South African National Parks (SANParks) on its 2nd & 3rd Quarter 2015/16 performance

Meeting report

The Chairperson asked Mr Fundisile Mketeni, Chief Executive Officer of SANParks, for a clear presentation, as the presentation had been confusing the first time around. He asked the CEO to update the Committee on wildlife crimes and instructed the Committee to ask questions of critical importance.

Briefing on 2nd and 3rd Quarter performance report
Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi, Deputy Director General: Department of Environmental Affairs, confirmed that the alignment and deliverables were in line with the mandate for SANParks as directed by the National Environmental Management Protected Areas Act. The government processes, with regular interactions from SANParks, had also been taken care of. The Department was working with SANParks to deal with all the relevant issues.

Mr Mketeni presented the second and third quarter performance report, audit matters and financial position to the Committee. He said that there were issues which SANParks could not address the PC only on a quarterly basis, but instead needed regular engagement, such as the issue of rhino poaching.

In terms of performance indicators, in the second quarter SANParks had reached 67% of target. In the third quarter there had been some movement, and 72% of target had been achieved.

SANParks had changed its targets and methods of reporting. Previously they had been reporting on movement of income and budget in percentage terms. Now they were using a break-even method, because as an institution they could not declare profits, and therefore they were always striving for a break-even between expenditure and income.

In terms of the budget variance, he said that in third quarter they were starting to realise income at a budget variance ratio of 1:1. SANParks would provide a report on that in the fourth quarter. In terms of the gross operating tourism revenue, because of the declining visitor numbers and sluggish economic conditions there was less income realised from conservation fees (R1.655 million). During the Easter period, the parks would be fully booked which was a promising development and would affect the figures positively, which would be shown in the fourth quarter report.

The fundraising policy and strategy development was a new policy document. The institution was to fundraise in partnership with reputable institutions to meet its target. The fundraising draft had been completed but had to be approved by the board.

The quarterly target for accommodation occupancy was 74%, and 75.9% had been achieved. In terms of the customer satisfaction index, they targeted for 82%, and had achieved 82.2%.
 
SANParks had had 5.2 million national park visitors last year and there was a target of 5.6 million people for this year. In the third quarter, they had targeted 3.3 million visitors. In the second quarter they had had 2.4 million visitors, but had now received 4.2 million visitors. He was optimistic that the target of 5.6 million visitors would be reached. The Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) score index had been amended to facilitate all the corrective actions which were indicated in the previous audit report. They were at 74% in the second quarter and would continue to implement corrective actions in the third quarter.

In terms of land conservation and rehabilitation, he said that in the second quarter they were at
24, 611 hectares, but were now at 35, 301 hectares. They were working closely with the government, because funding in this area was from the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), and SANParks was only the implementing agent. The changes were as a result of the budgeting process, which the government was in control of. The Department had had to adjust its own budget and SANParks had had to change their targets. In the third quarter, they had improved.

Regarding land under conservation, he said that SANParks had concluded a deal to purchase pieces of land and had achieved its targets. In terms of the total land area of marine parks, he said SANParks had not added any land this year. There were environmental impact assessments (EIAs) under discussion in various places around the country, and SANParks would produce a report in the next financial year.

In terms of the park management plans, he said the target was to complete two this year. He said that information technology (IT) jobs had been completed, and when they reported to the Committee in the next cycle they would present the park management plans.

In regard to the total number of species protection interventions implemented, SANParks had implemented an integrated strategy to fight wildlife crimes which had been approved by Cabinet. There were elements of the strategy which still needed to be implemented, which included the movement of rhinos, the deployment of technology, the deployment of rangers and creating awareness. SANParks would be implementing all of those elements, but all strategies would be assessed by the big question of the number of rhinos poached. The number of arrests on the ground and the number of insurgents entering the park were increasing. SANParks would continue implementing interventions and the Committee visits would enable SANParks to inform the Committee on every area concerning the interventions.

They had targeted to implement four cultural heritage interventions by the third quarter, such as music research projects relevant to SANParks’ key issues, and it was an ongoing process. SANParks had made sure that their publications were peer reviewed, and they had completed 31 for the quarter.

Regarding the total amount of free access entrance, Mr Mketeni indicated that there were other accesses being given to the community which were not reported in the report, which be added in the upcoming financial year. In terms of the total number of environmental education impact assessment tools developed, they had targeted two and had achieved that goal. They had not achieved their targets for the total number of participants in environmental education programmes as a result of the Department of Education policy restricting extra-curricular activities outside school grounds during schooling hours. SANParks would enhance holiday programmes and engage the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to align.

