Committee Legacy Report

Meeting report

The Chairperson stated that the meeting marked the summation of the term and concluded a chapter on the tenure and responsibilities of Members in office. The focus would be on the handover report and details associated with the work of the Committee during the period of the 6th Parliament.

The Committee Secretary, Ms Amanda Zindlani, indicated that the meeting did not quorate.

The Chairperson suggested that the meeting proceed. He was hopeful that more Members would join by the time the report was considered for adoption. Should this not happen, an urgent meeting would be arranged.

Ms W Ngwenya (ANC, Gauteng) supported the Chairperson’s suggestion to start the meeting. Considering that only one apology was received, she believed more Members would be logging in.

Ms M Mokause (EFF, Northern Cape) felt strongly that the meeting should not proceed if a quorum was not formed. She was puzzled by the Chairperson's unprocedural behaviour.

Ms T Modise (ANC, North West) was confident that Members from other provinces would soon join the meeting.

The Chairperson also believed that other Members would join the meeting and might be experiencing connectivity problems.

Ms Mokause found it difficult to understand why the Chairperson, the House Chairperson, and the Select Committee Chairperson placed it on record that they had been starting meetings when it was not forming a quorum. As an EFF Member, she did not want to be involved in illegal matters led by the ANC. Starting a meeting that did not form a quorum was treasonous towards the rules of the Council. She intended to report the three Members to the Ethics Committee for breaching Council rules.

The Chairperson replied that Ms Mokause was free to report them. He repeated that the meeting should proceed while other Members tried connecting to the platform. There was no illegality in considering the activities undertaken throughout the term.

Committee Legacy Report
Mr Eric Boskati, Committee Content Advisor, briefly summarised the content of the Legacy Report of the 6th Parliament. The Committee’s main focus during the term was centred around Parliament’s five strategic objectives, namely oversight, legislation, public participation, inter-governmental relations, and international agreements.  

Key focus areas:
Attention was paid to the following key focus areas in particular:

Eskom’s sustained power generation capacity to end loadshedding;

Completion of the unbundling of Eskom into three divisions;

Improving the turn-around time at the Durban Port Terminal by Transnet;

Opening up of rail networks to third parties to create competition in the freight and logistics sector;

Corporatisation and operation of the South African Postbank;

Successful implementation of the Deed of Settlement between Alexkor and the DPE;

Resolving the land claim matter between Safcol and land claimants;

Meeting the implementation deadline of the Digital Migration project from analogue to digital;

Reducing communication costs by the Department and ICASA;

Implementation and roll-out of the SA Connect project; and

Successful implementation of the state-owned companies' strategies, e.g. SABC and Denel.

Key challenges:
The oversight work of the Committee was hampered by a number of key challenges, including the following:

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic;

The disastrous fire to Parliamentary buildings compelled the Committee to conduct virtual meetings;

The poor attendance of committee meetings by Ministers and their deputies;

The inability to undertake an international study tour; and

Difficulties faced by state-owned entities, especially entities affected by state capture corruption practices.

Recommendations
The Committee proposed the following recommendations to address the legacy issues that remained unresolved during the 6th Parliament:

Parliament should raise awareness and agree on a timeframe with the executive arm of government to resolve legacy matters involving state-owned companies, e.g. Safcol and Alexkor;

The relevant departments, i.e. DPE and DCDT, must guard against truncating government policies when a new Minister is appointed. Swift policy shifts cause a redirection of resources and result in obscure signals at the administrative level; and

Departments and entities must extend invitations to conferences, seminars, and exhibitions relevant to their work to the Select Committee and not only to the Portfolio Committee.

Discussion
The Chairperson invited Members to indicate any issues not captured in the report.

Mr J Nyambi (ANC, Mpumalanga) did not notice anything that warranted changes. He moved for the report's adoption and commended the support staff for the good job they did compiling it.

Ms Modise supported the report's adoption and agreed that the team had done a good job.

Ms Ngwenya was satisfied that the Post Office issue was included in the report. She pointed out three issues in the Recommendation Section of the report that must be emphasised. Firstly, the international study tour should be done at the start of the 7th Parliament, and preparations should be made in a timely manner. Secondly, the Committee must develop a Recommendation Tracking System. Lastly, the incoming committee should decide that the Minister must attend all meetings.

The Chairperson agreed that it was important for Ministers to attend committee meetings. He suggested the Committee consider meeting on an alternative day because Wednesdays are reserved for Cabinet meetings. The conflicting issue of attending Cabinet and Committee meetings on the same day posed a major difficulty. Not going on a study tour throughout the five-year term must be noted as a major mishap. A study tour is a benchmarking exercise meant to improve the work of the Committee. The Committee had been failed in this regard by those handling operations. The matter should be mainstreamed as part of the targets of the Committee. Although it was important to emphasise achievements and milestones, it was equally important to highlight areas of flaws beyond the powers of the Committee. Resolutions of the Committee must be implemented as representations of the public. The report must serve as a point of reference for the work of the Committee. After receiving no further input, he declared the Committee Legacy Report duly adopted. In conclusion, he stated that the meeting was forming a quorum, and the Committee had the powers to adopt the report.

Minutes
The Committee adopted the minutes of 27 March 2024 without amendments.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their commitment throughout the term and for their robust and meaningful contributions when issues were discussed in the meetings. He stated that this was the last meeting and wished all Members the best with their future endeavours.

The meeting was adjourned.