DSAC 2020/21 Quarter 4 & 2021/22 Quarter 1 performance; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting by expressing condolences to the families of Members of Parliament who had lost their loved ones due to the Covid pandemic. She also passed on a congratulatory message to the athletes who had received medals at the Olympic Games. She acknowledged the presence of the Deputy Minister, Ms Nocawe Mafu, and noted the apology from the Minister. There were also apologies from Mr B Madlingozi (EFF) and Mr C Sibisi (NFP).

Deputy Minister Mafu said she would have to depart early from the meeting due to other commitments. The Department would account and provide information to the Committee on its fourth quarter performance report and its financials.

Fourth quarter 2020/21 performance report

Mr Vusumuzi Mkhize, Director-General (DG), Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC), said the Department had been operating under various challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was dependent on its strategic partners such as the provincial departments, sector organisations and performing arts institutions, to carry out its mandate – all of which were affected under the lockdown regulations. The requirement to maintain social distancing had also affected the goals of creating social cohesion and nation building, fostered by the sharing of common spaces. The result was that most of the work could not be done by various sectors, hence the revision of the targets.

Presenting the performance overview, he said the Department had achieved 78% of its targets irrespective of the challenges they faced, and had been unable to reach 22%. The targets not achieved were for:

• Services modernised;
• Heritage legacy projects implemented;
• Provincial Resistance and Liberation Heritage Route (RLHR) sites developed and managed'
• Capacity building projects financially supported;
• Moral regeneration movement projects financially supported;
• Social compact monitoring reports;
• Gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) programmes financially supported;
• Artists placed in schools per year

A comparative analysis of the fourth quarter compared to other quarters revealed that in the first quarter the Department was unable to achieve 76% of the targets due to the hard lockdown, however after the relaxation it had achieved 83% and 65% of its targets during the second and third quarters respectively.

In programme one: administration, the Department had achieved 80% of its targets; in programme two: recreation development and sports promotion, it had achieved 83%; in programme three: arts and culture promotion and development, it had achieved 67%; and in programme four: heritage preservation and promotion it, it had achieved 100% of its targets.

Ms Sibongile Mondile, Acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO), DSAC, took the Committee through the executive summary and the Departmental summary of budget vs. expenditure per programme and economic classification. The Department had a budget of R5.3 billion, and overall spending had amounted to R5.2 billion, meaning it spent 97.5% of the budget.

(See attached document for details)

Discussion

Mr T Mhlongo (DA) asked how far the Department was with the recommendations that the Committee had made previously relating to the number of vacancies the Department had filled, particularly in senior management positions. When was the Department going to advertise those positions or if it had already done so, in which newspapers were the posts advertised?

Ms V Malomane (ANC) referred to slide five, which noted that due to Covid-19 there had been a reduction in the budget allocated to the activities of the Department. She asked which activities were affected by this reduction and if the budget was restructured to other activities. She then referred to the federations under the issue of transformation, and observed that there was one federation that did not receive 50%. Which federation had not received this 50%, and what were the reasons? Had there been any intervention by the Department on the issue of transformation, as the Committee wanted to make sure everyone was represented in South African sports? There were challenges in the transformation of sports, as was being made evident in the media.

She reiterated the issue raised by Mr Mhlongo on the vacant positions in the Department, asking if the challenges that had been experienced by the Department in fulfilling the recommendations, particularly with regarding the position of the CFO, were still not finalised. How many of these positions were still vacant?

Ms V Van Dyk (DA) said that programme two indicated that there had been under-spending of R187.6 million, and asked the Department to provide the Committee with a list of the entities that were affected. She asked if the Department had sufficient human resource capacity to support these entities with developing infrastructure plans that complied with the infrastructure policies. What had the implications been for service delivery by not transferring these funds?

She asked why the Nelson Mandela house had not been developed as planned. Had the ten newly built play parks been handed over to the respective communities? Had the Department built any new sporting infrastructure in schools situated in historically disadvantaged areas over the 2020/2021 financial year?

