President Jacob Zuma announced his Cabinet on Sunday evening, 25 May, and much has been said about the appointments and omissions, and how this would affect the respective ministries. One issue that has been overlooked is what impact the new cabinet will have on Parliament and its committees.

Aside from ...

Gender activists around the country have been stewing this week since the ANC’s announcement of its almost all male selection of premiers as well as the DA’s mostly male cabinet. Whatever the reasons for these selections, these two events have put a spotlight on gender equality in the country. For ...

At a seminar co-hosted by the Budget Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF), Section 27 and Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) yesterday, Daygan Eager from the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) did a presentation on what the recent budget tells us about progress on National Health Insurance (NHI).

Eager said that ...

After the National Assembly’s highly energised and much talked about swearing in ceremony, all eyes and ears are on President Zuma’s inauguration where he will take the oath of office in front of the nation. Many people are speculating about the where, the costs and the details of this ceremony, ...

On Thursday, 22 May, Budget Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF), Section 27 and Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) hosted a Budget Justice Seminar. At the Seminar, Isobel Frye from the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute presented an interesting study on social grants in the 2014 budget and the forgotten ...

Parliament’s two Houses, the National Assembly (NA) and National Council of Provinces (NCOP), have just concluded their first sittings – where Members of Parliament were sworn in, and the President was formally elected along with the Speaker of the NA, the Chairperson of the NCOP, and other relevant office bearers. ...

Parliament’s second House, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), held it’s first sitting today, 22 May, where 54 permanent delegates representing their respective provinces were sworn in. Unlike yesterday’s lengthy and robust first sitting of the National Assembly (NA), the NCOP sitting proved to be more sedate, with the entire ...

Today, 21 May, marked the first sitting of the Fifth democratic Parliament with the National Assembly meeting to swear in Members of Parliament (MP), choose a Speaker and Deputy Speaker and formally elect the President of the Republic.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng called upon all 400 NA MPs, 10 at ...

Today, ahead of the first sitting of Parliament tomorrow, ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, announced that Max Sisulu will not be returning as Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), and that the nomination for Speaker of the House is party stalwart Baleka Mbete. Lechesa Tsenoli has been named as the ...

South African activist, Zachie Achmat expressed his views at the Hanns Seidel Foundation’s roundtable discussion regarding this year’s election results.

Achmat said the results affirmed the “enormous class and race divide” in our society due to people’s failure to vote. Over 40% of the electoral did not participate in elections. ...