Hansard: NA: Unrevised hansard

House: National Assembly

Date of Meeting: 11 May 2021

Summary

No summary available.

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Minutes

 

UNREVISED HANSARD

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TUESDAY,

11 MAY 2021

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

 

Watch video here: PLENARY (HYBRID)

 

The House met at 14:01

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolic) took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation.

Hon members in the interests of safety for all present in the Chamber, please keep your mask on and sit in your designated area, and also restrict the movement from one bench to another as far as possible.

ANC WINS TWO WARDS DURING BY-ELECTIONS

 

(Member’s Statement)

Mr B M HADEBE (ANC): Hon House Chair, under the steward leadership of Mr cool, calm, and collected, who is not easily shaken, His Excellency, President Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa, the African National Congress is humbled by the emphatic victories over the latest by-elections held on Wednesday 21 April 2021. The ANC retained 10 seats and won extra two seats over the Democratic Alliance in Knysna and IFP in Maphumulo.

IsiXhosa:

Andazi noba ndiyavakala na? Okanye ndinyuse i-volume?

 

English:

These results demonstrate that our people still trust us to bring a better life to them. As the ANC, we do not take for granted the confidence that the voters have displayed during these elections. We commit ourselves to redouble our efforts to work with them, to solve the problems faced our people.

Indeed, we are the only political party that can bring real change to their lives. We, once again, congratulate the IEC for delivering the credible, free and fair elections. Lastly, we thank our committed volunteers, supporters, the motive force, who worked tirelessly in the build-up of these by– elections and ensured a decisive victory.

 

IsiZulu:

 

Singaphezulu asilali sigade izwe. “I thank you”. [Ngiyabonga.]

 

[Ihlombe.]

 

MAFIA BEHAVIOUR AT PRIESKA MINE

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr J R B LORIMER (DA): Chairperson, for nearly two weeks alone Northern Cape, the town of Prieska has been under siege by a toxic mix of a local mafia and opportunist local politicians, at issue supposedly nearby Orion copper mine. This mine is one of a few new medium-size mining projects in the country. It’s going ahead despite the onerous conditions of the Mining Charter. It has complied with everything in the charter, and all regulations. It is the kind of investment that this government says it wants. But a construction mafia is angry because it didn't get contracts at the mine. It says unless we get 10% of this mine, we will not let you build it. They say local people have been cheated and now the roads have been blocked and people threatened and attacked. It took until yesterday for the police to do anything.

 

 

The mine had to go to court for an interdict stopping protesters from blocking access. Where is the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy? They should be there on the grounds, combating the gangster’s narrative that the mine is at fault. The department should be explaining that local

 

politicians cannot demand shares in the mines or guarantee of contracts. Until we have a department that can understand and support investor, the mining industry will continue to decline. We are desperate for investments. We must look after what we get.

 

 

VACCINE ROLLOUT PROGRAMME LAGGING BEHIND

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Ms N N CHIRWA (EFF): Chairperson, it is now almost inevitable that the country will be faced with a third wave of the COVID pandemic, which will unleash even more suffering and pain on our people. Over the past year, our leaders have learnt nothing from the devastation caused by the virus in the country. It is criminal that today, after so many months of suffering, we still have no bankable plan to rapidly roll out vaccination programme for our people. We have heard time and time, and again about the number of vaccines the country has acquired. But the truth of the matter is that it is lagging far behind all African countries in terms of vaccinating people. This is so, despite the fact that we have the highest COVID mortality rate in the continent. The coming devastation that will be unleashed by the ... [Inaudible.] ... virus must

 

be put squarely on the doors of the ruling party. Your incompetence would bring about unimaginable pain and suffering on so many of our people. So, many people will be left without parents because of ineptitude. We further call on you to get a variety of vaccines that are available which have been proven to work and to be effective against the virus found in this country, there must be visible upsurge in the number of people getting vaccinated. Thank you, Chairperson.

 

 

ANC CONDEMNS ATTACK ON PALESTINIAN WORSHIPPERS

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

 

Ms B SWARTS (ANC): Thank you, House Chair, the African

 

National Congress condemns attack on Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqasa, Mosque by Israeli forces. The ANC is deeply

concerned by the violent actions in the latest Israel- Palestine conflict. Recently scores of Palestinian protesters

were injured, most of them hospitalised after Israeli police dispersed worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and elsewhere in Jerusalem. Rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and stun grenades were fired to the protesters for refusing the evictions. The recent clashes are provoked by the planned

 

evictions of Palestinians from annexed East Israel to make way for Israeli settlements.

 

 

As the ANC, we view this as severe violation of human rights and

 

international accords. Such attacks, particularly during the

 

Muslim  holy      month   of         Ramadan,         are        against all         humanitarian norms. We reiterate our steadfast support to the Palestinian

cause   and       the        Palestinian        people’s           rights    to         establish           an

 

independent state. We pray for the speedy recovery of the injured

 

and urge the international community to take prompt action to protect the Palestinian people. Thank you, House Chair.

 

 

ROLE PLAYED BY THE LATE QUEEN MANTFOMBI SHIYIWE DLAMINI ZULU

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr N SINGH (IFP): Hon Chairperson, ... I will do this on behalf of hon Hlengwa, today as the IFP member responsible for the Portfolio of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities. I would like to acknowledge the central role played by the late Queen Mantfombi Shiyiwe Dlamini Zulu, as the mother to the Zulu nation. She was passionate about the role and responsibilities of Zulu women, and work closely with the late King, Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu to revive

 

traditional ceremony like the reed dance. She was also held in extremely high regard by the young Zulu maidens who viewed her as a mother, as well as the maiden minders who guide these maidens. The Queen further hosted umkhosi wesivivana an annual all women ceremony, where women gathered from across Kwazulu- Natal as well as neighbouring Swaziland, to discuss the challenges that they face as women in their homes and come up with solutions. The Queen was also a champion in the fight against gender-based violence, as well as substance abuse, and their wisdom and compassion will be deeply missed in recognition of her life and work. We call on all government to redouble their efforts in the fight against gender based violence, as well as the ongoing work to uplift the women of South Africa, especially those living in our rural areas. I thank you.

 

 

VIOLENCE IN THE CITY OF JERUSALEM

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Dr C P MULDER (F F PLUS): Chairperson, what is unfolding in Jerusalem, at the moment is a planned gathering of violent rioters led by the terrorist group Hamas and the Palestinian

 

authority with the goal of igniting violence and unrest in the city of Jerusalem.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon Mulder, hon members on the virtual platform please be reminded that your microphones must stay muted until you are recognised to speak or when your party is called. You are causing a disturbance in the House because the members who are participating are not audible then. Hon Mulder, will you start again with a statement please.

 

 

VIOLENCE IN THE CITY OF JERUSALEM

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Dr C P MULDER: Chairperson, what is unfolding in Jerusalem, at the moment is a planned gathering of violent rioters led by the terrorist group Hamas and the Palestinian authority with the goal of igniting violence and unrest in the city of Jerusalem. These events are part of a wave of terror that is being led by the terrorist organisation Hamas, and are the result of reckless and irresponsible incitement to violence.

