That week in Parliament

Due to COVID-19 and the accompanying restrictions, Parliament is a very different place: virtual meetings are scheduled on Monday’s (this is usually allocated for constituency work), public holidays and even in the late afternoon/early evening. And...

Last Saturday, government called for input on a draft framework of economic sectors to be reactivated during each of the five Covid-19 lockdown alert levels announced last week by President Cyril Ramaphosa. Stakeholders were given until midday, Monday...

The sound and picture quality was occasionally poor. There were IT glitches, MPs struggled to operate the mute function and meetings took time to get going. However, the first week of virtual committee meetings was a relative success. The technical...

On 16 April, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma announced a fourth set of amendments to the 18 March Covid-19 State of Disaster regulations. Changes have also been made to several ministerial directives –...

Parliament has prioritized a schedule of virtual committee meetings, whose scope of oversight relates to government departments driving COVID-19 response measures. Initially, the Legislature, suspended its programme until further notice, issued...

This blog unpacks the State of Disaster regulations and lockdown directives, focusing on the ones most likely to affect you, family, friends and the business or non-profit organisation you work for There have been many changes to the State of Disaster...

Committees take great exception when the political leadership in departments do not show up at meetings. Sometimes meetings get postponed as their presence is needed to answer high level policy questions. A clash of committee meetings with Cabinet...

The first term of Parliament was an action-packed and eventful period. The major highlights during the eight weeks of parliamentary activity include: SONA and the subsequent debates; delivery of the Budget Speech and its processing; oversight,...

The Corona virus outbreak is having a significant and unprecedented effect across the global. As a result, countries have resorted to extraordinary measures to combat this grave public health emergency. As the virus became more prominent, Parliament...

Along with the rest of the country, Parliament is consumed by the coronavirus and much of this week’s planned programme had to be discarded. In his address on Sunday, the President prohibited non-essential gatherings of 100 people or more.  Given the...