Council for the Built Environment on its 2014 Strategic Plan: follow-up meeting

Meeting report

Chairperson’s opening remarks
The Chairperson said that this meeting was a continuation of the previous meeting, where the full report had not been presented.  Mr Isaac Nkosi, Chairperson of the Council for the Built Environment (CBE) and Ms Niniza Sithole, Deputy Chairperson, were present at the meeting.

CBE Annual Performance Plan for 2014/15:
Ms Gugu Mazibuko Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said that she would first recap the first part of the report. The mandate was outlined, as well as what the entity sought to achieve with regard to governance in the country. The five-year strategic goals were to:

1. Support government priorities in relation to built environment matters;

2. Facilitate and monitor continued sustainable, dynamic and competent and transformed built environment professions and professionals;

3. Establish and maintain a centre of excellence for an integrated built environment body of knowledge; and

4. Strengthen public protection and educate the public in relation to the built environment.

The four programmes of the CBE were alignment to government policies and priorities in the built environment, skills development, research, knowledge and information, and public interest.

The key risks were dependency on third parties to deliver on some of the key mandates, the slow pace of transformation in built environment profession’s demographics, lack of research infrastructure, and finalisation of the Built Environment (BE) Policy that suggested the repeal of the CBE Act.

The strategies designed to alleviate the above-mentioned challenges included: entering and signing of Memorandums of Understanding; focused interventions at school level, tertiary level, the candidacy phase and workplace training; the provision of research infrastructure and expertise; and the amendment of the CBE Act by the Department of Public Works.

One of the most serious challenges regarding professional registration was the lack of a system for tracking the progress of the acquisition of knowledge of candidates in the workplace. Some other important problems were: allegations of side-lining, discrimination and deskilling of Black graduates in the workplace; no incentive/disincentive for any workplace to encourage professional registration; no framework to understand and monitor what happened at the workplace; and the absence of a workplace training programme that was linked to professional registration. (See document)

Briefing on CBE finances
Mr Rhulani Mulanga, Chief Financial Officer: CBE, highlighted the fact that in 2011/12, 59% of the Annual Performance Plan (APP) targets had been achieved, compared to 71% in 2012/13 and 86% in 2013/14. This clearly illustrated both an increase in the percentage of the APP targets achieved, and a decrease in the APP that had not been achieved.  The CBE had achieved an unqualified audit report for 2013/14. 

Funding for the Skills Development, Research and Information, Government Priorities and Public Interest programmes, was outlined. Alignment with national priorities, the five-year business plan and the Department of Public Works’ support and involvement were noted as performance enablers.

Discussion
Ms P Adams (ANC) asked why there had been a 13% change in the Council’s fees, to cater for additional meetings.

Mr Mulanga said that Programme 1 needed four additional meetings in the new financial year, one of which was the inauguration of the new Council.

Ms Adams said that Slide 26 reflected the slow pace of transformation.  Slide 27 spoke about the bottlenecks in moving from candidacy to registered professionals.   She asked what the CBE had done about this because -- as the custodian of six professional bodies -- it had to provide the necessary support.

Ms Mazibuko said that the CBE was moving to a new model to deal with registered candidates. This model would ensure proper training and would attempt to address the bottlenecks.

Ms Adams asked what the University Support Programme was about.

Ms Mazibuko replied that students who needed academic support would be identified. There would be extra tutorials and accommodation provided for such students. They would be encouraged to try vacation jobs so that they could see in practical terms what their training entailed. There would also be access to laboratory equipment and counselling.

Mr S Masango (DA) said that there was awareness that the CBE had experienced poor delivery. He asked what the CBE had done about this.

Ms Mazibuko said that the intervention tools were housed in the mandate.  Every entity had to have a training plan that they reported on, and a workplace training model in place. The Department of Water Affairs had such a training programme. There was also a plan to train mentors.  A quality assurance approach would be implemented, and independent assessments would take place. There were log books now, and a system was in place in order to provide quarterly reports.

Mr Masango asked if the transformation target for 2014 had been achieved.

