That week in Parliament

There's a full and mixed flavour to the coming week's parliamentary business. The highlights include the mini-Budget, Question Time Sessions, legislative business and high-profile Committee hearings. All eyes will be on the Minister of Finance when he...

The 2019 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) is set to be delivered by the Minister of Finance, Mr Tito Mboweni, on Wednesday (30 October 2019). Expectations are high and there’s a motley of issues to look out for. This week’s blog provides an...

The major point of interest will come from Tuesday’s debate on the Special Appropriation Bill in the National Assembly Chamber. The Bill allocates an additional R59bn to Eskom over the next two years. In recommending the Bill, the Standing Committee...

National departments, provincial departments and public entities are subject to annual auditing by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA). AGSA’s annual audits examine three areas: fair presentation and absence of significant misstatements in...

Question time is the main business in both chambers this week. The practice of oral questions is an established part of the parliamentary day and gives MPs an opportunity to question the Executive about matters for which they are responsible....

Parliament resumes this week after a two-week constituency period. The final term will run for nine weeks and the programme is packed with activities. Some of the highlights include committee, oversight and legislative work; oral questions to the...

Parliament will be particularly busy when it resumes business for the third term next week as it deals with the annual task of poring over the Annual Reports of Departments and public entities within the ambit of each parliamentary committee. The...

The Sixth Parliament’s second term ended last week. A relatively short but activity-packed period it was. Its main highlights were as follows: Working days and committee meetings A large part of the work of the National Assembly and the National...

The constituency period beckons, with MPs due to depart at the end of the week and return on 7 October. But a fair amount of work will be done before they go as the parliamentary agenda includes significant business in the main chambers and committee...

Last week, Parliament was the scene of mass protests as thousands took to the streets to protest against gender-based violence and the killing of young women and children.  The catalyst for the protests was the rape and murder of 19-year-old UCT...