That week in Parliament

The Fifth Parliament has given us a lot of “firsts”. It achieved another last week. Even by its unpredictable standards, the decision to postpone the State of the Nation Address (SONA) was extraordinary. The stated rationale for the postponement is to ...

It’s one of the most important speeches that the President delivers in any year. With a prime time tv audience, it is a tremendous PR opportunity for the President to simultaneously lay out his agenda and reassure doubters - both local and foreign. There ...

On Thursday, all eyes will be fixated on Parliament for the State of the Nation Address (SONA). The speech, due to be delivered at 19:00 before a combined gathering of Parliament, Cabinet, the Judiciary and the public, will seek to build on the governing ...

1. What is the SONA? It is an annual address given by the President to a joint session of Parliament. It is designed to be a report on the economic and social state of the nation, and includes a review of the past year and priorities for the current ...

It's still early days but the legislature has planned a broad and busy programme after a low key week. With no sittings scheduled in the main chambers, the Committee corridor will again be the main source of parliamentary action this week. Oversight ...

2018 will be another busy, intense and unpredictable year in Parliament – everything from a possible impeachment to legislative battles to investigations to big-picture policy debates and government performance. Here are some predictions of the main ...

This Fifth Parliament continues to break new ground. 2017 was a bumper year of parliamentary business, court battles, internal squabbles, jousting, brinkmanship, attempts to remove the President from office, dissolve Parliament and parliamentary ...

It’s a week of farewells and loose ends in the National Assembly. The constituency period beckons, with MPs due to depart at the end of the week and return to Parliament next year. But a fair amount of work will be done before they go as there is a lot ...

There is a bit of frenzy in Parliament as legislation and important business that can be completed are rushed to the finishing line while other less urgent parliamentary business is dropped for lack of time. It's a big week in the NA chamber with MPs ...

It's the last rites of the 2017 Parliament and both chambers have scheduled broad and busy programmes as they rush to finalise all urgent business. In the NA chamber, the main plenary event will be the appearance by the Deputy President to answer oral ...