The Week Ahead: The strike and President top the agenda

Forget the party battles and EFF gimmicks. The really titanic struggle being fought out in Parliament at the moment is between the staff and management over performance bonuses.

Workers began striking last week after accusing Parliament of reneging on a past agreement for performance bonuses to be paid based on ...

OPINION: In the interests of full disclosure

By Judith February.

It feels a little like the pot calling the kettle black.

This past week the African National Congress (ANC) was very eager to point out that certain Democratic Alliance (DA) MPs, including leader Mmusi Maimane, had failed to fully declare their interests in Parliament’s register of financial ...

The Week Ahead: Question sessions, higher education & legislation

It's a big week in the NA chamber with MPs scheduled to sit for long hours to consider several bills and assorted committee reports.

The major plenary highlights will be the question sessions involving the Ministers in the Social Services Cluster and the Deputy President on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. ...

The Week Ahead: Higher Education, Questions & Legislation dominate the programme

After a low key week, the main chambers have scheduled a broad and busy programme, which includes oral questions to the executive; ministerial and members’ statements, policy debates, and the processing of assorted bills, statutory instruments and committee reports.

In the National Assembly, the main plenary event will be the ...

The Week Ahead: All eyes on Minister of Finance as he presents mini-budget

Committees will continue examining government departments and state entities on their 2014/15 Annual Reports in preparation of their Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports. These reports may include proposals on the future use of resources and are a critical part of Parliament’s engagement with the budget for the following year.

The ...

Infographic: SASSA Beneficiaries

The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) presented its 2014/15 annual report to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development on Thursday, 15 October 2015. 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 ...

Corruption and political party funding

By Matthew Kruger

Corruption and political party funding: Debating the means to a desirable end

Political questions rarely have easy answers. Even when we agree that a particular goal is desirable - end corruption, for example - we often disagree over the appropriate means to that end. Here I consider ...

The Week Ahead: Parliament's fourth term kicks off

Parliament resumes this week after a two-week constituency period. The fourth term will run for seven weeks and the programme is packed with activities. Some of the highlights include committee, oversight and legislative work; oral questions to the executive and a review of the national budget.

Later this month, the ...

Infographic: Public Participation Snapshot

On 29 September 2015, the Dullah Omar Institute held a roundtable discussion that explored whether working with South African Legislatures is still a valuable investment for civil society. The discussion, “ South Africa’s Legislatures in 2015: What’ the point?” used research done on public participation trends for the portfolio committees ...

Mr Jackson Mthembu - ANC

J-Mthembu

Political background: I’ve always been an activist and was involved in school and civic politics, including getting expelled from the University of Fort Hare. I was also very much involved in the unions – I was a founding member of what is now known as the National Union of Metal ...