It's a big week in the NA chamber with MPs scheduled to sit for long hours to consider several bills and assorted committee reports.

The major plenary highlights will be the question sessions involving the Ministers in the Social Services Cluster and the Deputy President on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. ...

On Wednesday 28 October 2015, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) presented a progress report on the December 2015 deadline in terms of the Bucket Eradication Programme in formal areas. The Stats SA Community Survey was used as a baseline to determine the bucket toilet backlog in the country. ...

After a low key week, the main chambers have scheduled a broad and busy programme, which includes oral questions to the executive; ministerial and members’ statements, policy debates, and the processing of assorted bills, statutory instruments and committee reports.

In the National Assembly, the main plenary event will be the ...

Departments and their entities are subject to annual auditing by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), where an audit opinion is given based on a department's financial statements. In forming an audit opinion, AGSA determines the financial health of departments and if its performance met its predetermined objectives and if ...

Committees will continue examining government departments and state entities on their 2014/15 Annual Reports in preparation of their Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports. These reports may include proposals on the future use of resources and are a critical part of Parliament’s engagement with the budget for the following year.

The ...

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) presented its 2014/15 annual report to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Thursday, 15 October 2015. In its report, the Agency provided a status report on beneficiaries of social assistance, social assistance trends per province, as well as child grant beneficiaries.

The ...

Parliament resumes this week after a two-week constituency period. The fourth term will run for seven weeks and the programme is packed with activities. Some of the highlights include committee, oversight and legislative work; oral questions to the executive and a review of the national budget.

Later this month, the ...

On 29 September 2015, the Dullah Omar Institute held a roundtable discussion that explored whether working with South African Legislatures is still a valuable investment for civil society. The discussion, “ South Africa’s Legislatures in 2015: What’ the point?” used research done on public participation trends for the portfolio committees ...

By Sheilan Clarke

There were many interesting events in parliament over the past few months. From discussions about military conscription to Stellenbosch University’s appearance in parliament, here are five youth-related highlights from parliament’s third term.

Sending SA’s youth to the army

Earlier this year the presidency revealed they were discussing ...

The Minister of Police released the national crime statistics on Tuesday 28 September 2015. Trends show that there has been an increase in contact crimes (0.9%) and contact related crimes (1.9%). Property related crimes decreased by 0.8% and there was a continued overall decrease in crimes against women and children. ...