A joint sitting on National Women’s Day; a full schedule of Parliamentary Committee meetings; questions to the President and Deputy President; and a week-long focus on service delivery in provinces are on the fifth democratic Parliament’s second term agenda.
President Jacob Zuma’s report about security upgrades at his Nkandla residence was submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) this week and the NA will deal with the matter when it reconvenes.
A joint sitting of the NA and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on 20 August will debate National Women’s Day. The theme for the debate is “celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Charter and 20 years of freedom: Together moving a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa forward.” Representatives from organisations which deal with issues affecting women have been invited to attend the sitting.
On 21 August the round of questions to the Executive kicks off with President Jacob Zuma answering questions in the NA. Also on 21 August, Cabinet Ministers in the peace and security cluster will be answering questions in the NCOP.
On 27 August the peace and security cluster Ministers answer questions in the NA, those in the social services cluster do so on 3 September and on 10 September Ministers in the governance cluster appear in the NA to answer questions from Members.
The peace and security cluster comprises the ministries of Defence and Military Veterans, Home Affairs, International Relations and Cooperation, Justice and Correctional Services, and Police and State Security. The social services cluster comprises the Arts and Culture, Basic Education, Higher Education and Training, Health, Human Settlements, Social Development, Sport and Recreation, and Water and Sanitation ministries. In the governance cluster are the ministries of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Public Service and Administration, the Minister in the Presidency, and the Minister of Women in the Presidency.
On 17 September, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to answer questions for oral reply in the NA. Following this, Ministers in one of the two economic clusters are scheduled to answer questions in the NA. These are the Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Communications, Economic Development, Energy, Environmental Affairs, Finance, Labour, Mineral Resources, and Public Enterprises. Ministers in the social services cluster are scheduled to answer questions on 16 September in the NCOP.
This follows the NCOP’s Provincial Week, scheduled for 8 to 12 September. During this time, provincial delegations of the NCOP will visit their provinces to assess the state of service delivery and respond to public concerns.
Provincial Week is a key mechanism of the NCOP to exercise oversight over executive action and to fulfil its Constitutional mandate of ensuring that provincial interests are taken into account in the national sphere of government.
International engagements coming up include the 9th meeting of Women Speakers of Parliament to be held in Ecuador from 4 to 5 September and a session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states Parliamentary Assembly and inter-sessional meetings from 17 to 20 September. ACP Heads of State and Government meet in a summit in November.
