Committee Minutes: postponed

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

The Chairperson greeted everyone. She noted the poor attendance but indicated that there was a   quorum and the meeting would proceed.

The Chairperson welcomed Members to the first meeting of the year.  A further special welcome was extended to Ms Z Jongbloed (DA), who was a new member to the Committee. The DA had informed her that it would be reshuffling its members; however Mr S Motau (DA) would still remain part of the Committee.

The Chairperson then noted and accepted formal apologies from the following members: Mr M Ntombela (ANC); Ms Z Zuma-Dubazane (ANC); Mr M Dirks (ANC); Mr M Booi (ANC); Mr M Hlengwa (IFP); and Hon Van der Walt. She mentioned that no appearances were expected from the Department of Public Service and as a result no apologies were necessary as the Committee is still dealing with the outstanding minutes.

The Chairperson then informed the Committee that it was agreed at the management meeting last year (2016) that “the Committee will have only two meetings until the outstanding minutes have been adopted”. There were a substantial number of outstanding minutes that had to be adopted by the Committee.

Outstanding Minutes

The Chairperson reiterated that “even though the Committee technically met the quorum, legally speaking the minutes needed to be corrected by the people who were present at the meetings from which the minutes arose”. As the meeting stood, the only person who was present at the previous meetings, especially the meetings from 2015, was the Chairperson. 

The Chairperson then stated that although the minutes may be adopted by new members, correction thereof can only be done by members who were present at the previous meetings.

The Chairperson then stated that one of the reasons that there are so many outstanding minutes is that the Committee did not have a permanent secretary who attended to its administration. The previous Committee secretary was released from her duties and since then the Committee has had stand-in secretaries. This hindered the adoption of the minutes as the administration thereof was not being run efficiently. Due to this, and in late 2016, the Chairperson requested that the current stand-in secretary be kept in the Committee until a permanent secretary is appointed.

The Chairperson then asked the members for their opinion about what they think the committee should do with the outstanding minutes.

Ms G Tseke (ANC) thanked the Chairperson for the opportunity to speak and said the minutes should be kept in abeyance pending the attendance of all of the committee members who were present when the previous minutes were raised in order for the minutes to be properly adopted.

The Chairperson then requested Ms Z Jongbloed (DA) to give her view on the whether or not the meeting should proceed.

Ms Jongbloed replied by first thanking the Chairperson for the opportunity to speak and expressing her gratitude for the work done by the Committee. She then expressed a concern regarding the delay in the adoption of the minutes dating back to 2015 but she also accepted the reason given by the Chairperson for the delay in the adoption of the minutes. Lastly, she supported the view that the meeting should kept in abeyance pending the adoption of the minutes.

The Chairperson requested Ms W Newhoudt-Druechen (ANC) to state her opinion.

Ms Newhoudt-Druechen replied that she was also concerned as most of the minutes were from 2015 and that they needed to be approved soon. She further mentioned that she only joined the Committee in March 2016 and as a result she could only approve the minutes from that period onwards. However, she hoped that the minutes will all be adopted as soon as possible so the Committee can move on to work on the matters for the year 2017.

The Chairperson stated that the meeting has agreed to put the minutes of the previous meetings in abeyance until there is better attendance from the members who were present at the previous meetings. In this regard, the Committee will request that a two-session meeting be held on a Wednesday after the State of the Nation Address, wherein the members of the Committee will be able to adopt the outstanding minutes.

The meeting adjourned.