South African National Biodiversity Institute, Isimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, South African Weather Service on their 4th Quarter 2015/16 & 1st Quarter 2016/17 performance

Meeting report

Minutes
The Chairperson said he had received a formal apology from both the Minister of Environmental Affairs and the Deputy Minister, could not attend. The Minister had fallen ill that morning, while the Deputy Minister was involved in a Cabinet meeting.

Absence of South African Bio-Diversity Institute (SANBI) CEO and Chairperson
The Chairperson stated that the Committee was scheduled to receive a presentation by Dr Tanya Abrahamse, CEO, South African Bio-Diversity Institute (SANBI) and Ms Nana Magomola, Chairperson of the board, SANBI but as neither was present, the Committee resolved not to hear any presentation on behalf of the institute. The Chairperson expressed dissatisfaction at the failure of the CEO to explain her absence and offer an apology. He requested an explanation from a SANBI delegate who stated that the CEO was currently chairing a tourism board meeting in KwaZulu-Natal and that the chairperson had fallen during the night and was therefore unable to attend. The Chairperson expressed dissatisfaction with the delegates explanation, and that the CEO should have made plans despite the meeting to at least notify the Committee of her absence and that her accountability before the Committee should have taken precedence over the tourism board meeting.

The Chairperson then invited comments from the Committee regarding the absence of the CEO and chairperson and lack of apology.

Mr T Hadebe (DA) seconded the views of the Chairperson. He regarded their absence as unprofessional and frustrating.

Mr Z Makhubele (ANC) also expressed dissatisfaction at the CEOs absence. It was imperative for her to properly account before the Committee and not send her junior subordinates. The issue was not one of competency in being able to deliver the report, rather it was an issue of senior management of entities such as SANBI being held accountable.
Ms J Edwards (DA) suggested a written letter from the Committee be sent to the CEO and the Chairperson expressing the Committee’s dissatisfaction with their absence, so that the Committee could proceed with its work and that the entities which were present could make their presentations.
Ms Nosipho Ngcaba, Director General, Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) apologised further on behalf of the CEO and Chairperson and that she would take up the issue with the CEO, the Chairperson and the Minister of Environmental affairs after the meeting.
The Chairperson stated that the committee would write to both the CEO and the chairperson to express the displeasure of the Committee at their absence as suggested by Ms Edwards. He also raised the issue of four officials from SANBI thus having been unnecessarily been flown to Cape Town, which constituted fruitless and wasteful expenditure. He requested the Director General to look into the matter as to who should be held responsible, and suggested the CEO be held responsible for that wasteful expenditure.
South African Weather Service (SAWS) PortfolioCommittee Presentation on Objectives: Quarter 1 of 2016/17
Dr Linda Makhuleni, Chief Executive Officer, South African Weather Service (SAWS) briefed the Committee.
SAWS had set 5 strategic goals with twenty-eight targets. Of those twenty-eight targets 27 were achieved, twenty-four fully achieved and 3 were partially achieved.

