Time has run out for the Children’s Bill. Parliament says it cannot properly deal with the proposed legislation, which aims to establish a framework to protect the rights of the child, before the elections. This is a setback for the Ministry of Social Development, which wanted the legislation processed before the elections.

The controversial Children’s Bill has been resubmitted to Parliament, but children’s rights groups say the Bill still has holes that leave children vulnerable. The Bill involves only national stipulations concerning parental rights and duties, the rights of children, surrogate motherhood, adoption and child courts.

The jury is out on whether the New National Party will be around in any significant form to celebrate its centenary in 2014. Next month the party will trek to Stellenbosch to kick off its election campaign. The 2004 poll will decide whether the NNP’s politics of consensus finds favour with voters.

Faced with racial enmity among its supporters in the Western Cape, the African National Congress goes into the election trying to bridge the divide between the coloured and African communities in the province. The ANC kicks off its 2004 election campaign in the Western Cape on Sunday.

Baby Tshepang’s rape in October 2001 stirred the world. In that act and in the little one’s horror, much about the country became evident: the mental and physical desperation of hopeless communities like Louisvale where she was raped and the numbers of other Tshepangs across the country. Where is Tshepang now and where are we?

It all began when a church collecting offerings rejected a cheque and asked, instead, for cash. Now a legal battle, begun eight years ago, will cast a pall over the Supreme Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Church of South Africa this weekend.

Former MPs who have served at least five consecutive years in Parliament will receive four free single air-travel tickets for every year of service up to a maximum of 15 years, according to a National Assembly motion on Thursday. The economy class air tickets are ”for the personal use” of an ex-MP and his/her accompanying partner.

The process of holding government to account breaks down at critical points in the oversight cycle, says Public Service Accountability Monitor director Colm Allan.
He made his comments as the ANC gets ready to put many of those already in Parliament on its list of candidates for the next general election and most likely back in the legislatures.

Four of South Africa’s largest political parties could be forced to disclose private donations of R50 000 and more — if court action by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) is successful.