Consideration of Public Hearings Report on Small and Medium Enterprises access to funding

Meeting report

The Chairperson upon opening the meeting apologised and said that the Ministerial briefing currently underway with the Select Committee on Economics was supposed to have been a joint sitting. In addition, she advised that as the report on SME’s access to funding had not been distributed timeously, this meeting would serve to officially table the report which would be discussed at the committee’s next meeting.

Mr S Marais (DA), wanted clarity on the Committee’s mandate as he felt that it should have been present at the briefing with the Minister of Economic Development. It was part of the Committee’s job to support and strengthen the mandate and vision of the Department, but without information that could not be done and this was a big concern for him.

The Chairperson replied that the fact that the Committee was not part of the briefing was not the fault of the Minister, but rather that it was an administrative issue in that the Committee’s request for a briefing by the Minister had come too late. She, herself had attempted to try and get the Select Committee to change the session to a joint sitting.

Mr Marais asked if there would be public hearings on the New Growth Path in March.

Mr Arico Kotze, Committee Secretary, replied that the hearings would probably not happen, however he conceded that the programme was subject to change.

The Chairperson said that an approved term programme would be distributed to the members and that the Committee had scheduled 2 to 4 March 2011 for strategic planning meetings based on what the Department had told the Committee in the previous year and what the Committee wanted to see the Department doing.

The meeting was adjourned.