Deliberation on Vote 1: Premier, Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation (COVID-19) Bill

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the virtual meeting and welcomed the Members, the Premier and the Department delegation. He handed over to the Western Cape Premier for his opening remarks.

Premier opening Remarks

Mr Alan Winde, Western Cape Premier, stated that the Bill was a Special Adjustment Bill for COVID-19. It would show what the provincial government had been doing for the last few months.  There had been an increase of R6.5 million to the vote.

The world had and continued to change due to COVID-19 and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) played a leading role in this regard. The ICT had made boardrooms available for virtual meetings to take place; it had facilitated the Joint Operations Command and ensured that staff was able to operate from home. The Department played a role in the Hospital of Hope at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), where it enabled ICT and tech requirements to ensure citizens could be in contact and provide paperless solutions.

The Child Commissioners Office was brought onboard by the ICT Department. The Office had done a lot of work in ensuring that functions had been able to be carried out remotely. It had positioned the government into a new tech-orientated way of performing business.

ICT had tied into assisting with communications. It helped with political communication from the Premier’s Office as well as cooperate communications within government itself. Communication varied from radio adverts to interacting with cellphone organisations to get information out to the masses.

Communication such as loud hailing had also been utilised. Communications had been linked to the behaviour change in line with COVID-19 regulations. The call-centre operations had helped other departments and helped citizens interact with government, also redirecting them to the relevant department, such as that of Social Development – for food parcel assistance.

President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that there had been corruption that had come into the system. From the word go, the Western Cape Provincial Government ensured that under the Disaster Regulations Act, it would act transparently. It would public an open document stating all companies that were tendered with and the prices paid for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Since the onset of COVID-19, Cabinet had been extended. There were now three Cabinet meetings hosted every two weeks and one strategic meeting, whereas there was previously only one meeting every two weeks. This had increased the pressure on government as the meetings needed to be linked in with ICT and minutes were required for all meetings that were sent to the National Command Council. 

Discussion

Mr C Dugmore (ANC) said that there had been a lot of speculation in the media regarding the amount of money paid to the CTICC to utilise the space for the temporary hospital. Could the Premier please clarify the procurement amount?

The Children’s Commissioner was to fall under the Department of the Premier; which programme does it fall under? What is the budget for the Children’s Commissioner? What role has the Commissioner played since the start of the national lockdown?

Mr Dugmore asked if the Department of the Premier assisted the Department of Social Development in setting up the call centre for queries on the food parcels. There had been huge frustrations regarding the operation of the call centre as people were kept on hold for hours and some got no responses.

Has there been research into the impacts of government advertising on public behaviour? There were concerns that the MEC of Health seemed to imply that the use of face masks was not necessary or effective through its advertising.

What is the official view on dealing with the pandemic, as cooperative governance is emphasised and the District Development Model (DDM) tries to achieve this, but no mention has been made of the model?

Department Responses

The Premier stated that the agreement with the CTICC was under the Department of Public Works. The agreement was a rent-free agreement; the Department did not pay per square metre for the facility. The agreement included services such as kitchen, security, sewage, electricity, etc., which the Department paid for. This would be broken down in a full document.

The call centre had a huge backlog as mentioned. The Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) assisted with this and the Department of the Premier tried to repurpose staff in roles that had come to a complete standstill such as events. These staff members volunteered at the call centre and other areas where the Department was short-staffed.

At one stage, the Health Department and the World Health Organisation had a position on masks. It was very technical, and a digital conference was held in this regard. It was found that where there were low numbers of infection, masks quickened that the spread of the virus as more people were touching their face. But once a tipping point was reached masks became more advantageous. The initial phase therefore differed from the point where government decided that the state of the pandemic was at a stage where masks were advised.

There was ongoing research on the influences of behavioural changes as well as checks that information being disseminated was correct. Some research zoomed in on specific areas and it was then determined what the state of the pandemic was in that area, if information was reaching citizens and what citizens understood of the messages. This would help tweak advertising where necessary.

The DDM had been followed from day one. The Department supported the model but it had not received directives from the President on the deployment of National Ministers. These Ministers were assigned to the District Model. However, some Ministers wanted the Provincial Cabinet to report to them and for briefings to be held but it was total chaos. Premier Winde wrote to the President stating that trouble was being faced regarding the deployment and role of National Ministers in districts. He was awaiting clarification on the matter. The President had stated that he would view the Western Cape’s District Model and commented that the province had got the model correct. Districts had been included and were integral.

Mr Harry Malila, Department’s Director-General (DG), stated that the Children’s Commissioner fell under Programme Two: Special Programmes; the budget was in accordance with the allocation letter issued by Treasury. The initial setup, and salary components for employees of the institution, had been stipulated in the letter. The budget for the Commission had been earmarked in the main budget and could not be used for anything else. Thus, the matter was not included in the vote one as no adjustments had been made to the budget.

The temporary hospital at the CTICC had been dealt with extensively, with assistance from legal teams between the Department of Public Works and the Department of Health. The cost for the hospital was around R42 million, which included the setup of the hospital and scan displays. Should the rental period be extended then an amount of about R12.8 million would be paid per month. This information was available in detail from the Department of Transport and Public Works.

At the time of the lockdown being announced, the Province was not prepared to assist the public and its sudden needs. Thus, the process to upscale the call centre soon proceeded and procurement occurred. The call centre went from about 2 000 calls per day to about 14 000 calls per day and the relevant Departments did all that it could to keep up with this. The capacity of the call centre had not been wasted as it now did follow-up calls for people who had tested positive COVID19.

