It's a week of farewells, loose ends and tussles…
The constituency period beckons, with MPs due to depart at the end of the week and return to Parliament on 21 July 2015. But a fair amount of heavy-duty business will be done before they go.
It's a big week in ...
By Judith February
President Jacob Zuma comes to Parliament to answer oral questions again on Thursday. Last week’s budget vote debates left much to be desired as MPs seemed more intent on name-calling than debating the challenges facing SA.
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Speaker of Parliament Baleka Mbete ...
Parliament is required to represent the people and to ensure government by the people under the Constitution. It does so by choosing the president, by providing a national forum for public consideration of issues, by passing legislation and by scrutinising and overseeing executive action.
Parliament’s oversight of the executive is ...
On Tuesday, 2 June 2015, the National Treasury and Department of Basic Education briefed a joint meeting of the Standing Committee on Appropriations and the Basic Education Portfolio Committee about education infrastructure spending as well as spending on the Education Infrastructure Grant (EIG). Three provinces had under-spent on their infrastructure ...
By Sheilan Clarke
Government hasn’t forgotten about the youth of South Africa. So much so that The Presidency created the National Youth Plan 2020 (NYP). The draft, which was approved by Cabinet on Thursday, focuses on how to improve certain areas of the lives of young people. Deputy Minister in ...
By Thulani Gqirana, Qaanitah Hunter
On March 12, Parliament failed to approve the R1.3-trillion government budget because MPs who attended the sitting did not form the necessary quorum for the vote. That budget – tabled by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene in February – was only passed five days later, on ...
MPs will be relieved that the grueling budget vote schedule is nearing the end. This process began in February with the training of MPs on the processing of the budget votes and was followed by committees meeting with various departments and entities on their strategic plans, annual performance plans and ...
This is a week for detailed law-making, with issues ranging from maintenance, to freedom of expression, to land expropriation, to trade union accountability and decriminalising consensual sex between children of certain ages.
Beyond this, the legislature’s budget vote season doesn’t show any sign of slowing down as most days are ...
Parliament has scheduled a broad and busy programme in the main chambers as well as in the committee corridor.
The President’s oral question session in the NCOP (on Thursday) is the main plenary event. His responses to questions on the recent xenophobic attacks and the Report on Farlam Commission of ...