Land and Environmental Affairs Select Committee: Outstanding Reports

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to consider and adopt all outstanding minutes and reports. She stressed that the meeting would not be long, noting that several Members were absent as they had to attend other meetings. However, she was happy that there were sufficient members present members to form a quorum and continue with the agenda.

Outstanding Minutes
The Chairperson tabled two sets of minutes for consideration. These were dated 25 May and 20 July.

The Committee approved the former with minor amendments while no changes were made to the latter.

Committee Report on Oversight visit to Intsika Yethu Municipality
The Chairperson noted that the report was long overdue and asked Members whether any changes should be made to it.

Mr M Makhubela (COPE, Limpopo) referred to the Recommendations on page 9 and stated that it needed to be noted that the construction of a police station was a long term process. In addition, he pointed out that there was no indication what would be done in the interim in terms of security.

Mr M Sibande (ANC, Mpumalanga) asked Mr Makhubela to clarify his amendment as he believed that the recommendations were straight forward.

Mr Makhubela explained that the report did not adequately capture that the construction of the police station would be a long process and what would be done in the mean time in terms of security as security was an important issue in that area.

Mr G Mokgoro (ANC, Northern Cape) commented that he was very impressed with the recommendations and suggested the Committee should do follow-up visits to ensure that the recommendations were applied by the departments

The Committee corrected all the minor errors and then adopted the report.

Reports on Agreement and Requirements on Wine Labeling
The Chairperson stressed that there were two reports which needed to be adopted by the Committee and asked Members to come up with additions and recommendations to the reports and to move for their adoption.

The Committee adopted both reports without amendments.

Other Matters
The Chairperson noted that the Committee had planned a study tour to China. While the trip had been approved, other details such as dates and who would go still needed to be worked out.

The Chairperson stressed that the Committee should adhere to the call that Members of Parliament should go out and inspect what was going on outside Parliament. It was very important for the Committee to exercise its oversight duty.

Mr Makgoro requested that the Committee Secretary check the date of the study tour to make sure that it did not clash with the National General Council of the ANC which was scheduled for 24-25 September.

Mr Sibande thanked the Chairperson for suggesting that the Committee should make visits from time to time because he saw the Committee as the back-bone of the Departments and proper monitoring was needed in order to curtail the activities of mining companies that were polluting the environment and water resources of the country.

Ms N Magadla (ANC, KZN) also thanked the Chairperson for her encouragement and stressed that the Committee relied on her leadership and direction when it came to arranging oversight visits.

Mr Makgoro also supported Mr Sibande’s sentiments and suggested that the Committee carry out more oversight visits because there was a large emergence of mining companies who disregarded the rules and regulations of mining. He further suggested that the Committee should appoint a researcher to investigate and compile a report on the activities of mine companies in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga that pollute the rivers and the environment.

The Chairperson told members that there was a trip to KwaZulu-Natal and also the Intsika Yethu Municipality in the Eastern Cape was considering inviting the committee for an oversight visit, and therefore she suggested that the Members should be divided in groups in order to attend both events.

She thanked Members for their participation and urged them to avail themselves for those oversight visits.

The meeting was adjourned.