Parliament, Sunday 15 September 2019 – Plenaries, including a joint sitting of the National Assembly (NA) and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) called by President Ramaphosa to address gender-based violence issues, the NCOP Provincial Week, and NA committee meetings are amongst a wide range of key matters on the parliamentary agenda this week.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to address a Joint Sitting of the two Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, 18 September and lead a debate on gender-based violence to find a new approach in dealing with the scourge of violence against women and children. This follows the drastic increase of brutal killings of women in the last two weeks that fuelled wide-spread protests throughout the country.
Immediately after the joint sitting, the National Assembly will have its plenary sitting and hold Questions for Oral Reply to Ministers in the Governance Cluster. This is one of the mechanisms of holding the executive accountable to the electorate.
NA plenary sittings are also scheduled to take place on Tuesday and Thursday. A subject for discussion on Tuesday will be ‘Building state capacity through insourcing of government and all state-owned companies' workers’ led by Mr Julius Malema leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) whilst on Thursday, the heritage debate will be held under the theme ‘Celebrating South Africa’s literacy classics in the year of indigenous languages’.
Meanwhile, NCOP’s Permanent Delegates will go back to their respective provinces and embark on a week-long programme from 16 – 20 September called Provincial Week. Themed, ‘Building sustainable, responsive and people-centred Municipalities’ the delegates together with their Provincial Legislature counter-parts, will interact directly with the public on service delivery issues such as housing backlog, water infrastructure maintenance and waste collection etc.
They will further meet with key stakeholders such as Premiers, MEC’s, Executive Mayors, Ward Councillors and representatives from the South African Local Government to establish possible solutions on issues raised by the public. Provincial week activities will temporally be suspended on Wednesday to attend the joint sitting called by the President.
35 Parliamentary Committee and sub-committee meetings are scheduled to meet this week:
Tuesday 17 September:
The Portfolio Committee on Communications will be briefed by the South African Broadcasting Corporation on the public broadcaster’s turnaround strategy;
Standing Committee on Finance will be briefed by SARS on the progress of recommendations relating to the Nugent Commission of Enquiry Report;
Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology: Colloquium on the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Portfolio Committee on Tourism: Consideration of draft Concept Paper on Tourism Oversight Forum
Wednesday, 18 September
Portfolio Committee on Police: Continuation of Briefing by the Minister of Police and SAPS on the 2019 Annual Crime Statistics;
Standing Committee on Appropriations: Continuation of deliberations on the Special Appropriation Bill;
Thursday, 19 September
Portfolio Committee on Health will have a capacity-building session with the Auditor General’s Office
Friday, 20 September
Subcommittee on the Review of the National Assembly Rules will consider matters referred by the Rules Committee.
To download voice audio in English please click: https://we.tl/t-Qivai3kzss
To download voice audio in isiXhosa please click: https://we.tl/t-Qivai3kzss
For the latest full schedule of committee meetings (updated regularly), please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/whatson
Members of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces are scheduled to embark on a constituency period from 23 September to 07 October
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Enquiries: Moloto Mothapo 082 370 6930 (Alternatively Manelisi Wolela 076 062 2180)
Arrange a tour