The Week Ahead: Spotlight on President, rules and Nkandla Committee

After a low key week, the National Assembly chamber has shifted gears and arranged a busy programme, which includes ministerial statements, policy debates, oral questions and the processing of assorted bills and statutory instruments. It’s rather quieter in the NCOP chamber, where internal work dominates and any kind of contested ...

Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture and Launch of Dullah Omar Institute

CLC UWC

The Rector of the University Western Cape, Prof Pretorius, and the Director of the Community Law Centre (CLC), Prof De Visser has invited the public to the 10th Dullah Omar Memorial Lecture by Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr Michael Masutha.

The Centre will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary ...

Parliament, democracy and the failure of collective leadership

By Lebo Keswa and Dumisani Hlophe

The endless chaos in Parliament is symptomatic of a failure in responsible collective leadership, and is not limited to the ruling party, but extends to all parties represented in the National Assembly. Naked pursuit of political power at all costs, regardless of the outcomes, ...

IJR: Invitation - Public Dialogue: After Al-Bashir?

IJR

According to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), the recent presence and non-arrest of Omar Al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, in South Africa, while he was attending the African Union (AU) summit, is, in many ways, a turning point in the way South Africa engages with the international justice ...

State security, classification and information trumps: The state’s awkward PAIA conundrum

By Gabriella Razzano

Access to information and classified records seem entangled in an awkward game of trumps. There appears a knee-jerk reaction to refuse access to information because it contains “classified” details whenever controversy surfaces. But the legal answer is meant to be simple. Isn’t it?

There appears a knee-jerk ...

Campaign against Social Media Censorship

Amandla SOS

The SOS Coalition and amandla.mobi are currently running a campaign calling to the Film and Publication Board (FPB) to scrap its draft regulations which has been called 'the worst internet law Africa has ever seen' and could severely impact civil society organisations publishing content online along with social media users ...

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 ...

The Week ahead: Legislation & budget debates dominate

This is a week for detailed law-making, with issues ranging from maintenance, to freedom of expression, to land expropriation, to trade union accountability and decriminalising consensual sex between children of certain ages.

Beyond this, the legislature’s budget vote season doesn’t show any sign of slowing down as most days are ...

Ms Phumzile van Damme - DA

P Van Damme

Political background: Growing up, I was involved in politics in one form or another. My earliest memory of political activity was leading a strike in Grade 5 because our teacher would not allow us to go out for break.

At university I majored in Political Science and Law, and the ...

LiveMagSA: Parliament needs to hear your voice

By Rofhiwa Maneta

Let’s have a frank conversation. How often do you keep up with parliament? Outside of the occasional parliamentary scuffle or the President’s annual State of the Nation Address (SONA), do you know what goes on inside the chambers of South Africa’s biggest law-making body? You should. Sure, ...