The Department of Water and Sanitation briefed the portfolio committee on the drought management in the country on Wednesday, 11 November 2015. This was followed up by a media briefing by the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) responsible for the drought led by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Pravin ...

In a joint meeting between the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and the Standing and Select Committees on Appropriations, the Higher Education Minister presented the Department’s position on funding of the post-school education and training sector. President Jacob Zuma had recently announced that there would be a 0% increase in ...

After a low key week, the main chambers have scheduled a broad and busy programme, which includes oral questions to the executive; ministerial and members’ statements, policy debates, and the processing of assorted bills, statutory instruments and committee reports.

In the National Assembly, the main plenary event will be the ...

Departments and their entities are subject to annual auditing by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), where an audit opinion is given based on a department's financial statements. In forming an audit opinion, AGSA determines the financial health of departments and if its performance met its predetermined objectives and if ...

By Matthew Kruger

Corruption and political party funding: Debating the means to a desirable end

Political questions rarely have easy answers. Even when we agree that a particular goal is desirable - end corruption, for example - we often disagree over the appropriate means to that end. Here I consider ...

Political background: I’ve always been an activist and was involved in school and civic politics, including getting expelled from the University of Fort Hare. I was also very much involved in the unions – I was a founding member of what is now known as the National Union of Metal ...

Date: 29 September 2015

Time: Registration at 09h30

Seminar: 10h00 - 12h30

Venue: 6 Spin street, Cape Town

South Africa’s proposed expansion of its current nuclear energy programme seems to be shrouded in secrecy, resulting in widespread speculation and confusion. Given the potential costs of this project, can the government ...

Oversight is a function granted by the Constitution to Parliament to oversee effective management of government action. How it is done in practice is that a parliamentary committee is assigned one department to oversee and often, to get to the nitty gritty, the committee will go on an oversight visit ...

By Julian Brown

We do not have a crisis of activism or political commitment in South Africa. Instead, we have a vibrant, challenging, and contentious political sphere defined by grassroots activism.

If we’re to believe recent reports in the Daily Maverick, South Africa’s activists are in trouble: Zwelinzimi Vavi believes ...

By Sheilan Clarke

Fort Hare University students say there are problems with the way funding is channelled through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). We spoke to one of the students at the university while having a look at the NSFAS Act.

What the Act say about loans and ...