DPME, Brand SA & Statistics SA 2023/24 Annual Performance Plans; with Minister and Deputy Ministers

Meeting report

Minister Opening Remarks

Ms Maropene Ramokgopa,   Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation, said all efforts will be made to ensure that accountability is strengthened from the executive to the Portfolio Committee whilst also ensuring that the coordination and planning of the government system towards the realisation of the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 – that “the South Africa we want to live in becomes a reality”. The primary mandate is to facilitate the implementation of the NDP through the development of sector-specific and outcomes-based specific medium-term plans and delivery agreements. Whilst also bearing responsibility for monitoring and evaluation of all these plans, the Department is trying to ensure that outlooks are not output based on targets, but rather impact-based outcomes on enhancing the quality of life. This outcome entails ensuring the alignment of departmental strategic and annual plans with government's medium-term strategic framework.

The progress made by government in introducing and maintaining an integrated system of planning in the public sector is important, and a lot can be done. This planning is reflected in national and provincial departments and some state-owned entities. Despite all the progress made in the current planning system, more needs to be done in an integrated way, particularly in the local government sphere. This requires the implementation of agency, especially in the implementation and institutionalisation of the district development model, as it is the place where coordination happens for work done by the government.

The District Development Model (DDM) remains an important pillar of the planning and implementing policies and programmes at the local government level, as it is the core space of service delivery.

On the eve of the Sixth Administration, as led by His Excellency Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa, the presentation is delivered under stark conditions of socio-economic and political challenges in South Africa, with the electricity crisis at the top of the agenda, as it has now become disastrous. The Department remains hopeful that with the interventions put in place by the President, changes will be seen very soon.

The far-reaching impact of the electricity crisis has affected livelihoods whilst disrupting social order and straining economic productivity and growth. This is seen in all sectors of the economy. In addition to the electricity crisis, South Africa is faced with compounding challenges at a domestic, regional, and international level, which include high levels of unemployment amongst the youth and increasing cost of living – due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, and increased crime rates, crumbling economy due to infrastructure, reduced budget allocation and staff shortages.

It is a known fact that, since the Covid-19 pandemic, there have been reduced budgets, and it is still difficult to return to a sense of normalcy. There is a belief that ways will be made to get back to what needs to be done with the resources at hand. “Despite these challenges, we ought to remain committed to accelerating development that will result in improved quality of life for the South African people. To turn things around, there must be a strengthening of coordination across government, and monitoring, reporting, and evaluation of the implementation of critical government programmes, projects, and interventions. These are necessary steps for remaining on track with Vision 2030 which is left with only seven years.”

The intended impact of the Department of Monitoring, Planning, and Evaluation (DPME) is to improve the country's developmental outcomes, as envisaged in the country's 2030 NDP, through effective implementation of the medium-term strategic frameworks. The intended outcomes include:

- Being an efficient and effective government department that is characterised by good corporate governance and ethical leadership;
- The institutionalisation of long-term and medium-term to short-term development agenda by creating a functional and integrated government planning system;

The Department is planning to bring the core outcomes of the NDP to bring the business plan of the entire government and private sector to a certain extent, while also promoting active citizenry in contributing to the implementation of the NDP through the medium-term strategic framework (MTSF) because government cannot do it alone. The Department is also planning to ensure that government programmes are actively monitored for improved accountability and service delivery whilst promoting the use of evidence to support the planning and implementation, monitoring of the developmental agenda. The Department wants to ensure that there is concentration on planning for development, not just planning for monitoring and evaluation.

