Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation Bill: Cultural Affairs and Sport

Meeting report

Adjustments Appropriation Bill, Vote 13: Cultural Affairs and Sport

Mr Guy Redman, Head: Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS), said that in this budget, great care had been taken to ensure that choices being made during this difficult time were aligned with the provincial priorities of growth for jobs, safety and well-being, and enablers for innovation, culture and governance. It also ensured protection of those parts of the DCAS business against probabilities of long term effects by intervening and dealing with causal linkages and social ills that were currently plaguing society, rather than dealing with the symptoms as it pursued avenues to close the tap, rather than continue with the mop.

The DSAC budget had decreased by R7.2m from a main appropriation of R895m, with an adjusted appropriation of R888m. The budget reduction was mainly due to fiscal consolidation owing to the bleak economic and fiscal environment. It was also due to a reduction in conditional grants, as the expanded public works programme (EPWP) had been reduced by R336 000, and the mass participation sport development grant had been cut by R4.5m.

There had been a rollover from the previous financial year of R4.2m relating mainly to committed funds. An amount of R3.8b was shifted from Vote 5 of the Education Departments to the DCAS, in partnership with the youth programme, for at-home learning initiative which aims to promote a stronger culture of learning at home. There was also the community support programme of R2m. An amount of R7.4m was shifted from Vote 1 to the Skukuma-Moving Mindset programme, which aims to equip learners with social and emotional skills to regulate their emotions, slow down responses to violence, and respond to healthy and responsible behaviour. The DCAS was in support of the enterprise content management (ECM) rollouts for resources and contracts.

Discussion

The Chairperson said that the budget was now tabled, and asked Members if there were any questions.

Mr M Kama (ANC) thanked Mr Redman and his team for the work that it was doing in the DCAS. There had recently been a meeting to discuss the initiation challenges by community stakeholders, and he applauded the Department for its commitment to resolving the issues on the ground. Would the initiation programmes be affected by the budget cuts? The point had already been made that the DCAS was not sufficiently funded to fulfil its mandate. These budget cuts had come as a shock and were unacceptable. Had Mr Redman and Minister Marais engaged with Treasury regarding a possible prevention of budget cuts and a possible increase, even if it was funded through the provincial reserve? It was finding itself in a difficult fiscal environment, and measures had to be put in place. The DCAS was already getting less than it needed to achieve its targets.

He asked for an update on the projects for which there had been rollovers. This included the feasibility study on the Cango Caves, and information on the service model and the investigation thereof. Over R17m had been taken away from the compensation of employees (CoE) and goods and services -- what was the reason for this? How many employees were affected? Which goods and services were affected?

Ms D Baartman (DA) agreed that the DCAS had been doing hard work with its programmes, despite the budget cuts affected by the national public wage bill that had been agreed upon for the provinces. She also referred to the budget cuts of R4.5m in the national conditional grants for mass participation in sports development and R336 000 in the EPWP. The DCAS was suffering on multiple levels. This was in the context of the 2023 stabilisation fund and the provincial treasury being completely depleted by the R400m which had to be put towards public wages in the whole province. Would it be possible to engage with the national Department regarding the particular conditional grant cuts? Had Minister Marais and Mr Redman engaged the respective national departments to try and prevent these national budget cuts in the grants? She asked for clarity on the home learning programmes, and whether the DCAS would be implementing them. If so, would they remain the same?

Mr G Pretorius (DA) referred to the revenue sources programme, particularly for library and archives services, and said there was R4.2m in respect of transfers to municipalities to cover existing funding shortfalls. He had difficulty understanding why municipalities returned money and did not spend it. He asked for an explanation for this.

Ms A Bans (ANC) said the tables for revised payments and revised spending projects indicated that there was always slow spending on library services, and sport and recreation in the first half of the year. What were the reasons for this? What was the likelihood of underspending? Under table 13.5 for the asset finance reserve provincial revenue fund, did it mean that the DCAS had received R7m from the provincial revenue? If so, what other funds were earmarked? On page 316, there was an amount of R4.2m to which Mr Pretorius had referred to, and she also wanted an explanation for this.

DCAS's response

Mr Redman said the initiation programmes did not receive a budget cut this time around. All the money that had previously been allocated for it had been retained, so it was unaffected by the budget cuts. Together with Minister Marais, there had been engagements to try and prevent the budget cuts for the Department. A very strong case had been made about the work that the DCAS did, which was very preventative in nature. If there was an investment in the DCAS, there would be an impact on most of the things that other departments were dealing with, such as the Department of Social Development and the Department of Health. There was an impact on these departments’ outcomes because the DCAS was able to intervene and prevent young people from being involved in risk-taking behaviour.

The budget cutting was not as bad as it could have been. The cut was originally R27m, but after the engagement process, a positive response resulted in only a R7.2m reduction. However, the nature of the budget cuts made it very difficult for any department to survive. This was unprecedented, and the DCAS knew it would not come out of this process unscathed, although it had come off slightly better than the other departments.

He said that together with Minister Marais, there had been engagement with the national Department regarding the conditional grants. It had been successful with the Western Cape library grant, because there were no budget cuts. The Western Cape was the only province that did not receive a cut in the conditional grant. All the other provinces had received cuts. This meant that the engagement had been successful. A suggestion was made to look at the performance and cutting criteria, because the Western Cape spends 100% of its conditional grant annually. Unfortunately, on the sport side, the impact was quite dire and there had been cuts of R4.5m.

