The Week Ahead: Most of the parliamentary action is in the committee corridor

There's a humdrum flavour to this week's parliamentary business in the National Assembly chamber - with MPs finishing off legislation, processing assorted statutory instruments and reports, making statements and discussing matters of public importance.

The major highlight will be the question session involving the Deputy President and Ministers in the ...

Livity Debate: Free Education - Has NSFAS failed us?

VIP EC logo

Livity Africa’s VIP Campaign, a youth politics platform that found success engaging young people in Joburg and Cape Town with the national elections in 2014, is now expanding to the Eastern Cape in the lead up to the 2016 local government elections.

The VIP Campaign is a non-partisan movement of ...

Infographic: Unemployment Stats: 2015

On Tuesday, 1 September, Statistics SA briefed the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development on the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The briefing focused on the high rate of youth unemployment (36.9%) and the triple challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment. A recent article highlighted most of what Statistics SA presented to ...

Parliamentary oversight: Few consequences

By Troye Lund

PUBLIC protector Thuli Madonsela’s revelations of widespread corruption, nepotism and maladministration at the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) did not come as a surprise to members of parliament who are charged with overseeing the state entity.

In 2013 the auditor-general (AG) was warning MPs on parliamentary ...

Hands off our internet

By: Rofhiwa Maneta

Recently, the Film and Publications Board successfully submitted their draft Online Regulation Policy for consideration by Parliament. The proposed policy aims to regulate content published on the internet to make sure it does not contain hate speech or child pornography. Content uploaded on the net would have ...

The Week Ahead: Debates, heated exchanges and extensive legislative work

After a low key week, the main chambers have scheduled a broad and busy programme, which includes a motion to impeach the President, oral questions to the Deputy President and Economic Cluster; ministerial and members’ statements, policy discussions and debates, and the processing of assorted bills and statutory instruments.

In ...

Infographic: Regulation of the engineering industry and foreign engineers in SA

On Tuesday, 25 August 2015, The Department of Home Affairs and the Engineering Council of South Africa briefed the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the gazetted "Critical Skills List" and the regulatory functions of the ECSA, especially as it related to the recruitment of foreign engineers to work in ...

Op-Ed: Transparency, the missing link in political party funding

By Judith February and Lindsay Ferris

South Africa has no legislation regulating private donations to political parties private individuals and companies are able to donate as much in secret as they wish leaving the door wide open for corruption and the buying of influence. In a country already divided by ...

The Week Ahead: Oversight visits & committee business dominate the week

This week marks the mid-way point of the third term and the programme has a familiar pattern: lots of unglamorous legislating, oversight and scrutinising, with some set piece battles in prospect.

Fireworks are expected during the debate on the parliamentary ad hoc committee report on the Nkandla upgrades. MPs visited ...

Infographic: Women & Persons with Disabilities employment targets

On Wednesday, 12 August 2015, the Department of Public Service and Administration told MPs that departments did not meet the target for employing 50% of women and 2% of persons with disabilities in the public service sector. According to the Department’s records, employment of women at Senior Management Service level ...