On 24th May, the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office hosted a Roundtable focusing on the issue of Mental Health. South Africa’s mental health care implementation landscape is poor. There is a serious shortfall in the roll out of the necessary resources: budget; health care professionals; hospitals; outpatient clinics; and research to address mental health concerns. Furthermore, […]

South Africa’s provinces came under the spotlight at a roundtable discussion hosted by CPLO and the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) on May 20th. We know what national government is for, and what it does, and we understand that local – or municipal – government carries out various important tasks in our everyday lives. But what […]

The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office held a roundtable discussion on April 18th dealing with the topic of assisted suicide and euthanasia. It is expected that the issue will come before the Constitutional Court fairly soon, and the Court is likely to refer the matter to Parliament for full consideration. Speakers at the discussion were (front, […]

Amoris Laetitia – the Joy of Love, Pope Francis’ letter on love in the family, was the subject of a CPLO lecture by Dr Jan Jans, held at St Michael’s parish, Rondebosch. Dr Jans, a regular visitor from Belgium, noted that the animating theme of the letter, as it is for everything Pope Francis says, […]

Climate change is affecting land, water, and biodiversity in a variety of ways. Higher temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, increasing extreme events (droughts and floods), and increasing disturbances are occurring across South Africa, with negative effects on already sensitive systems. These kinds of changes, combined with other ongoing stresses, highlight how we need to better our […]

On 5th April CPLO hosted a roundtable discussion on ‘Hidden Economic Burdens’. The guest speakers were Ayabonga Cawe, co-founder and chairperson of Rethink Africa; Pippa Green, journalist and media consultant to the Research Project on Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive Growth (REDI); and Andrew Kerr, senior researcher at DataFirst, UCT. The three panellists spoke to […]

The CPLO, in collaboration with the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA), hosted a roundtable discussion on policy and legislative changes to the Refugee Act. The first topic to be discussed revolved around the National Health Insurance (NHI), which is intended to provide South Africans with comprehensive health insurance irrespective of socioeconomic status, […]

The Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office and the South African Learning and Transformation Alliance recently held a Roundtable Discussion on ‘STATELESS CHILDREN’. Cleopas Maseko Director of Thembalethu Nkomazi and Charlotte Manicom Advocacy Officer of the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town made presentations.  It was clear from these that in terms the Children’s Act and the Bill of […]

The CPLO hosted a Round Table discussion on “The Race Debate: Where to from here?”. On the panellist were Andile Mngxitama, former member of the Economic Freedom Fighters and current National Convenor of the Black First, Land First Movement; Mary Hames, the Director of the Gender Equity Unit of University of the Western Cape and […]