re: new house member

Hi everyone!
I am the newest (human) addition to the Democracy House. I arrived from Lagos, Nigeria on Monday morning and it has been a whirlwind three days (or maybe it's more...I've lost count) I have been getting up to speed on the goings on in the house, spending time with the house mates, and in general, spending an extraordinary amount of time on my computer.
Since I have been here, we have been on the Ghetto Pimps radio show (UCT radio) which was an absolute blast.


We have also had the opportunity to go to the national parliament of the Republic of South Africa, which is located within walking distance from the house. The parliament is currently on recess, but during our tour we got to see all the different chambers, old and new, where legislation is discussed.


The South African parliament is split into two houses, the National Assembly (which is made up of 400 members) and the National Council of Provinces (which has 90 members). Members of the National Assembly follow proportional representation, so currently the ANC holds 297 of the seats. The National Assembly is divided along party lines, while the National Council of Provinces is divided by provinces only, so two people from the same province can be from different parties, but are working together with their province's needs in mind.


We learned an enormous amount during our visit, which could probably take several pages to talk about, but no one really wants to read that! But one aspect that was quite interesting is that the parliament has a semi-recess period called Constituency Week in which members of both houses are required to return to their home constituencies to hear the needs of their people, basically to bridge the gap between the elected and the voters.We also sat in the chamber where Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, a major architect of the original apartheid legislation, was assassinated in 1966. Needless to say it was a pretty chilling experience!


Aside from South African politics 101, everyone in the house is incredibly busy with numerous film projects, educational work, civil society work, and much more. Film festivals, trips to Robben Island, football (not soccer!) games and more are all in the works. There is never a dull moment in the Democracy House ;-)

Until next time....

Bev