Socio-Economic Development: Research Reports: Minutes of Proceedings

Please note: These minutes were taken by the Committee Clerk in Parliament

Wednesday, 23 November 2005 (10h30)

Venue: Parktonian Hotel, Braamfontein, Johannesburg

Mohlaloga, Mr M R (Chairperson)

Mashiane, Ms L M

Njikelana, Mr S J

Mazibuko, Ms N F

Kalyan, Ms S V

Dudley, Ms C

Apology: Zulu, Prince N E

The following staff members were in attendance:

Manjezi, Ms N C - Committee Administrator; and

Mvulane, Mr Z A - Committee Researcher.

The Chairperson welcomed everybody and proceeded to consider the following items of the agenda:

The Committee considered the report of the public hearings that were held on 7 to 9 November 2005. It was agreed that the report was a reflection of the outcomes of the public hearings and the report was accordingly adopted.

Ms Kalyan indicated that she was concerned on how the Committee will to deal with the recommendations made in the report. Ms Dudley stated that the recommendations in the report are not necessarily those of the Committee but made by the participants in the hearings.

Ms Mazibuko indicated that the Committee would deal with the recommendations made by the participants at a later stage when responding to the questionnaire.

The Chairperson moved that the Committee must interact and engage with stakeholders dealing with the areas of water and sanitation, electricity, skills development, Information Communication Technology (ICT) as there was no input from these sectors. The process would assist the Committee to develop responses to those areas.

It was agreed that the Committee must invite these stakeholders and request them to make written submissions on the challenges, shortcomings and successes on these sectors.

The Chairperson suggested that the support staff should look at issues of logistics and concerns in order to capture them in the report.

The Chairperson informed the Committee that the hearings that were held on 7, 8, 9 November 2005 in Gauteng were national and not provincial hearings. Because of the limited time given to the Committee on stage 1 of the process, the Committee agreed that it would not be possible to conduct hearings in other provinces like Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and North West. The Committee agreed that it would use the report that will be compiled from the provincial consultative meetings to cover the areas that it was not able to visit.

The Chairperson reminded the Members that they were each given an objective and that a memorandum was sent to all Members indicating their respective objectives.

He indicated that the allocations were as follows:

Ms S V Kalyan – Objective 1

Prince N . Zulu – Objective 5

Mr. S J Njikelana – Objective 3

Ms L Mashiane – Objective 4

Ms N F Mazibuko – Objective 2

Ms C Dudley – Objective 6

The Chairperson indicated that where Members need assistance they should contact the researcher, Mr Mvulane.

Mr Njikelana stated that he was concerned with the status of the APRM Resource Centre. He indicated that it was not well equipped and well resourced.

Because of the workload for the Researcher, Mr S. J. Njikelana suggested that the Committee be provided with an additional researcher to enable Members to answer the questionnaire within the agreed timeframe.

It was also agreed that the Committee should request an Administrative Assistant to assist the Administrator.

Mr. Z. A. Mvulane also informed the Committee that the Section Manager of Information Service who is the APRM Co-ordinator has confirmed that there is budget available to do commissioned research and that budget could be used to assist Members in doing the work.

The Committee discussed the programme and agreed to the following amendments:

The Committee agreed that the two last meetings as indicated above, would be considered after tabling of the Governing Council Report in Parliament, preferably at the beginning of the year in 2006.

The meeting adjourned at 12h00 and the date of the next meeting is 07 December 2005 at 10h00.

Adopted by the Committee: 10 January 2006

Signature by the Chairperson:…………………………

Date:…………………………..