Members of the National Assembly (NA), who embarked on a constituency period on 3 August, return on Tuesday to a busy week. The National Council of Provinces is scheduled to return from its constituency period on 25 August and will resume plenary House sittings then.
Three plenary sittings of the NA, Public hearings and 49 committee meetings are among the issues coming up in the week ahead.
On Tuesday, is a hybrid plenary sitting of the NA, starting at 14.00 and scheduled to hold two debates.
The first debate marks National Women’s Day and is themed: “Generation Equality – Realising women’s rights for an equal future”. The second debate, scheduled as an urgent matter of national public importance, has been sponsored by the Economic Freedom Fighters’ Chief Whip Mr Floyd Shivambu. This debate is titled: “Solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter – Reinforcing the commitment of all South Africans to confront and defeat individual and institutional racism in our society and everywhere else it exists”.
Also on Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development will hold virtual public hearings on the Upgrading of the Land Tenure Rights Amendment (ULTRA) Bill from 09:00. The Bill seeks to address the unfair discrimination of women based on their gender to their right of tenure as found in the case of the Rahube matter, where the deed of grant was tested as it applied to only males. In the Rahube matter, it was an automatic transfer to the male.
Wednesday’s hybrid NA sitting, starting at 15.00, is scheduled to feature an oral questions session with six Ministers in the Peace and Security Cluster – Defence and Military Veterans, Home Affairs, International Relations and Co-operation, Justice and Correctional Services, Police, State Security. To read the questions, please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Docs/quest_pap/8c0e589a-5435-4eac-98f1-1b6d4ce20358.pdf
On Thursday, Deputy President Mr David Mabuza is scheduled to answer oral questions at the hybrid sitting of the NA. To read the questions to the Deputy President, please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Docs/quest_pap/cd3921ac-b5b3-4362-921c-c6ea7528523c.pdf
These regular oral questions sessions are one of the ways in which Parliament carries out its constitutional responsibility of scrutinising and overseeing executive action.
The 49 scheduled committee meetings from Tuesday to Friday feature a range of issues. These include strategic and performance plans and financial reports from state entities, matters related to COVID-19, other issues of general public interest, petitions and legislation.
Ten legislation issues are scheduled for discussion in committee meetings.
They are the: Civil Aviation Bill; the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill (public hearings on the Bill); the Copyright and Performers’ Protection Amendment Bills, which the President returned to Parliament (constitutionality and procedural deficiencies); amendment of the Electoral Act (following the Constitutional Court judgment on it in June); the Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill; the Disaster Management Tax Administration Bill; Environment, Forestry and Fisheries legislation and policy; the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill; the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill (following the National Council of Provinces’ amendment of the Bill referred to it by the NA); the Road Accident benefit Scheme Bill; and the State Liability Amendment Bill.
The 49 committee meetings, scheduled this week, include:
Tuesday, 18 August
Portfolio Committee on Transport: Deliberations on the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill;; Consideration and adoption of the Committee’s Report on the 2019/20 Fourth Quarter expenditure of the Department of Transport
Portfolio Committee on Tourism: briefing by South African Women in Tourism (WiT) programmes and activities in tourism sector, draft Committee report on 2019/20 Quarterly Performance of Department of Tourism
Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture: South African Football Association (SAFA) briefing on their annual financial report and governance matters, impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their programmes and plans to ensure safe resumption of 2019/20 season
Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs and the Select Committee on Security and Justice: Briefing by Minister of Home Affairs, Parliament and Electoral Commission of South Africa on Integrated road-map to amend Electoral Act; briefing by Municipal Demarcation Board on delimitation of municipal wards in preparation for Local Government Elections 2021
Standing Committee on Finance: Deliberations on Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill and Disaster Management Tax Administration Bill (with the optional presence of Select Committee on Finance members, who will subsequently, after the NA has adopted the Bill, consider it separately
Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure: Briefing by Department of Public Works and Infrastructure on the corruption allegations and investigations reports regarding state funerals; Beitbridge border-fencing project; Oryx Multimedia contract
Standing Committee on Public Accounts: Briefing by the Inter Ministerial Committee regarding their work on allegations of corruption in procurement of goods and services sourced for the purpose of containing and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
Wednesday, 19 August
Portfolio Committee on Police: Briefing by the Mayor of the City of Cape Town, SAPS, IPID and Metro Police on recent incident involving City of Cape Town Law enforcement members in Khayelitsha
Standing Committee on Public Accounts: Briefing by Special Investigating Unit regarding terms of reference relating to procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for COVID-19 pandemic
Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour: Briefing on the Third and Fourth Quarterly Reports of the Department of Employment and Labour and its entities
Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, Update on government’s COVID-19 interventions
Standing Committee on Finance: Further deliberation and voting on the Disaster Management Tax Relief Bill and Disaster Management Tax Administration Bill (with the optional presence of Select Committee on Finance members, who will subsequently, after the NA has adopted the Bill, consider it separately)
Portfolio Committee on Social Development: Briefing by Department of Social Development on its comprehensive plan to address Gender Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), in line with the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, Family Preservation Programmes and anti-substance abuse programmes, including the National Drug Master Plan; presentation by Mr D Harrison on petition forwarded to the Committee on measures to curb alcohol abuse linked to Gender Based Violence
Thursday 20 August
Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Interaction on the state of Phokwane Local Municipality with: Phokwane Local Municipality; MEC of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs; Office of the Auditor-General; South African Local Government Association (SALGA); Department of Co-operative Governance
Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Briefing by Northern Cape Provincial Government on its COVID-19 response plans; and briefing by the MEC on Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs on the status of all municipalities under S139 in the province.
Friday, 21 August
Portfolio Committee on Transport: Briefing by Department of Transport on its revised 2020/21 Strategic and Annual Performance Plans; consideration and adoption of Committee’s report on the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill
Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy: Update and progress by the Mintek on repurposing of its activities, production of sanitizers and development of manufacturing local test kits; Consideration of the report related to Lilly Mine and Optimum Mine
Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services: Shortlisting for the Information Regulator vacancy; briefing on the State Liability Amendment Bill.
For the latest full schedule of committee meetings (updated regularly), please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/parliament-programme
Enquiries:
Moloto Mothapo
Cell: 082 370 6930
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