Strategic goal number 1 dealt with the provision of products and services which was a key goal of the Service for their mandate to service the public goal and commercialise some of their products. 7 targets were set, 6 were achieved and 1 was partially achieved. The target partially achieved was air quality monitoring. The Service needed to develop an air quality and monitoring system to meet that target. The Service needed a feasibility study that year in order to approve the monitoring and air quality control system. The study had been completed but had not yet been approved by the strategy board committee, the study had however been completed, but not yet approved, which was why that target was only partially achieved. The study had however subsequently been approved by the programmes committee, which was given that responsibility by the Services’ board. Given time constraints, she would not go into detail regarding the targets which had been achieved. A monitoring committee had been appointed by the board, to monitor the progress of the committee in meeting its targets, and that the Service had achieved 70% of their targets for the year. She thanked the Research and Development (R & D) department for developing scientific based products and services, in assisting SAWS in providing services to its clients. Service was currently in the process of developing a product which was examining the use of solar energy and another product which dealt with developing service which would provide a lightning threatening index. Another product dealt with providing services to farmers which would provide them with real time information specific for their areas, in using rainfall as a source of water incorporated alongside historical data.
Strategic goal number 2 dealt with building the necessary scientific capacity to fulfil the mandate of the Service, but this could not be fully achieved without collaboration from other entities such as academic and research institutions. 8 targets were set, 7 were achieved and 1 partially achieved. Every year the Service did a stakeholder satisfaction survey to determine whether customers were satisfied with the services provided and how to improve. The target set was 85% stakeholder satisfaction, and satisfaction achieved was 84, 5% thus the target was partially achieved. The next target dealt with the communications strategy and the Service had begun to communicate with vulnerable communities to ascertain what further work needed to be done in terms of changing weather patterns and severe weather events. They had also established a centre accredited by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) where various scientists had been working in building the body of knowledge used by the Service. In Quarter 4 a target publishing eleven peer-reviewed articles was set and achieved. The Service needed partnerships and access to technology in order to achieve its mandate, and had partnered with both local and international institutions for that purpose, such as the Water Research Council. Climate change was an issue which fell within the mandate of the Service which had been working closely with the DEA to develop a national framework to deal with that issue. The Service is a technological hub which collects meteorological information which provides information for many other English speaking countries, and that it was important that that information was stored in a central system.
Strategic goal number 3 dealt with the continued provision of quality weather control and other related services in support of socio-economic development and financial sustainability. 4 targets were set, 3 were achieved with 1 been partially achieved. The aviation revenue for quarter 4 was set at R25 million and R29.3 million was achieved. A target was set that twenty inspections of airports would be done during the year, with 5 inspections per quarter and all of those inspections were done. The target set for commercial revenue was very high and the economic downturn resulted in a review of the target, which was then reduced. The baseline for the previous year was R12.5 million which was reduced to R16 million. For Quarter? the goal was set at R9.9 million and the Service achieved R9.67 million.