In recent days, rockets have been warned from Gaza and the wave of balloon attacks have caused widespread fires and

 

severe damage. Israel has taken every measure possible to calm the situation and prevent tensions and violence. Since unification of Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has gone to great efforts to facilitate freedom of religion and worship for all faiths in the holy city. What is happening on the ground is not a struggle for freedom of worship. It is plain terrorism. It is a pity that the South African government always find itself on the side opposing Israel. This is not Israel that is in breach of international law, it is the ANC government, which is not respecting the sovereignty of the state of Israel. Thank you.

 

 

Ms S A MASIKO (ANC): House Chairperson, the African National Congress moves without notice that the House notes with shock and sadness, the tragic passing of former South African rugby player Lindani Myeni, who was shot dead by officer from the Honolulu police department in Hawaii following an altercation on Wednesday, 14 April, 2021. Understand that the 29-year-old Lindani, had moved to the island just over a year ago, with his wife Lindsay, who is from Hawaii, and their two children. Recalls that he was a well-respected and god-fearing man, who never showed any signs of aggression. Remembers that he came from the KZN North Coast and attended George Campbell

 

technical high school in Durban, as well as the Sharks Academy. Further remembers that ...

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon member, we are busy with statements. May I request the Whips of the parties to ensure that the sequence for the members who should read the statements. I cannot determine the sequence hon members. That is a party issue. So, the members who are then going to do the motions without notice should also then wait until we get to that point. May I ask for a statement from the ANC please, hon April.

 

 

COKA BROTHERS BRUTALLY KILLED IN MPUMALANGA FARM

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr H G APRIL (ANC): Thank you, Chairperson, the ANC condemns the senseless killing of Coka brothers in Mpumalanga farm. We condemn the senseless killing of two brothers, Zenzele and Amos Coka, at Pampoenkraal farm in Mpumalanga on 9 April 2021. The siblings were part of a group of farm dwellers seeking employment as seasonal farm workers. It is claimed that tension began between them and the farm owner which resulted

 

to the tragic death of the brothers and an assault of a third person.

 

 

We commend the police for their quick response in arresting the alleged offenders who have since appeared at the Piet Retief Magistrate’s Court. We are concerned by this constant killing of farm employees and we are urging the government to come up with measures to end these brutal farm attacks. We call for calm among the community members, the law should be allowed to take its course and ensure that those found guilty would face the full might of the law.            We would like to send heartfelt condolences to the Coka family in the passing of their loved ones. I thank you.

 

 

WASTE CRISIS IN THE CITY OF EKURHULENI

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Ms H ISMAIL (DA): There residents of the City of Ekurhuleni are being subjected to the biggest waste crisis in the history of the city. We call on the Minister of Cogta and the Minister of Environment Fisheries to investigate the entire waste crisis enveloping the city. The problems associated with daily round collections, the closure of the landfill sites,

 

nonpayment of the private land ... [Inaudible.] ... sites, the vacancies in the department, the lack of proper supply chain contract management and the rolling out of infrastructure and expertise. Just this year, it was announced that the SIU will be investigating allegation of corruption in Ekurhuleni Municipality with 24 million for waste collection vehicle tender. The residents of the ... [Inaudible.] ... deserve to live in a healthy environment where section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of SA provides a mandate of the state to ensure environmental protection and ecologically sustainable development.

 

 

The National Environmental Management Waste Act, Act 59 of 2008 aims to reform the law regulating waste management in order to protect health environment by providing reasonable measures for the prevention of pollution, ecological degradation, and for securing ecologically sustainable development. Mayor Masina needs to ensure paying residents receive efficient refuse removal services in the City of Ekurhuleni and their tender processes are conducted lawfully and with due processes.

 

 

CALL TO POSTPONE ELECTIONS

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr B H HOLOMISA (UDM): Chairperson ... [Inaudible.] ... to consult ... [Inaudible.] ... of conducting ... [Inaudible.]

... President Ramaphosa announced the 27th of October as

 

election day. Why invite leaders of parties to a meeting at all? One wonders who their true masters are.

 

 

The UDM then proposed that elections be postponed to 2022 or

 

to when it is safe to do so, and that Parliament takes steps to make it possible. We again make this call in this House

today.

 

 

 

COVID-19 has changed our lives irrevocably. Our health care

 

system is under strain at the moment. Vaccination is at a

 

snail’s pace. Infections and deaths keep increasing. A third

 

wave is a very real threat and we might stare further

 

lockdowns in the face, judging by India’s experience.

 

 

 

Scientists internationally and at home have advised against holding elections as they are super-spreader events, yet our own President does not heed the warning because he must appease his political allies at the expense of ordinary South Africans.

 

The President himself ... rather, colleagues, we understand the mechanics of election campaigns. Political parties hold public gatherings, make door-to-door calls and hand out election material like flyers. All these activities are

literally dangerous to the lives of our campaigners and our

 

voters, and risks the exponential spread of COVID-19.

 

 

 

South Africa is far behind in terms of technology and it is still relatively expensive. Therefore, calling for campaigns

to be conducted through technology platforms is disingenuous, otherwise ...

 

 

IsiXhosa:

 

... kuyabonaka nje ukuba la masela acinga ukuba sele elungile

 

kuba ethathe le mali ye-COVID-19. Yijongeni loo nto leyo. [... it appears that these thieves think they are ready, because

they took this COVID-19 money. Look into that thing.]

 

 

 

English:

 

Ms C PHIRI: We are ready for the election. You must go and campaign, wena. We are on the ground.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon Phiri?

 

Mr B H HOLOMISA: Go to ... [Inaudible.]

 

 

Mr B A RADEBE: Point of order, Chair!

 

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon members! Hon

 

members!

 

 

 

Mr B A RADEBE: Point of order, Chair!

 

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Who is calling for a point of order?

 

 

Mr B A RADEBE: Bhekizizwe Radebe on the virtual platform.

 

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Yes, hon Radebe?

 

 

 

Mr B A RADEBE: Hon Holomisa has just told another member to go to hell. I think, according to Rule 84, it is unparliamentary.

Secondly, he said the Members of Parliament are thieves. Again, on Rule 84.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Thank you, hon Radebe. You see hon Radebe, the problem arises when there are other members who are also commenting and I will now have to rely on

 

the Table staff who are here to check that video recording to see if such a comment was made.

 

 

I want to once again call on all the Chief Whips of political

 

parties to ensure that their members acquaint themselves once

 

again with the Rules of the Virtual Sitting. You cannot just simply switch on your microphone and then make comments, and

then when there’s a point of order you expect the presiding

 

officer to have heard everything that took place on that

 

platform. It’s impossible to do so. So, I will request the NA

 

Table to look into the matter and to advise me accordingly.

 

The ANC?

 

 

 

IMBALI EDUCATION PRECINCT PROJECT

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr W T LETSIE (ANC): The ANC welcomes the plans to revitalise and expand the Imbali Education Precinct project which was started in 2014 as a ministerial project. This is a pilot project that explores an alternative modality of education delivery, based on closer multieducational institutional co- operation. It is intended to be the first of three areas to be established as part of the new National Plan for Post-School

 

Education and Training, with the next one earmarked to be in Giyani in Limpopo.

 

 

This project is also in line with the aims of the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation to align skills development and innovation strategies much closer together. The intention is to integrate universities, technical

vocational education and training, TVET, colleges, sector education and training authorities, Setas, and our National System of Innovation in order to produce a well-rounded student who is able to find their space within the working world. We also welcome the inclusion of innovation and cultural programmes to ensure that there is no area of student development which is left undeveloped. Thank you.

 

 

GOVERNMENT BANS BREEDING OF LIONS IN CAPTIVITY

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

 

Mr P M P MODISE (ANC): The ANC caucus welcomes the move by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment to ban the breeding of captive lions and keeping them in captivity for commercial purposes. Following a report from the High Level Panel that was appointed in October 2019 by the

 

department to look into this practice and complaints from society, the panel found that lion captivity poses a risk to sustainable wild lion conservation and negatively impacts on tourism. Currently, between 8 000 and 12 000 lions and big

cats, including tigers and cheetahs, are bred and kept in

 

captivity in various facilities in the country.

 

 

 

We believe this is a courageous move by the department that will benefit wildlife. Lions remain where they belong; in the

wild. This move will ensure the protection of wild lions and safeguard Brand SA from reputational damage. The treatment of,

particularly, lions and rhinos is unacceptable and detrimental

 

to the image of South Africa as a prime tourist destination. Thank you very much, House Chairperson.

 

 

ADDRESSING THE SCOURGE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

 

Ms B S MASANGO (DA): Chairperson, no sector in South Africa has been spared by COVID-19’s global trail of devastation. South Africa's long lockdown worsened the high levels of unemployment and other social ills. Breadwinners became grant recipients ... [no sound.] These and other forms of

 

devastation were visited on millions of South Africans. The far-reaching impact and a need to urgently combat this led to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s impassioned plea during a gender- based violence, GBV, online dialogue on 22 June 2020, when he

said:

 

 

 

I want all the social workers who are unemployed right now

 

to be brought into employment because there are many wounds and there are many scars in our society, and some of them

manifest themselves in all these terrible things that are happening to our women.

 

 

Almost a year later and the now in the President’s impassioned

 

call has not materialised. The scars and wounds he referred to

 

are still, and continue to be, gaping, leaving families and communities in devastation, anguished ... violations and deep

hurt.

 

 

 

At the last count, South Africa had 9 000 unemployed social work graduates. This, while there was a need to provide psychosocial support at old age homes, homeless shelters, abused women shelters and so on. All these needs still prevail but the President’s call remains unheeded. There is no shortcut to healing the scars and the wounds that the

 

President referred to. [Inaudible] ... to employ social workers to do this important work. These South Africans deserve no less. The ANC government’s lack of caring has never been on such poor display. Thank you Chairperson and I’m

sorry.

 

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon member, your time has expired. Hon members, there is a disturbance. There's a disturbance. It almost sounds as if somebody ... a member is busy cutting grass. [Laughter.] I hope it is in Acacia Park.

 

 

No hon members, let’s also observe the time. You only have one

 

and a half minutes to make a Member’s Statement; only one and

 

half minutes, not more than that. The EFF?

 

 

THE APPOINTMENT OF MS ZANDILE BROWN AS ACTING CHAIRPERSON OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERIES BOARD

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Ms Y N YAKO (EFF): Chairperson, on 7 May, Judge Davis ruled on a matter between the National Lotteries Commission versus the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition. Judge Davis ruled and he said, and I quote:

 

The decision of the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition to appoint Ms Zandile Brown as Acting Chairperson of the National Lotteries board with effect from 1 December 2020 and all extensions of that appointment I declared invalid and are hereby reviewed and set aside.

 

 

So, we must all welcome this judgment. As the EFF, we warned that the Minister has malicious intentions and he is manipulating the process to appoint a chairperson of the National Lotteries Commission, and this can only be for nefarious reasons.

 

 

We are vindicated by the court judgment; the same way we are vindicated by the process of Parliament. The intentions here are to manipulate the process of appointing the chairperson so that Hosken Consolidated Investments, HCI, and Wingrow are ... [Inaudible.] ... awarded the lottery licence after they have made donations to the CR17.

 

 

We must never forget that Minister Patel initially wanted to handpick and impose his preferred chairperson, without involving Parliament. It was only after the EFF intervened that Parliament had to restart the process transparently, as per the National Lotteries Act.

 

We want to warn the Minister that this seemingly corrupt intent to want to use the state process to award people who donated to CR17, while undermining the law and the Rules of Parliament is unwarranted. And we will be looking at him and we will be watching ... [Time expired.

 

 

Mr B RADEBE: Chairperson, on a point of order: The member who has spoken said that the Minister had a corrupt intent. I think such a statement can only be made on a substantive motion. It is unparliamentary! [Interjections.]

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon members, hon members, I am now addressing the member who read the statement. Hon member, did you say the Minister had a criminal intent?

 

 

Ms Y N YAKO: We said that he had a nefarious intent, which we have written about and which is why we now have a process where Parliament ... [Interjections.] ... in line with the ... [Interjections.]

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon member, thank you. We will look into the statement. I certainly heard a word

 

corrupt somewhere. I do not know in which part of the statement.

 

 

Mr B A RADEBE: Corrupt intent.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon Radebe, you are a House Whip and you should understand that when the presiding officer address your point of order, you cannot interrupt the presiding officer. It is one of the basics of raising a point of order. So, give us space to do our work, so that we can get on with the business of the House. We will look into the statement and revert, if necessary.

 

 

Ms H O MKHALIPHI: Chairperson, on a point of order: Hon Radebe must not disturb our members, whilst she is still speaking. [Interjections.] He has a right to raise a point of order after she has made her statement, not while she is still on the floor. Please, protect our members. [Interjections.]

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Hon member, the matter had been dealt with. Don’t prolong it any further. I said that I would come back to the House if necessary to make a ruling on the matter.

 

AMENDMENT TO THE PUBLIC SERVICE ACT

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Ms M M NTULI (ANC): The ANC welcomes the two Public Service and Administration Bills that seek to close gaps in public service-related legislation. The amendment to the Public Service Act to move administrative powers to heads of national departments, provincial departments and entities provides that all administrative powers are placed on heads of department, which is crucial to achieving an efficient and professional public service.

 

 

The proposed amendments to the Public Administration Management Act provides for the transfer of employees across the spheres of government, without the consent of employees, when such transfers are operationally justified and after due consideration of representations from the affected employee. Further, it also clarifies that employees appointed ex-officio on boards are not consumed within the scope of the prohibition, as public servants cannot do business where the state and cannot receive remuneration for serving on those boards.

 

These reforms will serve to ensure that anything that affects the efficiency, performance and the ultimate delivery of services to the people will be urgently dealt with and speedily resolved. I thank you.

 

 

ATTACKS AGAINTS THE PALESTINIANS

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Mr M G E HENDRICKS (AL JAMAH): Hon House Chair, Bismillah-ir Rahman nir Raheem. [In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.]

 

 

Bi ruh bi dam nafdika ya Aqsa. Bi ruh bi dam nafdika ya Aqsa.

 

 

English:

 

By our souls, by our blood, all for you, Al-Aqsa.

