About the PMG
What is the PMG?
The Parliamentary Monitoring Group, an information service, was established in 1995 as a partnership between Black Sash, Human Rights Committee and Idasa with the aim of providing a type of Hansard for the proceedings of the more than forty South African Parliamentary Committees for these three advocacy organisations. This was because there is no official record publicly available of the committee proceedings - the engine room of Parliament - and this type of information is needed by civil society to lobby the Parliament of South Africa on pieces of legislation, matters of democratic processes and parliamentary oversight of the executive.
This website was set up at the beginning of 1998 to make the information generated available to a wider audience. Presently this is the only source for this type of information. We hope that the PMG committee reports and other documents will provide the public with an insight into the Parliament of South Africa and its daily activity. Importantly it provides a window into the performance of each government department and public entity over which each parliamentary committee has oversight.
What We Do
PMG provides accurate, objective, and current information on all parliamentary committee proceedings in the form of detailed, unofficial minutes and documents and since 2007, sound recordings of the meeting.
PMG’s key activity is the attending of all Parliamentary Committee meetings, where a monitor will tape and minute the proceedings and obtain all documents tabled in the committees. Immediately after the meeting, the audio recording is published on the PMG website Once a detailed written report has been compiled, it passes through an editorial and quality control process. It is then published on the PMG website within three working days of the committee proceedings along with all the relevant committee documents such as such as public submissions, working drafts of bills and briefings on policy & legislation.
Beyond the reporting of Committee proceedings, PMG provides
Early notification of requests for submissions
Details of public hearings
Committee and parliamentary programmes
Legislative programmes for each department
A weekly progress report of the status of each bill in the legislative process
Please make use of PMG’s FREE email alerts service and receive alerts for those government portfolios that you are interested in. We email you committee meeting reports and documents, new bills, request for submissions, ministry media briefings and speeches.
What is on this site?
Currently PMG covers all parliamentary committees (except Intelligence which is closed to the public) and the PMG website has a record of all meeting proceedings and other documents between January 1998 and the present. However certain committees were not covered prior to 2000. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please contact info@pmg.org.za
Who are our monitors?
The monitoring is performed by ordinary citizens drawn from all walks and all ages. If you have time and would love to witness parliamentary committees in action by monitoring for us, email your CV to monitors@pmg.org.za and ask for more information. You can attend one, two or more meetings a week and they are usually held in the morning.
We also have university internships running with three local universities at the master degree level for Political Studies / Governance. In addition, PMG offers several full-time developmental internships to young graduates. For these interns, the internship offers valuable practical experience at the rock face of governance. The internship programme serves to bridge the gap between getting a degree and obtaining employment.
Some positions that past PMG interns are now holding, include:
Parliamentary Officer for the Commission on Gender Equality
Legal Officer in the Office of the President
Parliamentary Committee Secretaries
State law advisor
Researchers for non-governmental organizations
Researcher at government think-tanks
Officers and coordinators in various advocacy-support organisations
Diplomatic officer in Department of Foreign Affairs
Political party researchers
Trade union parliamentary officer
Assistant to CEO at Sector Education and Training Authority
Who are our funders?
The PMG's activities are currently funded by the Open Society Foundation, the Royal Danish Embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Who are our current managing partners?
The Black Sash, the Gender Advocacy Programme (GAP) and the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) sit on the PMG's Executive Committee.
Disclaimer
Whilst every attempt is made to ensure that the information is accurate, these minutes do not profess to be a complete and correct record of the proceedings in the committees. The Parliamentary Monitoring Group disclaims all liability for the accuracy or comprehensiveness of the information provided by this site. It accepts no responsibility for any loss occasioned as a direct or indirect result of the use of or reliance on the information obtained from this site.
Copyright note
Anyone using the information provided in the PMG infobase for commercial purposes must indicate the source.