SABS update on implementation of its turnaround strategy

Meeting report

SABS Board Chairman's opening remarks.

Dr Sandile Malinga, Board Chairman: South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), confirmed that the Board had been appointed in December 2022 and expressed delight at being afforded the opportunity to present the progress made concerning the turnaround strategy of the entity. The Board had been appointed for just two months, and the number of things they had done during the period was to first constitute the required committees. There were three committees, two of which were statutory committees. He indicated that they were in the process of finalising the terms of reference of the committees, and were also sorting out other issues related to final appointments. In particular, they wished to update the Committee on the process they had just embarked on to fill the position of interim chief executive officer (CEO) until such time as the position could be filled.

He said that the Minister had impressed it upon the Board to do everything possible to expedite the appointments, and the Board was doing everything possible to ensure greater stability within the SABS. They understood the task bestowed upon them, and were grateful to the government and Parliament for having bestowed that honour upon them. They believed that their mandate was compelling and their plan was ambitious, but they were very confident that with the team that they had, as well as the employees at the SABS, they would be able to deliver their mandate as well as achieve the goals that they had set for themselves.

SABS had a key role in the country, with the testing and specifications of products and services in the market. These were important for a number of reasons. The Committee was aware that South Africa faced a trade deficit regarding high value technologies, and there was a high standard. The SABS was important in safeguarding the South African economy and ensuring that the economy was not flooded with cheap and even, at times, unsafe products. The SABS played a role in quality assurance to the communities, ensuring that the goods being bought had been certified as fit for use. It was mindful of its role in stimulating the economy by providing the quality assurance that communities require and providing the necessary services. As a board, they were confident that the SABS could deliver on its mandate, and were aware of the competitive nature under which the organisation operated, with a number of companies offering similar services. It therefore behoved the Board to stand with management and the executives supporting them as they delivered, without interfering with the operation.

Presentation by SABS

Dr Sadhvir Bissoon, Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), SABS, said he was honoured to lead the organisation until the appointment of a permanent CEO. The SABS was legislated under the Standards Act of 1945, and was mandated under three areas. The first was to develop, promote and maintain South African national standards, the second was the promotion of quality with respect to goods and services, and the third required them to be responsible for conformity assessment services and matters connected therewith.

He said that the need a for turnaround strategy was apparent after SABS was put under administration in July of 2018, following a disclaimer audit. The turnaround strategy was made urgent due to several issues, including the poor infrastructure, loss of accreditation and critical skills, with the most sensitive being the disclaimer audit.

The SABS had engaged in a three-phase approach to implementing the turnaround strategy. The first was the stabilisation of the organisation, the second was the fixing of the business, and the third was to chart a new course to ensure its long term sustainability. At the moment, the SABS was in between the second and the third phases of the strategy.

The SABS was not out of the woods yet, as serious concerns still needed to be improved upon.

On the governance end, the Board had been appointed, which, in the short time they had existed, had worked on establishing committees. The Board had also developed a recruitment plan and was in the process of employing a permanent CEO.

Following the disclaimer audit opinion, there had been a move to an unqualified audit with findings in the past three years. However, it aspired to get an unqualified audit without findings.

There were issues of loss of revenue which remained a challenge, as the SABS operated in a highly competitive market. The laboratory services division had achieved revenue of R97.4 million against a third quarter target of R92.1 million. The certification division had achieved revenue of R192.1 million against a target of R214.5 million -- a shortfall of R22.4 million.

To diversify the revenue sources in its certification services, the SABS conducted exploratory studies to establish capabilities for inspection and certification services within the scope of medical services. Recently it conducted a stakeholder engagement with a very diverse stakeholder base, including a representative from the Presidency, to talk about the hemp and cannabis master plan. One of the issues of industrialisation and the creation of an extensive value chain in the hemp and cannabis sector was a master plan, which would be a game changer in the industrialisation of South Africa, based on the various articles they were exposed to.

The Bureau had also invested heavily in digital marketing in the social media space, and was trying to promote its products and services as rigorously as possible. They had a huge attraction to their website, and they had conducted a number of webinars in the marketplace to ensure the public was aware of the SABS and the services they offer.

He asked the Committee to recall that the SABS had embarked on a Section 189 process in 2021. This had been due to the significant financial pressure that the organisation had been under during that period, when they had had to address cost issues and huge issues of remuneration of employees.

He said that there had been inadequate investment in laboratory and facilities infrastructure. The SABS had invested R27 million in capital expenditure for the current financial year. The total expenditure from 2019 to 2022 was R191 million, which was far above the investment they had in previous years. The previous years had zero investment in capital expenditure, and the R191 million increase was a significant improvement. The pace of the capital expenditure had adequately allowed for engineering specifications for infrastructure upgrades through an open procurement process, with a portfolio of consulting engineers used on a rotational basis to develop and design support specifications to ensure the procurement of the requisite equipment, as well as its installation and commissioning, to achieve the necessary return on investment. The DTI had provided the SABS with R25 million specifically for the roofing and piping project.

Another area that formed the core of the turnaround strategy was customer services. In 2022/23, there was a 3% drop in active customers. By the end of the third quarter of the current financial year, they had acquired a total of 411 new customers. They have also created a centralised customer services centre that receives, monitors and responds to all enquiries through the current Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Human capital issues were legacy matters that had been addressed. The organisation has since transitioned by creating a new structure aligned with the operating model. Critical positions had been prioritised for placement. The remaining challenge was completing the placement process by the end of the fourth quarter due to transitioning to the new structure, which created an element of uncertainty amongst the staff.

The SABS was also focused on empowerment and gender equality, and the pipeline of new areas for creating opportunities for young professionals. Through the "women in leadership" programme, in partnership with the UCT Graduate School of Business, 43 female employees had been enrolled,  and they would be graduating in April. The Young Development Programme enabled the SABS to take 56 internship students for 2022/23, which number increased for 2023/24. The SABS had also just approved a performance management policy, and a digital system had been implemented, including a 360-degree review of staff. On the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) priority sector, the SABS worked with various stakeholders to develop standards for new areas such as hemp and cannabis.

On the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), he said the SABS was a member of two regional standardisation bodies -- the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) and the African Electro Technical Commission. These bodies were accountable for harmonising standards within the continent to allow for the free and restricted movement of goods and services. SABS had significant leadership roles in the regional bodies, and had expanded its governance and leadership portfolio to five roles. This was significant because the SABS's influence in these regional bodies meant that SABS influenced the standards, conformity assessments and ultimately, the results in the movement of South African goods from local industries participating actively in the AfCFTA.

Referring to the financial turnaround, he said that there had been no expansive growth just yet, but as their new products and services achieved market traction, they expected to see revenue growth in various areas. The forecast for revenue by the end of the financial year was positive net profitability of R79 million, which basically underpinned the financial aspect of where they had come from as an organisation, to the financial stable trajectory they were on.

Discussion

Mr S Mbuyane(ANC) welcomed the progress made, particularly concerning the issues the Committee had raised in its last engagement with the SABS in November 2022. He welcomed the appointment of Board, and said he was looking forward to appointing a permanent CEO so that the organisation could be stabilised.

One of the areas of concern for the Committee was the loss of skills evident in the high staff turnover in the past financial year. They were pleased with the progress in the placement process, the new structure, and prioritising critical positions. They looked forward to engaging with the SABS again after the fourth quarter on the progress made in that area.

He expressed concern about the inadequate investment in the laboratory facility infrastructure, as there had been issues of poor pipelines and leakages. He asked whether the SABS had been able to deal with the issue of set-top boxes (STBs) that were there, and also to facilitate and fast-track the information communication technology (ICT) modernisation. The internship placement of 56 people was appreciated.

He asked for an update on the SABS engagement with its employees, as during their last oversight visit, they had been approached by staff who had raised concerns over the organisational review. Had they been able to deal with the issue and if so, how did they go about it?

He said that the SABS needed to strengthen its education and awareness programme, because it needed to be known in every part of the country, particularly in the rural areas. It would be good if the SABS had a well-organised outreach programme that sought to tell South Africans about the new SABS. He emphasised the need to transform the SABS to restore its former glory, and expressed his appreciation of the transformation programme for women and youth emancipation.

Prince Z Burns-Ncamashe (ANC) said that in welcoming the presentation, he could not help but think of people in the North West, and whether they had the luxury of knowing what to look for when buying products, especially considering the current situation in which businesses that used to be owned by South Africans had since been taken over by foreign nationals, who sometimes would sell products that were expired.

He asked if, as a part of the turnaround, there was any strategy that the SABS had in place to ensure that people living in the rural hinterlands were made aware of the SABS and the services they provided. The Committee had impressed upon the SABS the need for engagement with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the traditional leadership institutions. The information being provided by the SABS would be much more meaningful when it reached the people living in rural areas. Giving the same information to the Committee was wasteful, as they already knew about the SABS and its services. People living in rural areas longed for the information being provided to the Committee. Once they had such information, they would be able to make better choices.

Mr Burns-Ncamashe said he appreciated that part of what the SABS did was the inspection of consignments. During a recent oversight exercise, the Committee had been taken through the process of looking at consignments, among other things. He asked whether there was a sense at which there would be an integrated system which linked them to the work of the Border Management Agency (BMA), so that, together with institutions like the South African Revenue Service (SARS), they were able to ensure that the standard of the products being exported out of, or imported into, the country was compliant with South African national standards. There was a proliferation of instances of illicit trade which had a serious effect on the local economy. Until there existed such kinds of checks and balances and such measures taken, the South African economy would not be elevated to the level that it should be -- an economy that was growing and had the ability to create jobs and was free from being exploited through illicit trade.

Referring to digital marketing, he said that South Africa had not reached a level of development where everyone was able to access the information provided by SABS on its website. A lot of people living in South Africa still lived in areas where they were unable to access the internet.

He asked what SABS was planning to ensure that there was an integrated programme with other public entities, where young people and elderly people had a system that allowed them wherever they were -- at a press of a button -- to have access to information that the SABS was sharing. He said that access to information was a constitutional imperative.

He said the SABS had shown signs of paying particular attention to performance management systems in its turnaround strategy, but this was pure lip service without a consequence management system. He was yet to hear of any intended deliberate and conscious consequence management in instances where performance management was of poor quality. One could not just get a disclaimer when it came to audit opinions. A disclaimer was preceded by a dysfunctionality of a system, whether it was a result of poor skills at a human capital level, or sometimes situations where systems were there but, for whatever reason, were not adequately or optimally utilised. Ultimately such dysfunction led to a situation where there were negative outcomes which were usually detected at a very late stage. As part of digitisation, he wondered whether the SABS was exploring a real time capability where they would be able to detect any possible system failures.

While admitting that the regulatory function was with National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), Mr Burns-Ncamashe asked to what extent the SABS worked together with NRCS to ensure that in instances where there were symbiotic functional systems between the mandates of the two entities under one department, they did not work in silos, but were integrated to ensure that issues of efficiency and intervention were handled within a reasonable time.

He said that the presentation had been a breath of fresh air. He welcomed the new Board and committed to supporting their work by every means possible. The board members were professionals, and it would be disappointing if anything were to go astray given the high level of skill that the Board possessed.

Mr W Thring (ACDP) said that the ACDP appreciated the extensive presentation and welcomed the improvements made at the SABS. He commended the leadership for some of the progress that had been seen, and affirmed to the Board and the leadership that the progress had not gone unnoticed. He asked if the SABS had any plans to mitigate the exogenous shocks expected in the near future due to the global economic decline and disrupted supply lines.

He asked SABS to elaborate on some of the practical steps and strategies that would be implemented to take advantage of the AfCFTA.

He observed that some of the sister organisations were working in silos. He asked what the role of the SABS was in ensuring that there was interdepartmental work being done to avoid a repetition of the same work.

Ms N Motaung(ANC) welcomed the progress that the SABS had made to improve its revenue generation and avoid losses.

She asked what progress had been made in addressing the issue of inadequate revenue management controls identified by the Auditor-General (AG) in the previous financial year. During the last Committee oversight, it had raised an issue on the state of infrastructure, so the investment in infrastructure of R27 million in the current financial year was welcomed, although it posed a challenge because of the decline compared to the previous year’s investment. She was concerned that the pace of infrastructure investment was not optimal due to resource constraints.

Mr C Malematja (ANC) said the SABS report was promising, and all that was left to see was action. The Committee would be very pleased to see the presentation's goals accomplished by actions in the timeframe given. From experience, entities that were quick to pronounce their mandate without assurance usually came across regulatory issues that required a regulatory entity to come in. He therefore wanted to know whether there was a collaboration between SABS and the regulatory Board so that the Committee could assist rather than confront a problem when they were able to prevent one.

He said the SABS seemed to be more biased towards those companies or entities that were more established. He was yet to hear about it talking to entities that were not well established, or reaching out to such entities and converting them into become their customers. This would prevent these entities from creating their own backyard manufacturing companies, which would negatively affect citizens.

The other issue of note was the 3% drop in customer service. He asked whether the SABS had set up a customer service team to ensure consistent and adequate customer service, so there was no room for negligence at no stage.

Response by SABS

Dr Bissoon responded on the set-top boxes issue, saying that the SABS had discontinued the service. The rationale was that the national standard had been published while the laboratory's capacity and capability could not meet the publicised standard at the time. Therefore there had been an opportunity to repurpose the capacity for other areas instead of just providing the testing capabilities addressing set-top boxes.

Referring to the labour and organisational process that had taken place and created an element of distress, he said that any engagement on a matter as critical as Section 189 and subsequently the issue of an organisational restructuring, remained a very contentious area of discussion between management and labour. The SABS had had very vibrant engagements, where most of the time, what they sought to achieve was identifying negotiated responses.

In transforming the rural economy around conformity assessment standards, the SABS did not have a promotion and digital marketing strategy. A written strategy with action plans was something they needed to look at. The SABS had been engaging with relevant sister company structures through which they could liaise and promote their work. The level of engagement was not adequate by far. Therefore, a lot of work needed to happen with the SABS to establish and implement an outreach programme in rural areas. Giving the example of hemp and cannabis, he said that there was an African Traditional Medicines Technical committee, which specifically targeted community members around cultivating and harvesting traditional medicines, but not engaging in the final product and testing of the final products. Efficacy was not in the scope of the SABS within the mandate of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). He confirmed that there were elements of the SABS engaging, but this was in small niche areas where they had the capacity to do so.

The SABS was really appreciative that there were people aware of quality assurance who went out and looked for quality marks in the marketplace. The issue was that SABS could not enforce its marks and its systems in the marketplace. He explained that there were two different legislative mandates between the regulators and what they had the mandate to do, and the SABS’s mandate as a national standard body developing technical solutions for voluntary application in the marketplace. It served its purpose as a stealth regulatory mechanism, because regulation came with its own administrative issues regarding implementation. South Africa was not an ecosystem that was mature enough so the industry understood the need for quality standardisation, and on their own initiative, would take it upon themselves to implement a SABS mark of quality.

On how SABS engaged in promoting and marketing its services, Dr Bissoon said it was difficult to operate by oneself in the marketplace, considering the administration of its resources and the risk of fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The SABS therefore had very well entrenched engagements, working with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), which served the purpose of firstly capacitating the quality of enterprise development and, on the other hand, promoting the quality which was in the environment as well. It was not enough, but it was something that the SABS was working on.

He said that the SABS had an agreement with SALGA at a high level, that if there was an appetite for specific municipalities to engage with the SABS, they would come forward and engage with them. It provided services on a commercial basis, so there was nothing for free. The SEDA was supported by cooperatives and other government departments, where they had ring-fence funding support, and the SABS worked with them. It also worked with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) regarding how they capacitated by providing training and testing, as well as an element of certification for small enterprises.

The NRCS was the regulator of products, and this was within the mandate of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The other 300 regulators out in the marketplace operated independently, with the SABS supporting them. Standards need to be developed, and there were about 280 standards committees with a wide scope of standards being developed, which were technical solutions within each technical committee. The stakeholders represented were pretty diverse, and included regulators and policymakers. They wanted regulators and policymakers to be sitting in their technical committees so that they could contribute towards the development of a voluntary national standard. Once it was contributed they used it and referenced it in their regulations for it to become a mandatory issue and they could mandate through their legislation the requirement of certain elements within the standard.  

The SABS was guided by international best practices, because they were members and were accredited by national and international bodies to provide their services.

Dr Bissoon confirmed that the SABS did have a strategy regarding the steps needed to implement the AfCFTA. The first objective was to enhance thought leadership in the African continental free trade area, specifically in the two regional standards bodies, primarily by influencing policy and more importantly, technical areas of work. As the SABS, they continued to be committed to entrenching its role in designing regional policies, which also impacted and made it efficient for South Africa to operate in the AfCFTA within the standardisation portfolio.

The SABS committees proactively engaged with committees of interest where technical committees were already established in South Africa. The members of those technical committees were transitioning to the AfCFTA in terms of harmonisation committees and the SABS's influence at that level. The second part was on managing bilateral agreements. Lately, the SABS had had significant requests from the national standards bodies to perform benchmarking studies. Such opportunities were relished because it was not about SABS providing thought leadership and what best practice was, but a matter of the SABS learning from their counterparts. Therefore, the gap between the SABS and the national standards bodies on the continent has been reduced. They had actually expedited the change and transformation towards leveraging best practices from international bodies as well. He agreed that the SABS needed to continue on the path of continuous improvement. The other aspect was conformity and mutual recognition agreements. The plan was to devise a properly structured and thorough consultative framework of mutual recognition agreements and establish a framework that would allow South Africa to put forward its products and services easily to take advantage of the opportunities the continental free trade area had for South African industries.

On the question as to whether the SABS worked with other sister organisations, he said that there was a specific item in the Agricultural Products Standards Amendment Bill under the auspices of DALRRD, that if the bill was aligned to a multilateral regulation developed outside the country which was a multilateral international requirement, then the SABS would not accede to that because the regulators were in the regulatory platform. That platform would be a regulatory one. The SABS had a number of standards that were published for voluntary uptake with the DALRRD, and many government bodies sat in and took best practices and designed the regulations. If there was something that they had already engaged with internationally, then they had the opportunity as regulators to implement that in South Africa through their normal stakeholder engagements as part of international best practices.

Concerning infrastructure, the focus was on the roofs and pipes. The DTIC had provided the SABS with capital expenditure ring-fenced for the roofs and pipes, and it had already put together a request for proposal (RFP) for the roofs, and would be going out to market on the pipes. The money provided could not be used for the exhaustive pipes network within the SABS infrastructure. They would have to prioritise the areas that were at significant risk and as the outer years go by, when SABS would have the necessary resources and capital expenditure which they expected to derive from profitable business.

He admitted that the SABS did not have a footprint in the rural hinterlands. They needed a footprint and, more importantly, the scope and type of impact within the ambit of resources that the SABS could impart in township economies.

He agreed that the customer services drop was not a good trend, which they needed to engage on. The current formulation of the existing structure was on receipt of inquiries and responding to inquiries. The new structure, as designed for the new organisation, was about being proactive. They needed to transition to implementing that strategy of proactive engagement in the marketplace, supporting its customers and, more importantly, getting more customers into the books of the SABS.

Mr Thabo Sepuru, Divisional Head: Laboratory Services, SABS, said the initial intention with the set-top boxes was to use the standard by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) as a regulatory mechanism. Regarding the acceptance of the STBs, when the standards were developed, the laboratory did not have testing capabilities to meet the robust requirement of the set standard. The SABS still had the machinery with them and engaged with the Department of Communications to agree on a decommissioning programme. There was no testing happening at the facility at the moment.

Mr Lizo Makele, Human Capital Executive: SABS, said the entity had invested a lot into its relationship with its employees, but it had been broken down over the years. This was now a work in progress, but the situation had improved tremendously from what it had been in the past. The SABS had been putting structures in place by engaging the employees on the forums envisaged in their recognition agreement and the collective agreement. This had helped, because it had used those structures to deal with any employee issues that arose. The disagreement that the SABS may have with employees was ventilated internally first and only if there was a deadlock would the issues spill out of the organisation to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). Before this, the unions would write to the Minister and forward certain cases to Parliament on management issues. They had so far been able to deal with these instances, because of how they had processes in place and structures they followed. He confirmed that there were no current or active disputes between the employees and the SABS, even though the deliberations could be quite robust. Unions raised issues when they saw things were not working in the workers' favour. However, they engaged the SABS through the agreed processes and structures, and they were able to close out the disputes. It was an improved labour relations environment to not have disputes that were active.

The union was opposed to the whole Section 189 process. Dr Bissoon had spent time with them, to the extent of going beyond the time prescribed by legislation when dealing with issues of Section 189 to help them understand where the organisation was coming from with the idea of Section 189. The process had been concluded, but the strategy was that of giving a breather by allowing for voluntary severance packages(VSPs) or early retirements to take place. After that, they proceeded to engagements, because the VSPs and early retirements had not really provided what was needed, but had allowed sufficient time to engage further. From that process of further engagements, they devised alternatives to address retrenchments and opened a second window for VSPs and early retirements. In the end, no one had been retrenched, and all parties were content and happy.

What the SABS had put forward in the organisation involved engagements, deliberations and sitting around the table. This led to the organisational review process taking as long as it did, because they did not want to rush things. There had been some disputes over the organisational review process, but they had been able to sit down and discuss terms of reference, and around October 2022 they had signed terms of reference agreeing on how their placements in the new structure were going to happen. Engagements were ongoing. It was a relationship that was quite vibrant. The SABS met with the unions on a regular basis. They had established structures, and managers and the executive committee (EXCOM) met with the unions. He said that the relationship was improving.

Ms Tina Maharaj, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), SABS, referred to the findings of the Auditor General (AG) on revenue management, and said that SABS had looked at the internal control deficiencies that had been identified. It had also done a root cause analysis while looking at the recommendations of the AG, as well as the gaps in the SABS policies and processes, and tried to implement controls close those gaps. To address all the findings, they spent significant time trying to close the control deficiencies in those areas to prevent recurring issues in the current year.

Dr Bissoon thanked the Committee for the opportunity to provide a comprehensive update on where they were with the turnaround strategy. It was not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new era for the SABS. They were in the middle of fixing, while at the same time creating a new trajectory for the organisation. It would take three to five years to get towards the path the SABS had created for itself to achieve financial sustainability underpinned by operational excellence.

The Chairperson asked whether there was a timeframe within which the infrastructure upgrades being funded by the DTI were going to happen.

Dr Bissoon responded that they had put together an infrastructure spend for the next three years. Over this period, they had a budget of R75 million for laboratory services and R75 million for ICT upgrades, which was a substantial amount that needed to be invested in identifying the correct enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and integration technology tools to enable the SABS to provide seamless solutions. The first infrastructure that needed to be dealt with urgently was the roofing and pipes. While the R25 million already submitted by the DTI was the core focus, they had to submit another R40 million per year as profitability of the organisation to upgrade infrastructure. The immediate focus was on the roofing and piping.

The Chairperson said that the infrastructure degradation was quite glaring. She hoped that when the organisation next appeared before the Committee for their fourth quarter performance, they would get a detailed plan of the rollout of the upgrades so that when the Committee conducted oversight as the project went along, there would be no negative comments at the end. Sharing information with the Committee would be appreciated.

SABS Chairman’s closing remarks

Dr Malinga said SABS and its executives had taken note of the many points and questions that had been posed. Some of the issues raised were not ones that could be resolved in a day. As the Board, they had taken note of the issues /comments and would work together with the management to resolve them so that when they appeared before the Committee, they would be able to give a good account of the progress they had made.

He also thanked the Minister, who had supported the Board so far, and pushed them to move with greater urgency on matters that needed to be resolved. He also expressed his thanks to the Acting CEO, as well as executive members who supported him, and for the frank manner in which they addressed the issues raised.

The Chairperson wished the Board well with its new leadership, and commended the SABS on its upward trajectory. While noting there were still challenges, she said that the Committee hoped that the next time it appeared before them, their plans would be clear on the challenges that were still remaining.

Adoption of minutes

The Chairperson went through the minutes of the virtual meeting held on 15 November 2022 page by page, inviting comments from the Members.

Mr Mbuyane proposed the adoption of the minutes, and Ms Moatshe seconded.

The Chairperson declared the minutes adopted.

Ms Moatshe proposed the adoption of the minutes of the virtual meeting held on 15 February, and Mr Mbuyane seconded.

The Chairperson declared the minutes adopted

The meeting was adjourned.