Ms R Adams (ANC) referred to programme one on slide 16, which speaks to the appointment of interns to cover different sections of the Department, and asked how effective the interns had been. Had the Department appointed any acting officials in the critical vacant posts? She asked that the Department report on the progress made on filling these critical posts. She also wanted to know if there had been any sport infrastructure built at any schools situated in historically disadvantaged areas in the 2020/2021 year.

Why had the programme relating to GBVF not been achieved by the end of the fourth quarter? What plans had the Department implemented to deal with the impact of Covid-19? For example, were all the officials working from home and if so, did they have adequate tools of trade? She asked the Department to supply the Committee with a list of the 35 municipalities that were provided with technical and management support and a list of the ten community gyms and play parks.

Mr M Zondi (ANC) stated that he understood the reasons presented by the Department for not achieving some of the targets it had made for itself. He was pleased with the expenditure on the infrastructure development, as it would not have been prudent to have under-spending in such areas that directly affected the communities. He asked the Department to provide reasons why the compensation of employees’ (COE) figure was at 87% and not above 90%, and if the vacancies were a contributing factor to this figure being below 90%. He was satisfied with the expenditure figures, as these directly illustrated the performance of the Department.

DSAC's response

Ms Mandisa Tshikwatamba, Deputy Director General (DDG), DSAC, responded that the Department had been doing its best to fill the vacancies. In August 2020 it had advertised 25 positions, and to date had filled 16, four had to be re-advertised and five were now in the final stages of being filled. In February it had advertised 32 positions, and to date seven had been filled, one had to be re-advertised and 24 of were in the late stages of approval, or at least in the interview process.

The Department had had to take a break filling vacancies in order to balance the process with the COE budget. It had started again in this financial year, and in the month of August it had advertised 11 positions, and the Department was currently capturing the applications. The Department had started with a vacancy rate of 20% and was currently working towards a target of 10%. The numbers reported to the Committee would take the Department to that target. It aimed to fill all the positions advertised in August by no later than the third quarter.

She confirmed that the Department had 30 interns, the programmes were well managed, and the interns had mentors. The interns were rotated in order to enrich their knowledge base of the Department. The interns were always encouraged to apply for the lower-level positions, but she could not provide the specifics of the Department’s absorption rate.

Mr Mkhize added to the vacant posts matter by stating that the chief audit executive officer had resigned only recently, so that post had just become vacant. Concerning the post of chief financial officer, the Department was dealing with an anomaly, as the position was at the level of chief director. The Department had delayed in filling it, as it had requested for the post to be upgraded to the level of DDG so that it could strengthen the critical areas below it. Unfortunately, the request had been denied by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), so the Department had been forced to advertise the post at the level of chief director, even though the Department did not believe this would be beneficial. The Department had now advertised for a service provider to deal with the new structure of the Department, and once that analysis was done on having a structure fit for purpose, the Department should be able to revert to the DPSA. For now, it would continue with the advertisement of the post.

On the issue of entities' management, he said that the Department had a director, but the director had been appointed in another capacity within the Department, so that post had become vacant and was currently in the process of being filled. The languages chief director had retired, and the Department had to first look at the chief directors in the Department. The post had been filled through internal processing in the Department.

The Chairperson asked the DG to talk about all the vacancies, unless someone else within the Department was going to do that.

Mr Mkhize (DG) responded that the DDG would do that -- he was dealing only with the senior management vacancies.  He added that the posts for the library had been advertised, even though the Department was seeking to fill them internally. The archives post was currently in the interview process.

Ms Tshikwatamba said the vacancies for senior management positions were advertised in the weekend newspapers, such as the Sunday Times and City Press, as well as the public service circular and its websites.

She continued to list the vacant senior positions as follows:

• chief director of national languages in service area;
• director in community sports development (just been filled);
• director in sports support and federation coordination;
• director in athletics, coach and technical officiating services;
• director in infrastructure planning;
• director in active nation;
• director in library policy and coordination;
• director in employee relations, health and wellness;
• director in national archives services;
• director in strategic committees,
• director in chief financial officer;
• chief director in international relations;
• chief director in human resource management;
• director in management accounting;
• director in human languages and technology;
• director in arts and social development;
• director in visual and design arts;
• director in entities oversight and interface; and
• director in internal audit.

All the posts from director in chief financial officer had been closed, and were in the process of being finalised. There were officials currently acting in these positions, particularly in the director and chief director positions.

Ms Sumayya Khan, DDG: Recreation Development and Sport Promotion (Programme 2), DSC, responded to the question regarding which federations did not achieve the 50% target, stating that it had been gymnastics and drawing. She reminded the Committee that the reports were always retrospective, and therefore the 2020 fourth quarter report was based on the statistics of 2019. She added that subsequent to the report being released, the Minister had had an interaction with each of the 19 federations, and a plan of action had been requested from them. The Department had not finalised the payments to the federations, and it would be looking at the transformation report, the outcomes and the performance of each of the federations. It would then proceed with a system of conditional transfer payments to the federations, based on their transformation reports, in addition to the guaranteed funding.

On the question of the infrastructure, she acknowledged that there had been delays and various challenges that the Department faced on delivering on the targets, especially the Sarah Baartman and the Enyokeni projects. The Department had addressed the delays at the Sarah Baartmaan project through budget re-prioritization. With the Enyokeni project, there had been restrictions during the lockdown resulting in building works being curtailed, causing the delay. However, when the restrictions were relaxed, the project was revised and the Department was now looking at delivering that project in this financial year.

Regarding the schools' infrastructure, she said that the Department was not the custodian of the infrastructure at schools -- it was the Department of Basic Education (DBE). However, the DSAC had an intervention, as it builds multipurpose sports courts and eight of these courts had been built at historically disadvantaged schools. The Department had started the roll out of these multipurpose courts in 2021 as well.

She would provide a list of the municipalities that the Department was monitoring to the Committee.

Mr Mkhize asked the Chairperson for an opportunity in the future to make a presentation to the Committee on the issue of transformation, using the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) report, because it outlined all the issues and challenges in detail.

The Chairperson responded that the Committee would prioritise that, as the issue of transformation continued to come up in the media, particularly with regard to Cricket South Africa (CSA).

Deputy Minister Mafu said she had not heard a response on the matter of Mandela House, and asked what the problem with its development was? She also asked for a response on the effectiveness of the interns.

Mr Mkhize added that the question relating to the measures put in place by the Department to deal with Covid-19 was not answered, as well as the question as to why the GBV targets were not achieved.

Mr Vusithemba Ndima, DGG:  Heritage Promotion and Preservation (Programme 4), DSAC, replied on the issue of the Mandela House. She said that since it was previously a prison house, in order for it to become a heritage site it had to undergo a viability study so that the Department could evaluate how it could be run as a heritage site. The viability study had been done and the Department had ensured that there was security around the site. It was already discussing with the Iziko Museums in Cape Town to see how they could serve as caretaker, and the Department was now in the process of ensuring that the site was operational.

Ms Tshikwatamba answered the question relating to the Covid-19 measures, stating that the Department had embarked on an exercise of allowing some workers to work remotely. Laptops had been provided and data provisions were updated through a wholesale data bank agreement with Vodacom. With regard to other non-critical services, it had implemented a staff rotation system which operated on two levels. The first level consisted of a system where the Department cascades the presence of officials at the office -- some officials arrive at 08.30 and leave at 13.00, others arrive at 10.00 or 11.00 and leave at different hours. By doing this, the Department was managing the number of people inside the building. The second level consisted of a rotation plan where staff members come to work at least two or three days a week. There was also a monitoring plan that was recording the management of the rotational days of the officials. The Department was further guided by circulars that came from the DPSA every time there was an adjustment to the Covid restrictions and levels.

The Chairperson interjected and asked Ms Mandisa to be brief, as the Committee was behind on time.

Ms Mandisa dealt briefly with the GBV question, saying there had been a delay in the conceptualisation of the programme. This had been carried over to the following year, and around May the programme was in place.

The Chairperson asked the Ms Mandisa to elaborate on what she meant by the ‘programme was in place’.  

Ms Tshikwatamba replied that the programme consisted of a project targeted at boys, in which conversations would be held discussing issues of gender-based violence. She said the programme was ready for implementation.

The Chairperson asked that the question on the effectiveness of the interns be addressed.

