News

The Civil Union Amendment Bill recently got the go ahead from Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs when it recently adopted a motion of desirability on amending the Civil Union Act. many hailed the Act passed in 2006, as a big victory for the LGBTQ-community as it extended marriage rights, albeit in the form of a civil union, to same-sex couples. The euphoria over the Act was short-lived as it did not necessarily mean a happily ever after for many same-sex couples who got turned away from certain branches of the Department of Home Affairs.

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) last week expressed confidence that the Post Office’s (Sapo) next pay-out of social grants at end of September will be “much smoother”. Many beneficiaries however, are still confused over the transition process and some called on MPs to hold public hearings where they can express how the transition impacts on their lives. From October Sapo will take over grant pay-outs from the former service provider Cash Paymaster Services (CPS). Sassa said in the statement that Sapo already paid beneficiaries R4,4 billion through 7,4 million transactions by 3 September. Sassa CEO Abraham Mahlangu described Sapo’s progress as “impressive” given the volume of September’s pay-outs and the number of beneficiaries it managed to migrate to the new gold Sassa card.

The Sixth Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa (SASCA) 2018, jointly organised by the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa (ICLA) of the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in partnership with the South African Research Chair (SARChI) on Multilevel Government, Law and Policy at Dullah Omar Institute, University of the Western Cape, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Rule of Law Programme for Sub-Saharan Africa, based in Kenya. from 4-6 September 2018. The theme for the seminar was Democracy, elections and constitutionalism in Africa.

Three students who graduated with a Masters in Multilevel Government and Local Government yesterday, thanked the Dullah Omar Institute for giving them the opportunity to pursue the high level course.

The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Hon Michael Masutha has appointed the Director of the Dullah Omar Institute, Prof Jaap de Visser, as a member of the advisory committee of the South African Law Reform Commission.

The issue of student hunger on university campuses has gained prominence in light of the #feesmustfall movement that has encapsulated South Africa tertiary institutions since 2015. While there are no tangible statistics that reflect the scope of the problem, the issue of students lacking basic needs, both food and shelter, has gained significant traction among university administrators.

The SARChI in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy organised a policy dialogue to interrogate Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections of July 2018. The policy dialogue which took place on 14 August 2018 at the School of Public Health (UWC) interrogated several questions relating to both the electoral process and outcome.

Topic: The Zimbabwe Elections of July 2018 “A missed opportunity or the defining moment of the second republic”