DMPE, Stats SA & Brand SA BRRR

Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation

29 October 2024
Chairperson: Ms T Mgweba (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

2024 Budgetary Review & Recommendations Reports – BRRR

The Portfolio Committee held an in-person meeting to consider the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports (BRRRs) for Vote 9 and 14 for Statistics South Africa, Brand South Africa and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME).

As they considered the reports, Members debated various issues, focusing primarily on the relationship between Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and its position within the executive. There was support for enhancing Stats SA’s effectiveness, such as establishing it as a statutory body with autonomy similar to the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), and reviewing its organisational structure and salary scales. The intent was to make Stats SA more competitive in retaining skilled employees. The Committee noted that Stats SA could only implement laws that Parliament enacts, emphasising the role of Parliament in ensuring legislative action.

Members also discussed the potential merger of SA Tourism and Brand South Africa, raising concerns about its oversight and feasibility. Suggestions were made to change terms, to better reflect the Committee's oversight role. Stronger oversight mechanisms were proposed to aid the DPME and ensure accountability across government departments.

After the Committee was informed about the re-scheduling of a meeting, a Member expressed frustration over frequent schedule changes and inadequate support for the Committee. Another Member stressed the importance of addressing outstanding issues from the Sixth Parliament. The Chairperson suggested a workshop on the National State Enterprises Bill, and instructed the support staff to arrange a suitable venue.

Meeting report

The meeting was a continuation of the meeting discontinued on Friday last week due to network challenges.

The Committee noted the apologies of Ms K Christie (DA), Mr A Trollip (Action SA) and Mr L Motana (MK).

The Chairperson said the Committee needed to consider and adopt the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Reports (BRRR) -- Vote 9 and Vote 14 -- on Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), Brand South Africa and the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). She asked for Members’ inputs.

DMPE, Stats SA & Brand SA BRRR

Mr D Bergman (DA) noted the emphatic statement that Stats SA must implement the Statistics Amendment Bill. He therefore questioned why the President had not yet signed the Bill.

He suggested inserting a recommendation after clause 11.16, that the seventh Parliament should revisit the partnership between South Africa Tourism and Brand South Africa.

Mr S Gama (MK) was under the impression that Brand SA would no longer be continued. He asked for an update on that.

Ms M Dunjwa (ANC) indicated that on page 21 of the report, it must be highlighted that Parliament should ensure that the Bill be enacted and the reference to Stats SA ensuring this be removed.

Mr Bergman provided the context that the President had allowed the merger between SA Tourism and Brand SA in 2022. Although Brand SA had reported to the Committee that it [the merger] was off the table, the Committee still needed to play oversight to verify that claim.

The important thing was that Stats SA could implement the Bill only what had been enacted.

The Chairperson listened to all the inputs and agreed with Members that 11.1 must be changed in the report so that it is clear that enacting law was Parliament’s responsibility, not that of Stats SA.

The report should also reflect that the Committee would also like to review the discussion on the merger between Brand SA and SA Tourism.

Ms Dunjwa indicated that timeframes must be inserted so that the Committee could monitor the progress.

The Chairperson agreed, and said they must report to the Committee on the merger of the two entities in the next quarter.

Ms Thembakazi Baphela, the Committee’s Content Advisor, took Members through some of the amendments in the BRRR.

Mr Gama highlighted the matter of office accommodation, where the Director-General (DG) had said there was no necessity, and that the Department could save R22 million. He requested that this be included in the recommendation, because employees worked virtually.

Mr Bergman indicated the need to increase oversight mechanisms to assist the DPME. The Committee had to assist the Department to monitor all functions of government and hold government departments to account.

Ms A Kumbaca (ANC) suggested that the recommendation should include the medium-term development plan, and that the Committee should be provided with that plan.

Ms Dunjwa referred to 7.7 on page 17, and commented that the word “facilitate” may be inappropriate, given the role of the Committee was oversight, and suggested different wording.

The Chairperson agreed with her colleague on the Committee's responsibility for oversight, and said that the word should be changed from “facilitate” to “conduct.” The Department also needed to include all governmental departments and entities.

Mr Gama suggested that the recommendation regarding Stats SA in point 11.9 should be rephrased. Because of the nature of skills Stats SA requires, the recommendation should include that the ministry should look at government agencies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) not being subjected to the salary scales of government departments. Doing that would help to retain the skills.

The Chairperson referred Mr Gama to 11.2, and indicated that that his concern was covered.

Mr Bergman added that there should be an investigation into the feasibility of establishing Stats SA as a statutory body like the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA), with a certain level of autonomy, and for it to be placed outside of the Office of the Presidency.

Mr M Gana (RISE Mzansi) added that perhaps Mr Bergman’s point could be placed under 11.2 to state that there had to be a review of the organisational structure, to work in line with best practice.

Mr Gama commented that Stats SA could go on any recruitment drive, but they would not get any staff, so it needed to remunerate people differently. He agreed with his colleagues on the need to review the organisation's organogram. He concurred that there might be a need to make Stats SA an agency, similar to the AGSA.

Ms M Chauke-Adonis (ANC) suggested the wording “remuneration and performance appraisal” for Stats SA, for the organisation to retain employees.

Ms Dunjwa suggested leaving Stats SA as it was, rather than changing the organisation into something similar to AGSA, because recommending legislation would run the risk of starting a debate.

Mr Gama disagreed with Ms Dunjwa, and said he had made that comment not in the context of his political party, but as a Member of this Committee. He maintained his view that the input must be captured in the report -- that the Department must review the structure and organogram of Stats SA. The purpose of doing that was so that the organisation would then be able to offer competitive salaries to pay its employees and fulfil its constitutional mandate.

The Chairperson agreed that the input be added to 11.2.

The BRRR reports on Votes 9 and 14 were duly adopted.

Committee matters

The Chairperson indicated that the meeting scheduled for Friday, to process the annual performance plan (APP) of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) for 2023/24, would be cancelled. Since there was no longer a DPE, the responsibility for adopting that report had been delegated to the DPME. The oversight and adoption responsibility had therefore been given to this Committee. However, that meeting could not proceed now because the Minister was out of the country, and the meeting would be rescheduled to 7 November.

Mr Bergman commented that he had brought up that there was so much chopping and changing of the Committee’s programmes at last week’s meeting. Ordinarily, this Committee should be seen as the most important committee, but in reality, it was never given adequate support such as suitable venues to conduct its meetings. He complained about the way in which Parliament was treating this Committee.

Mr Gama said he understood that the responsibilities that used to be under the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises would now fall on this Committee. He was also aware that there were outstanding issues at the end of the sixth Parliament, and this Committee needed to know what those issues were.

The Chairperson responded that the sixth Parliament legacy report would help Members to understand those legacy issues. The Committee needed to have a workshop to discuss the National State Enterprises Bill, and urged the support staff to source an appropriate venue.

The meeting was adjourned.

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