Therefore, the Department's Annual Performance Plan (APP) aims to be catalytic in the Department's intended impact. The APPs are anchored on the revised strategic plan of 2020–2025 as informed by NDP, revised MTSF, and the seven apex priorities of the Sixth Administration. In addition, the APP focuses on the 2023 State of the Nation (SONA) as pronounced by the President. Considering the fiscal and regulatory constraints, the current APP address is going to focus on:

- Ensuring the National Planning Commission is an independent institution
- Monitor the implementation of the NDP
- Provide feedback and guidance to the government, with the support of the Secretariat
- Strengthen the planning processes in government in the medium term to achieve the long-term goals of the NDP through the work of the National Planning Coordination branch
- Continuing monitoring of the implementation of key government programs in the MTSF
- Produce progress reports on implementation to be presented to Cabinet and any other stakeholder
- Monitor frontline services, including complaints and compliments emanating from the Presidential hotlines
- Building capacity programmes
- Generate evidence performance against its set priorities
- Conducting rapid evaluations on programmes that are aimed at achieving the annual apex priorities of the Sixth Administration.

The Department continues to stress the issue of processes from NDP, MTSF, and APP, which will go to service delivery and will easily be monitored if the processes are followed and aligned.

Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Annual Performance Plan 2023/14
Mr Clement Madale delivered the presentation. The Department's mandate focuses on the institutionalisation of planning, long-term planning, medium-term planning, monitoring the implementation of the NDP, and evaluating critical government programmes, and interventions on behalf of the Cabinet and the President. The mission of the Department is to facilitate, influence, and support effective planning, monitoring, and evaluation of government programmes aimed at improving service delivery, outcomes, and impact on society.

The programmes of the Department comprise five branches:
Programme One – Administration has an overall purpose of providing strategic leadership, management, and support to services in the Department.
The key deliverables to achieve the objectives are:
- Contributing to job creation by filling funded vacancies. Youth empowerment: achievement of 35% target youth employment will directly contribute to government's goal of:
- Youth empowerment;
- Achieving a target of 1.5% employment of persons with disabilities directly contributes to government’s priority of empowerment of vulnerable groups;
- Achieving gender equity of a target of 50 percent women at the Senior Management Services SMS level achieves government's goal of equality;
- Automation of processes, Management Information System environment, and Document Management System to maintain and enhance a secured, stable information Communication Technology infrastructure to support departmental service delivery mandate;
- Payment of suppliers within 30 days of submission of valid invoices;
- Implementation of Broad-Based Economic Empowerment Legislation.

The Department intends to have 100 percent compliance in submitting financial interest by all designated employees within specific time frames. It also plans to have at least one Disaster Risk Assessment conducted. Whilst maintaining a vacancy rate of no more than ten percent.

Programme Two (A) – National Planning Commission: has the purpose of guiding and advising on national and long-term development planning to monitor the implementation of the NDP and to mobilise the country to support the plan. The programme consists of the following sub-programs for Economy, Social Protection, Governance, Research, Partnerships, and Development and the following cross-cutting focus areas:

1. Institutionalisation of Planning:
- Institutionalising the NPC and long-term developmental planning;
- Reviewing planning cycles to establish five-yearly developmental plans across the country; Strengthening links between plans and budgets/resource allocation.

2. Capacity for development planning in the country:
- Focus on a small subset of priorities in which to play leadership and coordination roles;
- Strong industrial and economic policy focus, including consequently influencing national skills development, training, education, labour, and social policy.

3. Policy Coordination, Design, and Implementation:
- Strengthen NPC coordination and partnerships with state and non-state actors in implementing NDP. Long-term review of strategic development planning
- Research to inform national development planning
- Support the President/Cabinet in defining and focusing on key priorities.
4. Monitoring implementation and progress: Monitoring the implementation of the NDP.
5. Stakeholder Engagements: To rally key actors and society behind and society behind the NDP, and promote accountability.

Programme Two (B) – National Planning Coordination: seeks to contribute to the county’s improved development outcomes by coordinating and institutionalising an integrated government planning system.

The programme is targeting to have one Budget Prioritisation Framework developed for 2024, 42 assessment reports on received national institutions' strategic plans and APPs produced, and one report on the Development Planning Legal Framework.

This programme supports planning on all seven MTSF priorities. In line with the Strategic Plan of the DPME, the branch contributes to improved country developmental outcomes as envisaged in the NDP 2030 through the effective implementation of the MTSF 2019-2024.

