Higher Education and Training Budget Review and Recommendations Report

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson read the agenda for the meeting and all Members agreed to it. She said Mr Y Cassim (DA) has been admitted to hospital and will, therefore, not be attending the meeting.

The Committee Secretary, Mr Anele Kabingesi, said Mr N Tshishonga (AGANG) will not be attending the meeting due to other Portfolio Committee commitments.

The Chairperson said the meeting should be finished before 13:00 as Members had another meeting to attend in the afternoon. She thanked the Committee staff for compiling the report and opened the floor for recommendations to the budget.

Consideration of the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR)
Page 1
Ms J Kilian (ANC) said the third sentence of paragraph one on page one could be taken out because it did not make any impact to the budget.

Mr E Siwela (ANC) suggested the Committee should consider changing the sentence structure in number 1.2 of page one where it speaks about the mandate of the Department.

The Chairperson asked if it was necessary to name all the Acts in the budget, or refer to them as simply "Legislatives".

Dr B Bozzoli (DA) said she disagreed with Ms Kilian about taking the whole sentence out because it changed the purpose of the paragraph. The paragraph would then simply suggest that the Committee derived its mandate from Government, which was not true.

Page 2
Mr M Mbatha (EFF) said paragraph one of page two should include the words "Higher" or "Post-school" so that it became clear as to which education Department the document was referring to.

Ms Kilian said the staff should also take note of the line spacing between the words.

Page 4
Ms S Mchunu (ANC) said the report had used the incorrect abbreviation on page 4; instead of National Development Plan (NDP) the report said National Growth Plan (NGP).

The Chairperson asked why it was changed from NDP to NGP.

The Committee Content Advisor, Ms Mamphago Modiba, said the NDP and the NGP were interlinked; therefore, it was necessary to add both of the policies in the budget.

Ms Kilian suggested the report should stick to using the NDP because it was the policy that most of the government departments were working with. The report could not refer to a policy that no one was aware of, or using anymore.

Mr Mbatha said the African National Congress (ANC) must explain what the difference between the NDP and NGP was because the NGP was in existence before the NDP. Why should the Committee implement the NGP again?

The Chairperson suggested the report should use the NDP instead of the NGP.

Ms Kilian said the report can make reference to the NGP but when it referred to the targets of the Committee, it should make reference to the NDP.

Mr Siwela said there was no coherent flow of information and the report should continue to use NDP throughout the report.

The Chairperson asked if Members agreed that NGP should be changed to NDP.

Ms M Nkadimeng (ANC) also noted the incorrect line spacing between the words.

Page 5
Mr Siwela suggested a change in the word structure in paragraph two of page five. He said the staff should add "Committee notes the unrealistic" in the second sentence of that paragraph.

Ms Modiba responded to Mr Siwela saying it would be better to keep it that way because it was written by the Department and not the Committee.

Ms Kilian suggested the staff should remove the word "The" before the sentence where it spoke about the unrealistic targets that were indicated.

Page 6
Dr Bozzoli said the paragraphs were written in the present tense and suggested the Staff change it to the past tense. It gave the reader the impression that the budget was recently discussed, but when the final report was decided on a year ago. Section 3.1.1 must be changed to past tense.

The Chairperson said the headings had to be written in bold.

Page 7
Dr B Bozzoli said there was no consistency of flow of information in the first paragraph.

Page 8
Dr B Bozzoli suggested the recommendations should be done in bullet point form.

Page 12
Ms Kilian noticed there was no numbering on the page.

Page 13
Mr C Kekana (ANC) said all the Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) programmes should be written out in full and not abbreviated.

Page 24
Dr Bozzoli said the Staff should leave out the words "way before" in the first bullet point and also leave out the sentence "especially from private schools" because the information was incorrect.

Page 35
Ms Kilian said the Content Advisor should consider the word order and should start the first sentence with "Notwithstanding".

Page 36
Ms Mchunu said bullet number two's sentence should be changed.

Page 37
Ms Kilian said the "National treasury to increase funding to meet 2030 NDP target for expanding college systems, especially the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)" should be included in programme four.

Mr Mbatha said the report must specify what kind of theft took place at Vuselela College and must give details.

Page 39
Dr Bozzoli said the staff should also include an appreciation paragraph to the staff of the Committee to thank them for their work and dedication.

The Chairperson asked if the Members had covered everything they needed to and for the adoption of the budget report.

Mr Kekana moved for the adoption of the draft.

Ms Nkadimeng seconded the motion.

The draft report was adopted.

Consideration of outstanding minutes
Minutes of proceedings: Visitation of Universities
Ms Kilian moved for the adoption of the draft.

Ms Mchunu seconded the motion.

The Committee minutes were adopted.

Minutes of proceedings: National Student Fund Aid Scheme Visitation
Ms Kilian moved for the adoption of the draft.

Mr Siwela seconded the motion.

The Committee minutes were adopted.

Minutes of proceedings: North West University Visitation
Ms Nkadimeng moved for the adoption of the draft.

Dr Bozzoli seconded the motion.

The Committee minutes were adopted.

Draft of minutes of meeting of 14 October 2014
The Committee adopted the minutes.

Draft of minutes of meeting of 15 October 2014
Mr Mbatha moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Mr Siwela seconded the motion.

The Committee minutes were adopted.

Draft of minutes of meeting of 16 October 2014
Ms Nkadimeng moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Dr Bozzoli seconded the motion.

Draft of minutes of Meetings: 17 October 2014
Ms Nkadimeng moved for the adoption of the minutes.

Ms Mchunu seconded the motion.

The Chairperson said there was room for improvement but she was happy with the progress the Committee had made thus far.

The meeting was adjourned.