News

19 June 2019 - President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to deliver his first State of the Nation address of the 6th Parliament on Thursday under the theme “Following up on our Commitments: Making Your Future Work Better”.

The Dullah Omar Institute with the support of the Open Society Foundation for South Africa hosted a seminar aimed at interrogating SOE Board appointments at PRASA, SABC and Eskom on 11 June 2019.

Dr Tinashe Chigwata a senior researcher and Dr Michelle Maziwisa a postdoctoral research fellow at the Dullah Omar Institute have started their secondments in the European Union Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) programme. The programme promotes cross-border and cross-sector collaboration through sharing knowledge and ideas from research to market and vice versa within Europe and beyond.

Former Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Thandi Modise was elected Speaker of the National Assembly recently.  As speaker Modise now has the unenviable task of presiding over debates in the National Assembly that has become increasingly disruptive. As part of her duties, she would serve as the administrative head and executive authority of Parliament, interprets and enforces the rules of Parliament and delivers rulings. Here is a sneak peak into her track record with a focus on her contribution to mainstreaming a feminist agenda on all the platforms she served.

As calls for the recall of the Public Protector intensify, her recent report on the suspended secretary of Parliament seemingly did not win her any new friends from neither the complainant, nor respondent in this case.

The new batch of MPs sworn in recently have their work cut out for them if civil society organisations have their way. To assist them in their oversight role and championing the ideals of a People’s Parliament, a civil society grouping now offers MPs a ‘lesson plan’ on how to navigate the pitfalls that almost swallowed their predecessors in the 5th Parliament. A coalition of civil society organisations called Parliament Watch will provide all incoming committee chairpersons, party chief whips and the Speaker’s Office with a report on key findings based on three years (2016 – 2018) of monitoring MPs in the previous parliamentary term.

Many praised and welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first ever 50/50 gender-balanced cabinet recently, but certain gender activists had some reservations about what this means for real feminist governance.

We the undersigned civil society organisations are deeply disturbed by the recent threats and intimidation directed by the EFF, South Africa’s third largest political party, against civil society groups partners such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF), a fellow civil society organisation. In a similar vein the EFF party leadership has attacked journalists writing about financial scandals which implicate the EFF leadership instead of focusing on the substance of investigations by the journalists.