Parliament, Sunday, 06 May 2018 – Questions to the President, taking place in the National Assembly, and the Local Government Week programme, taking place in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), are some of the key activities taking place in Parliament this week. There will also be 11 Budget Vote debates of various departments and 38 meetings of Committees of Parliament.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will be back in the National Assembly (NA) to reply to questions of Members of Parliament on Tuesday. Regular plenary House sittings featuring question and answer sessions with the President is one way in which Parliament implements its constitutional responsibility of scrutinising and overseeing executive actions.

In terms of the rules of Parliament, the President is scheduled to appear once per quarter to answer questions in the National Assembly, to deal with matters of national importance. The questions to be put to the President for oral replies, are submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly at least 16 days before the President’s appearance.

The NA will dedicate the rest of the week to mini-plenaries that deal with Budget Votes of these departments: Basic Education, Science and Technology, Statistics South Africa, Justice and Constitutional Development, Social Development (all on Wednesday); Economic Development, Arts & Culture, Human Settlements, Communications (on Thursday) and Rural Development & Land Reform, and Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (on Friday).

The NCOP, in collaboration with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), will host the three-day Local Government Week starting on Tuesday. The programme, whose theme is “Land Use: Towards Integrated Spatial Planning,” will culminate in a debate in the House on Thursday where the outcomes of the three-day engagements will be debated.

The Joint Constitutional Review Committee will meet on Thursday to adopt the programme of the public hearings on the proposed review of section 25 of the Constitution to make it possible for the State to expropriate land in the public interest without compensation. The closing date for public submissions is 31 May.

The NA’s Standing Committee on the Auditor General will meet on Friday to consider the final version of the Public Audit Amendment Bill before its adoption.

Other Committee meetings scheduled for this week include, amongst others, the following:

  • On Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Police will meet to consider the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill. The Standing Committee on Appropriations will be briefed by the Public Service Commission and the Parliamentary Budget Office on the 2018 Appropriation Bill.
  • On Wednesday, the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation will be briefed by the Auditor-General of South Africa on the financial position and contested audit outcomes for the Department of Water and Sanitation. The National Treasury is also scheduled to brief the Committee on the department’s budget.

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