Every year (excluding an election year), Parliament’s Joint Constitutional Review Committee must review the Constitution and report to the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.
To enable the Committee to conduct its work, Parliament’s Joint Rule 102 empowers the Committee to do the following:
Identify specific constitutional matters ...
There are a few weeks left until Parliament’s mid-year break.
In the remaining days, the legislative body is scheduled to consider and vote on several Bills, conduct important debates, appropriate funding, scrutinise government performance, oversee government’s COVID-19 response, consider statutory appointments and finalise assorted Committee Reports.
A major highlight this ...
South Africa’s poor economic conditions coupled with a steep rise in unemployment provides an opportune moment for the government to rethink its social welfare programmes, as more people become vulnerable to poverty.
Several calls have been made for a Basic Income Grant, with some proposing a universal basic income grant. ...
By Pierre De Vos
The South African Constitution does not provide any clarity on the nature of the relationship between extra-parliamentary political parties and their elected representatives in the national and provincial legislatures. Can extra-parliamentary leaders of political parties dictate to their MPs how to exercise their constitutional duties, including ...
By Firoz Cachalia
Some years ago I brought back from Siena copies of two famous frescoes painted by Lorenzetti depicting good and bad government. The first shows idyllic scenes of virtuous rulers, happy citizens and a prosperous society; the second shows dystopian scenes of selfish rule, injustice and famine, thus ...
Increasingly, the courts are being called on to settle disputes that should be dealt with by other constitutional or political institutions.
Jacob Zuma. Picture: REUTERS/Rogan Ward
SA is awash with court cases between political actors. Hardly a week goes by without a civil society organisation or a political party approaching ...
A new collection of legal and autobiographical writings by former Constitutional Court judge,Albie Sach, offers an intimate insider’s view of South Africa’s Constitution. Sachs, who lost his arm and his sight in one eye in a bomb attack by the apartheid regime in Maputo, was appointed by Nelson ...
By Mondli Makhanya
“Your conscience will not guide you, but ANC branches will.”
Those words were said by Water and Sanitation minister and senior ANC leader Nomvula Mokonyane last weekend, urging President Jacob Zuma to stand firm in the face of calls for him to do the right thing.
Conscience ...
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. ...
The Foundation for Human Rights told the Justice Portfolio Committee this week that a 2011 baseline study on the awareness of the constitution and its bill of rights, found that less than only 46% of 4 200 respondents were aware of either of these important documents. In light of this, ...