On Tuesday, Deputy President David Mabuza is scheduled to appear before the National Assembly for his first oral question and answer session. Regular question and answer sessions are one of the ways in which Parliament holds the Executive to account.

There are specific rules for questions for oral reply to the President, the Deputy President and Ministers. Questions to the Deputy President must be scheduled for a question day once a month during session time in accordance with the annual programme of the National Assembly. 

Up to six questions on matters of national or international importance may be asked during the Deputy President’s three-hour question session. The three hours cover the main questions and associated supplementary questions.

The sitting of the Assembly on Tuesday is the only plenary sitting for the week, of both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.

Legislation dominates the 35 committee meetings scheduled for the week.

The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will on Tuesday be briefed by the CRL Rights Commission on the recent incident involving the Seven Angels Ministries in eNgcobo. This is the first interaction between Parliament and the Commission following the eNgcobo tragedy and the unfortunate allegations made by the Commission's chairperson regarding the handling of its recommendations.

Various Labour Bills are scheduled for consideration at meetings of the Portfolio Committee on Labour and 14 specific Bills are scheduled to come before other committees. These are the draft Public Audit Act Amendment Bill, the National Credit Amendment Act, the iKamva National e-Skills Institute (iNeSI) Bill, the Division of Revenue Bill, the National Land Transport Amendment Bill, the Marine Spatial Planning Bill, the Traditional Courts Bill, the Liquor Products Amendment Bill, the Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill, the National Health Laboratory Service Amendment Bill, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill, the Copyright Amendment Bill, the Financial Sector Regulation Act Regulations and the Public Investment Corporation Amendment Bills.

The Constitutional Review Committee is also scheduled to consider and adopt a proposed programme of public hearings on the review of section 25 of the Constitution.

Annual performance plans, budgets and programmes of government departments and entities also feature at the scheduled committee meetings and so do several matters of public interest.

Committee meetings scheduled for the week include:
1. Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs: Briefing by the Department of Home Affairs on Annual Performance Plan and budget for the 2018-2019 financial year (Tuesday)

2. Select Committee on Appropriations: Briefing by National Treasury on the 2018 Division of Revenue Bill; submission by the Financial and Fiscal Commission on the 2018 Division of Revenue Bill; submission by the South African Local Government Association on the 2018 Division of Revenue Bill (Tuesday)

3. Portfolio Committee on Labour: Presentation of submission summaries on the Labour Bills; responses by the Department of Labour on submissions, deliberations on the Bills (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)

4. Portfolio Committee on Women in the Presidency: Briefing by the Commission for Gender Equality on its submission on the Traditional Courts Bill and submissions made to legislation in Parliament (Tuesday)

5. Standing Committee on Finance: Briefing on Capitec Bank and VBS Mutual Bank (Tuesday morning)

6. Standing Committee on Finance: SARS - follow-up on issues from 13 March 2018 meeting, including the Makwakwa matter, the KPMG report and Steinhoff (Tuesday afternoon)

7. Constitutional Review Committee: Consideration and adoption of the proposed programme of public hearings on the review of section 25 of the Constitution (Tuesday)

8. Standing Committee on the Auditor-General: Draft Public Audit Act Amendment Bill - National Treasury presentation; Auditor General of South Africa presentation (Thursday)

9. Portfolio Committee on Police: Clause by clause deliberations on the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill (Thursday, Friday)

These are among key matters scheduled to come before committees of Parliament this week. For the latest full schedule of committee meetings (updated daily), please click: https://www.parliament.gov.za/whatson
 

Issued by Parliament of the Republic of South Africa