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 meeting with the various departments and entities on their strategic plans, annual performance plans and budgets. Committees then had to consider and finalise their reports ahead of the budget debates that commenced last week.

The departments in the economic cluster will feature prominently in week 2, with the Ministers of Finance and Energy presenting their votes on Monday and the Economic Development Minister, Small Business Development Minister and Trade and Industry Minister getting their turn on Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday, Parliament’s Budget Vote comes up for debate in plenary sittings of the National Assembly (NA) and National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

In his address last year, the Speaker Sisulu mentioned that the Fourth Parliament would “ensure the implementation of the Strategic Vision adopted in 2009”. This includes the following five objectives. Namely – 1.Building an effective and efficient institution 2.Strengthening the oversight function 3.Increasing public participation 4.Improving cooperative governance 5.Expanding of Parliament’s role in international relations

The new Speaker is expected to report back and build on these objectives for the Fifth Parliament.

The highlight of the week will be the Presidency’s Budget Vote. This will be debated over two days (Wednesday and Thursday) at the end of which the President is expected to reply to the debate. As with the State of the Nation debate, this will be a robust encounter with the President having to defend a wide ranging of charges, such as the reconfiguration of departments and his failure to meet the deadline to reply to Parliament on the Public Protector’s report.

It will be interesting to see if there are renewed calls to have a dedicated oversight committee on the Presidency. In his speech last year, IFP MP Mangosuthu Buthelezi pointed out that “South Africa is unique among parliamentary democracies throughout the world. Every year, in this House, we debate our Presidency's budget without having had the benefit of scrutinising it in a parliamentary oversight committee”.

Furthermore, he said that “while the budgets of every Government Department are pored over and questioned before we come here to express our agreement or disapproval, the Presidency's budget is presented as a fait accompli, and we rise in this House with scant capacity to debate what is being spent, where it is being spent and how it is being spent”.

Meanwhile, the NCOP committees will continue hearing from government departments on their strategic plans and the Parliamentary Budget Office will have a workshop with the Select Committee on Appropriations on the Money Bills Act on Tuesday.

Click here for a full list of meetings taking place this week.