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 ...

Parliament resumes this week after a two-week constituency period. The fourth term will run for seven weeks and the programme is packed with activities. Some of the highlights include committee, oversight and legislative work; oral questions to the executive and a review of the national budget.

Later this month, the ...

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 ...

By Sheilan Clarke

There were many interesting events in parliament over the past few months. From discussions about military conscription to Stellenbosch University’s appearance in parliament, here are five youth-related highlights from parliament’s third term.

Sending SA’s youth to the army

Earlier this year the presidency revealed they were discussing ...

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 ...

"We have got to identify and have honest discussions about those things that are holding us back. We have got to understand that the continued dominance of one political party is unhealthy for our future".

1. What is your political background? How did you come to join your political party ...

The constituency period beckons but there is still time for a fair amount of heavy-duty business before MPs depart.

With little scheduled in the main chambers, the committee corridor will be the main source of parliamentary action, where there are several hearings on important issues and detailed legislating.

The lone ...

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 ...

It's the penultimate week for the third term and an unusual programme looms; with no sittings in the main chambers, a few meetings scheduled and lawmakers devoting most of their time to oversight work across the country.

Permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will embark on a ...

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 ...