Committee Minutes

Meeting report

The Chairperson said the purpose of the meeting was to adopt draft minutes before the end of the term and the campaigning for the 2024 election. She said that the Portfolio Committee could not hold a meeting on the previous Tuesday because a sitting of Parliament took place at 10 am and had created a scheduling conflict.

There were two items for the programme. The first was that the Committee receive a forensic report from the Department of Tourism (DT). The second was to consider the legacy report of the Committee. However, those two items would be shifted and dealt with in the first parliamentary quarter of 2024.

The Chairperson felt that it was important to end the final quarter of 2023 accordingly and officially by adopting draft minutes. She added that the meeting was not going to last three hours, as previously indicated.

The Committee had about seven draft minutes to adopt.

Draft minutes for consideration

5 September 2023

Ms H Ismail (DA) wanted to know if her name was included in the apologies and attendance section. 

The Chairperson responded that she could not see Ms Ismail’s name, adding that one's name would not be there if no apology was given.

Ms Ismail replied that she had indeed attended the meeting, and was not sure why her name was not included in the attendance section.

The Chairperson agreed that she had attended the meeting hosted at the Taj Hotel.

The Chairperson then asked if the Portfolio Committee were going to adopt the draft minutes.

Ms L Makhubela-Mashele (ANC) moved to adopt the minutes as a true reflection of what transpired in the meeting. Ms S Maneli (ANC) seconded their adoption, along with the corrections made.

19 September

The Chairperson asked whether there were any issues with the names. 

Ms Maneli responded that she did not see her initials.

The Chairperson acknowledged the mistake. She also noted an error in the spelling of "brief," and corrected it. 

Mr M de Freitas (DA) commented that on page 5, the second line had an error where there was a blank before "Mr." 

The Chairperson asked who had captured these minutes, since they could not capture the identity of the site guide who had appeared before the Portfolio Committee.

She then provided the name of the site guide -- Mr Walter Magane -- and asked the Committee Secretary to correct the error. She also noted another spelling error in Section 3.4 of the minutes, which included the last name of the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Ms Mpushe moved to adopt the minutes, and Mr De Freitas seconded.

10 October

Ms Ismail noted an error in the attendance where she was incorrectly identified as a Member of the ANC, and said her party affiliation must be changed to the DA instead.

Ms S Xego (ANC) moved the adoption of the minutes, and Ms Maneli seconded.

17 October

Ms Makhubela-Mashele moved the adoption of the minutes, and both Ms Maneli and Ms M Gomba (ANC) seconded.

24 October

Mr De Freitas commented that he had submitted his apologies for that meeting but did not see it reflected.

The Chairperson responded that his apologies were included in the minutes.

The Chairperson noted that in Section 5.1 of the minutes, there was a spelling error, as the word “department” was written as “departed”. She remarked that the Portfolio Committee did not meet any ghosts.

She said that in Section 5.7 of the minutes, she wanted the removal of "in the near future." She also reported an error in Section 6 of the minutes, which stated, “were a number of issues,”

Ms Makhubela-Mashele moved the adoption of the minutes as a true reflection, and Ms Xego seconded.

31 October

Mr De Freitas noted that on Page 2, the second line should read “Rugby World Cup.”

The Chairperson acknowledged the error. 

A Member referred to Section 6.10, which stated that “the Committee noted the timeframes for the appointment of the board by the Member in November 2023." She wanted the section to be paraphrased to include the dates provided by Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille -- for example, 31 October for the appointment, and 30 November for the cluster Committee. She wanted to include those dates so that when the Portfolio Committee returned, they could be able to indicate to the Minister the timeframes she had provided to the Committee. The intent would be to receive a progress report on the timeframe.

She had heard the specific dates provided by the Minister for the Cabinet/Portfolio Committee meeting, where she was going to meet the nominated candidates at the end of November. She suggested that the Committee revisit that issue and include those dates to hold the Minister accountable, if that was permissible. If it was not permissible, then the issue should be dropped.

Mr A Matumba (EFF) said that the minutes were a reflection of what had transpired in the meeting. The Minister did indeed provide a timeframe with dates and the “type” of meeting that was going to take place. He suggested that those details be included in the minutes. This was so that the timeframe provided by the Minister to the Committee would be used to hold her accountable tomorrow. He supported the previous speaker’s position.

The Chairperson requested that the timeframe be placed chronologically among the amendments, as stated previously by the Minister. 

Ms Makhubela-Mashele moved the adoption of the minutes with the amendments, and  Mr Matumba seconded.

14 November

Ms Maneli stated that she was marked as present despite being absent.

The Chairperson acknowledged the error.

The Chairperson commented that the Welcoming and Apologies section of the minutes were the items on the agenda, and added that if apologies were not reflected, they could be raised as an issue. This was because Page 1 contained only a list of Portfolio Committee Members regardless of attendance, and acted as a standard cover page.

She commented that the apologies must be extended to include Ms Xego, Ms Mpushe, Ms Maneli and the DT Director General, Mr Victor-Tharage​. She wanted to know why those mentioned had been excluded and requested to be included, commenting that this was a “serious error”.

Mr Matumba commented that the summer campaign was not referenced in passing, and had been mentioned in line with the work done in rural areas and townships. During the meeting, it was said that jobs must be created within rural areas through the upcoming summer campaign. He clarified that he referred to Sections 3.10 and 3.11 of the minutes, where the Committee had spoken about the summer campaign. He was sure of this because the Chairperson had spoken about the subject at length during the meeting.

The Chairperson commented that she was unsure whether the minutes had been drafted differently. This was because if one had inspected the previous minutes, the apologies from the DT and the Portfolio Committee would have been provided separately.

She expressed the view that the standard framework of the minutes should be the one that “seeks to be explicit,” because it was now difficult to identify who had drafted the 14 November minutes.

She said the Committee would adopt the minutes along with its amendments. However, going forward, the standard format must be maintained otherwise it would cause further confusion.

Ms Makhubela-Mashele moved to adopt the minutes, with its amendments. The Chairperson seconded the adoption of the minutes, because many of the Committee Members had not been present during the that meeting.

21 November

Ms Maneli noted that Section 6.3 had an error in the first sentence. 

The Chairperson commented that in Section 7., there was a grammatical error. The word “ignored” needed to be replaced with “infused”.

Ms Maneli proposed the adoption of the minutes, along with its amendments, and Ms Xego seconded.

Closing Remarks

The Chairperson said the Committee would receive the minutes of the 7 December meeting and deal with them next year.

She encouraged the Members of the Portfolio Committee to spend time with their families during the Christmas season.

The meeting was adjourned.