The Service’s financial statements had been audited, and they had achieved an unqualified audit, which was recognised by the Auditor General who gave the organisation an award for the way in which it was managed.
Strategic goal number 4 dealt with research, technology and intelligence development. The Service had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the security cluster and engaged various stakeholders in terms of the security cluster to improve security at the organisation.
Strategic goal number 5, dealt with growth and sustainability. 5 targets were set with 4 being achieved and one partially achieved. Human capital was a particular target and the goal for staff retention was set at 92% and in quarter 4 there was a 98% rate of staff retention. The organisation had put measures in place to measure individual performance of employees, and achieved an 86% rating in terms of the performance of the whole organisation. In terms of the bursary scheme, the target was set at sixty-two bursaries, and the department managed to give fifty-seven bursaries. There were issues relating to funding in terms of the bursary scheme, and the organisation had begun to explore alternative avenues of funding its bursary scheme which was already stretched in terms of resources. The organisation had targeted 45% of bursary recipients being absorbed into the critical and scarce skills part of the organisation, and had employed 65% of bursary recipients.
In terms of employment equity, the national demographics was 80% for black Africans and the baseline for the organisation was 67% and the target 74%. The organisation had achieved 68%, and was committed to looking into the issue further in order to achieve the 74% target. For whites the demographics stood at 8.3% the baseline was 21%, the target 14.7%. The organisation had not achieved that target with employment of whites remaining at 19.9%. For coloureds the target was 8.8% and the organisation achieved 8.3%. For Indians the target was 2.5% and 3.1% was achieved. There was no target set for foreigners however due to the specialised nature of some of the work done by the organisation, it was necessary to employ foreigners from throughout the continent to assist in some of the research done by the organisation. The target set for people with disabilities was 3%, with the national demographics been 2% and the current employment rate of people with disabilities was 1.1%. The board together with management had resolved to look into ways to increase the number of people with disabilities employed by the organisation to meet the 3% goal.
Financial Report
A delegate from SAWS reported that all financial targets were met. All of the expenditure had been accounted for and was up to date, and further reports on the finances would be presented to the Committee when the organisation returned later in the year to present its annual report. As stated by the CEO, the organisation had received an unqualified audit and the Office of the Auditor General reported the organisation as being in order with regard to budget management and expenditure management. The preliminary results prior to the audit showed the organisation had spent more than expected in terms of operational expenditure of R4.6 million, and depreciation was also more than initially expected. The main reason for the high level of depreciation was the purchase of the high performance computer purchased in the previous year, and that in the year before the organisation had received a R30 million Capex grant and the year before a R20 million grant. It was the first year, therefore where the organisation was subject to a fully exposed depreciation in full. The main reason for the increased revenue was due to increased aviation but in terms of government grants there not much difference compared to previous years. Compensation of employees was slightly under budget due to various unfulfilled vacancies. In terms of administrative expenditure, those figures were way below the figures anticipated at the end of March.
The CEO of the organisation then gave a second presentation regarding the high level structure of the organisation and quarter 1 of 2016/17 as well as strategic goals and objectives. The high level structure consists of five divisions: finance, operations, commissions, corporate affairs and human capital.
In terms of the board, a review was done of strategic goal number 1 with more emphasis being placed on the provision of products and services. The reason for the increased emphasis on that aspect of the organisation was due the increase in severe weather pattern changes due to climate change. The organisation wanted to ensure that they could provide products that would be able to assist with issues of food security, the protection of lives and property and innovative ways of achieving the commercial and public good.
In relation to strategic goal number 2 more emphasis was placed on training and development so that the various needs of government both at national, provincial and local level could be met. Further emphasis would also be placed on improving the organisations with various stakeholders in order to effectively achieve its mandate. As the organisation was largely an intelligence and research based organisation, more emphasis was placed on creating relevant research and information which could meaningfully be used by people to better their lives, by growing the weather and climate based knowledge. This did however need additional funding in order to be achieved.
The management had also resolved that any outstanding issues which had not yet been dealt with, would be dealt with when the organisation returned to give its report in the next quarter. The CEO said there had been a cyber-attack on the weather service database in Australia earlier in the year, and due to the fact that SAWS serviced most of the region and parts of the continent an examination was done of the I.T security in the organisation. Management resolved to re-arrange parts of the budget in order to improve cyber security which was not originally budgeted for, but which management felt had to be addressed.
The organisation also wanted to increase the number of people in the organisations with PHD’s. They had been looking into what kind of training would be necessary for employees to enter into and complete a PHD programme in order to increase those figures.
In terms of employment equity, the target set was 74% and the organisation had achieved 68%, but noted that it was a 2% improvement from the previous year’s figure of 66%.

Ms Marilize Hogendoorn, Chief Financial Officer, South African Weather Service then presented the financial report. For the first 3 months of the current financial year the organisation expected a year to date revenue of R77.5 million and achieved R89.2 million which was a positive variance of R11.6 million. In terms of total expenditure, the organisation expected to spend R75.4 million and had spent R69.3 million which was a positive variance of R6.398 million. An operating surplus was expected of R2.1 million and generated an actual surplus at the end of the first quarter of R20.8 million which was a positive variance of R18 million. In terms of actual revenue at the end of June 2016 the total revenue exceeded the budget by R11.68 million, the main reason for which was the extra regulated commercial revenue which was higher than expected largely due to increased tariff rates and air traffic. Non-regulated commercial revenue was also doing very well, following the appointment of a dedicated executive in that division of the organisation, which since last year had generated the highest amount of revenue ever generated from non-regulated revenue which was in the region of approximately R19 million.
Discussion
Mr Makhubele asked, in terms of employment equity, why the employment profile reflected that the majority of temporary and semi-skilled employees were black Africans. In terms of page 28 of the report the majority of semi-skilled and discretionary decision making employees were black Africans, and he questioned whether this was done intentionally by not seeking to employ more black Africans in positions of qualified and experienced specialists. He raised a second issue as to why some targets were only partially achieved. A third issue was based on stakeholder satisfaction of 87%; he asked who those stakeholders were and what was done to calculate and achieve that percentage of stakeholder satisfaction. He questioned what the organisation was doing in terms of career development and further development, to train employees within the organisation to acquire the necessary skills and expertise in order to fulfil the specialised work which was currently being given to foreigners. He raised a further question regarding the telecommunications hub which was purely in English, and whether there was an initiative to extend the hub to other languages, particularly in the SADC region to assist neighbouring countries on the continent. He also wanted to know whether any funds were spent on litigation during the past 2 quarters and if yes, what the amount was. And further, whether the targets on climate change were made through consultation with other departments and whether there was a collective effort amongst various departments and the organisation to address climate change issues.

