That week in Parliament

There's a full and mixed flavour to the coming week's parliamentary business. The major points of interest will come from the Question Time session with the Executive, legislative business and mini-plenaries. There are also several high-profile...

Every February the Minister of Finance presents the budget speech in Parliament for the upcoming fiscal year. The 2021 Budget will be presented by Minister Mboweni today, 24 February 2021, at 14:00.   What is in the budget and why should I care? The...

COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) On 11 February, a Department of Employment and Labour media statement: confirmed that the extension announced in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA)...

According to the Constitution, all Bills passed by Parliament must be submitted to the President for assent (signed into law). Once a Bill is signed by the President, it becomes an Act of Parliament and a law of the land.   Unlike in other...

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's budget speech on Wednesday will dominate headlines this week. The Minister has a tough job to do as he seeks to address significant social challenges, satisfy public pressure and reassure investors and ratings agencies....

Written Questions & Replies have been a long established feature of parliamentary democracies. They form part of a motley of critical oversight mechanisms and play a crucial role in holding the Executive accountable.   Legislators in many countries...

COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER On 11 February, the State of Disaster was extended to 15 March. On 13 February, more changes were made to the disaster management regulations for Covid-19 adjusted lockdown level three (as amended on 1 February): allowing...

It’s taken a few weeks but Parliament is finally firing on all cylinders with plenty of action beckoning in both the main chambers and the Committee corridor. The main event will be the joint debate on the State of the Nation...

COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER The disaster management regulations for adjusted lockdown level three have been amended to reflect eased restrictions announced on 1 February by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The amendments: reduce the curfew by one hour (23:00...

Link to full Research Introduction Our overall intention with this project is to support transparency and public access to information. We did this by assessing how often parliamentary committees rely on requests for information in addition to that...