Programme Three – Sector Monitoring Services: seeks to monitor government performance against the seven priorities of government as expressed through the MTSF. It also monitors the intervention strategies to achieve intended results as articulated in the MTSF.

The programme is targeting two MTSF monitoring reports, and two Operation Phakisa assessment reports as Operation Phakisa is a critical programme implemented by DPME, as the Department will be improving the electronic monitoring system to ensure reporting on this is done.

Programme Four – Public Sector Monitoring and Capacity Development: the purpose of the programme is to support the implementation of the medium-term strategic framework by monitoring and improving the capacity of state institutions to develop and implement plans and provide services.

Programme Five – Evaluations of Evidence and Knowledge Systems. The programme focuses on coordinating and supporting the generation collation, accessibility, and timely use of quality evidence to support performance monitoring and evaluation across the government. Chiefly, it is the evidence planning to support the country's development agenda, and this is target one Evidence Plan to be produced.

Ms Camagwini Ntshinga, Chief Financial Officer, said that the Department's annual budget is R475 million, with Programme One making up 40% of the total budget, Programme Two making up 18% of the budget, Programme Three making up 15% of the allocation, Programme Four making up 18% of the budget, and the last programme making up nine percent of the allocation.

The economic classification of the budget has the compensation of employees makes up 67% of the budget. Due to the 2023/24 wage increases, the Department envisages a shortfall in the budget, which the National Treasury has envisaged a shortfall of R17 million.

See attached for full presentation

Deputy Minister remarks
Ms Nomasonto Motaung, Deputy Minister in the Presidency, said the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) bares the responsibility for providing strategic communication leadership in government, as well as coordination of communication practices for the empowerment of domestic citizens, whilst also managing the international reputation of the country.

A national brand comprises an identity and image. The concept of nation branding is closely linked to the theory of the country of origin. For instance, if you think of Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is electronics, Italy and Paris are luxury clothing and expensive sports cars.

As a country, South Africa needs to find its origins effect, something that will come to mind beyond the late countryman, Nelson Mandela.

This entity is tasked with managing perceptions of the country to produce a differentiated attitude that will affect the nation's competitiveness and comparative advantage.

Every government in today's competitive environment either has or is attempting to establish an entity through which they promote their country to their targeted market to attract investment, migration, culture and heritage, exports, and tourism.

The role of managing South Africa's reputation as a destination for investment is one of the critical roles played by state-owned companies like Brand SA. Their role is significant in a country's fight to reduce poverty, unemployment, and inequalities. The role of state-owned entities as the service delivery arm of government is identified in the NDP as a major driving force for service delivery and structural development. The achievement of the priorities for the MTSF will require a focus on positioning South Africa in the world. It is important to remember that today's world is becoming one seamless market.

The milestone of this government is to inform global citizens about what this country has to offer through Brand SA, as the message of Brand SA carries the core message of the Sixth Administration that no one should be left behind. This means confronting challenges head-on. The Department is working at board appointments to holistically stabilise things at the government level and Brand SA. Brand SA will continue its mandate under the ministry in the Presidency, drawing on the insights of the international investor’s perceptions, to assist the entity in developing its strategy to engage in the relevant markets. The study is geared towards understanding the perceptions of the investors towards South Africa as a country to do business.

A key component of Brand SA is the country's brand health which measures the country's reputation per levels of awareness, familiarity, favourability, trust, and advocacy. Brand SA monitors incentives and disincentives for investments.

