That week in Parliament

Now that the National Assembly has also returned from constituency break (the NCOP resumed at the end of July), it feels like the real start of the new term. The third term will run for 5-8 weeks and will be packed with activities. Some of the...

National Assembly Speaker, Baleka Mbete, earlier this year indicated that she had written to newly appointed Deputy President, David Mabuza, to ‘complain about the absence of ministers during question time in the National Assembly’. In response, the...

WHY PARLIAMENTS MATTER 30 June 2018 marks #WorldParliamentDay. All over the world, parliaments exist to represent the people to ensure government by the people– this is said it to be the most profoundly important role parliament plays as an...

Saturday, 16 June 2018, marks Youth Day and an ideal opportunity to reflect on the ages of our Members of Parliament. In South Africa, our definition of youth is someone under the age of 35[1]. We are often told that SA has a young population so it is...

The constituency period beckons, with MPs in the National Assembly due to depart at the end of the week and return to Parliament on 14 August 2018. There is no opportunity to go through the motions as a fair amount of heavy-duty business will be done...

A combination of a heavy legislative load, some important hearings and the pending recess break should mean plenty of fizz in Parliament this week. With the NA chamber having its final sitting of the term last week and a fairly pedestrian agenda in...

It's a rapid descent towards the mid-year break as MPs rush to finalise all urgent business. There are only a few weeks left before the legislature takes an extended break but there is still plenty of legislating, oversight, scrutinising and set piece...

May 25, 2018  Vincent Smith, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee that will review the "property clause", Section 25 of the Constitution, spoke about the role of the committee and the public hearings: “I want the public to answer the question as...

Parliament has scheduled a broad and busy programme in the main chambers as well as in the Committee corridor. The main plenary event will be the debate on the Presidency's budget vote scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. In their speeches,...

It’s the second of week of budget debates in the National Assembly and the frenetic pace of Committee meetings and mini-plenary sessions continue. On Tuesday, the Ministers of Trade and Industry, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Labour,...