The Week Ahead: End of Third Term

The constituency period beckons but there is still time for a fair amount of heavy-duty business before MPs depart.

With little scheduled in the main chambers, the committee corridor will be the main source of parliamentary action, where there are several hearings on important issues and detailed legislating.

The lone plenary event will take place in the NCOP on Tuesday when the House debates Heritage Day and the institutions supporting democracy.

Here is my run down of the meetings that are likely to produce big headlines:

There is pressure mounting on government to reconsider the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill amidst concerns that it will chase away investors. The Department of Trade and Industry has so far rejected the claims and maintained that “to date there had been no disinvestment, or even a threat to do so”. The reservations came through sharply during the public hearings and will be at the forefront of the deliberations that are set for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs is holding public hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday on the discussion document regarding South Africa's Climate Change Negotiating Position in the lead to the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France, this December. According to a parliamentary media statement, the purpose of the public hearings “is to ensure that the voices of our people from all walks of life are heard and captured in our country's position, which is being articulated by our government”.

The Constitutional Court declared sections 151 and 152 of the Children’s Act, 2005 (Act No. 38 of 2005) unconstitutional. The Court found that the Act lacked safety mechanisms to deal with a situation where a social worker or a police officer wrongly removed a child or where the children’s court makes an order based on incorrect information. To give effect to the decision of the Constitutional Court, the Children’s Second Amendment Bill, seeks to amend the Act to provide that the removal of a child to temporary safe care without a court order be placed before the children’s court for review before the expiry of the next court day and for an automatic review. The Bill also proposed that an interim order granted in respect of the removal of a child to temporary safe care be placed before the children’s court before the expiry of the next court date and that the parent, guardian or care-giver be present in court. Various NGOs are expected to make oral submissions to the Portfolio Committee on Social Development during public hearings on the proposed law on Wednesday.

The Mining Framework Agreement (to assess the socio-economic conditions of mine workers), the state of community media, regulations for special economic zones and the Employment Creation Facilitation Fund are other big issues that will be in the spotlight this week.

In between, a few NCOP committees hope to conclude their work on the Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Bill, Disaster Management Amendment Bill and Defence Laws Repeal Amendment Bill.

MPs are expected to be in their constituency offices carrying out important work during the constituency period. They will return to Parliament on 13 October 2015.

You can find the full list of meetings here.