Committee Report on Health Budget

This premium content has been made freely available

Health

05 May 2016
Chairperson: Ms M Dunjwa (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The Committee’s report on the Annual Performance Plan of the Department of Health, its entities and budget vote 16 was carefully considered by Members. Most of the issues identified for correction were minor.

The report was adopted by Mr A Mahlalela (ANC) and seconded by Mr A Shaik Emam (NFP). The DA and EFF reserved their rights to recommendations in the report, stating that there were more issues to be debated in the House before the adoption of the report.

 

Meeting report

Committee Report on Health Budget Vote

[PMG scriber was 15 minutes late. This is not a full record of all the amendments]

The Committee’s report on the annual performance plan (APP) of the Department of Health (DoH) was considered page by page.

The issues raised by the Members were as follows.

Mr H Volmink (DA) suggested that the Department should make use of the term ‘service user’ opposed to ‘client’, in terms of the targets set for tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

Mr A Shaik Emam (NFP) said that the word ‘qualifies’ in bullet 4, page 10 should be replaced with ‘qualify’.

Mr D Chewane (EFF) highlighted the incorrect meaning of NAPHISA stated on the last bullet on page 12. Mr Volmink gave the correct meaning to be National Public Health Institute of South Africa.

Ms M Scheepers (ANC) suggested that the word ‘women’s’ should be omitted from “the women’s maternal and reproductive health…” in the last paragraph of page 17.

Mr A Mahlalela (ANC) noted that the name of the sub-programme was “women’s maternal”. The Committee could only engage with the Department to change the name if it believed that the phrase was a mere repetition.

The Chairperson also agreed that the Committee should engaged\ with the Department to change the name, if the need arose.

Mr Volmink said that the comma after ‘Canadian’ in the last bullet under ‘APP for 2016/17’ on page 21 should be deleted.

Mr Mahlalela said that the departmental programmes on page 22 should be boldened.

Mr Shaik Emam pointed out an anomaly on under 7.3.2,  page 26 where it was recorded that the budget had been projected to increase from R1 million to R133 million.

Mr Rahim Zubair, Parliament Researcher, said that the correct figure was R100 million.

Mr Volmink proposed that the Compensation Commission for Occupational Diseases (CCOD) should be reported on a quarterly basis, and this should be included in the recommendations under CCOD on page 37 in this manner: “The CCOD given the seriousness of the challenges it faces, should report to the Committee on a quarterly basis until such time as the Committee is satisfied with its performance”.

Mr P Maesala (ANC) proposed that bullet 2 under 10.2, page 37 should be restructured to reflect a submission of CCOD’s targets on a quarterly basis.

Mr Mahlalela noted that the main issue was for CCOD to redesign its targets on a quarterly basis so that the Committee can carry out its oversight o n a quarterly basis.

The Chairperson said that the proposal made by Mr Maesala and other proposals by Members should be submitted in writing.

Ms C Ndaba (ANC) proposed that a timeframe should be given to CCOD to submit its financial statements to the Auditor General.

Mr Mahlalela said that a timeframe existed in terms of the law.

He added that the last sentence on page 38 should be reworded to read: “The Committee recommends that the House approves the 2016/17 APP and Budget of the Department and its entities”.

The Chairperson speaking on CCOD, reminded members that the Minister said that there was need to have a legislation that would address the challenges around affecting the mine workers and ex-mine workers. It was proposed that this issue be included in the recommendations of the Committee.

Mr Mahlalela agreed with the proposal of the Chairperson in terms of the realignment of the legislation.

Mr W James (DA) said that the DA reserved its right in terms of the recommendations of the Committee till the next meeting. The reservation was based on the fact that the DA was not happy about the amount allocated for maternal and child health, as well as the money allocated for critical care and emergency medical services. Proposals on how the money for these programmes could be sourced would be tabled in the house at the said next meeting.

Mr Maesela suggested that the DA should submit its recommendation before the house, for consideration by MPs.

The Chairperson clarified that the issues raised by Mr James were matters for debate.

Mr Chewane said that the EFF also had some issues it would like to debate. Some of such issues included its strong fundamental view around the holistic approach on the NHI, as well as the performance of some entities with regard to the CCOD.

Mr Mahlalela moved for the adoption of the report with the amendments. He was seconded by Mr Shaik Emam.

Mr Shaik Emam informed the Committee that he would be presenting a proposed motion in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region on diabetes and TB in Johannesburg in the coming week.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: