DALRRD Budget: Committee Report

Meeting report

Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

The Chairperson welcomed Members and explained that the purpose of the meeting was to adopt minutes and the Committee report on the 2023/24 Annual Performance Plans and the Budget of The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and Its Entities: Vote 29. The minutes were dated 7 and 14 March 2023 and 18, 19 and 21 April 2023. He confirmed that both the report and minutes were circulated by the secretariat to all Committee Members and said that it was safe to assume that everyone had read both documents. He requested the secretariat put the report up on the screen so that everyone could go through it together.

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on the 2023/24 Annual Performance Plans and the Budget of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and its Entities: Vote 29 dated 05 May 2023

The Chairperson requested that Members go through the report page by page and thereafter get into a discussion based on the recommendations of the report.

Referring to page one, Mr N Capa (ANC) raised that line seven is very confusing because the word entities without a comma become entities in Parliament.

Mr N Masipa (DA) pointed out that on page 10, the wording of the sentence under the heading 'Trading Entity: Agricultural Land Holding Account' was wrong. The sentence read "As indicated above, it plans to acquired 115 467..." instead of acquire.

The Chairperson asked the Committee support staff to remove the ‘d’, however the document could not be edited at the time of the meeting because it was in PDF form.

Mr Masipa pointed out that on page 13, under the heading ‘Trading Entity: Deeds Registration Trading Account’, line two “The Account registers rights in land and maintains public registers of land.”  It would read well for someone who knows what is being talked about, but it would not read well for someone else. He suggested it be amended to read: “The Accounts purpose is to register rights…”. He asked the author of the report to suggest a way in which it could be amended to make the meaning clearer.

The Chairperson asked the Committee Content Advisors for input and the response was that it will be rephrased by possibly saying ' it is in this account where the registration of rights of land is done'. He reassured the Chairperson that a way would be found to make the wording better and clearer or perhaps use the phrase suggested by Mr Masipa.

The Chairperson said that the sentence would be adjusted accordingly.

On page 17, under "Administration (Programme 1)", in line three, Mr Masipa said that the word 'of' in the sentence reading "...because of the ITB had no internal audit unit/service provider as planned", was redundant.

Mr Masipa pointed out that a minor change that needed to happen on page 19, point 4.3 titled ‘Office of the Valuer-General (OVG)’, the last sentence reads: “It also is responsible for developing criteria”, whereby it should instead read "It is also responsible for developing criteria and procedures.”

On page 22, under the bullet point of the animal sciences, Mr Masipa pointed out that, according to his knowledge, animal sciences was limited to animal health, but there was a lot more than the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) besides animal health, like other research and developments. He said that the way in which the point reads currently makes it seem as if what the ARC is doing is only limited to animal health. He asked the support staff to correct him if he was incorrect, as he does stand corrected.

Ms Nokuzola Mgxashe, Committee Content Advisor, commented that the ARC's drivers for research and innovation in the medium term are not necessarily the activities of the ARC in totality, but rather what its medium-term focuses are as indicated in the Strat Plan. There are other activities that the ARC is doing under animal sciences but the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) facility is the main focus, and this was an issue raised before by Members. She confirmed that this is one of the key drivers in terms of animal sciences; however, the ARC is doing other research in the field.

Referring to point 5.1.9 on page 29, Ms B Tshwete (ANC) pointed out that the phrase Communal Land Tenure Bill was repeated.

The Chairperson read through the Committee recommendations included in the report made to the Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, starting from page 31 to page 

The Chairperson pointed out that the word 'farm' in point 6.7 on page 33 the sentence "Further, ensure that every farm receives complimentary comprehensive post-settlement support...." should read farmer.

The Chairperson tabled the report before Committee Members for consideration and asked if there were any issues that Members may have picked up and would like to address from the recommendations presented.

Ms T Mbabama (DA) said that it seemed as though the Committee was putting its head in the sand where the Land Claims Commission is concerned, considering that it did not mention anything about what it expected the Minister to do. The Land Claims Commission has 6 853 old order claims that it has put forward and a comprehensive reduction backlog strategy over a five year period. What the Committee has found is that even with the strategy in place, it is not going to be achieved because the Land Claims Commission does not have the available budget to do so.

Another glaring issue is around the autonomy of the Land Claims Commission and Ms Mbabama said that it is worrisome that nothing has been said about this. She said that the Committee needs to address the issue as comprehensively as possible and not just say that the Minister must ensure that all order claims are made. The Committee must express that the Minister must go to National Treasury and talk to it about the budget and talk to whoever is responsible for the autonomy of the Land Claims Commission and make sure that it happens because, without that, the old order claims are never going to be addressed.

The Chairperson advised that the Content Advisor will include what Ms Mbabama has raised and requested that he will find a language that talks to that. He asked if there was any other item in the report that Members would like to discuss or concerns to be raised.

Ms Tshwete requested that the secretariat take the Committee back to point 6.12, which addressed the Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP). She suggested adding a sentence that talks about the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) facility and its investigation of previous projects. She asked that she be assisted with how to word the sentence correctly.

She reminded the Committee of its upcoming visit and the recommendation made for another investigation to take place, as well as quarterly updates, which she recalled never happened. She said that she was not sure it was the correct way of doing things, if she included again what the Committee had agreed on regarding what should happen regarding the investigation of the GMP facility.

The Chairperson reiterated what Ms Tshwete had said that in point 6.12, the GMP facility must be investigated in terms of its previous processes which may date back as early as 2015 and so asked the Content Advisors to take note of the matter that was raised and to make the necessary adjustments to point 6.12. Also, the Committee is seeking the GMP facility to provide quarterly updates on the ongoing investigations and vaccine availability. Those investigations may even be in and outside the GMP facility.

When Ms N Mahlo (ANC) tried to raise points based on page 12, the Chairperson interjected to say that the Committee had already passed page 12, was busy with the recommendations, and would only discuss anything regarding the bullet points under the recommendations.

Ms Mahlo said that she wanted to build her case relating to page 12 because it talks to the recommendations.

She noted that on page 12, there was a discussion about the training of 108 cooperatives, however in the recommendations, there was nothing of that sort mentioned. She said that it was concerning because the DALRRD deals with many cooperatives on the farms and even though the Committee had passed the page, she was concerned because she did not hear or see anything related to cooperative development or training that the Committee spoke about on page 12. She requested assistance regarding the wording to include in the report.

The Chairperson asked the support staff to comment on the training of cooperatives.

Ms Mgxashe reminded the Committee that the Annual Performance Plan (APP) stemmed from the five-year Strategic Plan of the DALLRD, and that the current year is the last year of the five-year term. The actual annual targets have not changed, just the quantities as they were initially presented as part of the Strategic Plan. Each year the Department facilitates the training of cooperatives through programme five, so in that regard, this was the Committee Report. What would the Committee like to see being recommended in terms of cooperatives? Because in the previous report, there was a recommendation for cooperatives, but there has not been a response to that as yet. Would Members want the same recommendation to be repeated or have a new recommendation specifically for cooperatives?

The Chairperson said that this is what Ms Mahlo was asking because she had picked up on page 12 that there was mention of the cooperatives but it is not in the recommendations. He requested that the content advisors take into consideration Ms Mahlo's input and insert the part in the recommendations.

Mr M Montwedi (EFF) pointed out that the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in the high cost and shortage of fertilisers, and farmers were struggling and as a result, the cost of doing business has gone up. He asked if, from the side of the Department’s report, it will not work if the Content Advisors try to say that the Department needs to explore alternative avenues of organic farming because, in the past four years, none of the Departmental Programmes focussed on supporting organic farming in the sector.

The Chairperson took note of the suggestion that was made and asked that the recommendation be added to the recommendations section. He asked if there was anything else to be said before there was a move for the adoption of the report.

Mr Capa commented on point 6.12, which reads “Ensure that the OBP submits an Action Plan with timeframes and funding needs for the completion of the GMP Facility…” Seeking clarity, he asked what the submission of funding meant. Did it imply that since the OBP did not get transferred from the Department, there was a direct need for it to get funded?

The Chairperson said that if he wanted it to be covered, he had to say so.

Mr Capa responded, saying that he wanted it to be covered.

Mr Masipa said without going into the Russia-Ukraine war, the Committee should just focus on the implementation plans that were submitted. He said that point 6.13 needed to be reworded to request the Minister to submit the budget and the implementation plan by a particular date. This is because there was a promise for the implementation plan on agriculture and agro master plans, the reprioritisation of budgets, and that the implementation plans were going to be submitted. The Committee has not received any of them. He said that he agreed with the quarterly reports on the implementation, in that the Committee should keep it as it was. He believed they had to emphasise the agriculture and agro master plans, implementation plans, and budget reprioritisation.

