That week in Parliament

National Assembly legislators return to Parliament this week for the third term. NCOP delegates will carry out constituency work for another week and return on 25 August. This session will be relatively short and packed with activities. Some of the...

COVID-19 State of Disaster and Lockdown Regulations: Update (11 August 2020) LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 Health   A directive issued on 7 August by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize: links each alert/lockdown level to epidemiological trends and health system...

  The Second Term of Parliament ended on 31 July 2020. It lasted 16 weeks and was an unprecedented period, which saw Parliament conducting its business on virtual platforms owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.   In March, Parliament took a decision to...

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 Disaster management regulations   Amendments were gazetted on 31 July to: relax the night-time curfew by one hour (now from 22:00 to 04:00) clarify the conditions in terms of which professional sports matches may be held update...

Over the past couple of weeks, government Ministers appeared before Parliament to present departmental Budget Speeches, as part of the processing of the Adjustments Appropriation Bill (2020). During these deliveries, some of them spoke about their...

The second term has been truly historic: the pandemic forced Parliament to conduct its business virtually. The tabling of the emergency budget extended the term by another month making it the longest session (16 weeks) in many years. Initially,...

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 Schools   The break announced on 23 July by President Cyril Ramaphosa ‘will allow schools to prepare for the return of more grades … later in August’, according to a statement issued the next day by Basic Education Minister Angie...

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 Basic income grant   On 13 July, Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu issued a media statement confirming that ‘discussions’ on the introduction of a basic income grant (BIG) ‘have been brought back to the table’ and that the...

Parliament will largely be consumed by Budget Vote debates this week. These debates provide another opportunity for lawmakers to interact with the budget and are headlined by Ministers, their deputies, party leaders and senior MPs. During processing...

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 State of Disaster extended In his address to the nation on 12 July, President Cyril Ramaphosa extended the State of Disaster to 15 August. Amended regulations Gazetted on 12 July, the amendments: are the latest changes to the 29 April...