Parliament, Sunday 15 October 2017 – Participation at the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 137th Assembly, questions for oral reply to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and to Cabinet Ministers and 43 committee meetings are on this week’s parliamentary calendar.
National Council of Provinces Chairperson Ms Thandi Modise is leading Parliament’s participation at the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s 137th Assembly, taking place in the Russian Federation city of St Petersburg. The main focus of the Assembly: “Promoting cultural pluralism and peace through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue” will feature at its General Debate, which starts today. The Assembly is held twice a year, as a forum for the 173 member Parliaments of the Inter-Parliamentary Union to collaborate on global issues.
At Parliament in Cape Town, questions to the Executive are scheduled for plenary sittings of both Houses. On Thursday, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to answer questions for oral reply from Members of the National Assembly at the Assembly’s plenary sitting. Bills, reports from committees, a subject for discussion (“The relevance and effectiveness of provinces and district municipalities in our system of government”) and a debate on National Women’s Day (“The emancipation and empowerment of women”) are among issues scheduled for plenary House sittings of the National Assembly on Tuesday and Wednesday.
At National Council of Provinces plenary House sittings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Ministers in the Economics Cluster are scheduled to answer questions for oral reply. The Ministers of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; Rural Development and Land Reform; Mineral Resources are scheduled to answer questions on Tuesday. On Wednesday, those scheduled to answer questions are the Ministers of Environmental Affairs; Telecommunications and Postal Services; Communications and on Thursday, the Ministers of Science and Technology; Public Enterprises; Tourism.
One of this week’s 43 scheduled committees meetings is a briefing to the Joint Committee of Chairpersons of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces. This briefing, from the Auditor General about audit outcomes of provincial and national departments, is scheduled for Wednesday.
Annual reports of government entities and Budget Review and Recommendation (BRR) Reports continue to feature strongly at other scheduled committee meetings. The BRR Reports, which help Parliament to evaluate service delivery commitments against government plans and budgets, must be finalised before the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement.
Other issues for consideration at scheduled committee meetings this week include:
- Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry: Deliberations on the Committee Bill dealing with debt relief (Tuesday and Wednesday)
- Portfolio Committee on Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries: Report from the National Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and Provincial Departments of Agriculture (Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Western Cape) on the state of readiness for planting season (Tuesday)
- Joint meeting of the Standing Committees on Public Accounts, Appropriations and the Auditor General: Briefing from the Auditor General on the 2016/2017 audit outcomes (Tuesday)
- Select Committee on Appropriations: Hearing on the performance of the following conditional grants – Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, Ilima/Letsema Projects, Land Care Programme, Poverty Relief and Infrastructure Development (Tuesday)
- Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Discussion of the report of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities on regulation of religion and abuse of people’s belief systems (Tuesday and Wednesday)
- Standing Committee on Finance: Briefing from the Government Employees’ Pension Fund and the Public Investment Corporation on their annual reports (Tuesday)
- Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources: Responses by Minister of Mineral Resources Mr Mosebenzi Zwane on state capture allegations (Wednesday)
- Multiparty Women’s Caucus Steering Committee: Briefing from senior researcher on draft report of the International Women’s Conference (Wednesday)
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
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