Ms Mazibuko said that there was a target of six Councils, and 86% had been achieved. It was important to get six Professional Councils to address the House on what they were doing. The CBE was making sure there was a commitment to meet the target. This also had to do with mandates, and the CBE had suggested that the councils received an opportunity to define what they were doing. The CBE would support transformation programmes.

Mr Masango asked what the CBE had done to ensure that its approach to increase the implementation of labour intensive techniques -- to increase job creation -- was working.

Ms Mazibuko said that there had been meetings with the Minister, and a task team had been set up with unions. A meeting had been held last week to chart the way across the value chain to address labour-related issues.

Mr Masongo asked that the CBE provide the names of the provinces selected for interventions in schools, and for the names of the schools. Mr Masongo also asked for the criteria used to select the schools.

Ms Mazibuko replied that the criteria were the same as that for Basic Education.  There were 12 schools.  The Committee would be given a written report with the names of provinces and the schools. An added intervention was to get more laboratories.  The next programme was to get mobile science laboratories.

Mr K Sithole (IFP) noted that there was no proposal regarding CBE candidates who had not been accredited.  What was going to be done about this?

Ms Mazibuko replied that work which showed what people were competent to do, had been identified. The CBE was trying to get everyone involved through expanding the process, which was still in its early stages, to cover everyone.

Mr Sithole asked if the CBE had a research programme, as the dropout rate was 70%.   What was going to be done about this?

Ms Mazibuko said that there had been improvement in the framework, and work was being done to resource areas of need.

Mr Sithole said that the figures for registered professionals -- with whites at 75%, Africans 15%, Indians 6% and Coloureds 4% -- were worrying, and still the same. He asked if the figures were just a “cut and paste” from the previous report.

Ms Mazibuko said that the statistics had not been cut and pasted.  The statistics in September 2013 had actually been worse. The statistics were changing very slowly because the picture of the industry was actually quite sad. 

Mr Sithole asked what the CBE was doing about the fact that 50% of the architectural graduates were not registered with the South African Council for the Architectural Profession (SACAP).

The Chairperson said that the CBE had indicated the need to deal with the matter regarding the disproportion in the race groups of registered professionals. The CBE had highlighted these challenges and the slow progress. The Committee had to look, with the CBE, at how to address these issues.

Mr K Mubu (DA) asked to what extent safety regulations were enforced, as there were often incidents on work sites that led to death. He also asked for information about service delivery protests.

Ms Mazibuko said that the CBE was interested in constructive engagement around service delivery protests and for this approach to be successful, the Council had to be seen as involved in the problem. The Municipal Infrastructural Support Agency (MISA), Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and the CBE were working closely together to alleviate the situation

Mr Mubu said that transformation was still lagging behind in the built environment.

Ms Mazibuko replied that transformation was grouped into categories and there were interventions in place to deal with the slow throughput at universities. Universities had access to bursaries and offered academic support programmes. Students could also do vacation jobs so that they could implement their studies in practice. The CBE had a suite of interventions in mind to improve the transformation process.

Mr Masango asked why there was such a huge reduction reflected in the Budget – a drop of 56.5% -- in interest received between the 2012/13 and the 2013/14 financial years. 

Mr Mulanga replied that when there was interest, the National Treasury had forbidden the use of this money. The interest had to be invested in the Surplus Fund. With regard to the interest on the current account, the instruction had come half way through the year.

The Chairperson said that the nature of this engagement with the CBE entailed not meeting only once a year. There had to be an ongoing relationship to develop a better understanding. There had been progress with regard to people who had qualifications. The CBE had to provide details on the number of entities in this environment, how many people it had been able to train and the criteria for engagement.

Questions asked and not directly answered included what the CBE had been doing about the large number of unregistered candidates, and about women and disabled persons, why there was a backlog in the appeals, its relationship with entities in the health and safety sectors, and what the CBE was doing about foreigners on work sites who did not have skills, but were employed for their cheap labour.

The meeting was adjourned.