Ms Tshikwatamba said there were 30 interns under a programme managed by mentors. The programme worked on a rotational schedule so that the interns did not do the same thing.

The Chairperson reiterated that the question was on the effectiveness of the internship programme.

Ms Tshikwatamba replied that during the last cohort of interns, 5% of them had not completed the programme as they had been appointed elsewhere, which translated as a success to the Department because it indicated that they had been appropriately trained. The interns get inducted in the public service programme, which trains them on how government operates, and they were coached on how to conduct themselves during interviews. The Department worked to ensure that the interns were exposed to entry level roles so that it enabled them to apply for such positions in the future.

Deputy Minister Mafu thanked the Committee for its interrogation of the performance report and the DSAC officials for their reporting, and stressed the importance of the interaction between the Department and the Committee.

First quarter 2021/22 performance report

Mr Ndima said the introduction to the first quarter report explains that the Department, together with their delivery agents, focused on social cohesion, encouraging people from different walks of life to come together to share common spaces. However, the work had been affected by Covid-19 which had militated against that coming together.

The Department had achieved 80% of its targets. The targets not achieved were for:

• Number of learners participating at the district school sport tournaments;
• Number of athletes supported by the sports academy;
• Social cohesion and nation building;
• Number of community conversation/dialogues implemented to foster social interaction.

In programme one: administration, the Department had achieved 100% of its targets; in programme two: recreation development and sport promotion, it achieved 60%; in programme three: arts and culture promotion and development, it achieved 71%; and in programme four: heritage promotion and preservation it, achieved 100% of its targets.

Ms Mondile presented the Departmental summary of the budget versus the expenditure per programme and economic classification, as well as the budget versus expenditure per programme and economic classification. The Departmental budget was R5.7 billion, and the overall spending had been R1 billion, which translated to 18% of the budget being used.

(See attached document for details).

The Deputy Minister asked to take her leave, as she had another commitment.

Discussion

Ms Van Dyk said that the Department had previously submitted a list of sports academies but there was no evidence that these places were in fact sport academies, except for the schools in high performance centres. Some of the academies listed also indicated that there was no formal agreement in place between them and the Department. How did the Department classify an organisation as a sports academy, and how did those sports academies account to the Department for the funds provided? Did the academies that were on the list but had no formal agreement with the Department get any funding, and if so, would that not be an audit query? Who monitored these academies, and how had they been monitored in the past?

There were rumours that Olympic athletes who had scored high achievements at the recent Games would not receive compensation for their medals. She asked if the Department had a strategic four-year plan and funding model, building up to the next Olympic Games in 2024.

The Chairperson also referred to the Olympics, and said that there had been a lot of complaints about the attire of the South African team, so she asked what the Department expected of South Africans when attending the Olympics. She asked if the athletes should not have worn their South African colours, as she had noticed that all the other countries had worn their country’s colours. Was there a code of conduct or dress on how South African athletes represented the country? She asked the Department to explain why the athletes were clumsily dressed.

DSAC's response

Mr Mkhize responded on the Olympic funding, and said the Department could assure the Committee members that it was working with the National Lottery Commission (NLC), and the matter was under control. The Minister would be announcing when the rewards would be provided and when the rewards function would be held after all the athletes returned this week. The athletes would be handsomely rewarded, as per the pronouncement of the Minister, based on the value of the medal. This would include a reward for the coaches who were training these athletes as a sign and token of appreciation by the country. The planned event for the ceremony should happen between now and next week, but a team had been formed between the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and the NLC to prepare for the event. The Minister was clear that the athletes should not have to wait to get their incentives, so the intention was to hold the event by the end of next week.

He agreed with the Chairperson about the uniforms. It was expected by the Department that the athletes should dress in the colours of the country’s flag -- and this was an expectation all over the world. The Minister had had a very urgent meeting with the SASCOC president, it chief executive officer (CEO) and the Department, and they had all agreed that there would be a full review once the Paralympics were over. In that way, they should be able to provide some of the answers on what had happened, what should be fixed, and how it should be fixed. The board of SASCOC, which was responsible for the uniforms, may be able to provide the answers, but they would first have a review to deal with the issues that had been raised, and to make sure that the teams were in the colours of the country.

