Department Budget Vote reports

Meeting report

The Chairperson explained that the purpose of the meeting was to consider meetings from 22 April to 4 June 2020, which was a joint meeting.

Each Committee would adopt minutes and Reports separately for their joint meetings, because they were not joint Committees. The Committee would for the first time be dealing with Reports of the Strategic Plans and Annual Performance Plans (APPs) of departments, which was done by the full House.

The Chairperson continued to explain the process of adoption of the Reports in the National Assembly (NA) and National Council of Provinces (NCOP), because it had not been previously dealt with by the Committees.

Minutes for adoption

The Committee considered the following draft Minutes of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Economic Development, Small Business Development, Tourism, Employment and Labour:

• 22 April – Department of Employment and Labour on measures of relief during COVID-19.
• 28 April – The minutes for this meeting were unavailable, therefore the Committee could not adopt but requested to adopt at another meeting.  This involved a briefing by the Small Business Development Department by the Minister and other stakeholders.
• 1 May – Update by the Department of Employment and Labour on the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Compensation Fund and Inspection and Enforcement Services on experiences, challenges and future plans with regard to COVID-19 and the extended lockdown period and beyond.   
• 4 May – Briefing by Minister of Tourism on the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector, the risk adjustment strategy and recovery plan.
• 11 May – Joint briefing with the Select Committee on the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (DTIC’s) strategic and annual performance plan for 2020/21.
• 12 May  – Joint briefing by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on the strategic plan for the 2020/21 financial year
• 13 May – Briefing by the Department of Small Business Development on Budget Vote 36 and the annual performance plan.
• 14 May – Briefing by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) on its strategic and annual performance plan.
• 19 May – Briefing by the Competition Commission on its contribution to government’s COVID-19 response. Briefing by the National Consumer Commissioner (NCC) on its contribution to government’s COVID-19 response. Briefing by Productivity SA on its strategic and annual performance plan.
• 26 May – Briefing by the Department of Tourism on the 2020/21 – 2024/25 strategic plan and 2020/21 annual performance plan.
• 27 May – Briefing by South African Tourism on its strategic and annual performance plan
• 03 June 2020 – DSBD Interventions on SMMEs for COVID-19

All these minutes were adopted with amendments, except for the minutes of 28 April.

Ms H Boshoff (DA, Mpumalanga) said the Minister had informed the Committee that there would be frequent updates on COVID-19 matters. It would be useful if this information could be shared with Members at other meetings that the Select Committee could not attend.

The Chairperson responded that the Committee would be unable to attend every meeting due to its various commitments, at which it also had to brief other departments. Sometimes those meetings clashed and they could not attend. 

Reports for adoption

The Committee went through the recommendations and any amendments or additions were noted, because Members of the Select Committee had previously acquainted themselves with the Reports.

• Draft Report on the 2020/21 Strategic Plans, Annual Performance Plans and budget allocation plans of the Department of Trade and Industry and Competition, Vote 39.
• Draft Report on the Budget Vote 31: Employment and Labour, the Strategic Plan and the Annual Performance Plan of the Department for 2020/21.
• Draft Report on the Department of Small Business Development’s Strategic and Annual Performance Plans for 2020/21.
• Draft Report on the 2020/21 Strategic and Annual Performance Plans and budget allocation of the Department of Tourism and South African Tourism, Vote 38

The Reports were adopted with amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.