Mr Hadebe wanted to know whether the number of bursaries was calculated first by setting a target before funding was given, or whether the number of bursaries decided upon by the organisation was only set after funding for bursaries had been received. He expressed concern that the organisation had only managed to award fifty-seven bursaries whilst the target was set at sixty-two and wanted to know on what basis that number of bursaries was calculated. He also wanted to know why various posts had gone unfulfilled at the end of the financial year, and whether this due to cuts in terms of the budget. A number of those posts were critical to the mandate of the entity. He expressed further concern with the re-allocation of the budget towards improving cyber security following the cyber-attack in Australia, and that those funds should rather have been utilised to find ways to ameliorate weather phenomena which had affected people’s lives, particularly in terms of the recent drought which was more pressing. He asked what measures would be put in place in order to improve their employment equity profile in respect of disabled persons.
Ms J Edwards was concerned that the achieved targets for the quarter were only 67%. She raised similar concerns as Mr Hadebe as to whether the organisation first planned their budget before receiving funding or planned their budget after they had received funding.
The audit chairperson of the organisation responded to questions The reason for targeting increased commercial revenue was to supplement government income which was less than in previous years, to allow research would assist the organisation both in commerce, internationally and in terms of the environment. On climate change and department consultation, the organisation had a role to play but not the primary leadership role on the issue of climate change. The organisation was pleased with the increased revenue generated from tariffs from increased air traffic, but other commercial initiatives of the organisation had also begun to pay off in terms of increased revenue.
The CEO responded that on the various goals which had not been achieved, the organisation would be returning to the Committee later in the year to deliver its annual report, and would address those concerns more fully at that time. In relation to the stakeholder question, the methodology used was to look at all the various stakeholders such as international buyers and academic institutions, which were regarded as key institutional partners, government departments such as the Department of Water and Agriculture, the media, various companies and aviation. At a regional level all provinces are consulted as well as various other countries outside of the country.
In terms of foreigner employment, career retention strategy initiatives were implemented based on the realisation that various scientists did not want to enter into management positions. Individuals who did have the capacity and willingness to enter into management positions were being groomed to move up to those positions. Various young scientists and researchers had entered into understudy programmes with senior experts and that programme was continued for that purpose. The organisation had also adopted a programme where scientists were attached to various universities, such as the University of Pretoria, as lecturers in order to complete PHD programmes.
The CEO replied that in terms of bursary amounts, the Department did not always receive the amount of funding and revenue it needed in order to implement all its programmes and bursaries. They had begun to look for additional sources of funding in order to more effectively reach those targets in the future, especially as they pertained to bursary awards.
In terms of the unfulfilled vacancies, the CEO replied that the majority of the positions had been filled and that further work was being done to fill any remaining positions.
The CEO replied that in terms of disability and employment equity, many people who had disability concealed their disabilities out of fear from their employers. The organisation has recently begun to implement workshop initiatives to educate employees and managers to educate them both about employment equity legislation and the goals of the organisation in relation to employment equity of disabled people in the organisation.
In terms of the issue of the telecommunications hub only being in English, the CEO the majority of the Francophone countries had other sources, and other countries were engaged by the organisation to foster co-operation in providing that information which is not in English in terms of the telecommunications hub.
The CEO replied to the question regarding litigation. In terms of the first quarter of the current financial year, the organisation was not currently involved in any litigation but made use of legal services related primarily to issues such as labour relations, commercial issues and maintenance of the organisation’s intellectual property. Those figures were not on hand butcould be provided at the next meeting. The organisation did employ one full time lawyer at middle management level, and did from time to time require the assistance of specialists.
A delegate from the organisation responded to the question raised by Mr Makhubele on unskilled workers. The organisation made use of students who were currently unemployed, which explained the reason for the majority of semi-skilled and discretionary decision making employees being black Africans. The employment equity programme was focused on the employment of women, disabled persons and black Africans which was one area where the organisation was behind in terms of its employment equity statistics and the national demographics of the country. The organisation had also re-arranged various funds in terms of their budget to advance employment equity in respect of disabled people and as of quarter 2 three people with disabilities had recently been employed by. The aim was to recruit more people with disabilities in quarters 3 and 4.
Mr Hadebe wanted to know further how the expenditure of the organisation was broken down in terms of the report in order to properly interrogate the organisation’s finances. The Chairperson requested that that issue be raised at a later date when the organisation would return to the Committee to deliver its annual report in October, which was accepted.
The Chairperson then requested the CEO to wrap up the presentation. In terms of department consultation, the organisation consulted closely with the Department of Environmental Affairs but not necessarily very closely with other government departments in setting targets. The organisation did however look at issues facing other departments when doing strategy analysis. The organisation had however begun to engage various stakeholders in relation to various issues, to improve on that aspect.
The Chair thanked the CEO and congratulated the organisation on achieving an unqualified audit, thanked the board for playing an effective oversight role in that regard and excused the organisation from the Committee.
iSimangaliso Wetland Park Quarter 4 2015/16 & Quarter 1 2016/17 Report
Mr Buyani Zwane, Chairperson, iSimangaliso Wetland Park apologised for the absence of the CEO who was currently out of the country attending a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) meeting and was thus unable to attend.