 

 

The Al Jamah political party condemns the confiscation of the holy keys of the Al-Aqsa mosque, the firing of Al-Aqsa staffers and brutal attacks carried out by Israeli regime against Palestinians, whilst praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque, after fasting since dawn.

 

The attack took place at the same time after sunset, the same time President Ramaphosa broke fast with Muslims in Cape Town. He would have been horrified if such an attack took place at the Islamia College, where he was – the precise moment when he put a date in his mouth. Attacking a place of worship at any time is reprehensible, but attacking a mosques during Ramadan is utterly indefensible when Palestinians put a date in their mouths.

 

 

They are occupiers and child killers, and it is sad that hon members support child killers and occupiers, because of their love for apartheid.

 

 

Bi ruh bi dam nafdika ya Aqsa. Bi ruh bi dam nafdika ya Aqsa.

 

 

English:

 

By our souls, by our blood, all for you, Al-Aqsa. Thank you.

 

 

THE PRESIDENTIAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE

 

 

(Member’s Statement)

 

 

Ms J TSHABALALA (ANC): Hon House Chairperson, the ANC acknowledges the employment opportunities that were created by

 

the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, which is certainly coming to an end. Its duration of five months from December 2020 to 30 April 2021 created more than 320 000 jobs for education and general education assistants who placed in in schools around the country.

 

 

In the first phase, more than 27 600 school governing body- funded posts in public and government subsidised independent schools were saved because of the funding provided to assist the schools. The programme used the direct public investment to create employment opportunities and to provide support to workers negatively impacted by the effects of covid-19 pandemic. Of more than 320 000 successful candidates, 67% were education assistants and 33% generals school assistants.

 

 

We look forward to the discussions which are underway to review and repackage the initiative with the proposed second phase to commence later this year. I thank you.

 

 

VACCINE ROLLOUT PROGRAMME LAGGING BEHIND

 

 

(Minister’s Response)

 

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH: Hon Chairperson, I want to respond to the statement by the hon member from the EFF about the vaccination programme. The government of South Africa, led ably by President Ramaphosa, would indeed have liked to be quite far in the vaccinations programme by now to save lives. But as we know that everything has been done to acquire the vaccines.

 

 

We had the unfortunate incident where a million vaccines from AstraZeneca were already in the country when they were proven not to be very effective against the variant which is dominant in South Africa. Those vaccines were subsequently sold to the African Union, AU, and are helping in other African countries, especially in the North. We rolled out the J & J Sisonke vaccine which by now has already vaccinated - as of yesterday

- just under 400 395 health workers, and by Friday this week will have completed 500 000 health workers. At the same time, I am pleased to inform the hon House that by now we have received 650 000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine out of which

325 000 have already been cleared for compliance and is ready to be rolled out to all our provinces. The other 325 000 should be ready also by the end of the week and by Monday next week we expect a consignment of another 325 260 Pfizer

 

vaccines. The same week of next week we expect the delayed

 

1 million J & J vaccines.

 

 

Already, more than 800 000 of the over 60s of our population have already registered on our vaccinations programme. Hon Chair and members, we want to assure the hon members and the country that while we regret the fact that there has been delays which were beyond our control, technical and in terms of scientific matters which prevented us from starting with the mass vaccination, we are now ready. As I speak to you, our teams from national and provincial are busy finalising the logistics of making sure that starting next week, the more than 1,5 million doses which will be available, as I have said, we already have 650 000, all those just under 2 million will start being rolled out to the country. I thank you.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Are there any further Ministers’ Responses? Are there any further Ministers’ Responses? We have a number of Ministers and Deputy Ministers on the platform, Chief Whip. So, that’s why am asking them to indicate whether they want to respond or they wish to respond to the statements. Are there any further Ministers’ Responses?

 

 

THE PRESIDENTIAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE

 

(Minister’s Response)

 

 

The DEPUTY MINISTER OF BASIC EDUCATION: Chair, I will be

 

responding to the statement by a member complementing the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative. Indeed, it made an impact on the young people of South Africa. And it shows that what people are saying about young people of South Africa that they don’t want to work. Young people of South Africa want to work. That is why they were working and there was impact where they were assisting teachers and changing the image of the schools. So we really appreciate and everybody wants to see the programme coming back. Thank you so much, Chair.

 

 

Mr N SINGH: Hon Chairperson!

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Are you a Minister or a Deputy Minister hon member? [Laughter.]

 

 

Mr N SINGH: No, no! I’m just rising on a point of order, hon

 

Chairperson. It is Singh here.

 

 

HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Proceed hon member.

 

Mr N SINGH: Hon Chairperson, on a point of order: You’ve called quite a few times for Minister or Deputy Ministers to respond. I believe this matter will be referred to the Rules Committee or the Speaker because we have Members’ Statements at every plenary and Ministers should be prepared to answer questions and respond to these statements and I think it’s not acceptable that we can’t get six Ministers to respond to the statements of members. Thank you.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): Thank you, hon member. Hon member, we will certainly discuss the matter outside of the National Assembly, NA, sitting so that we can ensure that we do have the responses to the statements.

 

 

BRIEF REPORT ON PRESIDENTIAL EMPLOYMENT STIMULUS PACKAGE ACHIEVEMENTS

 

 

(Minister’s Response)

 

 

The MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS AND INFRASTRUCTURE: Hon

 

Chairperson, I just want to give a brief report on the Presidential Employment Stimulus Package and the figures as at the end of February. We have created a total of 593 000 work opportunities, and the breakdown of that is that in basic

 

education just over 344 000; social development a 111 000; agricultural land reform and rural development, just over

74 000; in the environment, forestry and fisheries are just over 50 000; transport, 37 000; sports, arts and culture, just over 34 000; co-operative governance and municipal infrastructure maintenance, about 25 000 and in trade and industry and competition, 8 000; under health we have created

5 531, science and innovation, about 1 900 and public works and infrastructure, 1 516. That gives us a total of just over

593 000, as at the end of February The figures of the end of March are available and we can provide that to the hon Thank you, Chairperson.

 

 

WASTE CRISIS IN THE CITY OF EKURHULENI

 

 

(Minister’s Response)

 

 

The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES:

 

Hon House Speaker, with regard to the issue of waste management in Ekurhuleni, I think it is important to share with this House that our department is actively working with all municipalities to improve the regulatory environment around landfills, and also to address the issue of ensuring that there is adequate landfill space available.

 

We have also worked with the National Treasury to ensure that where municipalities do not have sufficient finances to enhance collection services from households that a special dispensation is made available for them to be using the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, MIG, for the yellow fleet.

 

 

I would want to suggest that where there are concerns regarding tender irregularities, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, would be the appropriate institution for these matters to be considered. I would want thank also the hon member who supports the recommendations of the High Level Panel, and to advise the hon members that we are in the process, over the next couple of weeks up meeting with different sectors to explain the recommendations of the High Level Panel, and we will then be putting out for public comment, a policy statement that encompasses the major recommendations. Thank you very much, House Chair.

 

 

CIVIL AVIATION AMENDMENT BILL

 

 

(Consideration of Bill and of Report Thereon)

 

 

There was no debate.

 

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE MAJORITY PARTY: House Chair, I move that the House adopt this report.

