LiveMagSA: The Secrecy bill edges closer to law

By Rofhiwa Maneta

This month Minister of State Security David Mahlobo announced that he was in “advanced stages” of drafting regulations for the Protection of State Information Bill. The regulations – which set the foundation for the bill to be implemented once signed into law – have renewed fears from ...

LiveMagSA: Xenophobia - With heads bowed in shame…

By Rofhiwa Maneta

History has a dirty habit of repeating itself. When the wave of xenophobic violence swept through South Africa seven years ago, claiming 67 lives and displacing thousands, no one could’ve bargained it would happen again. Former President Thabo Mbeki addressed parliament a month after the attacks, apologising ...

The Week Ahead: Second term kicks off

Parliament resumes this week after a two-week constituency period. The second term will run for eleven weeks and the programme is packed with activities. Some of the highlights include committee, oversight and legislative work; oral questions to the President and the Executive; budget vote debates and the National Council of ...

LiveMagSA: What is government doing about corruption?

By Rofhiwa Maneta

Corruption. From the controversy surrounding the expenses to his homestead in Nkandla to his alleged involvement in the arms deal, no one word has followed Jacob Zuma around since he began his first term as president in 2009 more than the inglorious c-word . With concern about ...

LiveMagSA: The public weighs in on “adolescent sex” bill

By Rofhiwa Maneta

This week, the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services invited the public to weigh in on the proposed amendments to the Sexual Offences and Related Matters Act. One of the Act’s biggest points of contention has been the proposed amendment to decriminalise consensual sex between adolescents ...

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence

GBV

On the 27 November 2014 Sonke Gender Justice in collaboration with 35 organisations, participated in rallies across South Africa calling for a national action plan against gender-based violence (GBV). In South Africa, more than a thousand women are killed every year by an intimate partner, approximately a million rapes occur ...

The role of civil society in sustaining our constitutional democracy

Speech by Trevor Manuel For the Helen Suzman Memorial Lecture 11 November 2014

In the preparations for this evening, I shocked Francis Antonie with the request that we change the topic of the lecture. My basic suggestion – and the one that appears to have caused all manner of reverberations ...

Languages: The barrier to better education results?

On Tuesday, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) briefed the Basic Education Portfolio Committee on the Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL) in South African schools. Although a progress report on the implementation of the IIAL is premature and cannot be released to the public until the pilot project is ...

SONA: What the President’s speech failed to address

President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the National Assembly on Tuesday evening, 17 June 2014. People’s Assembly has already reported on the main themes of the Presidents speech including commentary from opposition MPs. A lot has been written about Zuma’s comments on the economy ...

Will PCs be clustered or will they mirror departments?

Last week the Rules Committee created a sub committee to discuss clustering / reducing the number of portfolio committees as a means of coping with oversight over an enlarged Executive. They met yesterday and voted to maintain the status quo i.e. that Portfolio Committees (PCs) would continue to mirror cabinet ...