Arts & Culture Portfolio Committee's Strategic Planning Workshop report, annual reports: adoption

Meeting report

Adoption of Outstanding Committee Minutes

The following Minutes were tabled, and comments made relevant to them:

Committee Minutes dated 28 May 2009
Ms D van der Walt (DA) advised the Committee Secretary that, when writing minutes and referring to proposals by Committee Members, he should refer to the proposals as emanating from the political party whom the Member represented.

The Minutes were adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 12 June 2009
After correction of grammatical errors, the Minutes were adopted
  
Committee Minutes dated 12 August 2009
Ms van Der Walt noted that the title “Honourable” should be used for Members.

She also noted the distinction between a Head of Division and the Director General.

Ms T Tshivhase (ANC) clarified that in the Minutes, the welcome and Chairperson’s greetings should be written under the same paragraph.

The Minutes were adopted, as corrected.

Committee Minutes dated 14 October 2009
The Minutes were adopted after the Committee, subject to correction of stylistic errors.

Committee Minutes dated 21 October 2009
Ms Tshivhase pointed out that her apology for not attending the meeting was not reflecting in the minutes.

The Minutes were adopted, as amended.

Committee Minutes dated 28 October 2009
The Minutes were adopted without any grammatical corrections

Committee Minutes dated 04 November 2009
No amendments were made, and the Minutes were adopted.

Committee Minutes dated 18 November 2009
The Minutes were adopted.

Adoption of Committee Reports
Adoption of Committee Annual Report
The Chairperson tabled the report before the Committee.

Ms van der Walt clarified a statement in the second column of Page 10, noting that there had not been performance of a task because the Committee was given a very short time to prepare for it.

The Committee Annual Report was adopted.

Adoption of Committee Strategic Planning Workshop Report
The Committee agreed that the workshop should be held in Cape Town, but not at a Parliamentary venue, so that the Committee could be fully productive and not have Members excuse themselves so that they could go and register in other meetings so that quorums could be met.

The Committee Secretary was asked to make bookings at a quiet Bed and Breakfast, and Members were urged to reach their accommodation by Sunday, not Monday morning. Members agreed on dates of 15 and 16 March 2010 for the workshop as 22 March was the deadline for the Committee programmes.

The Chairperson informed the Committee that the guest speaker at the workshop would be Professor Prah.

Ms van der Walt suggested that Members be given all the necessary documentation for the workshop in advance, to allow Members to prepare before the workshop, and she also suggested that the time given to the Department of Arts and Culture for its presentation at the workshop should be reduced. She recommended to the Committee that it should review all legislation governing Arts and Culture.

The Chairperson and Ms M Morutoa (ANC) disagreed with Ms van der Walt on the matter of decreasing the Department’s time allocated for its presentation.

The Workshop Report was adopted, with corrections.

Other matters
Budget for the year
The Chairperson noted that there had been requests from Members on the budget allocation for this year, which included a request what had happened to the funding left over from last year.

Ms van der Walt explained that there were no roll-overs in Parliamentary budgets.

Ms Morutoa suggested that the Members should wait for the information from the Chair of Chairs.

Letter from Icamagu Institute
The Chairperson read to the Committee a letter from Icamagu Institute, requesting that the Committee allocate a slot for hearing one of the Institute’s professors. He noted that the Committee schedule was already full, but time might be able to be found.

Department of Arts and Culture about FIFA World Cup
The Chairperson informed the Committee that the Department had not responded to the Committee’s request to make a presentation on the FIFA World Cup on 10 March, and asked the Committee Secretary to follow up and confirm that this meeting had been arranged.

Committee Meetings
Committee Members wanted clarity on who had to attend committee meetings and who was entitled to receive documents handed out at the meetings. Members agreed that draft documents should not be made available to the public.

A Member suggested that any member of the public should inform the Committee of his or her interest in attending meetings.

The Chairperson explained that any member of the public was allowed to attend any Committee Meetings, provided that these were not closed sessions.

The meeting was adjourned.