 

 

Motion agreed to.

 

 

Report accordingly adopted.

 

 

CIVIL AVIATION AMENDMENT BILL

 

 

(Second Reading debate)

 

 

The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Hon Chair, I don’t know whether you

 

can hear me?

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): You are audible. You can proceed.

 

 

The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Yes, my video is muted., I don’t know ... But it’s okay, it is not me.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr C T Frolick): It’s okay, you may

 

proceed, hon Minister. We can see you now. Please, proceed.

 

The MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Hon Chair, our track records as a country with reparable credentials from aviation safety particularly in respect of commercial aviation is something we must be proud of and sustain it at all costs. This include extending a similar track record to a non-commercial aviation as a signatory to the Chicago Convention and a number of the international civil aviation organisation. We must do everything in our power to lead by example in ensuring and sustaining safety of our air space.

 

 

There is no doubt that once this Bill is passed into law, it will ensure that South Africa continues to meet the international obligations in the civil aviation arena. This in fact will start in the centre contribution to South Africa’s economy development and to serve as a catalyst for increased trade, tourism and job creation.

 

 

We cannot emphasise enough that this Bill enable us to continue making strides in our contribution to the global efforts of aviation safety.

 

 

Since the promulgation of the Civil Aviation Act of 2009 certain sections of Chapter 4 of the Act have never been

 

brought into effect due to practical difficulties in the establishment of the aviation safety investigation board.

 

 

This Bill addresses all these issues and if passage will exponentially serve an admission incident and accident investigation.

 

 

The independence of this board is an important factor that will go with as robustness and objectiveness of all incident and accident in an investigation.

 

 

The Bill also provide for the conclusion of performance agreement between the Minister and the Aviation Safety Investigation Board. This is important in ensuring that the board legacy on its mandate and its work is in keeping with the provision of the international conventions and treaties.

 

 

Streamlining and strengthening of appeals mechanisms is critical in ensuring that those who are aggrieved by decisions taken in terms of this Act have recourse.

 

 

Streamlining the appeals board is also creating a single point for all appeals which ensures accessibility to all those who wish to lodge appeals.

 

The importance of deadening the mandate of the SA Civil Aviation Authority, SACAA, to include environmental protection is an important step towards realising our own commitment to meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

 

 

The Bill further introduces an important provision of meeting SACAA a preferential editor.

 

 

However, this is only in respect of monies collected and held on its behalf. This is not different from an employer collecting tax revenue on behalf of SA Revenue Service, Sars. Such monies are not regulated to any commercial arrangement between SACCA and particular entity but is collected on behalf of the SA Civil Aviation Authority in terms of the law.

 

 

The Bill similarly seeks to strengthen the SA Civil Aviation Authority by strengthening a number of governance issues which include provisions for the removal of the Commissioner for Civil Aviation. This also extends to the provisions of shareholder representative of the board of the authority. I thank you, Chairperson and hon members. [Applause.]

 

 

Mr M L ZWANE: Hon Chair, thank you for recognising me, hon Minister of Transport, Comrade Fikile Mbalula, and the

 

Ministers who are with us, both in the virtual and in the House, hon Deputy Minister, Dikeledi Magadzi, and all the Deputy Ministers that are with us, in virtual or in the House, hon members of Portfolio Committee on Transport, hon members of this August House, I take this opportunity to sympathise with all the victims of the accidents in our roads, especially the accident that happened in Gillooly’s roads in Gauteng Province this Monday.

 

 

It remiss of me to ignore the recent spate of accidents that happened in the aviation sector. South Africa reported 14 air crashes in January 2021 alone, the highest number since black October, 2008. Eight people died in in these crashes. There was an air crash on 4 February in the North West Province, where one person burnt beyond recognition. A fifty-two-year old, tragically died after the crops spraying, like aircraft he piloted crashed into a field in the Free State, to mention but a few. My sympathy also goes to the families who have lost their loved ones due to COVID-19 pandemic. May the Almighty be with them during these trying times.

 

 

Let me also join all South Africans who celebrated 25 years of the passing of the first democratic Constitution in this country recently. Coming back to the family of transport and

 

today’s business, I consider myself extremely fortunate to be part of the portfolio committee that tries to bring to finality the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill that was referred to the committee on 14 November 2018, and on the 7 May the Bill lapsed in terms of the National Assembly rule 333 subsection 2. On the 29 October2019, the Bill was revived by the National Assembly.

 

 

The Bill with amendments also from the Portfolio Committee on Transport, amends the Civil Aviation Act of 2009. Amendments include, among other things, the provision of operational independence of aircraft, accidents and incidents in to investigation, rectifying provisions about establishing the SA civil aviation authority, including giving them environmental protection oversight function, and providing for it as a preferred creditor in respect of any money, fees, charges or levies collected on its behalf.

 

 

 

Doing away with the requirements for the development of a Corporate Government Plan, amending provisions concerning appointment and removal of the Commissioner for Civil Aviation. Amending provisions relating to the performance agreement between the Minister and the Aviation Safety Investigation Board. Clarifying provision dealing with

 

conflict of interest for providing for the designation of the Chairperson of the National Aviation Security Committee, and matters connected with its operations.

 

 

Whilst inquiring into the subject of the Bill, during the public hearings and deliberations, the Portfolio Committee on Transport realised it was necessary to amend other provisions on the principal Act, not included in the Bill, and to further extend public consultations. The committee received a submission from the SA Civil Aviation Authority, SACAA, regarding the preferential creditor status, where the licensed service provider that collect fees on its behalf becomes insolvent.

 

 

The envisaged amendments which were not in the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill provided in 2019, would allow SACAA to be one of the first-in-line with creditors to get their fees. This would be either through a trust or ring-fenced funds, as preferential shareholders through the Insolvency Act. The committee also received written submissions from Airlines Association of SA, which was represented by Dr Vermooten.

 

 

The Commercial Airlines Association of SA, AASA, which was represented by the following, Ms Rennie van Zyl, Mr Herman

 

Wildenboer, Mr Mali George-Buthelezi, Mr Mashaba and Dr Brian Suckling. The committee held public hearings and considered proposed amendments in the Bill on 4 March 2020, and again on

16 and 17 February, it held the same in 2021. Oral submissions were received from AASA and SACAA.

 

 

The committee, as required, also gave the Department of Transport an opportunity to respond to oral and written submissions, to further allow thorough engagements on the Bill. Thereafter, the committee engaged on both submissions by the stakeholder and the department, as it earlier had promised the stakeholders that it will pay attention to all the submissions that came its way. To illustrate this point, Mr Mahlobo commented during the submissions that the definition of the word, Director of Investigations, should be deleted and be replaced by the word, Executive responsible for Accident Investigations.

 

 

Indeed, as we engage with the department, we agreed that this will be the case, and the Act should only define the words that are used in the Act. In this case, I have mentioned SACAA. At this point, I wish to thank the members of the Portfolio Committee on Transport for their hard work, also thank the Minister and Deputy Minister and the officials of

 

the Department of Transport for their dedication and commitment during the process of finalising the Amendment Bill.

 

 

I also wish to thank all the stakeholders who made an oral and written submissions to enrich this Bill, and presented themselves during the public hearings, for us to understand their concerns better. The ANC support this Amendment Bill. I thank you.

