The Week Ahead: Virtual meetings continue

The sound and picture quality was occasionally poor. There were IT glitches, MPs struggled to operate the mute function and meetings took time to get going.

However, the first week of virtual committee meetings was a relative success. The technical staff worked hard behind the scenes to coordinate everything and make the meetings (for the most part anyway) accessible to the public.

It’s unclear how long Parliament will operate under this new model but this has accelerated the Legislature's plans to become an e-Parliament.

Creating a virtual system capable of dealing with plenary sittings will be a lot more challenging where proceedings are usually more fluid and vibrant.

The coming week sees Parliament scheduling more virtual committee meetings, whose scope of oversight relates to government departments driving COVID-19 response measures.

Committees provide a platform for the public to present views directly to MPs. Share your on the ground experience and expert information to the relevant committees. Critically, what questions should MPs pose to the executive as they conduct their oversight work?

We have consolidated our reports on the COVID-19 related meetings here

Monday, 27 April 2020

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Health and Select Committee on Health and Social Services, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by the Minister of Health on the state of readiness of quarantine sites in provinces, shortage of personal protective equipment, services provided to refugees and asylum seekers, financial/budgetary implications of this pandemic for the Department, policy implications post the pandemic and update on vaccine trials], Virtual Meeting Platform, 07:00 – 09:00

Portfolio Committee on Health: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Dhlomo l Committee Secretary: Ms Vuyokazi Majalamba l Email: vmajalamba@parliament.gov.za

Tuesday, 28 April 2020

Portfolio Committee on Communications, (National Assembly), [Adoption of draft second term programme; Briefing by the Department and entities on COVID-19 activities; Briefing by Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) on the government communications strategy on COVID-19], Virtual Meeting Platform, 10:00 – 13:00

Portfolio Committee on Communications: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Maneli l Committee Secretary: Mr Thembinkosi Ngoma l Email: tngoma@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and Select Committee on Security and Justice, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on the removal and movement of refugees in Cape Town Central Business District during the lockdown. Period; Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on the areas of services to be rendered during the COVID-19 period; Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on the closure and opening of the Ports of entry during the COVID-19 period; Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on the alleged procurement of the Beitbridge borderline fence and the logistics services for the removal of the refugees in Cape Town], Virtual Meeting Platform, 14:00 – 16:00

Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Bongo l Committee Secretary: Mr Eddie Mathonsi l Email: emathonsi@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development and Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by the Department of Small Business Development on Financial Support Interventions recently announced by the Minister during Covid 19 Lockdown, with reference to: Number or spread of applications received per each category and approvals; SMME Business / Growth Resilience Facility; SMME Debt Relief Scheme; Spaza Support Relief Scheme; How is the Department dealing with influx of applications], Virtual Meeting Platform, 16:00 – 18:00

Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Siwela l Committee Secretary: Mr King Kunene l Email: kkunene@parliament.gov.za

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and Select Committee on Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by the Department of Basic Education on an Update and Status of Schooling during COVID-19 Lockdown; Possible Joint Video/Tele-Conference with SC on Education and Technology, Arts and Culture], Virtual Meeting Platform, 10:00 – 12:00

Portfolio Committee on Basic Education: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Mbinqo-Gigabal Committee Secretary: Mr Llewellyn Brown l Email: lbrown@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Police and Select Committee on Security and Justice, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by the SAPS on police management of the National State Disaster lockdown; Briefing by IPID on police misconduct during the National State Disaster lockdown], Virtual Meeting Platform, 14:00 – 16:00

Portfolio Committee on Police: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Joemat-Pettersson l Committee Secretaries: Ms Babalwa Mbengo l Email: bmbengo@parliament.gov.za or Ms Zoleka Kula l Email: zkula@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and Select Committee on Security and Justice, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing on measures taken by the Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services to deal with COVID-19 in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Department of Correctional Services], Virtual Meeting Platform, 16:00 – 18:00

Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services : Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Magwanishe l Committee Secretary: Siyabamkela Mthonjeni l Email: smthonjeni@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry and Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Industry Development, Small Business development, Tourism, Employment and Labour, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing to engage the Minister on Government’s response to the potential negative impact of the Corona-virus pandemic on the economy and the measures considered to mitigate against it], Virtual Meeting Platform, 09:30

Portfolio Committee on Transport: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Zwane l Committee Secretary: Ms Valerie Carelse l Email: vcarelse@parliament.gov.za

Thursday, 30 April 2020

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Transport and Select Committee on Transport, Public Service and Administration, Public Works and Infrastructure, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [The Minister to brief the Committees and provide an update on the implementation of Covid-19 regulations in terms of the following aspects: The current adherence to the regulations and implementation by the Department of Transport thereof in terms of the following: Statistics of vehicle movement from 26 March 2020 to date on all roads that have vehicle counting technology installed (TomTom vehicle movement information, ETC vehicle count technology on Gauteng Highways, SANRAL toll gate vehicle count information, Provincial road vehicle count technology installed on roads); Level of compliance with regulations by Public transport operators per category; Indicate how non-compliance (if any) has been reprimanded. Assessing specific sectors of transportation of people involved in essential services. Transportation of essential goods. Transportation of petroleum products from source of production, refineries, storage facilities to service stations. Transportation of goods from the ports in terms of: Figures of cross border road traffic to/from neighbouring countries; Level of compliance (statistics) in the Maritime and Aviation sector; Indicate how non-compliance (if any) has been reprimanded. Transportation of mine workers under new regulations; Health safety standards on public transport; and Plans for the phased introduction of transport that is not operational during the lockdown period, including the future of Public Transport (all modes) and mitigation measures to be put in place (such as adherence to social distancing and continued sanitizing of transport)], Virtual Meeting Platform, 10:00 – 12:00

Portfolio Committee on Transport: Address letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Zwane l Committee Secretary: Ms Valerie Carelse l Email: vcarelse@parliament.gov.za

Joint Meeting: Select and Standing Committees on Finance, Standing Committee on Appropriations and Standing Committee on Public Accounts, (National Assembly and National Council of Provinces), [Briefing by National Treasury on the Fiscal Implication of COVID-19; Briefing by National Treasury on the Impact of COVID-19 on the fiscal framework and Appropriations; Briefing by National Treasury on interventions by government to save and stimulate the economy; Briefing by National Treasury implications of non-compliance with procurement laws and policies], Virtual Meeting Platform, 13:00

Standing Committee on Finance: Address the letter to the Chairperson: Honourable Maswanganyi l Committee Secretary: Mr Allan Wicomb l Email: awicomb@parliament.gov.za

*If you click the Committee link above, you will find the Committee Membership and can copy your letter to individual committee members also

View the schedule page here.

*This summary is based on the schedule as it is published on Monday morning. The programme is subject to frequent updating so the link above needs to be checked daily to confirm the programme for the day.