Last month the Portfolio Committee on Labour heard from the Department of Labour that their proposed amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act (Act No. 63 of 2001) include maternity benefits being de-linked from UIF. Essentially this would mean that if women claim maternity benefits but then are retrenched down line, ...

Our current survey shows that 83% of online visitors to the People’s Assembly did not know where their local constituency office is located. Parliament spent R203 million last year to provide these constituency offices.

The People's Assembly website focuses on MP accountability. SA does not have a constituency system where ...

The life of the Fourth Parliament is drawing to a close. Not a single Private Member’s bill has been taken forward or passed in this Parliament, and since 1994, only 17 Private Members’ bills, the majority being of a purely technical nature, have been accepted.

Prior to 2012, all private ...

During the pre-budget speech on Wednesday morning, 26 February, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said it was essential that people started “developing a savings culture in South Africa” and found ways to “get out of the debt trap” as “consumerism was replacing society” both here and abroad.

The good news for ...

Singing, chanting slogans and waving #Fixthebudget placards,civil society advocacy groups and NGOS such as the Treatment Action (TAC) Campaign, Section 27, the Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF), the Progressive Youth Movement and others, gathered outside the gates of Parliament on Tuesday, 25 February, to voice their concerns around tomorrow's ...

As well as MPs, Tuesday 18 February’s Basic Education Portfolio Committee meeting was attended by Minister Angie Motshegka and other members of her department including recently re-instated Director-General (DG) Bobby Soobrayan – this after a disciplinary process cleared him of financial mismanagement and other wrong doing as alleged by the ...

One of the interesting datasets that the People’s Assembly collates is the register of members interests - the annual declaration by Members of Parliament of their interests including shares in companies, gifts they have received (with a value in excess of R1 500), and companies of which they are directors. ...

People’s Assembly attended the 2014 State of the Nation Address (SONA), and we’ve brought you 20 SONA pictures to celebrate 20 years of democracy. Before President Zuma’s speech commenced, political leaders and Members of Parliament walked the red carpet flaunting smiles, speaking to the media, and posing for pictures.

President ...

With the Madiba memorial fake sign language fiasco still fresh in our memories, People’s Assembly was struck by the rapport and fluidity with which South Africa’s first and only deaf MP, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, and her interpreters communicated complex and technical political terms in a recent Communications Portfolio Committee meeting.

During ...

After a protracted parliamentary process, the contentious Traditional Courts Bill (TCB) is back on the agenda! This may have come as a surprise to anyone reading this weekend’s Sunday Times, which reported that the ANC Women’s League, opposition parties and a number of civil society groups appeared to have won ...