 

 

Mr C H H HUNSINGER: Thank you, Chairperson. With the establishment of the regional Civil Aviation Act in 2009, it providing for two essential functions innovation regulatory needs; one being of demanding nature to promote civil aviation safety and security the other of analytical nature in response to crises accidents and incidents. This was justified given the conglomerate our various pieces of legislation each dealing with a segment of aviation legislation causing overlap on the one hand and shortfalls on the other. All of which needed improvement and consolidation at the time in 2009.

 

 

It was therefore, important to now review these governing factors of our aviation industry in South Africa. Imperative therefore, was to now improve proper implementation and to

 

update ... [Inaudible.] ... in the framework given some developments seem conceptual and operational renewal of the aviation industry and changes in international practices agreements and conventions.

 

 

The DA encourage increased responsibility of environmental protection regulations as one of the updated future functions of the Civil Aviation Authority, CAA. This is to allow for improvements in the management of aircraft noise through monitoring reporting measurement and sound management procedures also aircraft emissions to manage and sustain local air quality and to oversee progress with the government both sending reduction scheme or international aviation better known as Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, Corsia, in the industry.

 

 

Comrades, in our governing legislation was necessary such as the consent of aerodrome which refers to a space location from which flight operations take place regardless of whether they involve cargo passengers. Consequential, such ambitions caused introduction are future new roles and functions such as aerodrome managers and inspectors. It was also important to refine retail such as the distinction between ... [Inaudible.]

... and to accommodate with improve clarity SA National

 

Defence Fore, SANDF, customs and SA Police Service, Saps, aircraft will insert civil aviation regulations under specific circumstances.

 

 

Improvements by the DA included that Parliament will in future conduct interviews and make a recommendation of at least seven names to the Minister to appoint the five members of the Aviation Safety Investigations Board. Also then in question must be conducted in respect of any aircraft accident or incident resulting ... [Inaudible.] ... in terms of the Inquest Act and most importantly, that the results of such an inquest must be communicated to the next of kin of the deceased. We found this necessary as an important accountability function and to now include family who often were not accommodated in any communication following an unfortunate tragic aviation incident.

 

 

A period of at least four months was agreed upon as the minimum time prior to changes of the Civil Aviation Authority charges, fees and levies or any amendment thereto. All of which must be published in the gazette. Some of these monies are collected on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority. In instances where such a person who has collected any monies on behalf of the Civil Aviation Authority is liquidated or placed

 

under business rescue or under administration, the Civil Aviation Authority will be entitled to recover such dues but now in future as a preferential creditor. While the aircraft accident and incident investigation authority as expressed in this Bill now finally complies with our international obligations, recognising removal of some points of conflict of interest the DA is of the opinion that this function should be totally independent and ideally separate from the Civil Aviation Authority, CAA. Something we will continue to drive and promote.

 

 

In conclusion, Chair, the DA supports the Portfolio Committee on Transport, PCoT, Report on this matter and we regard the content of the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill in its proposed form to Parliament as an improvement which should be accepted and passed. I thank you.

 

 

Mr M M CHABANGU: Thank you, House Chairperson. As air transport is fast becoming an accessible transport for many, it is therefore of critical importance that the state must take practical legislative matters to tighten safety measures for air transport. The Civil Aviation Act was intended to amongst other things provide that aspect and to create an independent entity that would investigate aviation accidents.

 

This was, however, have not done because the Act did not provide for the full spectrum of guides for the establishment of this entity. We, therefore welcome the amendments to eliminate illegal uncertainties and provide for the establishment of that independent entity. The aviation provided sufficient operational independence to combat aviation incidents and accidents without fear or favour. We have seen a very worried spike in aviation excellent in this country particularly in light aircraft owned by the very rich. These accidents are as a result of a fragment disregard for aviation safety protocols because the owners of these aircrafts are basically law unto themselves and feels that their wealth makes them unaccountable to no one.

 

 

Just in January this year, there were fourteen aviation accidents in the country as alluded to. Is the state taking any action, Minister? The establishment of the aviation safety investigation board will go a long way in ensuring that accidents of this nature are thoroughly investigated and action taken by managers discovered that these accidents are as a result of negligence and poor training. The Bill could have gone further than it has to impose tougher penalties for negligence and purposeful disregard for aviation safety protocols. The establishment of the aviation safety

 

investigation board policy makers’ compliance to international

 

laws and protocols of aviation safety.

 

 

The Bill further introduces a very important amendment in relation to the role of the Civil Aviation Authority environmental protection. Aviation is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases ... [Inaudible.] ... that the devastation that will be brought by climate change. This requires the aviation authority to have oversight over the whole spectrum of environmental issues emanating from aviation in this country ... [Inaudible.] ... to air quality and gas emissions. We also welcome amendment dealing with the prohibition of any employee of the aviation authority from working for any players involved in aviation while at the same time employed by the aviation authority. This is important because the aviation industry is a relatively small and closed industry making condition conducive for collusion and corrupt practices. This must be clear lines of delineation between the aviation authority as a regulatory body and the industry upon which it must provide oversight. The EFF therefore, supports the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill. Thank you.

 

 

Mr K P SITHOLE: Hon Deputy Speaker and hon members, the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill seeks to ensure that the SA Civil

 

Aviation Authority, SACAA, should be afforded the preferential creditors status. These proposal is important for the schedule public entity, as its mandate is very important for the critical role it plays ... [Inaudible.] ... and safety and security. There may be many other service providers in the aviation industry, none are charged with the same level of responsibility for the safety of the South African citizens in this industry.

 

 

Indeed, the responsibility of this entity for the safety and security of this country skies, we need a strong, fully capacitated, capable and corruption-free SACAA. Many of us takes for granted the importance of safety in the aviation sectors. Yet, safety sectors play an important role in contribution to our economy, through safety of travel, safety for the thousands of passengers, in making sure that they use the aircraft they need. Let us not forget the potential for devastation on the ground, should the worst happens.

 

 

To avoid this, safety, and some financially management must be the cornerstone of the aviation industry. One cannot live without other, and we cannot afford the needs of our aviation safety record in some way that we see other entities failing at the hands of current administration. This means that as a

 

country, we need to be strong institutional capacity in the aviation industry, with people who actively hold each other to account, to make sure that the best possible standards are normalised within the sectors.

 

 

Accordingly, the IFP is the one that from the introduction of the Bill, direct impact that the autonomy we had by the provinces to demand the location of their ... [Inaudible.] ... As we ensure that their ... [Inaudible.] ... are those in areas where they do not have a negative impact of the economy, the Minister with this Bill, now, he has to bear too much centralised powers than it does not compel him or her to consult with the municipalities, Mayors and Premiers on the best practice that are unique to each province.

 

 

Likewise, the decentralisation of power in newly appointed persons to fill vacancies on the aviation safety board, is very concerning, given the imported for fit and proper people to be appointed, and ... [Inaudible.] ... do not allow for any kind of maladministration. The IFP proposed that the similar setup as to how judges are appointed by the Judicial Service Commission, JSC be implemented to appoint board members of the aviation safety board.