The park had recently constituted a new board as of September last year. The park had the responsibility of looking after environmental assets on behalf of both the country and the world as a whole as a world heritage site. They also had a responsibility to bring about development within the park area as there were many land claimants seeking compensation, for being unable to occupy land where the animals in the park were able to freely roam. The park had a good relationship with the local community to make them co-owners of the assets which the park protects.

The Chairperson said the Committee would be visiting the park in the following month to exercise their oversight function; the exact dates however had yet to be determined.
MsTerri Castis, Acting CEO, iSimangaliso Park began the main presentation. The park had recently had a big shift in its corporate strategy over the last year to better reflect the way in which the organisation operated and what it wanted to achieve. He reaffirmed the vision and objective of the organisation which was to create Africa’s best conservation programme driven by community participation and empowerment, and to protect and preserve the park in line with its World Heritage Status and the Heritage Act.
The high level structure of the organisation consisted of the Minister of Environmental Affairs at the head of the organisation, the board and then the CEO. The park then consisted of four major units consisting of the Park Operations Director, Business Director, Research Policy and Planning Senior Manager and corporate governance.
The park delivered 23 of its 24 deliverables within the past year, and had partially achieved 1 target. The target only partially achieved was the clearing of alien species. The park had achieved on the initial clearing but not achieved on the following up which largely came down to the budget of the park. Mr Makhubele had often raised of alien clearing and its future, which depended largely on biological controls. The park had however been experimenting with biological controls, but the results expected had not always materialised in terms of that strategy. Engagement has been happening with the DEA in order to address this issue both inside and outside of the park.
In the first quarter, there was a lack of progress in respect of alien control and transformation in respect of the training days. In terms of commercial revenue there was issue regarding commercial revenue and tourist visitation numbers.
The real challenge was how to make fewer funds go further. The park was dependent on certain service providers such KZN wildlife which had various budget cuts that were not anticipated. There had been collaboration with the DEA to both protect the wildlife assets in the park and deliver more jobs, in a climate of n increased demand for job creation and the park wants to fulfil that mandate.
Goals achieved in the previous year included environmental audits. A large amount of environmental auditing focuses on follow up audits. The target was one new target per a quarter and the follow up audits would come into effect in the second quarter. The park conducted an environmental audit of a facility and then returned a few months later in order to ensure that the recommendations of the initial audit had been implemented.
Alien clearing the park under delivered by around a third of the hectares in terms of the initial targets. It was emphasised that this did not impact on the job creation targets for the quarter, but did affect training numbers and the solutions the park was trying to implement in conjunction with the DEA.
Under litigation there was a matter which appeared in court in respect of the game management programme concluded in the second quarter in favour of the park and the DEA. The outcome of the litigation was stopping a five hundred house development within the buffer zone of the park which set a legal precedent for all national parks that want to rely on that case for purposes of further litigation. A buffer zone was important as it allowed the park to limit the impact on its ecology, although it was stressed that a buffer zone was not the same as a no development zone, in order to protect the assets of the park.
Park management meetings were the vehicle adopted in order to assess and manage the service performance of any work done by contractors. One such key issue was that of drought, which was not only an issue of stress for park animals which led to increased mortalities, it was also a key issue for local communities. The park made adjustments to its fencing programme to allow local affected communities to graze cattle in certain areas of the park, in response to the drought.  Stressed animals were also more prone to violent breakouts which could then lead to damages to crops and other environmental assets. The park had rearranged parts of its budget to bring water into the park to create artificial water spots to address the issue of scarce water supply. This was important not only to preserve the local wildlife but also to maintain good relations with the local community.