In terms of the total number of full-time equivalent jobs created, he said that it was an EPWP programme and that they targeted 4 691 in the third quarter, but had achieved only 4 422 by the end of the quarter. This was as a result of the delays in approval of business plans, budget cuts and lack of management capacity along the Garden Route.

Full time equivalent jobs had been created through the Groen Sebenza programme, a programme launched by the Minister where interns were deployed. Some had exited the programme because they had received employment elsewhere, which explained the unachieved third quarter target. He told the committee that full-time employment was encouraged. In terms of the total number of temporary jobs created through socio-economic initiatives, SANParks had reached their target.

The entity had targeted 482 small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), and by the end of the third quarter had reached 780. In terms of the number of community contractual agreements, he said that it was a not an overnight job. It needed consultation with and capacitating of the structures, and was an inclusive process. A lot was happening within the communities. They had just renewed the contractual agreement with the Richtersveld community and they would mention achievements in the next audit report.

SANParks was doing well in terms of the total number of proactive media engagements, and that they had no negative media coverage even on issues of the fatalities which SANParks was experiencing. One of the rangers had been shot in the arm, but was in a stable condition and recovering. He indicated that the media might blow the situation out of proportion, but reassured the Committee that the ranger was stable in hospital.

In terms of the percentage of black management, SANParks had a target of 56.5%, and had achieved 54.9% by the end of the third quarter. This was as a result of black managers who had resigned. SANParks had just amended their recruitment policy and its succession plan was to be reviewed. SANParks had just developed a retention policy which would attempt to convince people to stay.

They had not achieved their target for women in management, but it was an area that they wanted to improve on. The women’s forum, which was being launched on the day of the meeting, would make SANParks attractive for professional women. Most of the women who were employed were at the lower level the employment hierarchy and fewer women were in top level management. This was an issue that they were looking at.

They had not reached their target for people with disabilities, but by next year they would be aggressive in accomplishing their goals. SANParks would continue to ring-fence posts and organise structures to meet their targets. They were looking at dynamic interventions, such as "the deaf-tag," to employ disabled people. They were doing a survey on the percentage of employees meeting minimum educational requirements, and were continuing to address those issues.

SANParks was instilling a culture of performance management in its working structures. People needed to have proper contracts, deliverables and targets. The roll out of the new performance systems had been delayed. He reassured the Committee that by next year, this would be complete.

In terms of the percentage of wins at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), Mr Mketeni said that they were doing well but that they did not want to go to the CCMA often. With the implementation of the Skills Development Programme, they had targeted an overly ambitious 85%, but had achieved only 65% by the third quarter. A skills development policy had been approved and would commence in the next financial year.

In terms of staff demographics, African males were at 1 985, African females were at 1 049, representing 75.5% of the total staff complement of 4 017..

The Chairperson asked Mr Mkenteni not to repeat the figures, but to explain what was behind them.

The CEO said that certain things were historical, but that SANParks had legislation which they had to comply with. He said that the Employment Equity (EE) policy was designed for this, but that each manager in the Change Management Committees (CMCs) further had to account for transformation in his or her division.

Mr Rajesh Mahabeer, Chief Financial Officer: SANParks, said that the financial position which was before the Committee was as at the end of 2015. In terms of revenue, the only area that was of concern was concession fees, which was partly the result of the changes in visa restrictions. By the end of January, the position had largely restored itself and the actual conservation fees income was almost in line with the budget. The projections for the end of the financial year would exceed the budget slightly. SANParks had recovered from the dip which had impacted them and the rest of the tourism industry in the country.

Expenditure was in line with the budget. However, costs were starting to exceed the budget slightly as the result of the focus on the transformation agenda, which was filling up posts. They had recently recruited a head of human capital who would help SANParks achieve their transformative agenda.

Regarding smaller items like interest received and sales of flora, they were on good ground. In terms of the balance sheet SANParks remained in a favourable position. SANParks was in a liquid position and had no immediate cash flow concerns.

Overall, in terms of the statement of the financial position, there were no crises or issues.

Discussion
The Chairperson expressed his condolences for the ranger had been was shot and was in a stable condition. He thanked Mr Mketeni for the clear presentation and asked the Committee if there were any questions or comments.

Mr S Mabilo (ANC) said that overall, SANParks was doing very well in terms of tourists. He asked for a profile of the visitors who were coming to the parks, and where the international tourists were coming from in particular -- how many were coming from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, how many from within the country, and if there were specific programmes in place to encourage other Africans to come.

In terms of the gross operating tourism revenue, he asked for an illustration concerning the diversification strategy in the Kruger National Park. In respect of enhancing conservation and the ecological integrity of the national park system, the Committee obviously had to be concerned about the lack of additions to the wetlands and the marine areas. He asked for further elaboration concerning this issue.

He asked about the effect of EPWP incentives on job creation, and questioned what had been done to accelerate the approval of business plans.

Ms H Nyambi (ANC) asked how SANParks justified paying employees without conducting proper performance evaluations.

Ms H Kekana (ANC) asked if SANParks was not anticipating problems in terms of a break in continuity and a lack of skills as a result of the contract with the service provider ending in six months’ time.

Mr T Hadebe (DA) raised a concern about the number of community contractual agreements. These communities were facing high unemployment rates and the vulnerability of the national parks, in the absence of community engagement, could lead to increased criminal activity. Until they read the final audit report, he would not comment on the financial standing of the institution.

Ms J Edwards (DA) asked if there were specific plans to improve the total number of participants in the environmental education program during the holidays. She asked why interns did not stay and if a study had been conducted to find this out. It would be easier to get interns to stay than find new employees who would still need to be skilled. Giving people with disabilities a great experience at national parks needed to be a top priority. She said the European project of "downies and brownies" was a great idea which could be implemented by SANParks. She asked how far SANParks were in the process of moving rhinos, and wanted clarity on the elephants and vultures story which was making the media rounds.

The Chairperson asked Mr Mabilo if he had any further questions.

Mr Mabilo asked for the relationship between the personnel and non-personnel people concerning the recruitment process. He differed with Mr Hadebe, saying it was very promising that SANParks were liquid and that their balance sheet was in order. He asked if the fauna and flora sales were done in a systematic and consistent way. In terms of the fundraising policy, he suggested that once it was adopted that all relevant bodies should know about it -- it should be not kept secret.

The Chairperson congratulated SANParks for a good presentation and said that the presentation aligned with SANPark management running the institution well. Before he asked his own questions, he wanted SANParks to respond to questions raised by the Members.

Mr Mketeni said that 75% of the tourists visiting national parks were locals, and 22% of that total were black visitors. This was an area that they wanted to improve on, and they were correcting the method of counting black visitors, as people did not generally like being asked what race they were. He indicated that rangers at entrances now had to judge which racial group each visitor belonged to, and t SANParks relied on this information. Regarding vistors from the African continent, he said that based on the nature of their product, Africa was a competitor and as a result there were not many African tourists visiting South African parks. He said that tourists came to South Africa for retail shopping, based on Stats SA findings and his evaluation.

In regard to working with SADC, he replied that there was a programme called ‘Boundless Southern Africa’ that had been established around 2010 enabling the free flow of tourists. Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi, Chief Director of the Department, could elaborate on this.

In terms of gross operating revenue, he replied that SANParks were diversifying. They were a camping, dining, game-viewing and picnicking destination. In their plans they were looking at the creation of new and responsible products that could be put in place.

Regarding the marine parks issue, he replied that SANParks had not set a target because they had learnt over time that when they dealt with coastal areas they needed a lot of engagement because of the conflicting land uses within the local economy. Engagement with mining, fisheries and government was needed. They had not wanted to be ambitious in this report, and would constantly update the Committee concerning this matter.

Human relations vs operations costs were standing at 56% to date, based on the board’s instructions. They were busy analysing the nature of operations to determine what could be in-sourced and what could be outsourced.

Game sales were not consistent and were dependent upon the nature of the species. With the EPWP, SANParks relied on the money which they received from the Department to implement the programme. He said that as a result of the Treasury cuts a dip could be expected in the next financial year’s report.

When recruiting people they first identified the need, then the job description and then the job evaluation. Those that were offered a job were then taken for a performance management assessment. The actual contract was about how they delivered on the specifics of the job offer. Bonuses could not be paid without performance contracts, but employees did receive their monthly pay as it was stipulated in the job offer. SANParks were looking for a mixed model of in-sourcing and outsourcing.

As far as community contracts and participation were concerned, there were programmes in place such as the park forums. He said that 1% of the tourism revenue was geared towards community projects, such as building science labs in schools and providing school desks. Those projects made people appreciate the work of National Parks. They were looking at issues of land use compatibility, whereby people could invest in wildlife. He said that communities were dynamic and that many projects were needed, but that awareness without socio-community projects was ineffective.

Regarding environmental education, he replied that they could investigate with Pick n Pay to identify children who could not afford a holiday and target them for national park visits.

In terms of full-time equivalent employment, he replied that it was a Groen Sebenza initiative and that the government could help in the retention of interns.

With regard to the poisoning of elephants, he said that this was a new catastrophe. Two years ago, 49 vultures had died in the Kruger park. They suspected poachers had used poison to get tusks and that animals who had fed on the poisoned elephants had died as a result. SANParks were still investigating the issue.

