All political parties have welcomed the new rules, saying that members will have to learn to adapt to this new way of doing things as they go along.

As the COVID-19 crisis wears on, the National Assembly still needs to sit but getting more than 400 people on a zoom meeting is not without its challenges.

Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola in Parliament on Monday repeated calls for the reviewing of the Criminal Procedure Act and the Correctional Services Act which he said contributed to high prison numbers.

MPs questioned Minister Ronald Lamola about the move which will see thousands of low-risk offenders paroled to curb the spread of COVID-19 behind bar.

Five months since beginning the mammoth task, SAA’s BRPs are yet to table a final business rescue plan for the troubled airline.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan briefed Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) and the Public Enterprises portfolio committee on the latest developments at SAA.

Higher Education Deputy Director-General Diane Parker said that all institutions would be offering some form of remote multi-modal teaching and learning from 1 June.

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies briefe Parliament about its programmes and projects dealing with the coronavirus.

Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said that irregular expenditure continued to rise in the current financial year.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said Prasa had appointed a lot of what he termed “untouchable” individuals to its boards over the years, adding many of those people had considerable conflicts.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said that finances remained a source of serious concern for Prasa, which was facing a fare revenue decline due to the state lockdown.

Dr Randall Carolissen, the financial aid scheme’s administrator, said that since the lockdown started, they had continued paying all institutions and had closed most backlogs.

It has become the norm for police management to release weekly crime stats during the lockdown, with some offences declining.

The watchdog body has on Friday briefed a joint committee on security and justice where it revealed that it received 200 more complaints against police compared to the same period last year.

Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said while they were not processing new IDs, they were sitting with scores of IDs that were issued before the lockdown.

Nxesi has briefed a joint meeting of the portfolio committee on employment and labour as well as the select committee of the national council of provinces on his department’s annual performance plans and budget.

Driver's licences, for example, would soon become more digital and mobile as the Department of Transport upgrades its ageing system.

On Monday, Sports Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa said that a total of 1,050 applications had been assessed by an independent panel and 232 had been recommended for payment from the relief fund.