A parliament is a legislature whose power and function are similar to those dictated by the Westminster system of the United Kingdom. More generally, "parliament" may simply refer to a democratic government's legislature. The term is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler (to speak): a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which such a discussion took place.^[when?] It acquired its modern meaning as it came to be used for the body of people (in an institutional sense) who would meet to discuss matters of state.

The use of the term “parliament” first occurred in 1236 in England. Previously, this group of the king’s closest advisors had been called the “council”. After agreeing to the principle of “common consent” in the Magna Carta, King John had to increase the size of this group of advisors and include more commoners. He then had to submit his requests for increased taxation to this newly expanded group. Two distinct groups emerged among the commoners: the landed gentry, and the rich merchants and lawyers.

Fikile Mbalula (born 8 April 1971 in the Free State) is the Minister of Sport and Recreation in the Cabinet of South Africa, a former deputy minister of police, a member of the national executive committee of the African National Congress and former leader of the African National Congress Youth League.

Mbalula was appointed deputy minister of police in the cabinet of Jacob Zuma in May 2009 and is now the minister of sport and recreation after President Jocob Zuma changed his cabinet after lobbying from the ANC Youth League and possibly as a reward for loyalty towards Zuma, according to media speculation.

In the 2009 general elections he was the manager of the ANC election campaign, which was considered highly successful.

Mbalula was elected to the ANC NEC at the party's Polokwane conference in December 2007 in 15th place, measured in number of votes. He subsequently retired as president of the ANC Youth League of which, at age 36, he was no longer eligible to be a member.

Mbalula was elected president of the ANC Youth League in August 2004, having previously held the post of secretary general.

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali: মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, pronounced [mɔːmoːt̪ʰaː bɛːnaːrjiː]; born 5 January 1955) is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. She is usually called "Didi" (meaning elder sister). She is often cited by the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician".

Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress (AITMC ) or (TMC) in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government. She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.

Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981, in Seshego) is a South African politician, and the former president of the African National Congress Youth League. Malema occupies a notably controversial position in South African public and political life; having risen to prominence with his support for African National Congress president, and later President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. He has been described by both Zuma and the Premier of Limpopo Province as the "future leader" of South Africa. Less favourable portraits paint him as a "reckless populist" with the potential to destabilise South Africa and to spark racial conflict. He was convicted of hate speech in March 2010 and again in September 2011. In November 2011 he was found guilty of sowing divisions within the ANC and, in conjunction with his two-year suspended sentence in May 2010, was suspended from the party for five years.. In 2011, he was also convicted of hate speech after calling for the murder of white people. On 4 February 2012 the appeal committee of the African National Congress announced that it found no reason to “vary” a decision of the disciplinary committee taken in 2011, but did find evidence in aggravation of circumstances, leading them to impose the harsher sentence of expulsion from the ANC. On April 25 2012 Malema lost an appeal to have his expulsion from the ANC overturned, as this exhausted his final appeal, his expulsion took immediate effect.