 

While the public has had the opportunity to review candidate,

 

... [Inaudible.] ... can be made to the Minister, so that he or she can appoint a suitable candidate. This is essentially if the government is really interested in participation and transparency for the benefit of our country. The IFP do support the Bill. Thank you very much, hon Deputy Speaker.

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Mnr P MEY: ’n Wet is nie staties nie, maar moet verander word soos omstandighede dit vereis. In die geval van burgerlike lugvaart is dit ook belangrik om tred te hou met internasionale standaarde. Die wysiging wat deur die Portefeuljekomitee oor Vervoer voorgestel is, is ’n groot verbetering op die huidige wetgewing.

 

 

As dit by die uitleg van ’n wet kom, moet die bedoeling van die wetgewer duidelik wees. Dit is moontlik gemaak deur die insette wat deur verskeie instansies of persone gelewer is. Met hulle hulp kon die Portefeuljekomitee oor Vevoer behoorlike wysigings aanbring wat tot voordeel van Suid-Afrika en sy mense is.

 

 

Daar is baie aandag aan die bewoording van definisies gegee.

 

So, byvoorbeeld in die toekoms sal ons nie meer van “airport

 

manager” praat nie, maar van “aerial drone manager”.

 

[Tussenwerpsels.]

 

 

English:

 

Not anymore.

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Dit het ’n baie wyer betekenis as lughawe. ’n Direkteur verander na komisaris. Burgerlike lugvaartowerheid kry ook ’n oorsigfunksie oor omgewingbeskerming. ’n Werknemer van die Departement van Vervoer mag ’n lid word van die burgerlike lugvaartowerheidsraad. “Direkteur van Ondersoeke” sal nie meer gebruik word nie maar wel “ondersoeker”.

 

 

Die aanwys van lede vir die ondersoekraad oor lugvaartveiligheid is baie belangrik. Die Parlement moet onderhoude voer en ten minste sewe mense, in orde van voorkeur, aan die Minister voorlê, om vyf lede vir die ondersoekraad oor lugvaartveiligheid aan te wys. Die lugvaartveiligheidsraad sal hulle funksie op ’n deeltydse basis beklee.

 

Waar ’n vliegongeluk plaasvind en persone oorlede is, sal ’n geregtelike nadoodse ondersoek gehou word en daar sal met die oorledenes se naastes gekommunikeer moet word.

 

 

’n Belangrike wysiging, soos deur die voorsitter van die portefeuljekomitee uitgewys, is egter oor die invordering en oorbetaling van geld aan die burgerlike lugvaartowerheid. In die verlede het hulle geen voorkeureis gehad nie. Met hierdie wysigings wat nou aangebring word, sal daardie voordeel geniet kan word.

 

 

Hierdie nuwe voorgestelde ondersoekliggaam is ’n stap in die regte rigting. Die VF Plus het egter ’n paar bekommernisse oor hierdie Wetsontwerp.

 

 

In die eerste instansie, word daar geen melding gemaak waarvandaan befondsing gaan kom nie. Die ondersoekliggaam wil blyk om nie totaal onafhanklik te wees nie, en sal in alle redelike begrip steeds onder die lugvaartowerheid dien.

 

 

Daar sal ook meer gekwalifiseerde persone na vore moet kom. Die lugvaartowerheid is reeds onderbeman en van die persone wat by die owerheid werksaam is, het geen lugvaartervaring nie. Daar moet teen die aanstelling van onervare en

 

ongekwalifiseerde persone gewaak word. Persone moet op meriete aangestel word. [Tussenwerpsels.] Ja, dis reg.

 

 

Die feit dat regulasies deurlopend deur die Minister afgekondig word, sonder die nodige insette van nodige rolspelers of die portefeuljekomitee skep kommer, aangesien lugvaart in ’n spesialisindustrie is. Hierdie ondersoekliggaam se hooftaak moet wees om lugvaart veiliger te maak en ongelukke te voorkom. Die VF Plus ondersteun hierdie verslag.

 

 

Mr S N SWART: Deputy Speaker, the Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Act in order to ensure the proper implementation of legislation in respect of safety, security and investigation of aircraft, aircraft accidents and incidents in civil aviation. Now, the ACDP regrets that the previous provisions already in the 2009 Act, which provided for a similar establishment, were not implemented, and this is due to various reasons.

 

 

Apparently, there were practical difficulties in establishing the entity and this meant that this was never achieved.

However, we fully support the provisions of this Bill, believing that better late than never. As the Minister has indicated, South Africa has a proud history of commercial air

 

safety, save for a number of light aircraft crashes referred to by members from the portfolio committee. Let us just stop for a moment and remember the one exception, which was the tragic Heidelberg air crash on 27 November 1987, which resulted in the deaths of one 159 passengers, and more than three decades later, families of the victims are still searching for answers about what started the fire in the cargo hole.

 

 

Despite what various inquiries have found, hopefully one day the truth will come out, and give those families much needed closure. The ACDP believes that the provision now, which would include the role of inquest, where the families are involved, would help, and would have helped in that situation. We also support the role that Parliament will play in the appointment of the board members, I think that is very important as it will be, to a large degree, an independent board.

 

 

So, despite that tragedy and despite a number of aircraft crashes that have taken place, we still have a proud history of aviation safety, and that is in no small part attributive to excellent training skills of our commercial pilots, and in that regard, the present industrial action between SA Airways, SAA, pilots, the former business rescue practitioners and the

 

Department of Public Enterprises, is highly regrettable, and the ACDP urges a speedy resolution to this issue. The country cannot afford to lose highly skilled pilots.

 

 

The same applies to aircraft maintenance. For example, the SAA technical, and we are seeing now the air space taken up by foreign companies such as Lufthansa Technik. We should learn from successful airways such as the Ethiopian Airways, on how to operate a successful airline. To conclude, the ACDP would like to thank all the members of the portfolio committee for finalising this Bill, which we will support. I thank you.

 

 

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, hon Swarts. Both you and hon Mei, you have kept your time.

 

 

Mr C H M SIBISI: Deputy Speaker, the NFP welcomes the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill. We are on defends on some of the proposed amendments. We believe that government should listen more in the industry and business in the sector that has suffered devastating effects because of Covid-19. These businesses are known SA Airways, SAA, depending on government for bailouts that do not go well. Therefore, it is critical that we make laws that assist in the sustainability of businesses.

 

After careful consideration of the proposed amendment, we support the proposal for Aviation Safety Investigation Board.

 

 

However, the NFP is concerned about funding given the constrain fiscus. Therefore, it surfaces to ask whether any funding allocation will be made available by the department for the establishment of the Specialairworthiness Information Bulletins, SAIB, and how it will be structured.

 

 

We cannot expect business in the sector to bear this cost when the sector was still recovering from the effects of the Covid-

19 pandemic.

 

 

We have come across reports from the Airlines Association of Southern Africa which express concerns about proposed amendment to the Bill that will make Civil Association Authority their preferential creditor when a business was liquidated placed under business rescuer or placed under administration.

 

 

Airlines and other stakeholders have all suffered devastating losses due to Covid-19. Making the Civil Aviation Authority their preferred creditor is giving each the upper hand over other creditors.

