The office bearers of the Women’s Parliament, held each year during Womens’s month, being led into the House by the Sergeant at arms carrying the Mace which is the symbol of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

Legislature holds successful Women’s Parliament in Maphumulo Municipality

The 2015 Women’s Parliament held in Maphumulo Municipality under Ilembe District on the 13th and 14th August 2015 was hailed as a huge success by delegates and MPLs. Delegates who participated in the debates came from the six political parties that are represented in the Legislature.

The Women’s Parliament, which is an annual programme of the Legislature aimed at giving ordinary women a platform to engage with their public representatives, was held under the theme “Women United in Moving South Africa Forward”.

The first day started with the delegates breaking into commissions to discuss issues affecting women in general. Commissions were also attended by MECs and government official who noted issues that were raised and provided answers. They also presented departmental programmes that target women. Commissions came up with recommendations that were later presented to plenary on the second day.

The second day was attended by various MECs including the Premier who delivered a keynote address to the event. The MECs provided updates on the progress their departments had made in the implementation of resolutions that were adopted by the 2014 Women’s Parliament. In attendance was the Minister for Small Business Development, Hon. Lindiwe Zulu, who had been invited by women to make a presentation on the role of her newly formed department in driving economic empowerment of women. Her presentation was well received by all women.

The last day ended with a debate on the theme “Women United in Driving South Africa Forward” wherein delegates from six political parties represented in the Legislature participated. The debate was robust with delegates raising issues affecting them on daily basis in the presence of the Executive and MPLs. At the end of the debate, delegates adopted a set of resolutions which were forwarded to the Speaker for consideration by committees of the Legislature before their referral to the provincial government for implementation to advance women’s issues. Committees will monitor the implementation of resolutions through their regular oversight meetings with provincial departments.

Hampers as part of the Speaker’s Social Responsibility Programme
During the visit to ilembe district, hampers were given to needy people as part of the Speaker’s Social Responsibility Programme.

Grade 9 and 10 girls who spent the day with managers at the Legislature.

Take a Girl Child to Work

In its sitting held on 30 September 2015, the Legislature invited girls who are doing grade 9 and 10 to take part in the activities of the Legislature and to gain first-hand experience of the legislative environment.

Girls who attended received an insight into the functioning of the Legislature and a goody-bag from the Office of the Speaker.

In line with Cairo and Beijing Conferences, the Legislature considers girl child education as the most important instrument that empowers the girl child to lead an independent, healthier, and happier life. An African says, “If we educate a boy, we educate one person. If we educate a girl, we educate a family, and a whole nation”. It is for this reason that the Legislature has embarked on dedicating a day in its business to expose the girl child to the work of the Members of Provincial Legislature (MPLs), its senior Managers and other Legislature operations.

Down to serious business with the Legislature’s Chief Operations Officer, Mr Bongani Sibisi.

It is hoped that this will instil interest in the work of the Legislature and greater insight into various careers to pursue in politics. The girls are invited to the sitting of the Legislature to observe House proceedings and are given an opportunity to engage with Members on various topical issues debated either in the National Assembly, the NCOP or Provincial Legislature. The programme is structured in such a way that the girls are guided through the day- to- day activities of the Legislature with greater emphasis on the importance of working together as different political parties in a democracy to ensure that the citizens have a say (through their elected representatives) in the legislative processes.

Active engagement between eager learners with the Legislature’s Manager on Institutional Transformation, Ms Bridget Dlamini

In this way, the Legislature instils a culture of tolerance and helps the girl child develop an important trait, namely, the ability to make choices for one’s self. Thus, the Legislature prides itself for contributing immensely towards building future women leaders in politics, and for educating a girl child to build a nation.

A well deserved break after a tiring day at the Legislature, the girls were treated to lunch and each also received a certificate.

Team consisting of NCOP Members, MPLs and SALGA executive visited Ilembe District.

NCOP week takes place in Ilembe and Ugu Districts

NCOP permanent delegates from KwaZulu-Natal were joined by their provincial counterparts when they visited Ilembe and Ugu Districts during the week of the 21st to the 24th July as part of their oversight work to monitor service delivery in the province. The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) is constitutionally mandated to ensure that provincial interests are taken into account in the national sphere of government. This is done through participation in the national legislative process and by providing a national forum for consideration of issues affecting provinces.