Follow-up discussion

Mr P Marais (FF+) asked if Premier Winde was satisfied with the interference of national government on the power of local government, in terms of the DDM. If not, what will be done about this, especially if it is found that the interference is unconstitutional?

Premier Winde responded that his letter to the President included the legality of the Constitution and the mandate. According to one-on-one conversations between himself and the President, it was found that there was no constitutional mandate that allowed for National Ministers to be deployed to a district municipality. Premier Winde was waiting for this to be stipulated in writing. The province was currently reporting to the National Command Council once a week on hotspots per district and sub-districts.

Mr Dugmore stated that the main appropriations and the adjustment resulted in the Executive Governance withdrawing R5 million, Provincial Strategic Management withdrawing R7 million and People Management withdrawing R16 million. Please clarify what these amounts were initially allocated to and where they were allocated to now.

A total of R30 million was used for licensed contractors that were impacted by the rand exchange. Could this be explained now that it was linked to the COVID19 adjustment? What is the breakdown of what the exchange rate was and how did the province end up having to pay an extra R30 million for licenses?

He also asked the Department to provide a breakdown for the boardrooms that costed R5 million for the Provincial Cabinet. There was a list of gifts and donations which mainly referred to radio, and the amount of the donations was R9.4 million. Is this how much this would have cost for advertisements? All the forms of media were being reported to as donations; what was the amount that was paid in real terms for other advertisements?

The Chairperson asked if the expenditure items that were listed in the vote one would be published in the report by the Minister of Finance. If not, could the Department provide a response on what this money was spent on?

The Chairperson applauded the Department for its donations to the Society for the Prevention against the Cruelty of Animals (SPCA). Was this a normal donation that had been made previously and will further support be extended to the SPCA?

Department’s Responses

Mr Malila stated that the net adjustment for this vote was R6.3 million; there were positive and negative adjustments per programme. The R30 million related to the ICT License contract. COVID19 had caused an amendment rate as the rand lost ground against the dollar. This was generally taken up with Treasury as it was something outside the control of the Department of the Premier. Microsoft was denominated by the dollar and everything was effectively paid against the rand-to-dollar rate.

The Department of the Premier had received an amount of about R11.8 million for communications campaign in relation to phase one. There was a breakdown of how much was paid for communications in phase one and two; this was in addition to the gifts received. About R4 millions of this amount was sourced from savings on non-essential expenditure within the vote which was now funding communications. Treasury agreed to earmark some of the money that was set aside from the Western Cape Government, which had been used for phase two of the communications campaign. R50 million was anticipated for phase three, which would go beyond the August 2020 timeframe. The peak of COVID19 would be reached soon and the need for communication would decrease.

The value that had been placed on gifts amounted to R9.4 million. For example, Vodacom donated five million SMS and WhatsApp messages; the value of this was derived and added to the total sum of donations received. The R5 million that was paid for boardrooms were mostly due to ICT. Travel costs had been decreased for officials due to lockdown. Thus, a new way of working needed to be adopted. The first boardroom was located on the seventh floor on the tower block and boardrooms in other buildings in different areas. Some of these boardrooms required an increase in tech facilities; this was costly.

There were full records of all expenditure. Money spent on anything related to COVID-19 would be made public. The entire government had set up its own procurement model headed up by Treasury. The SPCA donation was made around mid-April after support was made for people. The Department realised that when people went hungry, the last thing they thought about was animals. The donation had been availed to the SPCA under the condition that it must go to feeding animals, especially in poor communities. The money could not be used for sterilisations and other functions but solely for feeding animals.

Premier’s Closing Remarks

Mr Winde stated that the fight against COVID19 was not yet over. He did not want to see a second wave of the virus occurring and thus continued the hotspot model per district and sub-district. The greatest challenge was funding and finding money within current budgets. The President initially said that money was no problem. However, money had not reached the province and this had had big implications, and would have further implications in the second adjustment in November 2020 and next year’s budget. The Department was focusing on what the pressure budgets would be at a later stage and continued to plan ahead.

The resolutions from this meeting were as follows:

• The Department of the Premier would later present to the Standing Committee.
• A report on how the SPCA spent funds donated by the Department of the Premier would be provided to the Committee.
• A list of the amounts paid to radio stations for advertising would also be provided.
• The Premier would provide a copy of correspondence with the President regarding the District Development Model.
• The Department was to provide a copy of the contract with the Hospital of Hope.
• The Department was to provide a list of service providers utilised and the amounts that were paid as well as the services rendered.
• A list of the boardrooms procured by the Department of the Premier.
• A list of interventions made by the Department for people living in rural areas that did not have access to radio.

Consideration of the vote one report

Mr R Allen (DA) moved for the adoption of the vote and Ms W Philander (DA) seconded the motion.

Mr Dugmore rejected the adoption of the vote in terms of standing rule 90 and stated that the position of the ANC would be detailed in future discussions.

The vote was adopted.

Consideration of minutes dated 10 June 2020

Mr Allen moved for the adoption of the minutes and Mr D Mitchell (DA) seconded the motion.

The minutes were adopted.

Consideration of the Quarterly Report dated April-June 2020

Ms Philander moved for the adoption of the report and Mr Allen seconded the motion.

The report was adopted.

Consideration of the Quarterly Report dated October-December 2019

Mr Allen moved for the adoption of the report and Ms Philander seconded the motion.

The report was adopted.

Consideration for the Quarterly Report dated January March 2020

Ms Philander moved for the adoption of the report and Mr Allen seconded the motion.

The report was adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.