The Department of Basic Education (DBE) presented their school readiness monitoring report for 2017 on 29 November 2016 to the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education. The report focused on admissions and registration challenges, teacher provisioning, learning and teaching resources and basic infrastructure. Admissions challenges are most notable in so-called “hotspots” ...

It’s a week of farewells and loose ends…

The constituency 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 as there is some unfinished business to deal with. ...

The Civic Protest Barometer (CPB), published by the Dullah Omar Institute on 24 November 2016, measures trends in protest action in South Africa's municipalities. The 2016 CPB tracks trends in the number of protests, the geographical spread of protests, trends in violent civic protest and grievances behind protest action. It ...

It's the penultimate week of the parliamentary year and the National Assembly chamber has scheduled a broad programme as it rushes to finalise all urgent business.

The rules make provision for an MP to request the Speaker to place a matter of public importance on the Order Paper for discussion. ...

Statistics South Africa published its Water and Sanitation Report based on the General Household Survey: 2002-2015 on 23 November 2016. The report notes that in order to address poverty and under-development, the government has prioritised the provision of basic water and sanitation services to the poor because of the perceived ...

The President's oral question session is the high point of the parliamentary week. He is required to answer questions of national or international importance once per term in accordance with the annual parliamentary programme. The questions are sifted and published beforehand in a process involving the Speaker, to ensure that ...

In May 2016, the National Credit Regulator briefed the Portfolio Committee on the feasibility of a debt forgiveness programme. Currently over 10 million South Africans have impaired credit records and this prompted the Committee to engage with stakeholders in November 2016 on the viability of a debt relief programme. Inputs ...

The endgame of the current parliamentary year is fast approaching. There are only four weeks left before Parliament rises and loose ends are gradually being knitted together.

This week could see the finalisation of the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill. The division of revenue lays down how the total government ...

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) presented its 2015/16 annual report to the Select Committee on Social Services on Tuesday, 8 November 2016. In its report, the Agency provided a status report on beneficiaries of social assistance, social assistance trends per province, as well as child grant beneficiaries.

The ...

There's both high policy and low politics on display in the main chambers this week, with appearances by the deputy president and ministers in the economic cluster (combining both of the above, no doubt).

Beyond this, the DA's motion of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma is scheduled for Thursday. ...