Transport Department falls short of R127.4 billion needed to fix SA roads

In both the Transport Portfolio Committee meeting on Tuesday and an Economic and Business Development Select Committee briefing on Wednesday, the Department of Transport told MPs that the cost of repairing South Africa’s roads is estimated to be R149 billion.

Acting Director-General of the Transport Department, Mawethu Vilana, said the ...

NCOP MPs concerned about tight timeframes for budget approval

The Select Committee on Appropriations met yesterday to receive presentations from the Committee support staff on what duties NCOP MPs are expected to carry out over their term, and how the support staff will assist them. MPs were also briefed on the budget cycle, which brought up a few concerns ...

DBSA bill back in Parliament

Amid the budget vote presentations, the Fifth Parliament’s first deliberations on actual legislation kicked off today when the Standing Committee on Finance was briefed by National Treasury on the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) Amendment Bill. The DBSA Bill was actually tabled in the last Parliament prior to the ...

Parliament: The Week Ahead

With the deadline for the completion of Budget Vote Reports set for this Friday (11 July), Committees are in a race to finalise and adopt their reports ahead of the budget vote debates, which are scheduled to start next week.

As a result of the compressed calendar, People’s Assembly has ...

Communications problems: Budget vote confusion and a DA walk-out

On Tuesday, 1 July 2014, the Communications Portfolio Committee joined with the Telecommunications and Postal Services Portfolio Committee to hear the Department of Communications’ (DoC) and GCIS’ Strategic Plans, budgets and Annual Performance Plans for 2014. The mood in the committee room was tense with opposition MPs complaining that they ...

ISS and SAPU on SAPS and the latest crime stats

On Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Police heard input from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the South African Policing Union (SAPU) on the South African Police Service’s budget and Annual Performance Plan for the year. Before hearing from their guests, Committee Researcher Ivan Kinnes did a brief presentation ...

Land expropriation without compensation? No thanks, says Minister

Yesterday during a Department’s budget briefing to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform (RDLR), firebrand EFF MP Andile Mngxitama offered the RDLR Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, the EFF’s vote in order to get a two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution to expropriate land without compensation. The Minister politely ...

Farm Worker Evictions not up for discussion yet says ANC MPs

Last week Wednesday, 25 June 2014, during the discussion of the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform’s committee programme, a robust debate was held between ANC MPs and opposition MPs about whether or not farm worker evictions should be put on the agenda as a matter of urgency. ...

MPs raise concerns as Economic Development Minister addresses Committee

Yesterday marked the beginning of the second week of meetings for parliamentary committees. Last week, Committees met to formally elect their Chairpersons, while this week will focus on presentations of Annual Performance Plans (APP) and Strategic Plans, as well as budget discussions. People’s Assembly attended a joint meeting of the ...

The Week Ahead: All-day meetings for Parliament this week

Parliamentary committees officially kicked-off last week, as Members of Parliament (MPs) gathered in their committees and elected their chairpersons for the next five years. Once introductions were made, chairpersons took their seats and many began working on their agenda for the year. Based on the committee schedule for this week, ...