Committee Reports on Robben Island & Limpopo Oversight Visits

Public Works and Infrastructure

05 September 2012
Chairperson: Ms C Mabuza (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Committee adopted minutes of meetings held on 26 April, 09 and 29 May, 12 June, 26 July 2012 were approved or adopted, with amendments. General comments were made that apologies should be carefully recorded, that acronyms must be explained and Departments’ full titles reflected.

The report on oversight visit to Limpopo was approved, with several amendments, and it was agreed that the Management Committee would have to look at the correctness of the reports in future. The report on the oversight visit to Robben Island was approved, subject to additions and corrections, and a number of recommendations about use of the buildings would be conveyed to the Department of Public Works.

The Committee asked the Chairperson to convey its concerns about a very late invitation to a meeting with the Appropriations Committee, which unfortunately left little time for preparation.

Meeting report

Committee Minute Adoption
The followingdraft minutes were tabled for discussion and adoption:

26 April 2012
Ms C Madlopha (ANC) noted her objection that although she had given an apology, this was not reflected.

Ms P Ngwenya–Mabila (ANC) noted a misspelling. She commented that the implementation of the turnaround strategy could not possibly be completed within the time mentioned in the minutes.

The minutes were adopted, subject to these corrections being effected.

09 May 2012
Ms A Dreyer (DA) and Ms Ngwenya-Mabila raised technical corrections.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila noted, and suggested the addition of more details into the minutes, that there were 224 Kenyan Members of Parliament, yet only 22 were women. However, Kenya was reviewing its Constitution to ensure that 130 of Parliamentary representatives would be women. She further noted that the Prime Minister’s programme aimed at developing young people had failed, and that the Prime Minister was not accountable to any parliamentary committee, and nor were the governors. She noted that legislation was being passed for the setting up of a National Construction Authority to transform the construction industry and ensure that both local and foreign constructors were empowered.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila suggested that additional phrasing be included to refer to the Constituency Development Fund, reminding Members that they should identify the infrastructure development projects in his or her constituency, so that the Minister of Public Works was responsible for planning, design, and supervising the project.

The minutes were adopted, subject to amendments.

29 May 2012
Ms Ngwenya-Mabila made a number of grammatical and wording changes. She noted that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries must be referred to by its correct and full title.

The minutes were adopted, with amendments.

12 June 2012
Ms Ngwenya-Mabila and Ms N Ngcengwane (ANC) suggested grammatical changes.

The minutes were then adopted, subject to the necessary corrections.

26 July 2012
Ms Madlopha noted that, contrary to what the minutes said in point 2.2, there had been a resolution by the Committee to hold a strategic workshop. She urged that only those issues dealt with in this meeting should be reflected.

The Chairperson noted that the meeting had indeed suggested the need for a workshop but the Committee did not agree on the date.

Mr M Swathe (DA) thought the wording was sufficient.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila concurred with Ms C Madlopha that indeed there was an agreement on the workshop but not on the date, and the sentence was rephrased to reflect that there was no final resolution as to when the workshop would take place.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila and the Chairperson made suggestions for grammatical amendments.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila suggested that the minutes of the meeting should be tabled more regularly, so that Members could recall what had happened.

The minutes were adopted with amendments    

Committee Report on oversight visit to Limpopo
Mr L Gaehler (UDM) asked for explanation of what “high staff turnover” meant.

The Committee Secretary clarified that the municipality had found that it could not retain staff in their original posts as they tended to apply from one job for another.

Mr L Gaehler then requested, and the Committee agreed, that another more suitable term be found.

Ms Ngcengwane and Mr Gaehler suggested changes to the wording.

Mr Gaehler asked that the name of the Committee must be reflected in full. 

Other spelling and grammatical changes were outlined, and accepted.

Ms Madlopha articulated, on point 1.4 that the “implementation agency” should be expanded by referring specifically to the “implementation agency of EPWP”.

Ms N Madlala (ANC) was concerned that all acronyms should be explained in full.

Mr Gaehler thought that rephrasing was needed for the paragraph dealing with “clientele departments” as they were not readily known to the public.

The Chairperson clarified that there were only five departments that expressed confidence in DPW and they should be named.

The Chairperson requested that the name of the Limpopo Department of Public Works be reflected in the correct format.

Ms Madlopha asked that further clarity be given on the people who were receiving grants and who were not employable in the Expanded Public Works Programmes (EPWP).

The Chairperson clarified that the same person should not be receiving a double-payment from the State.

Ms Madlopha thought that the Committee needed to debate who should be able to access the EPWP programme, but the Chairperson asked that this debate stand over to a future meeting.

