Question NW1728 to the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture
13 August 2020 - NW1728
Mhlongo, Mr TW to ask the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture
(1). Given that his department paid the legal costs of the Public Protector South Africa, Public Protector (PP) and SA Roadies Association (SARA), what amount did his department pay in legal costs for the failed review of the PP remedial actions in terms of the judgment delivered in case 63756/2018 in the North Gauteng High Court on 15 June 2018 (details furnished); (2). what progress has he and his department made with the implementation of the remedial actions of the PP in line with the court order regarding the renovation of SARA House and his amendment of the White Paper, for SARA to finally receive operations and administrative funding? NW2118E
Reply:
1. I wish to advise that the correct case number for the matter in question is 63756/2017. There was out of court a settlement between the PP office, SARA and the Department were the sum of R191 426, 71 to SARA’s attorneys and will be making a further payment in the sum of R187 291, 49 to the attorneys representing the Public Protector South Africa and the Public Protector (PP) on receipt of a claim from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
2. The Department concluded a contract with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) on 19 June 2019 and renovations at SARA House are currently underway. Despite the original budget requested by SARA of R15 000 000.00 (Fifteen Million Rand Only); subsequent to the settlement, the Department deemed it fit to increase the budget to R23 000 000.00 (Twenty Three Million Rand Only), taking into account the preliminary work done by DBSA in terms of projected costs of the assessment work.
The Director-General convened a meeting with the Chairperson of the Reference Panel and SARA was represented by Mr Nyathela. Subsequent to that meeting, the aspects dealing with events and technical services were reviewed taking into consideration SARA’s input and events and technical services are a stand-alone Chapter in the Revised White Paper namely, Chapter 4, paragraph 4.8 at pages 40 to 41.
The Department also approved an Arts, Culture Promotion and Development Funding and Transfers policy on 27 January 2020 which policy deals with operational matters and among others, the payment of operations and administrative costs of up to a maximum amount of 10% of the total allocated grant funding to qualifying Beneficiaries including SARA.
Attached is the Revised White Paper and Settlement Agrement: