The ruling party is proposing far stiffer penalties than those suggested by the National Assembly. Andisiwe Makinana reports.
New legislation says companies should be fined at least 10% of sales for misrepresenting the measures they have undertaken to promote BEE.
The past two weeks have focused attention on the failure of our political system to resolve political disputes and a consequent rush to litigation.
Some political observers are cynical about the role of Parliament in general, and in particular when it comes to the National Council of Provinces.
A cowed National Assembly means political interests prevail over those of the populace, writes The Congress of the People’s Mosiuoa Lekota.
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/ 2 February 2012
The National Assembly’s higher education and training committee says no university can exclude academically deserving students on financial grounds.
The ANC NEC says that people who join the party are bound by its policies, in reference to the two MPs who didn’t vote for the secrecy Bill last week.
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/ 24 November 2011
The National Council of Provinces have established a committee to deal with the secrecy Bill, while Cosatu has called for amendments to the Bill.
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/ 22 November 2011
The National Assembly voted in the Protection of Information Bill on Tuesday with 229 votes.
Parliament is planning to spend more than R2-billion on a revamp of facilities and the parliamentary precinct, but lacks an independent watchdog.
The ANC Youth league wants its former leaders on the list for the National Assembly, its president Julius Malema said on Thursday.
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/ 11 February 2009
Proposed adjustment to the personal income tax schedules will provide relief of R13,6-billion to individual taxpayers, Manuel announced on Wednesday.
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/ 9 February 2009
Deputy President Baleka Mbete admitted on Monday that "more still needs to be done and we can do better when we work together".
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/ 14 January 2009
ANC Gauteng provincial secretary David Makhura on Wednesday reported on the province’s election campaign progress.
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/ 14 January 2009
Former president Thabo Mbeki plans to turn down his place on the ANC’s Gauteng list of candidates for the National Assembly.
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/ 13 January 2009
The National Assembly’s battered image could be restored if Parliament reopens discussions on the arms deal, an independent panel said on Tuesday.
The liquidator trying to recover money owed by MPs says the Speaker of Parliament is not giving the full story.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Wednesday welcomed the announcement of a pay increase for public servants. On Tuesday, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said public-sector workers would receive a wage increase of 10,5% with effect from July 1.
Xenophobic violence against foreign nationals has been brought under control, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Monday. ”I do believe the situation is under control … the violence has subsided,” he said at a briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria following an inter-governmental task team meeting with President Thabo Mbeki.
The Democratic Alliance on Sunday accused Parliament’s questions office of ”obstructing” the party’s parliamentary questions probing corruption. The questions office had disqualified two written questions on the grounds that they were too vague in terms of the National Assembly’s guide to procedure.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has accused Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance and mayor of Cape Town, of fanning the flame of xenophobia by saying that attacks on foreigners were in part due to the fact that foreigners were selling the drug tik to South African children.
The police have ”concrete evidence” of a suspected third-force involvement in xenophobic attacks in and around Johannesburg, the Gauteng Legislature heard on Tuesday. ”The police now have concrete evidence of those involved in orchestrations and they are dealing with it,” said Gauteng’s minister for sport Barbara Creecy.
Over lavish buffets in giant, air-conditioned tents whose generators battle with the searing summer heat, Kuwaitis have been arguing over an election that is being watched for signs that one of the freest countries in the Arab world is disillusioned with its political system.
The Directorate of Special Operations, or the Scorpions, had another nail hammered into its coffin on Tuesday, with the tabling of the General Laws Amendment Bill in the National Assembly. The draft legislation, now headed for the committee stage, provides for the establishment of a new division in the South African Police Service.
President Thabo Mbeki must go, and he must go now, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille said on Monday. ”In a constitutional democracy such as ours, it is untenable for a president with his track record to remain in office,” she said in a statement. It is ”in the interests of South Africa” that Mbeki step down as president.
The arrest warrant against police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi was cancelled last year because acting prosecutions boss Mokotedi Mpshe thought the Scorpions might undermine him and serve it while he was still reviewing the matter, the inquiry into Pikoli’s fitness to hold office heard on Friday.
The real reason for the suspension of National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Vusi Pikoli related to a criminal probe into police chief Jackie Selebi, Pikoli’s lawyers said on Wednesday. ”It was to put a spoke in the wheels of the investigation and prosecution of the police National Commissioner, Mr Jackie Selebi,” they said.
The public hearings on suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli’s fitness to hold office are an ”inquisitorial” as opposed to an ”accusatorial” process, inquiry head Frene Ginwala said on Wednesday. ”I want to emphasise that this process is not a judicial one,” said Ginwala in an opening statement.
The inquiry into the suspension of National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, which starts on Wednesday, will see several high-profile witnesses testify, including Reverend Frank Chikane and Scorpions boss Gerrie Nel. President Thabo Mbeki suspended Pikoli as the head of the NPA on September 24.
In politics, as in life, chickens usually come home to roost. Fourteen years of failure in leadership and management at the Department of Home Affairs. Nine years of self-indulgent denialism in the Presidency. Six months of Umshini Wami and the violence and human rights promiscuity it implies — not to mention the failure in intelligence.
The presidency has launched an 11th-hour bid to prevent embarrassing confidential information behind the suspension of National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss Vusi Pikoli from being made public. Hours before Pikoli was to release documents detailing what he told President Thabo Mbeki and others about Jackie Selebi’s alleged corruption, he received a settlement offer from the government.
Suspended National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) boss, Vusi Pikoli, will not ”at this stage” make public his submissions to the Ginwala commission. ”Mr Pikoli remains committed to doing so at the appropriate time,” said Deneys Reitz, attorneys acting on behalf of Pikoli, in a statement on Friday.