Various misspellings were corrected, the names of departments were more clearly specified in some paragraphs and paragraph 5 needed to be rephrased for greater clarity.

Mr Swathe asked that the following be inserted into page 14: “The rate payers have a separate bank account where they deposit money, which creates a problem”.

Ms Madlala thought that the townships and informal settlements referred to on page 17 had to be specified.

The Chairperson added that this referred to one township and three settlements.

Ms Madlala sought clarity around the numbers of 31 women and 10 youth, and asked for confirmation of the total.

The Chairperson clarified that there were 31 women, and 10 of them fell into the youth category.

Ms Madlopha suggested that this be re-phrased as “Its 31 women, including 10 youth,…”

The Chairperson disagreed, and it was finally agreed that the phrase would be “Its 31 women, of whom 10 are youth….”

Ms Madlala asked that expenditure on projects be stated in numerical and percentage format.

The Chairperson commented that page 22 was not phrased clearly enough, and further observations also needed to be added:
- people were only employed for three days and they were dismissed
- there were no new boreholes, but new walls were put around old boreholes, a fact that only came out during further engagements
- there were no new pipelines – something that the Mayor had heard only for the first time that day
- money was either not spent at all, or was incorrectly utilised.

Ms Madlala added that another point to note was that people were also not trained, because they were only picking up stones.

Ms Madlopha thought that the costs of the road, amounting to R20 million, must be mentioned, along with the fact that it was apparently not paved because it was regarded as a tarred road.

The Chairperson clarified that the reason that not all these points had been noted was that the Committee Secretary had become lost and was not present for part of the meeting.

Ms Ngcwengane asked for clarity about what could be done about the wholesalers who were not registered with SARS.

The Chairperson clarified that EPWP does not make use of the services of these unregistered wholesalers, so this was outside the scope of DPW, but the matter could be referred to the relevant department.

Ms Madlopha added that this too would be impossible because the Committee did not know the wholesalers’ names. She and other Members agreed that nothing should be included on this point, as it fell outside the scope of the report.

Ms Madlala also sought clarity on the acronyms in point 6.1.5, and asked the Committee Secretary to report back.

Ms Madlala thought that what was reflected on page 24 as “recommendations” should be removed. These were in fact findings, and there was a need to comment, in the findings, about the lack of assistance from DPW.

It was agreed that the Committee Secretary would reformulate this, with recommendations emanating from the findings.

The minutes were adopted, subject to the necessary corrections being made and passed by the Management Committee, for the overall correctness of the report to be checked.

Committee’s draft Report on oversight visit to Robben Island
Mr Swathe asked whether apologies were tabled.

The Chairperson responded that if members did not submit their apologies, they would be reflected as “absent without apology”.

Ms Madlala asked about whether furniture was re-used, and the advertising procedure.

The Chairperson replied that in the past, DPW used to sell the furniture through the auction houses, but now it would advertise and invite NGOs to make presentations on why they needed the furniture.

Ms Madlala suggested a technical correction.

Ms Madlala thought that the sentence on page 5, referring to a “recommendation” should be moved, as it was in the wrong place.

The Chairperson agreed that it should be moved to align with other recommendations.

Ms Madlala suggested that the Committee should reflect findings and recommendations for each of the sites. Not all the issues were common to all villages. Furthermore, she thought that the Committee must make a strong recommendation to the DPW in regard to domestic quarters either being demolished or turned into something useful.

The Chairperson concurred, and added that another recommendation was needed that DPW convert buildings into productive recreational facilities. The former bar and swimming pool had been closed, and non-residents were using the pool and playground.

Ms Swathe suggested that the building in Robben Island could be turned into something productive by demolishing inside walls.

The Committee agreed to think further on what could be done with the buildings and to make recommendations on this to the DPW at a later stage.

The report was adopted, subject to additions and corrections.

Other Business
The Chairperson conveyed an invitation from the Standing Committee on Appropriations, to attend a meeting on Wednesday 5 September 2012. The meeting would be considering the 4th quarter of 2011 expenditure of the DPW, and the DPW was asked to highlight its successes and challenges. Members of this Committee were invited to attend and participate fully in the discussions.

Ms Madlopha did not feel that the last-minute invitation was useful, as it had not allowed sufficient time for Members of this Committee to prepare, particularly since no documentation was sent and there was no time for research. She suggested that the Chairperson indicate that such last-minute invitations could not be accepted.

The Chairperson urged that those who were available should try to attend, but she would convey apologies from those who could not. She would mention concerns about the timing. 


The meeting was adjourned.

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