Brand South Africa Annual Performance Plan 2023/24  
Ms Sithembile Ntombela, Acting Chief Executive Officer, said Brand South Africa, is registered as a Trust in terms of the Trust Property Control Act (No. 57 of 1988). The mandate of the entity is to manage the country’s brand reputation to improve the country's global attractiveness and competitiveness. It is to build individual alignment to the Nation Brand, and encourage pride and patriotism amongst South Africans.
The entity’s mandate is to build confidence in SA & contribute towards attracting investors, and tourists, as well as encourage increased consumption of South African goods & services; enhance South Africa’s international stature; protect the Nation's Brand Reputation through the delivery of counter messages to dispel unfounded negative rhetoric; influence narrative & perceptions of South Africa; analyse and develop insights that inform & empower through enhanced understanding of the Nation's Brand performance; develop & disseminate key messages that effectively & positively tell the unique story of South Africa; inspire pride, patriotism, social cohesion, nation-building & positive change in South Africa; inspire loyalty & advocacy in expatriate South Africans; counter negative messages & impressions of South Africa; showcase achievements of the NDP.
Its mandate is to also assist the government & the private sector in aligning their country communication strategies to the country brand; leverage strategic global events & engagements to bring the brand story to life and to create lasting brand moments.
The entity is aligned with the nation's priorities as set out in the NDP Vision 2030.
Ms Mpumi Mabuz, General Manager: Stakeholder Relations, said Brand SA's focus for 2023/24 is to positively influence and enhance perceptions of the nation's brand.

Programme One – Administration: the purpose of the programme is to provide strategic leadership, management, and support services to the core business functions of Brand South Africa and is overall responsible for ensuring sound governance, high performance, and optimal utilisation of available capital and resources. A key outcome is ensuring the improved reputation of Brand SA as an entity.

These will be achieved by:
- Achieving an unqualified audit outcome;
- Ensuring 100% payments are made on valid supplier invoices within 30 days from the date of receipt of an invoice;
- Obtaining a level-five Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment scorecard rating level;
- A vacancy rate of no more than ten percent against the approved organisational structure maintained a 90 percent overall organisational performance rating;
- Four reports on information technology and systems availability.
Programme Two – Brand, marketing, and reputation management: the key objective of the programme is to ensure increased attractiveness and competitiveness of the national brand. It is also to ensure increased national brand advocacy and active citizenship.
The annual targets include:
- Running at least eight marketing campaigns aimed at positioning South Africa as a preferred destination flighted internationally, regionally, and domestically;
- Producing 19 reports that track South Africa’s global reputation and brand familiarity;
- Four registers of communication interventions were produced as part of the implementation of the reputation management strategy internationally, regionally, and domestically;
- Undertaking 25 activities that promote active citizenry and advocacy through the Play Your Part Programme;
- Ensuring that 14 constitutional awareness activities aimed at promoting constitutional values and social cohesion.
Programme Three – Stakeholder relationships: seeks to build and leverage collaborative partnerships, integrate and coordinate efforts and approaches to market the Nation's Brand identity, promote the Nation's value proposition, and interface meaningfully with stakeholders who drive or influence perceptions on the Nation's Brand and its reputation. The outcome of the programmes is to have an aligned national brand execution and experience both domestically and internationally.
The annual targets are to have:
- One Nation Brand Forum aimed at positioning the country positively targeting domestic and international audiences implemented;
- 57x coordinated activities implemented with relevant stakeholders aimed at promoting an aligned Nation Brand execution and experience internationally and domestically.
The annual budget of the entity for the current financial year is R219 million. Due to international messaging as one of the key exercises of the entity, exchange rate fluctuations prove to be a challenge as 70% of the budget will go to international messaging initiatives.
See attached for full presentation
Deputy Minister remarks
Mr Kenny Morolong, Deputy Minister in the Presidency, said it is humbling to report to the Portfolio Committee on Statistics South Africa (Stats SA). The ministry is fully cognisant of the importance of the work of oversite and assures its full cooperation, going forward. The ministry is content with the sterling work of Stats SA of collecting, producing, and disseminating official statistics, which include the census of the population.

The release of the census should be undertaken in the next month and is to serve as the new national baseline.

An Amendment Bill has been submitted for processing in Parliament; Stats SA is awaiting feedback on timelines. The role of the ministry is to monitor the performance of the Head of Stats SA and approve or disapprove the inception, variation, or discontinuance of statistical collection by a Minister or organ of state as provided for in section 14(1)(2) of the Statistics Act. Following consultation with Cabinet, the ministry is also expected to appoint Members of the Statistics Council. This process will assume in due course. These work programmes promise the long-awaited release of the census 2022 results, as scheduled for mid-2023. The census is also a critical source of small-area data to inform planning and decision-making at a local level. It is profoundly encouraging by the sterling work undertaken by Stats SA, particularly during the census operations. The national statistics agency continues to operate as an independent and impartial institution.

