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The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr David Mabuza, will on Thursday (10 March 2022) at 2 pm appear before the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) to answer questions from the permanent delegates of the House.
 
Section 92(2) of the Constitution stipulates that Cabinet Members are accountable collectively and individually to Parliament for exercising powers and performance of their functions. Questions for Oral Reply sessions are one of the mechanisms Parliament utilises to hold the Executive to account. 
 
Other items on the busy programme of Parliament this week include: 

The commencement of nationwide public hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill

NCOP’s ministerial briefing session on Human Settlements

Debate on International Women’s Day

National Assembly’s questions to the Social Services cluster

39 committee meetings

The NCOP debate on the 2021 Women’s Charter for Accelerated Development

This week, the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs will start the nationwide public hearings on the Electoral Amendment Bill. The committee will hold the first hearings from Monday to Wednesday in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. After that, move to Mpumalanga and Northern Cape Provinces for the second-leg hearings from Thursday to Sunday. The committee will visit all nine provinces this month.
 
The hearings follow the June 2020 Constitutional Court judgement in the New Nation Movement NPC and Others v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others case. The Court found the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 unconstitutional, to the extent that it requires that adult citizens be elected to the National Assembly and provincial legislatures only through their membership of political parties. Parliament was given 24 months to remedy the defect, which will lapse in June 2022. This bill seeks to remedy this defect.
 
The NCOP will, on Tuesday at 10 am, hold a hybrid Ministerial briefing session on Human Settlements under the theme: “Progress in creating integrated and sustainable human settlements”. 
 
This briefing intends to provide the Members of the NCOP, the Provincial Legislatures and Municipal Councils (through the South African Local Government Association) with the necessary information to coordinate and enhance their oversight work over the Department of Human Settlements. It further demonstrates the NCOP’s role in facilitating coordination in the discharge of national priorities by the different spheres of government. 
 
Meanwhile, the National Assembly (NA) will, on Tuesday at 2 pm, hold a debate on International Women’s Day under the theme: “Gender Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.  At the same sitting, the NA will also consider a report of the Portfolio Committee on Education on the oversight visit to North West and Free State Provincial Education Departments.
 
On Wednesday, Ministers in the  social services cluster will appear before NA at 2 pm to answer questions from Members of Parliament. The cluster comprises Sports, Arts and Culture, Basic Education, Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Health, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, and Social Development Ministers. 
 
Meanwhile, the NCOP will debate the 2021 Women’s Charter for Accelerated Development on Wednesday. The debate is a culmination of nationwide public consultation sessions on reviewing the 1994 Women’s Charter for Effective Equality. The sessions aimed to take stock of the progress made in implementing the 1994 Women’s Charter for Effective Equality articles and assess its impact since the advent of freedom and democracy. Parliament consulted extensively with women in all nine provinces to ensure the development of improved policy and legislative oversight mechanisms and precise interventions to remove all structural, institutional and cultural barriers for the realisation of gender equality in South Africa.
 
On Thursday, the NA will convene a hybrid sitting to pay tribute to the recently departed Members of Parliament (MPs), Mr Duma Moses Nkosi and Mme Maggie Tlou. 
 
There are 39 committee meetings scheduled for this week:
  
TUESDAY, 8 MARCH 2022

Joint Meeting: Standing Committee on Finance and Select Committee on Finance, to consider and adopt the committee report on the 2022 Fiscal Framework and Revenue Proposals.

Standing Committee on Appropriations to receive comments from the Parliamentary Budget Office on the 2022 Division of Revenue Bill.

Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources and Energy: to be briefed by the Parliamentary Legal Service on the recent High Court decision relating to the Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producers Procurement Programme (RMIPPPP).

Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour will get responses from Department of Employment and Labour on public hearing submissions on Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Amendment Bill (COIDA) and Employment Equity Amendment Bill.
 
WEDNESDAY, 9 MARCH 2022
Portfolio Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure consider and deliberate clause by clause of the Expropriation Bill [B23-2020].

Standing Committee on Appropriations will be briefed by the Financial Fiscal Commission on the 2022 Division of Revenue Bill;

Joint Meeting: Portfolio Committee on Basic Education and Portfolio Committee on
Social Development will be briefed on the Updated and Status Report on Migration of Early Childhood Development (ECD) by both the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and Social Development (DSD).

Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development: Briefing on Research Report of the Commission for Gender Equality – Sink or Swim: The Challenges of Implementing Government’s Women Economic Empowerment Programmes in South Africa
for 2020.
 
Select Committee on Security and Justice: Presentation by the South African Police Service and the Civilian Secretariat for Police on the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act, 1998.
 
THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2022
Joint Standing Committee on Defence will be briefed by DOD on transformation, morale and discipline in the SANDF.
 
FRIDAY, 11 MARCH 2022
Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will engage with the SC on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Water, Sanitation and Human Settlements on the amendments to the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill [B2D-2019]

Joint Standing Committee on Financial Management of Parliament will be briefed by the Executive Authority and Minister of Finance on progress made as far as addressing concerns about the allocation of Parliament's budget.

Issued by Parliament of SA