Parliament, Sunday 8 October 2017 – The National Council of Provinces’ Provincial Week oversight programme in the nine provinces and 49 committee meetings in Parliament are on the parliamentary agenda this week. Plenary sittings of the two Houses resume from 17 October.

During Provincial Week, Permanent Delegates to the National Council of Provinces will go to the provinces which they represent to interact directly with the public on issues related to the theme: “Advancing our collective efforts to creating work opportunities for our people”.

Of the 49 scheduled committee meetings in the precinct, two involve briefings to clusters of parliamentary committees. On Tuesday, those in the economics cluster are scheduled to receive a briefing on the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Council from Minister of Economic Development Mr Ebrahim Patel. On Wednesday, committees in the governance and social services cluster are scheduled to receive a briefing on the Integrated Urban Development Framework from Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Mr Andries Nel.

Budget Review and Recommendation (BRR) Reports - which must be finalised before the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on 25 October - and annual reports of government entities feature strongly at other scheduled committee meetings. The BRR Reports help Parliament to evaluate service delivery commitments against government plans and budgets.

Other issues scheduled for consideration at committee meetings this week include:

  • Portfolio Committee on Basic Education: briefing and status report on Vuwani from the Departments of Basic Education, Safety and Security, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Intelligence (Tuesday)
  • Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs: briefing from the Department of Environmental Affairs on progress on the Thabametsi Judgment (Tuesday)
  • Standing Committee on Finance: briefing from the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (Wednesday)
  • Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs: briefing from the department on plans to manage various waste and update on asbestos programme (Wednesday)
  • Ad Hoc Committee on Review of Powers and Privileges Act: briefing from the National Assembly Table on international best practices and conventions regarding parliamentary powers and privileges; briefing from Parliament’s Constitutional and Legal Services on amendments to the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures Act (Thursday)
  • Portfolio Committee on Communications: interviews with shortlisted candidates to fill vacancies on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Council (Thursday)

These are amongst a wide range of key matters before Parliament this week. For the full schedule of committee meetings (updated daily), please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/whatson

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

Enquiries: Moloto Mothapo 082 370 6930