Ms Khan responded to the question of the sports academies. She said there was a framework that had been signed off by SASCOC and the DSAC, as the academy programmes were geared towards high performance. The role and responsibilities of the different role players within the academy, such as the provincial sports bodies, the Department, SASCOC and the different federations, were clear. There was a document that addressed what the academies' strategic framework was. The Department looks at the academies and what they offer, and provide accreditation.

With regard to their funding, there were academies that were privately funded, provincial academies of sport as well as district academies of sport. There was funding that went towards the academy programmes, funded through the conditional grant programme. Academies also may get funding from the provincial Departments of Sports themselves, because they also played a role in talent identification and ensuring that the athletes had a development pathway towards high performance. Academies also run as a business -- they would outsource the services that they provide, and they would ensure that there were sources of funding that come through, and they also look at sponsorships. Those were the various sources of funding that the academies get. The national government also had funding that was given to the provinces through the conditional grants. It was not a major source of funding, but was a cushion to get the academies going.

Ms Malomane asked if there were any targets carried from the fourth quarter which had been completed in this quarter, and if this could be indicated. She also asked why the achievement was shown in red, while they had overachieved in their support for athletes.

Ms Khan replied that the achievements were in red because if one looked at the presentation, they would see that the reason for deviation had to be corroborated by adequate and complete evidence at the time of reporting. That meant that when the evaluation team looked at the performance of the branches, they would look at the evidence, which could be attendance registers or reports. As much as the figures showed that there was overachievement of the target, the portfolio evidence had not been available at the time to show the overachievement. Because the portfolio of evidence had not been supplied, they would consider it underachieved until they got it.

Update on recommendations by the Portfolio Committee

Mr Mkhize led the Committee through a presentation which provided an update on the implementation of previous Committee recommendations. These involved:

• Consequence management
• Merging of the two departments
• Governance of entities
• Outstanding legislation
• Support for sector practitioners in light of the Covid-19 pandemic
• Collaboration
• Library function

(See attached document for details)

The Chairperson tabled the report and asked for interaction.

 

Discussion

Mr D Joseph (DA) asked the Department to provide guidance on the link between the Committee, the Department itself and the Department of Basic Education.

Mr Zondi asked the Department to elaborate on the issue of consequence management. When had the officials who were no longer with the Department left the Department -- was it before, during or after the investigation? He was concerned about Boxing South Africa and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), as it seemed there had been no breakthrough. Boxing had disappeared from the SABC a long time ago, and he was unsure of the reason for its disappearance, but he hoped it was a matter that the DSAC and the SABC would resolve. He commended the Department for its work.

The Chairperson said the Committee was aware that the Department was assisting financially in the case of Caster Semenya, and noted that three weeks ago World Athletics had admitted that their study was full of errors. She suspected that Castor could have participated in the Olympics, so what was the Department doing from a legal standpoint? Who had provided the advice for the withdrawal of the cases? She added that the South African Football Association (SAFA) had once stated that they were not part of the sports Indaba -- what was the Department doing to convince SAFA to attend?

Ms Malomane asked if there was any recovery plan, or if any money that had been recovered from the officials who were found to have mismanaged funds. She asked the Department to provide reasons if it had not done either. The Indaba was long overdue, and she would appreciate it if the Director General would speed up the progress. She asked that the Minister deal with the issues at Boxing SA before its next annual general meeting (AGM).

The Chairperson referred to the presentation which indicated that there were officials who had resigned before being charged and other officials who were not given warnings. She asked the Department to elaborate on those points.

Ms Khan said that in the case of Caster Semenya, the Department would be engaging with Athletics South Africa (SA), which would be providing a report. The DSAC funded Athletics SA for legal costs, and it was waiting on the report that it expected to receive at the end of the financial year. In the meantime, it had notified Athletics SA that it wanted to engage with them over the new evidence from World Athletics.

Concerning SAFA being part of the Indaba, the Director General had led during some of the engagements with SAFA, and a plan had been put together with them. There was a task team consisting of SAFA and the Department to look at the implementation of the Indaba.

With regards to Boxing SA, it had a board, and the Department would consider any other issues with the board.