The NCOP also plays a unique role in the promotion of the principles of cooperative government and intergovernmental relations. It ensures that the three spheres of government work together in performing their unique functions in terms of the Constitution and that in doing so, they do not encroach in each other’s area of competence. This ensures that synergy exists between the spheres on matters of concurrent competence. As part of the NCOP’s annual oversight plan, the KwaZulu-Natal permanent delegates in the NCOP together with Members of the KZN Legislature, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Members of the Provincial Executive, SALGA representatives, and Municipalities met on the morning of the 21st of July in Durban for a briefing on municipal performance and also to outline a three-day oversight programme to Ilembe and Ugu Districts. The delegation led by Hon. Nzimande (Chief Whip of the NCOP) accompanied by Ilembe Municipal Executive met with KwaDukuza and Ndwedwe local municipalities during the overall visit, wherein Hon. Nzimande briefed the meeting about the programme of embarking on the provincial week. He informed the meeting that the provincial week was informed by a workshop that was held in 1998 whereby Legislatures expressed the need of finding space and time to interact with the provinces they represent, in a joint attempt to give expression to the spirit of the Constitution and co-operative governance of the local sphere in national government.

The visits themed “Advancing the developmental agenda of municipalities for a better life of our people ” has met with great appreciation by the communities and municipalities as it created a platform for ordinary citizens to voice out their concerns regarding service delivery issues and for municipalities to engage the national government directly on issues that needed intervention of national government. For example, National Department of Water and Sanitation has intervened in Ilembe District, as the whole district is faced with drought which has resulted in the death of 30 000 livestock, KZN agricultural production has plummeted and emerging farmers are now feeling the brunt. On the economic front, operations in the sugarcane industry have come to a halt and as a result many workers have been laid off while others are working few hours for less-than-normal pay. Dams are virtually empty.

A series of meetings and engagements were followed by site visits to inspect projects that were already underway and promised in the APPs of the Municipalities. The delegation well applauded the initiative by KwaDukuza Municipality to building government subsidy houses for low income workers. “This is indeed a good story to tell, to see our people living in such great conditions in accordance with their affordability and satisfaction. The dream of a better life for all is realised” said Hon. Gcabashe who is the Chair of Chairs in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

The delegation met with the community of Ndwedwe on the last day of the visit, where citizens were afforded an opportunity to speak for themselves.

On the last day of the visit the delegation met with the community of Ndwedwe the meeting that provided an opportunity for ordinary citizens interact directly with their representatives in raising concerns on how they want to be governed. As a way forward recommendations were raised pertaining, in particular, to drought. Both public and the delegation agreed on following undertakings to deal with shortages on water:
• To repair existing boreholes to produce water for domestic use
• To drill new boreholes to assist in the supply of water to affected communities
• To procure mobile water tanks for easy transportation of water to needy communities
• To develop medium and long term drought management plan
The issue of electricity/load-shedding was also on the table.

The NCOP will again visit Ilembe District in September to check on the progress made by municipalities on issues that needed special attention.

KZN Legislature hosted its annual Workers’ Parliament in Amajuba District

With the month of May being the Workers’ Month, the KZN Legislature hosted its annual Workers Parliament from the 21st to the 22nd May in Newcastle where workers from the three major federations in the province participated to discuss matters that affect workers as a sector. Delegates came from Cosatu, Fedusa and Nactu to deliberate on this year’s theme “Workers’ Struggle in Addressing Inequality, Creating Employment and Advancing Vulnerable Workers’ Rights”.

The Legislature, through sector parliaments, involves various sectors of society in matters of governance in the province. Workers’ Parliament is one of the sector parliaments initiated by the Legislature to give workers a platform to discuss and debate issues that affect them as a sector.

On the first day of Workers’ Parliament, delegates went into four commissions which were clustered along the lines of provincial government clusters. Commissions were attended by senior government officials and facilitated by chairpersons of Portfolio Committees.

In commissions, workers discussed issues ranging from economic development, job creation, education, health, social protection, rural development, safety and security. Commissions adopted recommendations which were tabled at plenary on the following day for adoption.

The second day of Workers’ Parliament was attended by the Premier, Hon. Senzo Mchunu, Speaker Hon. Lydia Johnson and other MECs. The Speaker welcomed delegates and the public and wished workers successful deliberations during Workers’ Parliament. The Premier addressed the gathering and thanked workers for their contribution to the liberation struggle as well as the transformation of South Africa. He also urged workers to play a bigger role in addressing the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment facing the country.

Delegates from all three major federations used Workers’ Parliament to raise various issues that affect workers in the country. The debates were robust and mostly centred on issues such as rising levels of unemployment, job losses, poverty, casual labour and eradication of labour brokers. Workers Parliament concluded the debates by adopting a set of resolutions that will be forwarded to the Speaker for further consideration by committees of the Legislature. Once considered by relevant committees, the resolutions will be forwarded to the Executive for implementation and action. The Executive will report on the steps taken to implement the resolutions of the 2015 Workers’ Parliament during the next Workers’ Parliament in 2016. Committees will monitor the implementation of resolutions as part of their oversight role over the Executive.

The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature hosted its annual Inter-faith symposium on 14 April 2015 at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall.

