Third Term Programme & other Committee Business

Public Works and Infrastructure

18 June 2013
Chairperson: Ms M Mabuza (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The Portfolio Committee on Public Works met for the consideration and adoption of the third term programme and three sets of Committee minutes. The Committee considered and adopted with amendments the minutes of 26 February 2013, minutes of 5 March 2013, and minutes of 30 April 2013.

The Committee agreed to the deferment of the Committee programme so that the Committee Secretary could identify issues that had to be included in the programme.

Meeting report

The Chairperson said that the purpose of the meeting was to consider and adopt the third term Committee programme and three sets of Committee minutes. They included minutes of 26 February 2013, minutes of 5 March 2013 and minutes of 30 April 2013.

Ms A Dreyer (DA) said that the Committee would be looking at minutes from as far back as 26 February, making it very difficult to remember all the details in the minutes. She proposed that the Committee pass a resolution to adopt minutes at every subsequent meeting so as to avoid creating a backlog.

The Chairperson agreed with Ms Dreyer that there should not be such a delay.


Ms P Ngwenya-Mabila (ANC) also agreed that the delay was not acceptable.
 

Outstanding Committee Minutes

Minutes dated 26 February 2013
 

The Chairperson tabled the minutes for consideration and invited Members to comment.


Ms Ngwenya-Mabila said that her name was not written in the register of the minutes and did not remember sending an apology for being absent for the meeting of 26 February. She requested the Committee Secretary to check whether she had sent an apology for that meeting.

The Chairperson said it was very difficult to track an apology if it was not registered on paper. She requested that Members register their apologies on paper in future.

 

A number of grammatical corrections were discussed. Ms C Madlopha (ANC) noted that on point 2.2.2 of page 2 the second sentence should end with land reform and should read "The expropriation Bill needed to be aligned with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) green paper on land reform". She also noted that the word "legal counsels" was used. She asked whether it should be "legal counsels" or "legal counsel". It was decided that “legal counsels” was correct.

 
Mr P Sithole (IFP) asked whether the last sentence was correct when it stated that the report would be submitted at the end of the calendar year, as opposed to just saying the end of the year. The Committee Secretary said that the timeframe of the Department referred to the calendar year which started from January to December and did not refer to the financial year which started from April to March. Therefore, the report would be submitted before the end of the 2013 calendar year and the legislative process would commence in 2014.

Ms N November (ANC) noted that on page 3 it spoke about the removal of the requirements for contractors to have registered professionals in their employ. She asked whether the term "in their employ" was the correct term or if it should be "in their employment". It was decided that this was the correct term.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila noted that in page 4 "he/she" was used rather than the term "Chairperson" because the word Chairperson accommodated both male and female.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila pointed out that on page 6 in the second sentence of the first paragraph it said that the Construction Sector Charter Council (CSCC) viewed these in the most serious light and had issued a public statement on 5 February. She said the words “serious light” didn’t make sense and they should rather use the words “serious note” in that sentence.

Ms Dreyer agreed with Ms Ngwenya-Mabila that they should use the words “serious note”.

Ms Madlala moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Ms Ngcengwane seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

 

Minutes dated 5 March 2013
 

The Chairperson tabled the minutes for consideration and opened the floor for comment.

Ms Madlopha noted that on point 3.1 the last sentence talked about the definition of youths from 15 to 24 year olds. She was not sure whether the word “olds” was used correctly in that regard.

The Chairperson said that “olds” should become “old”.

Ms Dreyer noted that in point 3.2 stated that the Department of Public Works was requested to provide a status quo report on the cases of fraud and corruption within the Department. The Committee needed to follow up on that request because the Department had been asked to respond to in writing but had not yet responded.

Ms Madlopha asked whether there was a letter that had been written to the Department to provide such information.

The Committee Secretary responded that no formal letter had been sent, but the Department had received copies of draft minutes. As that was an outstanding issue it could be put in the programme for follow up, and then the programme would be sent to the Department together with a letter requesting that they provide the information to the Committee.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila said that the issue would bring up a lot of debates. She asked when the Department received the copy of the draft minutes and when they could be expected to respond.

The Committee Secretary responded that she had sent the copy of the draft minutes soon after the minutes had been written. However, there was nothing binding the Department to make a follow up presentation as the Committee had not yet invited the Department formally.

Ms Dreyer thanked the Committee Secretary for that information. She suggested that the Committee Secretary should write formally to the Department and asked them specifically to provide the information to the Committee in terms of paragraph 3.2, and tell them to give a timeline to the Committee so that the Department could report back at the end of July.

Ms Gwenya-Mabila said that their programme should be guided by issues that were on their minutes rather than coming up with new issues whilst there were still those that were waiting for their attention. She suggested that the Committee Secretary and the Parliamentary Researcher should sit down and look at all the minutes so as to identify all the issues and see how those issues fit in on the programme.

The Chairperson agreed with Ms Ngweny-Mabila but added that the Committee was in need of a Content Advisor that would deal with the information the Committee received from the Department, because the Committee Secretary and the Researcher were not coping with that information.

Mr Sithole moved for the adoption of minutes.

Ms Madlala seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the minutes with amendments.

Minutes dated 30 April 2013
 

The Chairperson tabled the minutes for consideration and invited Members to comment.

Ms Ngwenya-Mabila corrected the word “contents” to become “content” on page 2.

Ms Madlala moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Ms November seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the minutes with amendments.

Third Term Committee Programme
Ms Ngwenya-Mabila requested that the Committee should defer the adoption of the programme until the Committee Secretary and the Researcher resolved the issues that should be in that programme.

Ms Madlopha supported the deferment of the adoption of the programme but as a Committee they should agree what should be on the programme.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their deliberations with the minutes and the programme.

The meeting was adjourned.

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