The need and usefulness of the provinces has been debated endlessly without reaching a conclusion.
The Right2Know Campaign (R2K) and the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef)’s submissions to the National Council of Provinces.
Service delivery woes took prevalence in Mamelodi at a public hearing on the Protection of State Information Bill, as residents became side-tracked.
A biased report on the secrecy Bill hearings from Parliament’s press office has sparked doubts over the service’s ability to remain impartial.
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/ 2 February 2012
Opposition politicians and activists have accused the ANC of manipulating hearings on the Protection of State Information Bill.
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/ 31 January 2012
Politicians have been roasted during public hearings on the info Bill with some saying poor communication shows a gap between people and politicians.
The chairperson for the committee scrutinising the secrecy Bill says the April 8 deadline to finalise work on the Bill is not cast in stone.
The committee tasked with scrutinising the controversial Secrecy Bill has pledged to ensure that all contributions to the Bill will be heard.
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/ 2 December 2011
Last week’s parliamentary vote for the Protection of State Information Bill shows us the country we could become.
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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/ 22 November 2011
Civic organisations say the passing of the secrecy Bill came as no surprise but they would continue to fight it at the National Council of Provinces.
New procurement regulations will empower the Department of Trade and Industry to designate specific industries of critical or strategic importance.
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/ 2 September 2009
Members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will visit all nine provinces next week to gather information about service delivery.
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/ 17 February 2009
Parliament on Tuesday ratified Vusi Pikoli’s dismissal as national director of public prosecutions, but he hit back with a legal bid to be reinstated.
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/ 19 November 2008
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Wednesday passed the Bills that will amalgamate the Scorpions into the police.
Property will be expropriated if it is in the public interest, according to the draft Expropriation Bill tabled on Wednesday. ”Expropriation in the public interest … provides government with a tool to achieve … land reform,” according to a memorandum attached to the Bill. This will broaden the scope of expropriation from the current narrow term of ”public purpose”.
Ncumisa Kondlo, a member of the African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee (NEC) and deputy chairperson of the South African Communist Party, died in East London on Monday, the ANC said. Kondlo was elected to the NEC in December 2007 and also served on the party’s national working committee.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has come out in support of a Johannesburg businessman’s attempt to seek an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions crime-fighting unit. ”Just call me a concerned citizen,” said businessman Hugh Glenister. ”I believe our constitutional rights are being violated.”
A Johannesburg businessman is seeking an interdict from the Pretoria High Court to stop the disbandment of the Scorpions elite crime-fighting unit. In a statement issued by Hugh Glenister, he argues that the disbanding of the unit would ”not be rationally connected to a legitimate governmental purpose”.
Racial tension within Mpumalanga police stations has reached ”ugly” proportions, says the province’s safety and security minister, Fish Mahlalela. ”The tension between black and white officers at police stations is ugly and dents … the fight against crime,” he told a meeting on Thursday.
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/ 22 February 2008
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille has accused the Public Protector of abusing his office for party political purposes in attacking DA MP Mike Waters. She declared that in the six years since his appointment, Lawrence Mushwana, a former ANC MP, has succeeded only in protecting the ANC from the people.
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/ 13 February 2008
What is the status of a traditional healer’s medical certificate produced by an employee claiming sick leave? It is clear that section 23(2) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act excludes traditional healers until such time as their practices are regulated through a statutory professional council.
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/ 12 February 2008
South Africa’s elite, FBI-style Scorpions anti-crime unit will be dissolved, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Tuesday. ”The Scorpions … will be dissolved and the organised crime unit of the police will be phased out and a new, amalgamated unit will be created,” Nqakula told Parliament in Cape Town.
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/ 11 February 2008
The "specialist nature" of the Scorpions might well be retained, wherever the unit is finally located, President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday. He said the government remained firmly committed to ensuring South Africa’s capacity to fight organised crime was enhanced, not reduced.
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/ 10 February 2008
An intense battle over the future of the Scorpions is raging between the government and the African National Congress, the Sunday Times reported. The party’s parliamentary caucus was setting up a heavyweight committee to drive the dismantling of the unit, while President Thabo Mbeki was mounting a defiant fightback campaign.
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/ 7 February 2008
While it was designed to cut costs and reduce bureaucracy, a new video-conference facility launched in Parliament on Thursday gave MPs the chance to see what their colleagues in the provinces look like. National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete hoped the project would one day link the government to rural areas.
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/ 17 January 2008
The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Bill for which it was specially called back from holiday. The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill was passed without debate, but with parties giving a three-minute explanation of their vote. The Bill passed by 266 votes to 52, with 12 abstentions.
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/ 13 December 2007
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called for effective sanction of government departments for failing to answer written parliamentary questions after 233 of its questions went unanswered this year. Thirteen percent (233) of the 1 690 written parliamentary questions posed by the party this year remained unanswered on Wednesday.
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/ 29 November 2007
Government ministers have failed to provide written answers to 343 questions posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA), said DA deputy chief whip Mike Ellis on Thursday. "Next Friday, December 7, is the deadline for the submission of replies to all parliamentary questions posed to government departments during 2007," he said.
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/ 2 November 2007
President Thabo Mbeki devoted a large part of his speech to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Friday to criticising the behaviour and ownership of the media. Speaking in Pniel, outside Stellenbosch, where the NCOP was holding a provincial sitting, he emphasised that the government has ”absolutely no intention to limit press freedom”.
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/ 1 November 2007
The district of Matatiele moved a step closer to being permanently incorporated into the Eastern Cape after the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday voted by a narrow margin in favour of the controversial Constitution 13th Amendment Bill. Heated debate between opposition parties and the ruling African National Congress preceded the vote.
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/ 31 October 2007
KwaZulu-Natal opposition parties on Wednesday accused the ruling African National Congress of ignoring the wishes of the residents of Matatiele and forging ahead with the district’s incorporation into the Eastern Cape. The Democratic Alliance (DA) accused the ANC of ”totally ignoring the wishes of the people of Matatiele Maluti”.