Is government meeting the energy needs of rural households?

Access to electricity is a basic need that cannot be unmet by service delivery inefficiencies. Fortunately, as the Department of Energy (DoE) states, 82% of households are connected to the energy grid, which is largely powered by Eskom. Despite the load-shedding problems associated with the giant electricity provider, government has ...

That week in Parliament - After the stand off

Parliament’s plenary sittings will be under scrutiny this week (and probably for the next while) following last Thursday’s dramatic and unprecedented events in the National Assembly. The House had to be suspended when the EFF disrupted proceedings and heckled the President. Chaos ensued after the EFF had demanded to know ...

Operational and financial challenges ahead for Eskom hears Committee

On Tuesday, 29 July 2014, Eskom briefed a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committees for Energy and Public Enterprises. Attended by Ministers for Energy and Public Enterprises, the joint meeting came about as the result of the enormous challenges that Eskom is facing. The entity briefed the Committees on the ...

What’s happening in Parliament this week?

MPs will be relieved that the grueling budget vote schedule will conclude this week. This process usually takes 2-3 months but was compressed into 4 weeks because of the elections. It started with the training of MPs on the processing of the budget votes and was followed by portfolio committees ...

This week in Parliament…

With all the Portfolio Committees meeting the deadline to finalise their Budget Vote Reports by last Friday (and some already published in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC)), the focus now shifts to the budget vote debates that will commence tomorrow (Tuesday, 15 July 2014) and run for ...

SONA word cloud: Priorities that stood out

People’s Assembly has created two word clouds, one for the 2009-2013 State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs) and another for the most recent SONA, which focused on priorities for President Jacob Zuma’s second term. Word clouds are images that consist of words, in which the size of each word denotes ...

SONA: Economy, labour unrest and unemployment take centre stage

President Jacob Zuma’s seventh State of the Nation Address (SONA) last night focused on the economy and job creation, and labour relations, in particular in the mining sector and addressing challenges in local government.

Early on in his speech, Zuma stated, “As we enter the second phase of our transition ...

Zuma’s new cabinet: Opposition MP weighs in

Much has been said about President Zuma’s newly appointed Cabinet throughout the course of this week, including our interview with political commentator Aubrey Matshiqi and our impressions on the relationship between Cabinet and Parliament (here and here) - but what do opposition party members think?

People’s Assembly interviewed ...

Pro Nuclear Energy Stakeholders address Energy Committee

The Energy Portfolio Committee held a unique, open stakeholder meeting to discuss nuclear energy as a reliable supply of energy. The meeting was the first of its kind in Parliament, aS the floor was open to the all members of the public who wished to comment on what was being ...