Statistics South Africa Annual Performace Plan 2023/24
Mr Risenga Maluleke, Statistician-General, said the vision of Stats SA is to improve lives through data ecosystems, in a manner that has data ecosystems going beyond the value chain of official statistics. Strategic priorities include insightful data, an agile operating model, interconnected statistical systems, and transformed capabilities.

The following work programmes for this year are classified as follows:

- Economic Statistics:
The entity has planned about 230 statistical releases for the 2023 financial year. For Economic Statistics, an updated Producer Price Index (PPI) will be published and the capital expenditure statistical release will be published quarterly, alongside a research report to expand the coverage of the Natural Capital Accounts series. Looking at the South African biodiversity levels and water harvesting from several geographic levels and topographies of the country, it becomes critical to continue monitoring. 

- Population and Social Statistics:
The main release of Census 2022 results will be in July 2023. The entity will finalise data collection for the Income and Expenditure Survey in the third quarter, and a report on documented immigrants. The thematic reports are based on the Census 2022 (education, child statistics, gender; people with disabilities, marginalised groups, and household services).

- National Statistics System:
This is the year South Africa must report to the United Nations General Assembly on the Sustainable Development Goals country report. The Integrated Indicator Framework (Include 88 indicators for District Development Model) for administrative data purposes, and this is one of the issues that will be looked into, going forward. It will be dependent on the census released data. A Data Source Inventory System will also be developed. The entity wants to institutionalise the self-assessment portal and provide training to other producers and users of statistics.

Statistical Operations & Support:
This deals with disseminating census results and testing Integrated Operations Model in Provinces to streamline field operations, as it becomes key for reaching out to every member of society. It will be followed by revamping the website to enhance further functionality the website

Methodology and Statistical Infrastructure will include the research design of the new master sample; adopting international classification on Harmonised Systems (HS 2022); and monitoring and evaluation practice incorporated into the quality management system.

The Administration will develop a digital business transformation strategy, implement the skills development strategy, and conduct impact analysis for disaster recovery.

Budget:
The entity requires additional funding for the negotiated salary increases, as they will deplete current allocations. The vacancy rate is 19.6 percent, and they are not fully funded. The structure of Stats SA is often revised, and this results in National Treasury sometimes not funding all the structures, leaving some of the positions unfunded. About 61 percent of the budget is going to the compensation of employees.
See attached for full presentation
Discussion

Ms M Ntuli (ANC) commended the presentations for being informative as they are equipping the Committee for its oversite role.

DPME
The performance indicators of the Department do not reflect the actual outcomes of the work undertaken by the Department. How will the Department develop a system that showcases the outcome indicators of the Department’s performance? An outcome indicator must be representational of its functionality; the targets should reflect this.

What tools and measurements will the Department use to assess the impact of the socio-economic impact analysis of the District Development Model (DDM)?

What performance areas does the Department have to ensure the plan of one department, one district of the DDM? As we all agree, DDM is a strong tool for our government to have an impact on the ground.

Brand SA
The pivotal role played by Brand SA in marketing the country and bringing alerts on how the country can move forward in the global terrain. Which aspect of perception change is prioritised in the global South African initiative and promotion of active citizenry through the Play Your Part programme?

Stats SA
The Minister outlined the importance of government programmes, and how Stats SA can expand its output by producing key statistics on priority programmes of the government to ascertain the impact of government in its thematic report, in order to enable a linkage of funds spent and the quality of expenditure.

Dr J Nothnagel (ANC) stated that the performance agreement is critical, and the PMBS of the Accounting Officers is important concerning the leadership of the Administration. What interventions are taken based on PMBS reports?

Brand SA
All spheres of government and the private sector must ensure the promotion of the image of South Africa globally in the various sectors they operate in. How does the entity ensure that institutions promote an aligned national brand and experience both domestically and internationally as a critical component of state organs and private entities?

