The Week Ahead: Legislative business returns

Parliament has been starved of legislative action for the past few weeks, with committees focused on preparing their Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR). While there is still some leftover work in that regard, there is quite a lot of heavy legislative lifting scheduled this week- with five bills up for consideration in the National Assembly.

The programmes in the main chambers offer a blend of ministerial statements, debates on matters of national and international interest and oral questions to the Deputy President and Economic Cluster.

Some of the questions that the Deputy President has to reply to concern the tragedy at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria - whether the Government has critically analysed the nature of service delivery protests across the country and if he will take any steps against Ministers and Deputy Ministers who fail to attend to oral question sessions in the National Council of Provinces.

The Ministers in the Economic Cluster will also have to answer a wide range of questions. The Minister of Small Business Development must answer why R600 million, owed and payable by government departments to small businesses, were not paid timeously to businesses within the prescribed 30-day period. The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform will be asked about the proposed policy called Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land and if he intends that farmers should give up half of their land to farm workers.

The committee corridor is also packed with a lot of action. Here are the highlights:

Money matters will remain at the fore this week as the joint finance committees hold public hearings on the Revised Fiscal Framework on Tuesday.

On the same day, the Minister of Human Settlements will report back on the progress made during her 100 days in office. Also, the Department of Mineral Resources will brief MPs on the timelines for hydrological fracturing prospecting/ exploration, including the sites earmarked for this initial investigative phase. Fracking has remained a controversial issue with many stakeholders threatening to take government to court of this goes ahead. The Department of Environmental Affairs will update MPs on the status of air quality in South Africa.

On Wednesday, the Department of Planning, Performance Monitoring and Evaluation will brief MPs on government’s plans to revitalise distressed mining communities.

The spotlight will be on the South African Post Office (SAPO) on Friday when it briefs Parliament on its current state of affairs. Given its recent troubles, this meeting will be closely watched.

The powers and privileges committee and ad hoc committee dealing with the Nkandla matter have dominated the headlines for some time. However, both committees have not been placed on the programme yet.

Click here for a list of all the committee meetings for this week.