Regarding the OBP under point 6.12, he said they had to acknowledge that the OBP was not working to its optimal capacity and had certain challenges. One of those was that horses were dying, because of vaccine unavailability. This is because it was missing one element – the freeze-dryer. During its oversight visit, the OBP indicated that the freeze-dryer was one of its main problems. Mr Masipa suggested that the Committee needs to include the freeze dryer in the recommendations.

The Chairperson took note of the recommendation and suggested that it be included under the issue of the freeze-dyer in point 6.12.

He moved for the adoption of the report, with amendments.

Ms Mbabama called for a point of order asking if the Committee was not expected to wait for the amendments to be made and for the new report to be sent to them before they called for the adoption of the report.

The Chairperson responded that he would ask the Content Advisors to make the necessary amendments to the report by the end of the day as he wanted to move on with the rest of the meeting and spare the Committee’s time.

The Content Advisors assured the Chairperson that the report always got circulated once the amendments were made and that the report in question would be no different. They confirmed that the report would be circulated to Committee Members by 2pm.

Mr Capa moved to adopt the report with the proposed amendments and Ms Mahlo seconded the adoption of the report with the amendments.

The report was considered and adopted. Read full report here https://pmg.org.za/tabled-committee-report/5311/

Committee minutes dated 7 March 2023

The Chairperson guided the Committee through the minutes of 7 March 2023.

Mr Masipa pointed out that on page 3 in point 2.2.3 that an abbreviation for Agro-processing Master Plan had to be corrected from AMMP to AMP.

On page 4 in point 2.3.10, at the end of the first sentence, Mr Capa pointed out an error, where the sentence read: “…when exactly was is it going to its commence with its work…”, he requested that the ‘its’ to be deleted.

Ms Mbabama moved for the adoption of the Minutes with the proposed amendments. Ms Tshwete seconded the adoption of the Minutes with the amendments.

The Chairperson asked if there were any matters arising.

Mr Masipa pointed out that in point 2.3.5 it read “About the Master Plans, the DTI was playing a greater role whilst DALRRD was a supportive role.”, and as far as he was concerned, that was the Sugar Master Plan, not just the Master Plan so this needed to be corrected to reflect as such.

The Committee had requested Land Bank to come and present before it and that it should ask the IDC to give the Committee a briefing on the progress that was made on the blended finance.

In point 2.3.9, it stated, "The Committee wanted to understand the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee established to deal with the issue of Animal Bio-Security and its challenges”. He said it was not an Inter-Ministerial Committee, but rather a Bio-Ministerial Committee that the Minister established and that the Committee needed to get the report that was addressed to the Minister by the Committee that she established.

On the matter of the European Union (EU) in point 2.4.4, the Committee needed to follow up with the Department on where it was with the disputes it was having with the EU. The Committee needed to be briefed properly on what its position was in the relationship with the EU and needed to engage with the Minister on this matter.

The minutes were considered and adopted.

Committee minutes dated14 March 2023

The Chairperson guided the Committee through the minutes.

Ms Tshwete moved for the adoption of the Minutes. Ms Mbabama seconded the adoption of the minutes.

The Chairperson asked if there were any matters arising.

Mr Masipa pointed out that under ‘Committee Resolutions’, in point 10.1, the Committee presented solutions. He asked for a timeframe on when the Department was going to brief the Committee on the animal quarantine stations.

In point 10.2, he said there needs to be a clear timeline on when the Committee wanted the reports, possibly during the next quarter.

The Chairperson said that a request would be made to the Department for it to bring around its reports toward the end of the third term.

The minutes were considered and adopted.

Committee minutes 18 April 2023

The Chairperson guided the Committee through the minutes of 18 April 2023.

Mr Masipa moved for the adoption of the minutes. Ms Mahlo seconded the adoption of the minutes.

The Chairperson asked if there were any matters arising.

With no matters arising, the minutes were considered and adopted.

Committee minutes 19 April 2023

The Chairperson guided the Committee through the minutes of 19 April 2023.

Ms Mahlo moved for the adoption of the minutes. Mr Capa seconded the adoption of the minutes.

The Chairperson asked if there were any matters arising.

With no matters arising, the minutes were considered and adopted.

Committee minutes 21 April 2023

The Chairperson guided the Committee through the minutes of 21 April 2023.

Ms Mbabama moved for the adoption of the minutes. Ms Mahlo seconded the adoption of the minutes.

The Chairperson asked if there were any matters arising.

With no matters arising, the minutes were considered and adopted.

The Chairperson thanked the Committee for availing itself and reminded Members that they were going to be debating the Budget on Tuesday at 10:00 am.

The meeting was adjourned.