Stats SA
Noting the demand for Stats SA outweighs supply, how is the entity leveraging technology to improve its capacity?

What is the impact of underfunding Stats SA for monitoring and evaluation by the Presidency and provision of vast statistics for the country and world at large?

Ms S Maneli (ANC), directing her comments to Brand SA said, noting digitisation and the rise of social media platforms as a tool for promoting South Africa, what is the digital strategy and plan of Brand SA? What key activities and targets are set for the current year? Noting the importance of leveraging popular brands to promote South Africa, what is the approach and the plan in this regard?

Stats SA
Does the entity believe it is adequately leveraged by the government? What is the entity's plan to ensure that reports are optimally utilised by the state organs?

DPME
What training and targets does the Department develop for capacitation the Department drive? Does the Department have sufficient capacity to analyse and provide feedback to organs of state, during planning?

The Department has an essential role to play in issuing reports that can be tabled by various entities and the Presidency. What performance indicator or monitoring targets does the Department have to monitor the implementation of its recommendations and matters for intervention by the President or Cabinet?

Ms M Kibi (ANC), directing her comments to DPME said the Auditor-General has identified various planning weaknesses, such as poor performance indicators in local government and the Provincial and National Governments, resulting in an inability to monitor the actual performance and their impact. As part of an institutionalising plan, what plans are in place to remedy the problem? What are the performance targets to improve performance information?

Measuring the progress implementation of the MTSF is critical; what performance management does the Department have to ensure all targets are included in the Department’s Annual Performance Plan?

Brand SA
Perceptions are critical and the entity has outlined the positives and negatives from the studies it undertakes. What are the actual measurable shifts that the entity is undertaking in the current financial year, recognising that the perception data should ground the entity’s strategy?

Stats SA
One of the critical weaknesses of local government and provinces is poor social and economic data profiling, which is critical for the DDM. What is the entity’s plan to develop key statistics to enable strategic planning?

Government reporting is large output based with fewer measurements of the outcomes and impact of the Department's mandate. How can the entity contribute to ensuring government develops measurable indicators to ensure quality information for intervention?

The Chairperson highlighted to Brand SA that the Committee’s interests are to understand the progress report regarding the merger of Brand SA and Tourism. As the entities respond, it would be ideal if the delegates spoke on the progress report in the merger of the two entities in 2023.

Responses

Brand South Africa
Brand SA's reputation pillar is targeted through advocacy initiatives that seek to promote South Africa. It is the pillar of people that largely supports to the promotion of South Africa. The organisation works with ambassadors and coordinating formal programmes for those based abroad.

Whilst the play your part initiative seeks to ensure citizens are self-sufficient, as supported by the World Bank Research to ensure an entrepreneurship culture. One of the reports the entity tracks is that of The World Bank and it holds that South Africa is one of the economies that need to learn to be self-sufficient, making entrepreneurship the country's beacon of hope. That is how the entity links the ‘Play Your Part’ Programme as a motivator that will encourage citizens to start undertaking their entrepreneurial activities, thereby contributing to a positive social change.

The measurable shift that the entity will focus on is to have associations that are largely driven from an innovation perspective, whether it is from a service industry or the financial sector. There is a move from old associations by penetrating and using new messaging and diverse voices.

Ms Mabuza responded to the role played by the entity in pursuing alignment and communication brand as it focuses on programme three, Brand SA has a programme to target any National Department that is a flag carrier in promoting the country abroad. Brand SA targets to give such entities training. As a result, it has developed a masterclass to ensure a level of alignment.

The entity focuses on positive South African stories to bolster the image of the country as well as to encourage pride and patriotism. This is the core of the digital strategy. Social media is one of the entity’s strongest digital marketers, as it is a clear global trend. The entity has taken a rigorous approach to understanding the trends and preferences of the various social media platforms. The entity's approach is widespread and continues to improve. There is a comprehensive digital strategy.

