Minister Progress Reports: Environmental Affairs & Mineral Resources

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson welcomed all present in the meeting and asked whether there were any apologies.

Apologies
Mr Nkanyiso Mkhize, Committee Secretary, read an apology from Ms T Mokwele (EFF).
Mr M Chetty (DA) read apologies on behalf Ms B Engelbrecht (DA) and Mr G Michalakis (DA).

The Chairperson read the agenda of the meeting as follows: Consideration and adoption of Progress Reports on Executive Undertakings made by the Minister of Environmental Affairs (during Question and Answer Session of the NCOP on 27 October 2015); Consideration and adoption of Progress Reports on Executive Undertakings made by the Minister of Mineral Resources (during and Answer Session of the NCOP on 27 October 2015); And Consideration and adoption of outstanding Minutes.

The Committee adopted the agenda.

Consideration and adoption of Progress Reports on Executive Undertakings made by the Minister of Environmental Affairs (during Question and Answer Session of the NCOP on 27 October 2015)
The Chairperson read through the report page by page.
 
Mr M Mthethwa (KwaZulu-Natal, ANC) moved for the adoption of the report.

Ms G Oliphant (Northern Cape, ANC) seconded the move.
The Committee adopted the report with no amendments.

Consideration and adoption of Progress Reports on Executive Undertakings made by the Minister of Mineral Resources (during and Answer Session of the NCOP on 27 October 2015)
The Chairperson read through the report page by page.

Ms T Wana (Eastern Cape, ANC) moved for the adoption of the report.

Ms Oliphant seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the report with no amendments.

Adoption of Minutes of 13 June 2018
The Chairperson said in the minutes the apology of any Members of the Committee should be reflected

Ms Oliphant asked what was happening with their application in terms of the oversight visit to Ghana.

The Chairperson replied that their application was turned down and no reason was given for that.

Mr Mthethwa said a letter should be written following the right procedure, and if that letter is rejected the Committee should get a written reply from the office of the House Chairperson. If there is a problem after that process they can intervene.

Mr Mthethwa suggested they first deal with the minutes and then come back to this issue of the application.

The Chairperson agreed and proceeded with the minutes indicating that they were on page 2 of the minutes.

The Committee adopted the minutes.

Matters Arising
Mr S Mthimunye (Mpumalanga, ANC) asked whether progress has been made in terms of tracking the recommendations the Committee had made with regard to the issue of Transkei Road Traffic Corporation (TRTC). Is there a system in place to track what has been done so far regarding this matter? It cannot be part of these minutes but as a matter arising he needs to be educated on how these issues were dealt with, especially the issue of TRTC which has been dragging for a long time and is affecting a lot of people.

The Chairperson said although the minutes had been adopted, Members should comment on this issue raised by Mr Mthimunye. He asked the support staff whether is there was any progress report with regard to the recommendations made in the TRTC report.

Ms Oliphant said if there is a report it should be reflected in next week’s minutes so that they as Members should not forget.

Mr Mkhize said they were currently waiting for the office of the House Chairperson to give them a date as to when the report will be tabled in the House. Thereafter the support staff will update the petitioners as to what is happening.

Ms M Gondwe, Content Advisor, said once the report is tabled in the House it becomes a House report and is out of the Committee’s hands. Then the procedural officers communicate the resolutions of the petition to the petitioners and other relevant stakeholders and check the progress made.

Regarding a tracking mechanism, Ms Gondwe was not sure what mechanisms procedural officers were using, but there is something in place because they are able to come back to the capital of the council to say nothing has been done in so far as a certain issue, and then put a way forward in that regard.

Ms Oliphant said she would like the support staff to go back and ask again so as to ensure that relevant information is provided to the Committee.

Ms Wana said the information provided by the support staff is not satisfactory because there were also liquidators who were supposed to come back and brief the Committee on the issues of money that disappeared at TRTC; and also, National Treasury was supposed to come back and brief the Committee in this regard. Companies such as Ernest and Young should also come and account on the monies that were collected in the liquidation of TRTC.

Mr Mthimunye said now he understands how procedures are if the report had been tabled in the House. But still it borders into the internal protocols of this Committee as to how they dealt with issues because it will always have a way of coming back to the Committee, and at the end of the day this Committee will suffer credibility crisis. Therefore, the Committee has to come up with a way of dealing with such issues before such issues go to the tabling officers in terms of informing petitioners and relevant stakeholders who relied on the Committee for help.

Mr M Mohapi (Free State, ANC) said it should be recalled that sometime back they spoke about a tracking system they should develop as a cluster Committees, not only for the Petitions Committee. And they were discussing that matter when they were dealing with follow ups on whether section 139 is yielding results or not. That is where they said application of rule 91 is also of paramount importance and that is when they said it must be consistent to all committees where the Chairperson would always have someone from the Committee following up on issues whether they had been properly executed or not. Because whether they like it or not there are deficiencies correctly set in terms of the systems in place. But it is for them to improvise and ensure that ultimately as Chairpersons they also take it upon themselves to follow up.

The Chairperson said this is not only happening to this Committee but to all Chairpersons of Committees not putting reports on time in the ATC. For instance, the petition of Ms Fuzane was taken out for no reason which is an old petition of 2014. And yesterday they went to the Chief Whip and he had no clue why that petition was taken out and as a Chairperson he had to resubmit that petition. So, there are a lot of problems from that side, and this is not the fault of the officials, the Chairperson of Chairpersons is supposed to be in charge and the Chief Whip is supposed to be in charge because those people are supposed to make sure that everything is put in the ATC.

Mr Mohapi asked whether it could be confirmed that there is no petition in Free State province because last time they were there it was indicated that there was no petition. Because he knows that there is a petition of Etumahule Informal Settlement but the report he received stated that there was no petition, which is why they went to the Eastern Cape.

The Chairperson said in their strategic planning meeting the Committee agreed that those petitions they need to refer back to the provincial legislatures or relevant local authorities should be referred back rather than keep a pile of them.

Mr Mohapi said he should be furnished with the minutes of the meeting where they agreed as a Committee that petitions should be referred back especially with regard to the issue of Etumahule Informal Settlement Petition.

The Chairperson said they agreed on referring certain petitions which did not go through provincial or local scrutiny before coming to national government.

Mr Mohapi said when they deal with petitions it could not be the officials who determine which petition should be referred back but it should be the Committee. They did not have to look at the merits of the petition but rather look at the feasibility of the petition.

Dr H Mateme (Limpopo, ANC) said what Mr Mohapi is asking is very straight forward and should be furnished with that report he asking for.

Mr Mthimunye said they are very general with their approach because they had exhausted their agenda and were now dealing with very important issues of the Committee for the wellbeing of the Committee.

Mr Mohapi suggested that they deal with the minutes and have a Committee caucus.

The Chairperson said Mr Mohapi will be furnished with the relevant documents he requested.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting.