Deputy President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile has, in his capacity as Leader of Government Business in Parliament, welcomed the finalisation of key Bills by the National Assembly during the first three months of this year.
 
The latest Bills include the Public Administration Management Amendment Bill, the Public Service Amendment Bill, the Statistics Amendment Bill, the General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill and the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill.
 
The public service Bills have now been referred to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for consideration.  As Section 75 (of the Constitution) Bills, the other Bills have been referred to specific parliamentary portfolio committees for processing. It bears reminding that the Constitution distinguishes between four categories of Bills, these being:
 
• section 74 Bills — Bills amending the Constitution;
• section 75 Bills — ordinary Bills not affecting the provinces;
• section 76 Bills — ordinary Bills affecting the provinces; and
• section 77 Bills — money Bills (that is Bills that deal with appropriations, taxes, levies or duties).

By the end of February, a total of 16 Bills had been sent to the President for assent. Deputy President Mashatile said: “This represents significant progress which we welcome. It takes us another step closer in the fulfilment of the mandate of the 6th democratic administration.”  

“We welcome this significant progress in the enactment of key legislation that will move our country forward in fulfilling the mandate of the 6th democratic administration. The significance of the legislative programme is that it is a linear and revolving responsibility to both enact legislation and fine-tune existing laws. We are confident that at the end of this term, all priority legislation will have gone through the rigorous parliamentary process, passed the constitutional master and become laws of the Republic, after the President has assented to the Bills,” said Deputy President Mashatile.

As Leader of Government Business, the Deputy President promotes accountability by the Executive. Among other things, he tracks the submission of responses to Parliamentary questions for oral and written reply as well as commitments made, monitoring programming and attendance of Members of the Executive before Parliament and Portfolio Committees, the implementation of the Legislative Programme and monitors the processing of priority Bills by Parliament.

Media enquiries: Mr Keith Khoza, Political Advisor and Acting Spokesperson to the Deputy President, on 066 195 8840
 
Issued by: The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa
Pretoria

President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Thursday, 07 March 2024, lead Government’s interaction - in the form of a District Development Model Presidential Imbizo - with communities and stakeholders in the Nkangala District Municipality in Mpumalanga.

Themed "Leave No One Behind, the 12th Presidential Imbizo promotes participatory democracy and inclusive development by allowing community members and stakeholders to voice proposals and express any concerns or dissatisfaction they may have about conditions in the district or province.

The Imbizo is directed at enabling successful implementation of the “One District, One Plan” District Development Model in which residents, traditional leaders, business formations, organised labour and faith- and community-based organisations work with government across all phases of planning, implementation, and evaluation.

This week’s visit to Emalahleni will allow the President and other leaders in Government to assess progress made and to be briefed on challenges associated with the improvement of service delivery since the President’s previous engagement with communities.

Details of the DDM Presidential Imbizo are as follows:

Date: Thursday, 07 March 2024
Time: 11h00
Venue: Sy Mthimunye Stadium (Ackeville), Emalahleni, Nkangala District Municipality, Mpumalanga

Media enquiries: Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson to the President - media@enquires.gov.za 

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria

The Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa notes the Opera Assessment Report undertaken by the VGBE consortium on the operations of Eskom’s coal-fired power stations, undertaken from March to May 2023. 

As is common cause the Minister was appointed in March 2023 and has since been directing a range of interventions to implement the Energy Action Plan (EAP) to restore the operational capability of Eskom. 

The period covered in the report predates the appointment of a Group Executive for Generation, which has since provided further impetus to numerous interventions aimed at improving operational capacity of Eskom plants. 

Following this appointment, a Generation Recovery plan has been consolidated and various elements have already been implemented resulting in the reduction of the severity of load shedding, and a sustained improvement in the generation performance, with all indicators showing a positive trajectory. 

Minister Ramokgopa working closely with Eskom has sought to address all plant related shortcomings resulting in significant improvement of Eskom’s output during the reporting period. 

The generation recovery plan continues to be monitored, measured, and re-evaluated, to drive further improvements to the generation system in all respects to re-establish continuity of supply, reliability, efficiency, and public trust. 

The Minister and Eskom have been working hard on further interventions and strategic initiatives to stabilise the utility which has created a pathway to address both the limitations of Generation and Transmission capacity, including funding requirements. 

Media enquires: 
Tsakane Khambane, Ministry of Electricity, on 082 084 5566 / tsakane@presidency.gov.za

Issued by: The Ministry in The Presidency responsible for Electricity
Pretoria