The entity continues to target multinationals and global establishments in South Africa to be advocates of investing in South Africa. Such campaigns include the previous CEOs know, which had heads of multinationals telling their own stories surrounding investing in South Africa, and this is helpful.

Statistics South Africa
Mr Maluleke said Stats SA produces data that has to be independent and not get into policy incentives. This is not done for incentive or penal initiatives, as it may affect the independence of the entity. Therefore, Stats SA has a critical role in the Integrated Indicator Framework that the entity with the National Planning Commission and DPME continuously work on to develop the key indicators needed by the country. For example, on economic growth and unemployment rate issues, one will remember that, in 2011, Stats SA said that by 2020 the country would like to see the unemployment rate at a level of around 14 percent, and six percent by 2030. However, every quarter report showed that unemployment is sitting at an excess of over 30 percent. This is a critical outcomes issue that is being measured to determine if the government and private sector programmes are working or not.

On the impact of policies, if the policies implemented to curb unemployment were effective by 2020, unemployment would be at 14 percent. The fact that it is doubled shows something is not working. It is such indicators that Stats SA can report, whilst staying outside the policy space.

Regarding the impact of expenditure deployed, once Stats SA releases its indicators, DPME and National Treasury should, in the expenditure review, assess if money deployed and expenditures correlate with the outcomes and impact seen, whilst Stats SA continues to report.

On deploying technology and underfunding at Stats SA, the entity insists on using technology when taking statistics so that there can be modernisation in data collection for both population and social statistics, alongside economic indicators.

With the underfunding at Stats SA, there is certainly a need to deal with it.

On whether government adequately uses Stats SA products, the data and products are not adequately used by the entire nation. Stats SA reaches out to media outlets when releasing data, as well as various Portfolio Committees. Stats SA is looking to come to these Committees, not to present the entity's plan, but rather talk about how the data can be utilised for planning purposes for the nation, as the use of data is not yet sufficient in the nation.

It often happens that there are statistics available that government departments do not utilise, although the DPME enforces the use of official statistics at their disposal. In this regard, the Amendment Bill will assist in harvesting data and enforce a level of use of data, in the same way the Public Finance Management Act is used and enforced.

Deputy Minister Morolong said the underfunding of statistical data remains a challenge. The vacancy rate is at 19%, and this is a challenge because Stats SA does enormous work. The challenges of adequate will inevitably impact Stats SA’s ability to produce data in the long term. If data needs are not adequately funded, Stats SA will be unable to adequately plan in the long term. There is a need to continually engage National Treasury on this matter.

Government will continue to protect the independence of Stats SA, as it is a critical instrument for the progress of the nation.

Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation
Mr Robert Nkuna, Director-General, said the  Department is trying to have a ministerial intervention to have Parliament know of the recommendations of DPME to the respective government departments. This is to offset a situation whereby the DPME does everything including provision of feedback and strategies to plans, yet what comes as feedback to Parliament was not signed on by the DPME. This will assist DPME in providing foolproof accountability of the entire value chain, so that when questions arise on the quality of what is done by the Department, it will have answers.

On the DDM, he said that some work had been done on coordination. The Presidency has done work to ensure there is effective coordination. The participation of the national Department in the DDM is a challenge. The departments cite a lack of capacity to be involved in any of the 32 DDM areas. The Department is looking for ways to assist such departments. The disjuncture of financial year periods between provincial and national departments is also a matter that the Department is looking into, as a factor that hinders the effective implementation of the DDM.

The DPME is also working with the National School of Government to develop programmes for departments facing capacity issues.

The DPME has just finalised its report which assesses the performance and governance of the Schedule Two state-owned entities to give a better sense of the challenges faced by those entities.

Ms Pinky Kekana, Presidency Deputy Minister in the Presidency, said the observation made by the Committee is critical. The decision by the President to place DPME as a standalone department is well-informed. Looking at what government departments do, they plan separately and the DPME consolidates when DPME was meant to be the planning department that informs the National Treasury of the priorities. This is the reason the DPME is unable to meet the NDP targets.

The meeting was adjourned.