News

On 23 November 2018, the Dullah Omar Institute hosted a roundtable discussion on the role of corporations in the realisation of human rights in South Africa. The roundtable discussion brought together different stakeholders including academic, social justice activists, representatives from civil society organisations and human rights lawyers involved in the business and human rights sectors.

Parliament will close another four portfolio committee meetings to the public between 26 November until 4 December before the national legislature wraps up for its recess period. This follows at least two letters written to the Speaker’s office in Parliament raising concerns over closing meetings to the public. However, a collective of civil society organisations under Parliament Watch, sections of the media and individuals are still waiting on a response to the concerns they raised. Parliament has since indicated it is still drafting a response to the concerns raised in the letter. So, what are these concerns?

Outrage alone will not save our children from harm and neglect but fixing the tools for social protection of children will be a good start. This is how some MPs in Parliament recently responded to the department of social development’s figures showing multimillion-rand underspending on programmes like foster care grants. MPs across the political spectrum in the Portfolio Committee on Social Development raised concern and demanded answers over the department’s under expenditure on social assistance totalling almost R900 million. This concern however, did not necessarily translate into decisive demands for action in the department’s Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).

As the proposed constitutional amendments to allow land expropriation without compensation is facing its first court challenge, Parliament now has another opportunity to deal with its legislative mandate’s great Achilles' heel – meaningful public participation. On November 15 after nationwide public hearings spanning over two months the Joint Constitutional Review Committee in Parliament adopted its report in favour of amending section 25 of the Constitution. Lobby group Afriforum however, launched a court application to have this report set aside citing serious concerns over the public participation process.

As Cosatu on Monday congratulated the President for signing the National Minimum Wage Bill into law, the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) requested the bill to be returned to Parliament to be reconsidered. There has however, been no formal announcement from the Presidency that the bill was indeed signed into law. The CGE’s request follows serious concerns raised by the non-profit sector over the bill’s possible impact on the fate of care workers and other NPO staff. Despite concerns raised, certain government departments until now opted to follow a “wait and see” approach to what has been labelled an impending crisis for the non-profit (NPO) sector, and the women and children depending on its services.

The Socioeconomic Rights Project is happy to announce that Dr. Ngcime Mbano has joined the institute as a visiting scholar from 19 November 2018 for a period of three weeks.

The state manages billions of rands of taxpayers money, much of it meant for spending on social justice and development programmes. A system of public finance set in law governs how national, provincial and local governments should manage our public finances.

SALGA proudly announces the call for papers for the 2nd Research Colloquium which is now open. The colloquium will be hosted in partnership with the Dullah Omar Institute.