Mr Mkhize replied on the issue raised by Mr Joseph, and said the Department could assure the Committee that the work had been done by the team that was established at the level of Deputy Director Generals, as well as the team to refine the memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the implementation protocol. It had produced a document. The Department had had a meeting with the Director General of Basic Education, and it had been agreed that the report, as well as the protocol, was fine to be tabled to the Ministers because it now integrated all the work of the Department. In the past there would be a different MOU between the DSAC and separate departments, so this had to be consolidated.

Secondly, the Department had given the team time to finalise the issue of resourcing the activities that it was talking about so that when it committed to employing coaches in schools, it could determine which coaches, because it could not do everything at this stage. The Department was looking at prioritisation of the capacity and resources it could provide.

It was looking at the return of sports during the week as a pipeline towards getting talented young people participating in national sports teams. There was work being done, and what was required now was to present it to the Ministers, and if they approve, the Department would be able to pronounce on having this implementation protocol to guide schools at both the district and local level on how it would collaborate with them.

Regarding the departure of officials from the Department, he said there were some officials at senior levels who had resigned when their contracts ended, while other officials had got jobs in Gauteng. The Department had had to follow the matter with the departments concerned in Gauteng. Those who left at the time when the investigation results were out had been reported to the Hawks, and the DSAC had been working with the Hawks in following up on the matter. The Minister had been following up with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Hawks to ensure that the matter was concluded. The officials that left after getting job offers from Gauteng had remained in the employment of the state, which was why the Department was able to pursue them. There was an indication that one of the departments in Gauteng had instituted investigations, and they would revert to the DSAC on the outcome and how they had finalised the matter.

The Department had not let go of these matters without following up on the irregular expenditures. The officials that only received warning letters were those found not to be liable in one way or another by the findings of the investigators. These cases were ones that likely involved non-compliance, but there was no personal gain for the officials, or corruption detected. However, because the process was regarded as wasteful or fruitless, the Department still had to take disciplinary actions against those officials.

No recovery of money had been achieved yet.

There had been engagements with SAFA, and a joint team was established where they agreed that they would be at the centre of working with the Department. The team which had been set up was comprised of SAFA and DSAC officials. Within the last two weeks, the Department had engaged with the CEO of SAFA, and it had given the team the timelines in which they must help it hold the Indaba as a matter of urgency. The Department was working quite hard to ensure that it did not have this post at the end of the calendar year.

Concerning the Castor Semenya issue, t the Department was pleased with the admission of the flawed outcomes by World Athletics, but this did not mean that it would never happen again. The Department was engaging with the Minister in Namibia, just to ensure that Africa acted decisively against this international body, because Castor had missed the opportunity due to this matter, as well as some other athletes from Namibia. The Department would continue to work with Athletics SA and Castor Semenya’s lawyers to ensure that this matter did not just get swept under the carpet. It would wait for Athletics SA to give them the report, and then engage with them on the way forward.

The Department would engage with Boxing SA and the SABC on how the matter could be fast tracked, and on how more tournaments could be broadcast. Boxing SA had approached the Department requesting an investigation into the matter, and it was working on establishing how best to support Boxing SA. The Department was waiting on feedback from its legal team on how to handle the situation. However, on the issue of broadcasting there would be engagement with the Department, Boxing SA and the SABC on reaching a breakthrough.

On the issue of Robben Island Museum (RIM) and why the charges had been dropped, he explained that the matter perplexed the Department because the board had approached it to help get investigators through the State attorneys, and this had been done. The outcome had been that the charges be preferred against those who were alleged to be in the wrong. However, for some reason, they seemed to have sought legal opinion over and above the investigation that had been done, and the recommendations that had been made. They had decided that they were no longer continuing with the cases against the two senior RIM officials. They had forwarded a response stating they had done this because the legal opinion they had received stated that the case had low prospects of success, and therefore they had decided to drop the charges.

The Chairperson thanked the Committee and Ministry. She asked for an update on the transformation report, especially because currently Cricket SA was being accused of racism and they had seen the resignation of one of the members. This matter was out in the media.

Committee minutes

The Committee minutes dated 17 August and 31 August 2021 were adopted.

The meeting was adjourned.