A debate on Youth Day, policy debates on budget votes, legislation and reports from committees are among issues featuring at National Council of Provinces House plenary sittings this week.

The Youth Day debate, during the National Council of Provinces sitting on Thursday, marks 16 June 1976 and also marks the centenaries of former President Nelson Mandela and struggle stalwart Ms Albertina Sisulu. “Youth action for jobs and youth development: Advancing the heroic legacy of the 1976 generation and the great legacy of Mandela and Albertina Sisulu” is the theme for the debate. Also scheduled for the sitting is a policy debate on Budget Vote 14 (Basic Education), among other matters.

Wednesday’s sitting is scheduled to consider legislation and committee reports and Tuesday’s sitting is scheduled to consider Motions and a policy debate on Budget Vote 28 (Labour) and Budget Vote 33 (Tourism).

There are no House plenary sittings of the National Assembly. However, 34 meetings of National Assembly and National Council of Provinces committees are scheduled to consider, among other things, nine legislative matters, issues of public concern and quarterly, annual, budget, strategic and annual performance plans and reports of government departments and entities. The nine scheduled legislative matters are the National Health Laboratory Services Bill, the Liquor Products Amendment Bill, the National Environmental Laws Amendment Bill, the Foreign Service Bill, the Political Party Funding Bill, the Copyright Amendment Bill, the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Bill, the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement and the review process of the Mining Charter.

Committee meetings scheduled for the week ahead include:

Standing Committee on Public Accounts: Hearings on deviations and expansions of the State Information Technology Agency – Tuesday 9.30 to 13.00 and of Defence  – Tuesday 14.00 to 17.00

Select Committee on Economic and Business Development: Briefing from the Central Energy Fund on turnaround plan to clear governance issues affecting the performance of PetroSA and the Strategic Fuel Fund – Tuesday, 10.00

Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs: Clause by clause discussions on the National Environmental Laws Amendment Bill – Tuesday, 10.00 to 15.00 and Wednesday, 9.30 to 17.00

Portfolio Committee on Mineral Resources: Briefing by the Department of Mineral Resources on the consultative process of reviewing the Mining Charter and areas of focus of that review process – Tuesday, 14.00 to 18.00

Portfolio Committee on Health: Briefings from the Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Provincial Departments of Health on hospital services in their provinces – Tuesday, 14.00 to 21.00; briefings from the Northern Cape, Limpopo, Free State and Gauteng Provincial Departments of Health on hospital services in their provinces – Wednesday, 14.00 to 20.30

Portfolio Committee on Police: Briefing by the South African Police Service and committee stakeholders on measures to combat cash in transit heists – Wednesday, 9.00

Select Committee on Petitions and Executive Undertakings: Consideration and adoption of the Lung Kona Petition report (requesting intervention of the National Council of Provinces in upgrades of roads and construction of bridges in certain parts of the Eastern Cape); consideration and adoption of Transkei Road Transport Corporation Petition (on alleged failure of the corporation to pay pension monies and severance packages to former employees following its liquidation) – Wednesday, 9.00

Standing Committee on Public Accounts: Meeting with 10 municipalities that owe Eskom – Wednesday, 9.00

Select Committee on Appropriations: Hearing on Provincial Disaster Grant performance for the 4^th quarter of the 2017/2018 financial year – Wednesday, 10.00

Select Committee on Communications and Public Enterprises: Negotiating mandates on the Protection, Promotion, Development and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Bill – Wednesday, 10.00

Ad Hoc Committee on Funding of Political Parties: Clause by clause presentation on and discussion of the Political Party Funding Bill; consideration of responses from National Treasury and the Electoral Commission; consideration of written submissions on the Bill – Thursday, 10.00 to 13.30