That week in Parliament

LOCKDOWN LEVEL 3 Schools Two changes were made to the 23 June list of classes scheduled to reopen on 6 July: removing Pre-Grade R (in an amendment issued on 29 June), and in a 2 July media statement, making Grades R, 6 and 11 the only classes to...

President Ramaphosa recently returned four Bills to Parliament for reconsideration, namely: Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill (2016); Copyright Amendment Bill (2017); Protection of State Information Bill (2010); Liquor Products Amendment Bill...

MPs will spend most of the time talking about the emergency budget while other business is kept to a minimum. The historic nature of the COVID pandemic and economic downturn necessitated the tabling of the supplementary budget. Due to the substantial...

State of Disaster regulations amended On 25 June, a Government Gazette notice was published: amending the 29 April regulations on contact tracing to allow: the inclusion of geospatial hotspot mapping in the Covid-19 database, and the use of cell phone...

Following last week’s tabling of the emergency budget, Parliament has had to reconsider its July recess period. This will have knock-on effect on the Legislature’s programme for the rest of the year. Speaking at the National Assembly Programming...

The United Nations passed a resolution to recognize the International Day of Parliamentarism (aka World Parliament Day) as “an opportunity to celebrate Parliaments, as the cornerstone of democracy, and as institutions designed to improve the lives of...

Personal care services Following last week’s announcement of Cabinet’s decision to lift restrictions in place since the State of Disaster was declared, a ministerial directive gazetted on 19 June has prescribed protocols for reopening businesses,...

The constituency period beckons with MPs due to depart at the end of the week and return to Parliament on 28 July. This second term of the 2020 parliamentary year will go down in history as meetings were conducted entirely on online platforms The...

On June 16 each year, South Africans celebrate Youth Day. South Africa has a long history of institutional, policy and legislative instruments that have and continue to contribute to youth development. In this blog, we turn the spotlight on existing...

  Lockdown level 3 Last week, Trade, Industry & Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel issued a new directive making several important changes. In the light of Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi’s 4 June directive on consolidated workplace health...