Approximately thirty environmental monitors were employed to clean around three hundred and twenty kilometres of coastline, which was a new target recently adopted under the Coast Care programme. This was one example of how the park had engaged with the DEA in order to achieve more targets with less funds. The funding of the programme was limited to three days of employment for 6 months of the year, which employed ninety-five people for the purposes of keeping the coastline clear and maintained. The budget was subsidised with other funds made available from the DEA so that those jobs could be maintained on a full time basis.
The annual burning programme was completed during burning season in the second quarter. It was important that the burning programme was implemented at the correct time of the year in terms of weather conditions, due to the fact that if the programme were implemented during humid or high wind conditions, it could lead to runaway fires and destruction of park assets.
Transformation and the maximisation of employment equity was a key mandate of the park. This was a cross cutting objective which affected all aspects of the programme from corporate to conservation. In in the first quarter of the year targets set for the creation of temporary jobs exceeded the target set in the previous year. Significant pressure was placed on contractors to implement mandatory labour job creation targets for the local community, and failure to achieve those targets would result in penalties been implemented. Fifteen permanent jobs were created in the past year and discussions begun in order to absorb interns employed by the park to take up full time employment.
Targets set for training were exceeded, however in the first target the park was under target. Discussions had begun with DEA to ascertain the feasibility of rearranging the training budgets in order to set employees to TVET colleges, in order to be awarded formal qualifications which would be more impactful in terms of future employment opportunities. A target of 24 awarded bursaries was set and 26 was achieved, 16 of those bursaries were for students in terms of continuing further education and ten for new entrants. In total 77 students were awarded university degrees as a result of the bursary programme, with a high success rate of over 80%.
BEE procurement targets were set at 71% and 77% was achieved.
Under tourism and commercial, the strategic objective was to maximise park revenue generation in both an environmental and commercially sustainable manner to foster both job creation and the empowerment of historically disadvantaged communities. Revenue targets were exceeded in the previous year, but revenue generation in the first quarter was slightly behind target by approximately R900 000. Recessionary factors were the primary reason for failure to meet those targets however the park was confident that the shortfall would be made up in the second quarter as a result of the world AIDS conference, which saw increased visitor numbers at the park.
Corporate governance yielded many positive results and the park received an unqualified audit, which it had received for every year of its existence. The actual reporting of that unqualified audit would only be reported in the second quarter. The annual report was completed which was currently in the process of being printed, and would be presented to the Committee later in the year. Staff retention was set at 80% in the previous year and had been achieved with 100% retention rate.
The park was a small organisation with only thirty employees and there was no change in the employment equity profile from the previous year. The board had begun to revisit the issue of employment equity which would be revised in the next quarter to improve transformation and employment equity.
The park had been nominated for a McNulty award, linked to the Aspen leadership institute, for excellence in their small and medium enterprise programme.
The CFO of the park presented the park’s financials. Park revenue had increased substantially from the previous year which was largely due to the introduction of a permit system for tourism operators who do not have concessions or licences with the park. There was an increase in professional fees, which was due to the litigation referred to earlier for legal fees.
Discussion
The Chairperson said the Committee had received a petition from a company called Ezemvelo Wildlife in Kwa-Zulu Natal, which wanted to continue rendering services in respect of protecting the coastline. The contract with Ezemvelo terminated at the end of July 2016, and raised concerns that no further measures were put in place to protect the coastline following the termination of their contract. The Chairperson asked the acting CEO whether she had any information regarding the petition and the reasons for the termination of the contract, and whether alternative measures were put in place following the termination of their services.

