What is the Parliamentary Monitoring Group?

See our video on "Youth Monitoring Parliament" : PMG enables youth to be at the rockface of government and three of our alumni have gone on to become MPs!

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group, an information service, was established in 1995 as a partnership between Black Sash, Human Rights Committee and Idasa with the aim of providing a type of Hansard for the proceedings of the more than fifty South African Parliamentary Committees for these three advocacy organisations. This was because there is no official record publicly available of the committee proceedings - the engine room of Parliament - and this type of information is needed by social justice organisations to lobby the Parliament of South Africa on pieces of legislation, matters of democratic processes and parliamentary oversight of the executive.

This website was set up at the beginning of 1998 to make the information generated available to a wider audience. Presently this is the only source for this type of information. We hope that the PMG committee reports and other documents will provide the public with an insight into the Parliament of South Africa and its daily activity. Importantly it provides a window into the performance of each government department and public entity over which each parliamentary committee has oversight.

PMG became a fully fledged independent NGO in July 2009.

For a case study of PMG, go here: Getting Information to the People - Case Study of PMG including a comparison of parliamentary monitoring organisations globally.   

How to navigate the PMG website:

 

What We Do

PMG aims to provide accurate, objective, and current information on all parliamentary committee proceedings in the form of detailed, unofficial minutes and documents and since 2007, sound recordings of the meeting.

PMG’s key activity is the attending of all Parliamentary Committee meetings, where a monitor will tape and minute the proceedings and obtain all documents tabled in the committees. Immediately after the meeting, the audio recording is published on the PMG website. Once a detailed written report has been compiled, it passes through an editorial and quality control process. It is then published on the PMG website within three working days of the committee proceedings along with all the relevant committee documents such as such as public submissions, working drafts of bills and briefings on policy & legislation.

Beyond the reporting of Committee proceedings, PMG provides

  • Early notification of calls for comment
  • Details of public hearings
  • Parliamentary programmes
  • Legislative programmes for departments
  • Bill Tracker - daily updates
  • Ministerial Replies to MPs' Written Questions
  • Research on the functioning of Parliament
  • Access to your national, provincial and local representatives on its sister website, People's Assembly

Please make use of PMG’s free email alert service and receive alerts for those government portfolios that you are interested in. We email you committee meeting reports and documents, new bills, request for submissions, ministry media briefings and speeches.

Currently PMG covers all parliamentary committees (except Intelligence which is closed to the public) and the PMG website has a record of all meeting proceedings and other documents between January 1998 and the present. However certain committees were not covered prior to 2000. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please contact [email protected].


Work Opportunities - We are recruiting people of all ages to write detailed reports on Parliamentary Committee meetings. Earn up to R4800 pm working two days a week during parliamentary session. This position is ideal for those who have a background or are interested in politics and law, can write well (accuracy is essential also) and meet deadlines. Cape Town only. Send CV & letter to [email protected]

Who are our board members?

The six directors sitting on the board are: Mr Ghalib Galant, Mr Elroy Paulus, Ms Nonhlanhla Chanza, Ms Hoodah Fayker-Abrahams, Ms Natalie Fisher and Mr Rashaad Alli.

Who are our staff members ?

Rashaad Alli - Executive Director

Monique Doyle- Monitor and Projects Manager
Pumza Mokorotlo - Document Officer / Administrator / Subscription Manager
Sandile Mlonyeni - Web Administrator
Oboitshepo Seleka - Communications Officer
Luvuyo Ngwayishe - Public Participation Officer 
Sabelo Ndlovu - Researcher

Left to right (back row): Rashaad, Sabelo, Pumza, Monique
Left to right (front row): Oboitshepo, Luvuyo, Sandile

Who are our funders?

The PMG's activities are currently funded by the:

  • Claude Leon Foundation
  • Millennium Trust
  • Legal Empowerment Fund (a programme of the Fund for Global Human Rights)
  • European Union

                              

In addition, the free access enjoyed by civil society is cross-subsidised by subscriptions paid by commercial and government users.

Credits

The National Assembly photo on our landing page is by GovernmentZA on flickr and is licensed under a CC-BY-ND-2.0 license.
The National Council of Provinces photo on our landing page is by Victor Bergmann and is licensed under a CC-BY-ND-2.0 license.