culminate to the tabling of budget by MEC: Finance on 6 March 2018. The Premier’s speech and budget set the Agenda for the Committees of the Legislature to exercise oversight on the Executive.
SOPA was initially scheduled to take place on the 19 February 2018 at the Tshwane University of Tshwane Soshanguve Campus. We took a decision to postpone the event following the decision of Parliament to postpone the State of the Nation Address (SONA). As per Legislative convention, practice and protocol, as GPL we could not host SOPA prior to SONA. As a caring institution, we wanted avoid the disruption of the academic programme as a result of the postponement.
We take this opportunity to express our sincerest appreciation to the Management and students of TUT, Speaker and officials of City of Tshwane and the people of Soshanguve for the warm welcome with which they embraced GPL and the partnerships established. We apologise that we had to revert to hosting SOPA at GPL precinct to avoid disrupting academic year for the second time. We apologise to all our partners for the inconvenience caused.
As the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) we are pleased to announce that we have been hard at work to ensure that the 2018 Official Opening of the GPL and the SOPA becomes an overwhelming success. We will deliver an event that characterizes the current mood of our nation that inspires hope, pride and confidence.
The theme for this year’s Official Opening is “Making your future work better – learning from Madiba”.
–STATEMENT SUPPLIED BY THE GPL