The acting CEO replied that Ezemvelo had a contract through the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to fulfil some of the compliance functions of the DAFF. The contract with Ezemvelo was withdrawn in respect of protected areas, which the Department had subsequently taken on directly. Inside of protected areas Ezemvelo was still being paid by iSimangaliso, which was funded through a grant from Oceans and Coast. The park had engaged DAFF to find measures where the two services could be integrated into one service in order to optimise the use of resources

The Chairperson asked whether Ezemvelo was a private company or a public entity.

The acting CEO replied that it was a public entity which fell under the provincial KwaZulu-Natal Department of Environmental, Economic and Tourism development.

Mr Hadebe asked to what extent wildlife crime had affected the park and secondly if the delegates had any statistics regarding the frequency of wildlife crime, especially as it pertained to rhino poaching in respect of the first quarter. He asked what the total employee cost was in respect of the park’s resources. He also raised concern regarding information he had received that the coastline which consisted of some three hundred and twenty kilometres was serviced by a team of ninety-five people.

Mr Makhubele congratulated the park on their various awards nominations. He raised a question on community shares in the park and whether the model used by the park in that regard was similar to initiatives done by other parks and if not, what model the park was utilising particularly in terms of land claimants. He raised concerns regarding the buffer zone, and whether it was effective as a means of preventing the animals from leaving the park and in protecting the park from wildlife crime.

The Chairperson informed Mr Makhubele, that both iSimangaliso and SAN parks would be returning to the Committee on Tuesday 30 August, and that they would be better equipped to address that question on that date.

The acting CEO replied that she did not have exact figures regarding wildlife crime with her but would obtain the figures and send them to the Committee secretary for circulation amongst the Committee. Certain areas of the park were more vulnerable to wildlife crime than areas, which also affected the statistics regarding wildlife crime and its impact on the park. The recent drought had made certain parts of the park more accessible than was the case before the drought, which had an impact on the number of poaching incidents. The park dehorned the majority of its rhino population and had relocated them from vulnerable areas to more secure areas of the park.

Employee cost was approximately 15% of the parks total expenditure.

In relation the question of the 95 workers who maintained the coastline, the only areas which they maintained were the areas that were visited on a regular basis as much of the three hundred and twenty kilometres was inaccessible. The areas in between the regularly visited areas were thoroughly cleaned by the team, but only once every quarter.

Mr Hadebe asked if the financial assets of the assets of the park included the biological and wildlife assets in their financial calculations.

The acting CEO replied that the park did not quantify the biological assets in the assets register itself, but they did keep a separate register of all the biological and ecological assets kept in the park.

The Chairperson thanked the delegates for their presentation and answers, and said that he was looking forward to having the park return next week in order to present further presentations, particularly on the issue of the community shareholder model used by the park. He congratulated the park on its clean audit, which was a key indicator of healthy organisation with proper management and oversight structures in place.

Inter-departmental management report
The Chairperson said an inter-departmental management report was presented the previous day and in terms of the rules the Committee had to formally consider the report and send it to the National Assembly, if it was adopted.

The report was adopted.

Adoption of minutes
The committee then considered the minutes from the committee meeting which took place the previous week with SAN parks.

The minutes were adopted without amendment.


The meeting was then adjourned.