That week in Parliament

  Following the transition to a virtual/hybrid Parliament in April, the 2020 parliamentary year came to an end on 9 December. It was an unprecedented year.   In March, Parliament took a decision to suspend its programme as a precautionary measure due...

  COVID-19 STATE OF DISASTER Regulations A notice declaring the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan municipality a ‘hotspot’ was gazetted on 3 December. On the same day, an amendment to the 1 October Covid-19 lockdown level one disaster management...

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...

Covid-19 regulations and directives The 7 September temporary employer/employee relief scheme (TERS) ministerial directive was withdrawn on 28 November: with retrospective effect, from 15 October presumably reinstating Direction 2 of the 26 March...

It’s a week of farewells and loose ends… The constituency and leave period beckons, with MPs due to depart at the end of the week and return to Parliament next year. But a fair amount of work will be done before they go and there is plenty of...

Link to 2020 BRRRs. Parliament has a fundamental role in authorising budget decisions and in holding government to account. Consistent with this, parliamentary committees get to engage with the budget process at all key stages of the budget cycle,...

National minimum wage On 20 November, the National Minimum Wage Commission gazetted a notice calling for comment on proposals for: a 4,5% adjustment increasing the national minimum per hour to R21,69 next year, and aligning farmworkers’ and domestic...

It's the penultimate week of the parliamentary year. As a result, there is a bit of frenzy as legislation and important business that can be completed are rushed to the finishing line while other less urgent parliamentary business is dropped for lack...

Covid-19   The one month State of Disaster extension announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 11 November was confirmed three days later in the Government Gazette. Eased lockdown level one restrictions featured in the President’s speech came into...