Rhino movements were seasonal in nature, and they would be captured in October. SANParks had a new capture programme which was to be presented to the board and by April they would be ready to indicate how many captures they would make in the forthcoming season.

Regarding the diversification question, Mr Mahabeer said in the Kruger Park they had had 1.2 million visitors and that the rest of the parks had accounted for 2.3 million, of which 1.4 million had been at Table Mountain. This indicated that the smaller parks were not so heavily visited as the Kruger.

As part of the year’s transformation agenda, they had recently appointed a managing executive for tourism, Ms H Selo, who had developed a tourism strategy to grow tourism revenue though diversification.

They would monitor the progress the IT situation against the process of in-sourcing, but they would not be putting themselves into jeopardy and would renew the contract with current service provider if there was no other alternative.

A game sales policy had been developed which dealt with the governance around the sales of game. He said that this was a very rigid and regulated process, particularly around endangered species. The sale of game was critical, and would also be used to push for the transformation agenda.

Mr Munzhedzi addressed three areas. He said the ‘Boundless Southern Africa’ programme was still in existence and SANParks would look at initiatives to improve this process. In relation to the interface between parks and adjacent communities, he said that the people and parks programme and the kids and parks programme had been created to deal specifically with these issues. Every second year, representatives from different provinces came together and developed resolutions at the conference. Another one would be scheduled for this September.

Human wildlife conflict was an area which they prioritised, so that an approach would be developed from a policy perspective. In terms of the budgets, he said that they were all affected and had to take everything into consideration.

The Chairperson asked several questions. In terms of the cases which had been opened, he asked if SANparks suspected that there were disgruntled workers who might be assisting with poaching activities as a form of retaliation. He asked how many disciplinary cases were there in a park as big as the Kruger National Park.

He asked how SANParks had arrived at their 82% reading for customer satisfaction. The indicator which showed plans reviewed and completed was incorrect, and asked the Mr Mketeni for clarity on this. He felt it was incorrect that they had no challenges concerning the total number of species protection interventions implemented, and asked for further elaboration.

Referring to the total number of peer reviewed research publications, he asked who were doing these publications, and how Africans were performing in these publications.

All the activities that SANParks were doing should not change the target indicator for community contractual agreements in place. The indicator remained correct, but perhaps SANParks did not have proper systems in place to meet its targets.

Regarding performance appraisals completed, he said that at times there were implications with people already employed, and some may resist performance appraisals. How did SANParks deal with those who did not care about bonuses and resisted performance appraisals?

Replying to the question on cases, Mr Mketeni said that there were rangers, members of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) and SAPS, and further information would be provided. They were implementing integrity tests which had been challenged by labour, and they were seeking legal advice concerning this matter. He said there was a weakness in the system, where poachers would infiltrate commandos and patrols to acquire relevant information from them to help poaching activity.

He said the ideal was to have 100% customer satisfaction.  Every quarter, people filled in a form which indicated where they were happy and where they were not, and SANParks used this information to fix any issues of complaint.

Turning to the management plans, he said that if he had all the control, he would have changed the indicators conceptually. His team was not trained to understand how to describe indicators, statistics, objectives and key performance areas. When he had started working as CEO, he could not change much of the indicators because the annual performance plan (APP) was needed by government in a short space of time. These indicators could have been captured differently if people had had a conceptual understanding of what they meant. They were fixing issues in the next APPs.

He fully agreed that there were challenges In terms of species interventions. There were lots of delays from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and challenges working with SAPS and the Defence Force.

The official journal of SANParks was the Koedoe, which was where staff published. He was not sure of the percentage of black authors, as there were many people writing single articles in the publication. Next time they would look at the percentage of emerging young scientists.

He agreed with the Chairperson that there was no appetite for performance appraisals among some of the managers. Performance contracts were a two-way relationship -- the supervisor and the employee supervised had responsibilities. They had sent out a memo that by the end of March all performance contracts had to be submitted.

Mr Mahabeer said that management had embarked on a process to try and understand the legality of integrity testing. Unions and organised labour had agreed to the process, but wanted to be a part of the process to ensure transparency, no malice and no witch hunting.

They were currently at 40 cases in Kruger National Park. Regarding the customer satisfaction index, he said that part of the improvement was as a result of the dining experience, which grew from 74% last year to 78% this year. They were confident that the target for customer satisfaction would be achieved by the end of the year.

The Chairperson thanked the SANParks management for a good and clear presentation, and released them.

Committee minutes
The Chairperson called for the adoption of the draft minutes of proceedings of the Committee meeting on 16 February 2016, and said that there had been a few corrections.

 Ms H Kekana (ANC) moved the adoption of the minutes and Mr Hadebe seconded.

The minutes were adopted and the meeting was adjourned.