The National Assembly is one of two Houses of Parliament, and it has four functions which are:
– Electing the President
– Passing laws/legislation.
– Ensuring the members of the executive carry out their work properly and efficiently.
– Providing a forum for representatives of the people can debate issues on a public platform
The year 2022 started with Parliament engulfed in flames, thus Members of Parliament could not access their offices. The Al Jama-ah offices which are on the fourth floor in the Old Assembly building, were badly affected as the roof collapsed on it. But Parliamentary work continues at all levels.
As from January 2022, Hon Ganief Hendricks participated amongst others, in the following debates for which he only receives 3 minutes speaking time on each debate held during mini plenary sessions:
– Freedom Day – Palestine
– International Women’s Day
– Human Rights Day
– Russia-Ukraine War
– Vote of No Confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa
– Members Statement on Eid-ul Fitr
– Motions Without Notice on Hajj Visas for Muslims
– Human Rights Day
– Child Protection Week
– Al Aqsa Week
– Ramadaan
– Muslims are Peaceful
– KwaZulu-Natal Floods
– Agriculture
– Land Reform and Rural Development
– Budget Votes on: The Presidency
– Water and SanitationHuman Settlements
– Health
– International Relations
– Small Business Development
– Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) and Tourism.
Other forms of communicating the public’s questions and enquiries to the government are through written questions to the Presidency and Ministers; Oral questions and Supplementary questions.
Several Motions Without Notice have been submitted on prominent members of the community who have passed on; those celebrating milestone birthdays; sportspeople who have reached success or attained medals; career people who have achieved awards; community activists who achieved awards, etc.
Notice of Motions have also been submitted to bring pertinent issues forward for parliament to discuss.
AL JAMA-AH PARTY’S POSITION ON:
The Public Travesty of Socio-Economic and Communal Justice in Zionist Israel, Oppressed South Africans, and India’s Right-Wing Hindu Government.
As the former oppressed communities of Apartheid in South Africa, we are very familiar with the bulldozing of our homes between the 1950s and 1970s. The Apartheid state pursued an inhumane state policy in Fietas, District Six, and several other areas around the country where scores of families were physically ousted out of their homes to live in the wastelands of our country; on top of that, their homes were razed to the ground. But this tragic event did not only take place in South Africa, it also continues in the Zionist.
State of Israel where its authorities do the same to Palestine’s indigenous communities. The callous Zionist state, however, demonstrated that they do not care at all about these communities; they used the state’s right to accomplish these inconsiderate policies without showing any feelings of remorse.
Now these acts are also applied in the Republic of India where the right-wing Hindu government has ignited anti-Muslim emotions by not only wiping off early South Asian Muslim history from the curricula but that evict Muslims from areas and bulldozing their familial/communal homes.
These governments have adopted ‘a don’t care a damn’ attitude using their shrewdly devised domestic policies to perpetuate inhumane practices despite the UN resolutions. Each of these states, without any justification in their sacred texts, have calculatingly employed these laws to maintain complete power over peoples whose rights they have usurped and taken away.
LEADER OF AL JAMA-AH ON A MISSION TO EMPOWER WOMEN AND YOUTH
The Leader of the AL JAMA-AH Party Hon. Ganief Hendricks is unstoppable in his mission to get women and young people to benefit from government programmes that will help them lift their families out of poverty. Hendricks is approaching cabinet Ministers in Parliament for their support to encourage the various departments to roll out socio-economic programmes to empower women and youth. He has secured “material grants” for struggling and unemployed seamstresses in Mitchells Plain from the Department of Social Development.
PROGRAMMES WHICH ARE ON THE RADAR AND ACHIEVED ARE:
– Dressmaking
– Turning open public spaces into food gardens
– Assisting unemployed people in Groutville in KwaZulu-Natal to grow peanuts along the Umvoti River so they can manufacture peanut butter
– Sponsored and supported several Youth Day events: a learners’ Career Expo in Umdoni, KwaZulu-Natal; Commemoration and Awareness Programme on 1976 uprisings – Paarl, feeding, sports tournaments in Bokmakierie and Hazendal (Western Cape); sports tournaments in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal and a Youth Rally in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga
The Al Jama-ah party calls on the South African government to look at strategies for the “Silencing of guns” by implementing a socio-economic response and to support the United Nations and African Union calls for the handing in of small guns and light weapons. The UN and AU declared “small arms enablers of armed violence, as well as a serious threat to peace, security, and stability.”
The bodies also called on people across the African continent to come together during September’s Africa Amnesty Month for the surrender and collection of illicit small arms. “If we want peace in Africa then there should be no guns on the streets. Should small guns not be handed in then we may have to deploy a standby force to encourage people to hand in their small guns and light weapons,” says Hon Ganief Hendricks Al Jama-ah Member of Parliament. Between January and March 2022, over 6 000 families mourned the death of a loved one.
“This means 68 people were killed daily, that is, three people every hour of during that 3-month period. Firearms are the most used weapons to commit these heinous crimes,” according to SAPS and mortuary surveillance systems. The high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality are major contributors to crime in South Africa. Hendricks says during oversight visits to various Constituencies in several provinces unemployment and poverty were recorded in every area visited. “Lawmakers must listen to the unemployed masses of whom many have a skill to sustain themselves but need help with resources.
We must assist people towards sustainable employment opportunities so they can empower not only themselves, but also the village or town they are living in,” says Hendricks who serves on the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development.
Creating Employment
As MP and responding to calls for help in the party’s Constituencies, Hendricks has identified and acted on assisting communities in three different provinces with creating employment such as:
– Reviving Cape Town as the Mecca of the Clothing Industry – In collaboration with the Department of Social Development, strategies are being put in place to provide free material to 200 unemployed women in Mitchells Plain who are skilled in dressmaking a chance to earn a living and sustain their business further.
– Fishing boat for Mpame Village in the Eastern Cape – Hendricks assisted a fishing Cooperative to receive a fishing boat that will enable them to catch fish and create more employment and sustainability.
– Growing peanuts to manufacture peanut butter in Groutville, KwaZulu-Natal – About five cooperatives of youths and unemployed adults have been established on National Youth Day. They will be taught how to grow peanuts and manufacture peanut butter to sell locally, nationally, and internationally.
South Africa is known to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and crime is a serious problem in the country. “We all want peace and a crime-free environment, but to acquire this we need to address the socio-economic conditions of people,” says Hendricks.
Two bills
The Party has submitted two Private Members Bills, Muslim Marriages, and the Maintenance Act. Islam has a rich history of more than 350 years in South Africa and Al Jama-ah is the first Muslim party represented in the South African Parliament. The Bills are proposing amendments that will protect women against Gender-Based Violence.
It is also Parliament’s first time to have reached an agreement with the Legal Department of Parliament on certification readiness of one Private Members Bill and another Private Members Bill on amending legislation to the Maintenance Act.
The two bills are:
Small business starter packs and skills training:
The Deputy Minister of Small Business Development came out to Mitchells Plain at the invitation of Hon. Ganief Hendricks to launch small business starter packs and skills training. At the invitation of Hon Ganief Hendricks, the Deputy President went on an oversight visit to District 6 to fast track the handing over of keys of 108 housing units to claimants. Hendricks also met with the Minister of Social Development to discuss provisions for a budget to fund projects for young people to take them out of poverty. On the radar at the request of Hon Hendricks, President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit and launch a fishing vessel in Mpame, a rural village near Umtata in the Eastern Cape.