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. 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 parliamentatry oversight of the executive.

This website was set up at the beginning of 1998 to make the information generated available to a wider audience. We hope that the minutes will provide the public with an insight into the Parliament of South Africa and its daily activity. Presently this is the only source for this type of information.

What is on this site?
Latest Committee Reports are our reason for being - we aim to have detailed reports of each meeting available within 48 hours (though this can stretch to 3 working days for certain committees when the parliamentary session is very busy). In addition relevant documents handed out at committee meetings such as public submissions, bills and briefings on government policy & draft legislation are also made available

Please make use of PMG's FREE email alerts serivces: We email you committee meeting reports and documents, new bills, request for submissions, minister media briefings and speeches for those government portfolios that you are interested at - Sign up here.

Currently PMG covers all committees. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts has been covered since 2002.The first parliamentary term of 1994 - May 1999 is covered from January 1998 but only for the following list of committees.

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 committes in action by monitoring for us, email your CV to monitors@pmg.org.za The current rate is R250 per meeting and it would involve one or two mornings a week.

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
- Researchers for non-governmental organisations
- Researcher at government think-tanks
- Officers and coordinators in various advocacy-support organisations
- Diplomatic corp of Department of Foreign Affairs
- Political party researchers
- Trade union parliamentary officer
- Assistant to CEO at Sector Education and Training Authority