Ms Jacqueline Boulle, Chief Director: After School Programme, DCAS, said that the Shukuma- Moving Mindsets programme and the home learning programme were sub-projects of the YearBeyond. The DCAS has been implementing these two programmes. These were collaborative programmes, and allocation had been received from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) because it worked in schools. This was to help avoid multiple budget holders. An adjustment had been made to transfer the funds to the DCAS. There was no change to either programme. The Shukuma programme still worked with grade eight and nine learners in cognitive behavioural, social and emotional skills, particularly focusing on anger management. The home learning programme dealt with high levels of absenteeism or behavioural challenges and getting young people back into the communities, working with caregivers, and offering buses to learners to get to school and after school activities. The DCAS co-funded both programmes -- it was not only funded by the WCED. The first rollover of funds was to complete the norms and standards assessment, which was a transversal youth forum initiative and funded by the Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT). This was to assist all the major youth programmes involving the norms and standards, and 50% had been rolled over because the report was not finalised. The second rollover was towards YearBeyond and some of the training costs which could not be processed within the financial year.

Mr Michael Janse van Rensburg, Chief Director: Museums, Heritage and Geographical Names Service, said there were two amounts for the feasibility study on the Cango Caves. These were for R1m and R500 000. The R1m was for the feasibility study into the public-private partnership (PPP). When it initially went out for tender, the quotations received had been over R3m. The budget was not sufficient for this. The DCAS had to relook at the budget, and revised it. A reasonable quotation of R500 000 was received, and the feasibility study was completed in June/July. Inputs were needed from municipalities. A service provider had been appointed in February, but had been unable to complete the necessary work, so a portion of the funding had been rolled over.

Ms Cecilia Sani, Chief Director: Library Services, DSAC, said that R500 000 was rolled over to fund the think tank for the alternative library service model. A steering committee was created to examine the integrated model between the archives, museums and library services. This investigation was ongoing, and the think tank would be in quarter four. The reason municipalities gave back the funding was due to CoE. The municipalities had difficulty filling posts. These funds were then reallocated to small maintenance projects. The money for library services that was underspent in the first six months was due to the procurement of books, but this was now on track. The transfer schedule payments would be spent in quarter two, so spending might look slow in quarter one. She was sure the DCAS would be spending its funding by the end of the financial year.

Mr Redman said that on the sport side, the federations had been allowed to conduct their annual general meetings and submit their audited financials in the first quarter. There was normally a delay in that process, which impacted the spending in the first two quarters.

Ms Brenda Rutgers, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), DCAS, said that the R17.5m was a combination of CoE and goods and services. The amount involved for CoE was R2.1m, but R1.7m had been shifted to households to cover the cost of leave gratuities due to resignations or retirements. As far as services were concerned, the R19.9m was a combination of other adjustments, which included revenue retention, the shifting of funds and a realignment due to the fiscal consolidation. This made up the R17.5m, and did not affect the posts. The own revenue was R2.6m, and not R7m, and was made up of the museums' entrance fees, fines and penalties.

Mr Redman said that all the questions for the first round have been covered.

The Chairperson asked if there were any follow-up questions, but there were none. He said this was good, because it meant that the DCAS's explanations had been good. He thanked Mr Redman and the DCAS for the thorough responses.

He asked if Mr Redman or Minister Marais wanted to make any closing remarks.

Minister Marais thanked the Committee for the engagement. She said the DCAS was doing a wonderful job despite the fiscal environment.

The Chairperson thanked Minister Marais, and said that the DCAS had mastered the art of doing a lot with very little. He wished the Department well, because the fiscal environment was going to become more constrained.

Recommendations

The Chairperson asked if Members had any resolutions, requests for information or recommendations.

Mr Kama suggested that the programme for next year include a presentation on the feasibility study of the Cango Caves, coupled with an oversight visit to the Dias Museum.

The Chairperson asked if there were any other resolutions or requests for information.

There were none. The Chairperson said that Mr Kama’s suggestion was recorded.

Committee Report on the Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation Bill

The Committee moved on to the report of the Committee on Vote 13: Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation Bill [B7-2023].

The Chairperson read through the report.

Ms Baartman said that given the enormous constraints, especially the budget cuts in the mass participation of sport development and the social sector, the DCAS had been doing very well. She proposed that the Committee support the vote.

The Committee supported the Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation Bill.

Mr Kama indicated that the ANC, in terms of Standing Rule 90, wanted the minority view to not support the Adjustments Appropriation Bill to be recorded. The ANC felt that the decrease could have been avoided.

The Chairperson said that everyone had been hoping that the national Department was not going to cut the budget so drastically. Everyone had hoped that it could have been avoided.

Mr Kama said that this would be expanded on in the debate.

The Chairperson said that the report would read that the Standing Committee on Police Oversight, Community Safety and Cultural Affairs and Sport, having deliberated on the subject of Vote 13: Cultural Affairs and Sport in the schedule to the Western Cape Adjustments Appropriation Bill [B7-2023], referred to the Committee in terms of Standing Rule 188, reports that it supports the vote. In accordance with the Standing Rule 90, the African National Congress expressed its minority view not to support the vote.

Committee matters

Annual reports

The draft report on the annual reports for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport, the Western Cape Language Committee, and the Western Cape Cultural Commission for the financial year 2022/23, was tabled.

The Chairperson asked if there were any additions or clear omissions.

There were none.

The Committee adopted the report.

Committee minutes

The Committee considered and adopted the minutes of 31 October.

Oversight visit

The Committee adopted the oversight report on the visit to the Western Cape Archives and Records Services.

The Chairperson suggested that there be another visit, because it had been fun.

Closing remarks

The Chairperson said that those were all the documents that needed to be dealt with. This was the last meeting for the year, and Members would see each other only at the House. He thanked them for all the work they had done throughout the year. He thanked Mr Waseem Matthews (Procedural Officer) for ensuring the Committee was always operating efficiently and effectively. The first part of the Committee's programme for next year would be shared before the end of the year.

The meeting was adjourned.