Outstanding Committee Minutes: adoption

Energy

28 August 2012
Chairperson: Mr S Nijkelana (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee adopted a number of outstanding minutes with minor technical amendments. However, the Members agreed not to approve the minutes dated 7, 17 and 19 April 2012 because some information needed to be verified and clarified. Members concerns were mainly around the delay in adoption of minutes and the challenges faced by the administrative staff which often led to those delays. Some of the recommendations and other issues that had to be followed up or raised with the Department were often left for months on end. This often hampered the oversight role of the Committee.


Meeting report

The Chairperson mentioned that the committee was supposed to have been briefed by the Department of Energy; however the Department was still experiencing some teething problems and that briefing would be postponed.

Consideration and the Adoption of Outstanding Minutes
Minutes dated 21 February 2012
The Chairperson went through the minutes page by page and invited comments from the floor.
In the absence of any corrections Mr S Radebe (ANC) moved for adoption and Mr J Smalle (DA) seconded the motion and the minutes were adopted without amendments.

Minutes dated 2 March 2012
The Chairperson went through the minutes page by page and invited input from Members.

On Page 3, 3rd paragraph Prof S Mayathula (ANC) pointed out that the title of Ms Nosizwe Nako was the CEO rather than the President.

Ms Mathibela moved for adoption and Mr Smalle seconded the motion.

The minutes were approved as amended.


Minutes dated 6 March 2012
The Chairperson went through the minutes and invited members to raise their concerns.

Prof Mayathula referred to the second paragraph on page 2 and said that the second sentence did not make sense and it needed to be rewritten.

The Chairperson pointed out a grammatical error of the word “gigawatts” on the bottom of page 3, paragraph 3.

On page 4, 3rd paragraph, the 1st sentence Ms Mathibela said that it was not clear enough it needed to be rewritten. She then moved for adoption and Mr J Selau (ANC) seconded the motion. The minutes were adopted with minor amendments.

Mr Radebe asked whether the Committee had received the KPMG report that was mentioned in the minutes.

The Chairperson explained that the Department was still finding its feet, but the support staff would continue asking for it.

Prof Mayathula said that a document that was supposed to have been sent during March had not yet been delivered by the end of August clearly showed inefficiencies.

The Chairpersons said that the issue should be discussed after the all the minutes had been considered.

Minutes dated 20 March 2012
The Chairperson went through the minutes page by page and invited comments from the Comments.

Prof Mayathula pointed out the topic on the last paragraph of page 2 the “equal sign=” should be replaced by the “plus+” sign, before the words energy policy.

Mr L Greyling (COPE) moved for adoption and Mr Radebe seconded the motion.

The minutes were adopted with minor technical amendments.


Minutes dated 23 March 2012
After the Chairperson went through the minutes an asked for Members concerns, Mr Selau moved for adoption and Ms Mathibela seconded the motion. The minutes were adopted without any changes.

Minutes dated 7 April 2012
The Chairperson went through the minutes page by page and invited the Committee to comment.

Prof Mayathula felt that the last sentence was not clear on page 2 the last paragraph.

The Chairperson said that he would look at the issue, even if it meant listening to tapes of that particular meeting. He then proceeded to point out an error on page 6; bullet 2, Ms T Zungu’s professional title was COO rather than an Acting Chief Director.

The Committee agreed that the minutes would not be adopted due to pending verification of some information.

The Chairperson suggested that the Committee would have to look at those electricity distributors that were operating without licenses.

Minutes dated 19 April 2012
The Chairperson invited comments from the Committee while going through the minutes.

Mr Smalle pointed out that he had replaced Mr S Motau (DA), who was no longer a Member of the Committee; the Committee list still reflected the name of Mr Motau.

Mr Smalle referred to page 4, bullet point 5, and suggested that it needed rewording.

Mr Selau concurred.


The Chairperson said that the minutes would only be adopted after the Secretariat had listened to the tapes of the proceedings.

Mr Selau pointed out that the grammar and the structure of the last 2 bullet points needed reworking.

The minutes were not approved.

Minutes dated 17 April 2012
The Chairperson tabled the minutes for consideration.

Mr Selau commended the work of the Committee Secretary saying the minutes were clear even to a person who was not part of the original deliberations. He then suggested that the Committee should strengthen or empower the Secretariat to be more effective in its work.

Prof Mayathula and Ms Mathibela suggested that minutes should be adopted during the third meeting after the actual date of the meeting.

The Committee did not approve the minutes.

Mr Small suggested that the Committee should set time frames and a tracking mechanism for the completion of tasks that were decided in a formal meeting setup.

The Chairperson asked the Secretary to explain the reasons why the Committee only received minutes for adoption months later after the meeting had taken place.

Mr Arico Kotze, Committee Secretary, said that he had two days to submit the minutes to the Content Advisor. His work was delayed sometimes because he had to go on oversight with the Committee. An oversight report took two weeks to compile, but he was also expected to make preparations for meetings. Committee assistants were mostly involved in manual work, and they revolved around the Committees. This often made it difficult for Assistants to grasp the issues of a particular Committee. The Committee Section Management had devised a mechanism that would speed up the process and improve efficiency.
There would be three folders, one was for unedited minutes, second one for edited minutes and the third one would have adopted minutes. Members would have access to all three folders in a separate drive.

Closing Remarks
The Chairperson said that he would invite the Committee Section management, library management and Senior Administration Managers to look at role of Committee Assistants and other pertinent issues and challenges.

Mr Kotze informed the Committee that the Assistants would be assigned to specific Committees instead of the current arrangement.

The Committee would be having public hearings on energy efficiency from 5-7 September 2012.

The meeting was adjourned.


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