Representatives of various faiths in the province converged in the Capital City to seek solutions and strategies to deal with issues of moral regeneration and the fight against all forms of social ills in our society.

Speaker of the Legislature, Hon. Lydia Johnson welcomed all delegates to the event and explained the main theme of the symposium “Promotion of morality and ethics with special focus to the province of KwaZulu-Natal”. She emphasised the significance of the gathering given the spate of social ills such as rape of women and children, drug and alcohol abuse, murder, crime and corruption confronting society today.

She said that the importance of moral regeneration cannot be over-emphasised today in view of the surge of all forms of moral decay in our society. She called on the inter-faith community to work together to bring back moral renewal among the citizens of this province. She went on to condemn the recent spate of xenophobic violence in KwaZulu-Natal which is being perpetrated against foreign nationals and urged the inter-faith leaders to take a stand against it.

The keynote address was delivered by the Chairperson of the Moral Regeneration Movement, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, who commended the Speaker for providing a platform for engagement in a discourse that is arguably the most critical today. Other speakers included Professor Luke Ngoetshane from the KwaZulu-Natal Council of Churches, Dr Nomagugu Ngobese who presented a perspective from the indigenous religious background, and Professor RS Khumalo who presented a perspective from the Christianity background.

Different commissions made up of inter-faith leaders that had met on the first day of the symposium to deliberate on the sub-themes presented their draft resolutions to plenary after the main presentations. The resolutions would be forwarded to the Speaker’s Office for processing by different Committees of the Legislature, thereby making a contribution

On the 26th March 2015, the delegation comprising of senior Members of the Legislature led by the Deputy Chair of Chairs, Hon. Happy Blose, visited several schools in the Zululand District to hand-over computers as part of the Speaker’s Social Responsibility Programme. The delegation included Hon. VV Tambo, Chair of Quality of Life Standing Committee, Hon. YM Nahara, Chair of Social Development Portfolio Committee, and Hon. ZM Mlaba representing Education Portfolio Committee.

Members of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature and the school management team at the hand-over ceremony.

Computers were donated to the needy and under-resourced schools in the deep rural areas in the Zululand District in a bid to improve learning and teaching especially in the area of science and technology. The schools were identified during the multi-party oversight visits in Zululand in 2012.

Members of the Legislature conduct routine oversight visits in all districts to check the state of service delivery in the province. The schools that were identified as needing resources such as computers included Phikwase High (KwaCeza), Heshe Secondary (Nongoma), Ntabasuka Secondary (Ulundi), King Mageba Primary (Ulundi), and Zwelonke High (Mahlabathini).

Each school received two desk top computers and boxes of sanitary towels which will benefit young girls from poor households. The Members urged schools to take care of the computers and ensure that they are not stolen by criminals. Hon. Blose said “We are aware that two computers per school is not enough, but this is a head start, look after them and use these computers to improve teaching and learning including your administration”. She further said about sanitary towels “We are grateful to the Speaker who gave us sanitary towels to handover to schools to help young girls who are in need of this commodity. This will restore the dignity of our girls whose parents cannot afford to buy them sanitary towels”.

Most schools took the opportunity to raise numerous challenges which they are facing including among others: • Shortage of classrooms which causes overcrowding • Shortage of toilets which forces teachers and learners to use toilets in neighbouring homesteads • Lack of learner transport as most children have to travel long distances to get to school resulting in late coming and truancy • Lack of school security • Shortage of school libraries and laboratories

The State of the Nation Address (SONA) by the president of the Republic of South Africa on 12 February 2015, marked the opening of Parliament and the beginning of the business of government for the current year. This is followed by the opening of the Legislatures across the nine provinces.

King Goodwill Zwelithini, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Premier, MECs, and all MPLs at the opening of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature on 26 February 2015

The KwaZulu-Natal Legislature as directed by its Standing Rules officially opened on 26 February 2015 by His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini. His Majesty has been a source of wisdom on many important issues ranging from development, social, economic and cultural in the province. His majesty has been a champion of peace, reconciliation and unity of all the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

The salute is part of the proceedings of the day.

The opening of the Legislature by His Majesty on 26 February 2015 was followed by the State of the Province Address delivered by Honourable Premier Senzo Mchunu on 27 February 2015. The Premier outlined the programme of action for the provincial government and set out key priorities for the province during 2015/2016. The Premier (as leader of the ruling party) demonstrated his commitment to servicing the social contract that he entered into with the people of the province.

King Goodwill Zwelithini, the Speaker and Deputy Speaker after the Salute

To demonstrate that, the Province of KwaZulu-Natal has been transformed by the Executive Council led by the Premier into the peace haven and destination of choice for global investors and holiday makers from all over South Africa and the