Desperate and divided: South Africa has had enough

By Lizette Lancaster

Increasingly, South Africans from all walks of life are mobilising for change. Many resort to public protest in the hope of galvanising government to improve its performance and do something about unacceptable levels of unemployment and poverty. Last year saw widespread community-level protests, along with large-scale student ...

The Week Ahead: Food Security, Expropriation Bill, UIF Bill & Marikana

It’s still early days and Parliament is not yet firing on all cylinders. There are no sittings scheduled in the main chambers and only a handful of meetings planned for the committee corridor. Nonetheless, there is still scope for headline-grabbing and party battles in this week's parliamentary agenda, with food ...

Infographic: Working and living conditions of farm workers

The 2011 Human Rights Watch report alleged wide spread abuse of workers on Western Cape farms and in November 2012 the De Doorns strike broke out. Mr Stone Sizani, then Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Affairs, suggested that a comprehensive study be conducted to find ...

Infographic: Bucket Eradication - December 2015 deadline

On Wednesday 28 October 2015, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) presented a progress report on the December 2015 deadline in terms of the Bucket Eradication Programme in formal areas. The Stats SA Community Survey was used as a baseline to determine the bucket toilet backlog in the country. ...

Livity: Parliament Challenge Call Out

VIP Challenge

What is it?

VIP is opening up a crowd-sourced challenge to our community to suggest crucial issues, topics or policy ideas that young South Africa would like to present to parliament, dubbed the Parliament Challenge. The VIP team will work in conjunction with political experts, civil society organisations and MPs ...

The Week Ahead: Most of the parliamentary action is in the committee corridor

There's a humdrum flavour to this week's parliamentary business in the National Assembly chamber - with MPs finishing off legislation, processing assorted statutory instruments and reports, making statements and discussing matters of public importance.

The major highlight will be the question session involving the Deputy President and Ministers in the ...

Infographic: Unemployment Stats: 2015

On Tuesday, 1 September, Statistics SA briefed the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The briefing focused on the high rate of youth unemployment (36.9%) and the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment. A recent article highlighted most of what Statistics SA presented to ...

Parliamentary oversight: Few consequences

By Troye Lund

PUBLIC protector Thuli Madonsela’s revelations of widespread corruption, nepotism and maladministration at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) did not come as a surprise to members of parliament who are charged with overseeing the state entity.

In 2013 the auditor-general (AG) was warning MPs on parliamentary ...

The Week Ahead: Executive scrutiny & legislative action

There's both high policy and low politics on display in the main chambers this week. The National Assembly offers a blend of members' statements, a discussion of national importance, legislative business and oral questions to the Deputy President and Peace and Security Cluster. The programme is a bit more pedestrian ...

Infographic: The state of employment equity in SA 2014/15

South Africa recently saw the release of the Commission for Employment Equity Report for 2014/15. Yesterday, Director-General for the Department of Labour stated, at a press meeting, that SA is not at the level it should be with women and persons with disabilities continuing to struggle in the workforce. ...