 

What happens when the SAA is owed much less compared to other creditors? Some businesses have serious creditors with serious debts which was essential to the running operation of that business and actual deserve jobs. We have also come across reports from the Commercial Aviation Association Southern Africa expressing concerns about the Civil Aviation Regulations Committee losing its present independence.

 

 

We understand that Regulations Committee in its current form was more of a direct corporation between public and private sectors. Therefore, we support the Commercial Aviation Association Southern Africa to allow the committee to continue in its current forms. We need to make laws that response to the citizens means particularly to the secretary of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, ERRP. We cannot be passing laws free with regulations that posed as nothing but directive of businesses to continue to survive in his hush economic condition.

 

 

What is the rationale behind Civil Aviation Regulatory Committee losing its independence? During public hearing, stakeholders spoke up strongly about independence of CAA more importantly to avoid possible conflict of interest.

 

The need for independence have been underlying by the accident involving a CAA culmination aircraft in January 2021. Mr van Zyl said, I declare an investigation into accident in which he had to criticize the CAA who had contracted him as a consultant. Someone in his position might be reluctant to critisise the CAA.

 

 

As the NFP, we would like to agree with Mr Van Zyl had the time has come for the establishment of a multi more direct Incident Investigation Authority that will be reporting to Parliament and not to the CAA or the Minister of Transport. It remains clear that ... Thank you, hon Deputy Speaker.

 

 

IsiZulu:

 

Nk F E KHUMALO: Ngiyabonga Sekela Somlomo, oNgqongqoshe, oSekela Ngqongqoshe, namalungu ePhalamende ...

 

 

English:

 

 ... the ANC support this Bill. The country’s Civil Aviation Industry is one of the most sophisticated on the African continent and function on the best international practice. The amendment to the Act through this amendment Bill ensures that the Civil Association Industry is in South Africa functions within the ethics of international standards. The Country’s

 

Aviation Industry has one of the finest track records for aviation and safety in the world and it is important that these high standards are maintained.

 

 

Ensuring that country’s legislations and regulations is in line with the best international standard is a critical part of maintaining these standards.

 

 

This Bill seeks establishment of the Civil Association Authority and the creation of safety and security structures that governs the function of the Civil Aviation Industry.

 

 

The economic importance of aviation as a mode of transport cannot be overemphasised in the context of Economic and Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.

 

 

IsiZulu:

 

Sekela Somlomo ezokuvakasha zithembele kakhulu kulo mthetho njengoba uzoba nomthelela omkhulu wamathuba omsebenzi.

 

 

English:

 

The Bill seeks to amend to ensure the implementation of in terms of Safety and Security and Investigation of Aircraft Incident and Aircraft Accident in the Regulations.

 

The Bill extend the power to the Minister to issue regulations to implement a safety plan. It is imperative to ensure that Safety and Security in the Civil Aviation Industry keep abreast of international norms and standards going forward without requiring further legislation. In this regard, Deputy Speaker, the Bill seeks to create an independent aviation safety investigation board whose composition role, functions and regulations are transparently understood and applied in the amendment Bill before this House.

 

 

The Bill also tightens the corporate governance function of South African Civil Aviation Authority which means it is no longer a required to develop corporate governance.

 

 

This Bill also enable the performance agreement between the Minister of Transport and the Aviation Safety Investigation Board. The Bill outlines in details the procedure of appointment of members to Aviation Safety Board.

 

 

The process for appointment is transparent and even accountable to Parliament as the Minister needs to report to Parliament within 30 days upon the appointment of the board. The process and procedure for enforcing safety and conducting

 

investigation are defined in details in the Bill which ensures that legislation is implementable.

 

 

This amendment Bill gives the Minister powers to develop appropriate regulations on the basis of legislation to effect and implement the legislation on the function of the Civil Aviation Industry especially with regard to safety, security as well as environment protection.

 

 

Critical in terms of implementation and legislation of the legislation is the fact that Bill ensures linkage between the Department of Transport and the Civil Aviation Board through a member of the department and siting on the board. The hands on approach of the department will enable the department effectively and efficiently function in relation to the Civil Aviation Industry in the country.

 

 

IsiZulu:

 

Okuhle kakhulu sengigcina Sekela Somlomo ...

 

 

English:

 

 ... is that in the formulation of legislation the views and inputs of stakeholders considered and it is reflected in this final amendment Bill before the House ...

 

IsiZulu:

 

 ... ukuze kungathiwa awaziwa abantu uthathwe waxoxelwa abantu bengazi. Sijabulela ukuthi ababambiqhaza babambe iqhaza kuwona lo mthetho.

 

 

English:

 

This Bill should be supported in this House ...

 

 

English:

 

 ... and as the regulation and legislation flowing from this legislation services the best interest of the Civil Aviation Industry and is in accordance with the high standard of operation in this aviation industry.

 

 

IsiZulu:

 

Ngiyabonga kakhulu Sekela Somlomo,

 

 

English:

 

The ANC support the Bill. [Applause.]

 

 

Mr I S SEITLHOLO: Hon Deputy Speaker thank you very much indeed. Hon Deputy Speaker, the DA notes and welcomes the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill as discussed and deliberated

 

upon by the Portfolio Committee on Transport including various stakeholders in the aviation industry.

 

 

The Bill as per the research notes received from the research unit seeks to provide for the investigation of aircraft accidents as well as aircraft incidents. A responsibility that to date has been undertaken by the aviation incident investigation directorate which is attached to the SA Civil Aviation Authority that is SACCA.

 

 

The Bill seeks to establish the aviation safety investigation board with the objective [Inaudible.] inter alia, the advancement of aviation transportation safety in striving to combat the independent investigations including when necessary public enquiries into selected aircraft accidents and incidents in order to make findings as to their cause and contribuing factors.

 

 

Any efforts to allow or any other state owned enterprise to function independently is always a step in the right direction and will be welcomed by the DA. Hon Deputy Speaker, while the Bill is noted and welcomed by the DA, the budget implications that come with the Bill should be noted. While the department indicated that the implementation of the Bill will be within

 

its budget allocation, the department is yet to state and make available the budget allocation that has been set aside for the implementation of the Bill.

 

 

Hon Deputy Speaker, the independence of the board, we have seen over the years how boards have been made up of ANC cadre deployed to boards which have led to collapse of state owned enterprises in the country.

 

 

The DA will thus monitor the process of the establishment and appointment of the board to guard against cadre development the cadre deployment whatever the correct terminology is in the ANC books these days.

 

 

Hon Deputy Speaker, equally concerning is the fact that municipalities are going to look after small scale airstips and unfunded mandate. Noting the dismal collapse of ANC governed municipalities due to a number of factors as noted by numerous independent research reports such as rating Africa municipality and financial sustainability index, it is not clear how these municipalities will undertake such an imperative task in order to a certain the maintenance of said airstrips. Thank you Deputy Speaker.

 

Mr L N MANGCU: Thank you very much hon Deputy Speaker.

 

 

I will not make a mistake and say House Chair. Minister of Transport, Ministers present, Chairperson of the portfolio committee, members of the portfolio committee, colleagues and fellow South Africans, good afternoon.

 

 

As we start I think it’s also important that we note with shock the horrific crash that happened yesterday in KwaZulu- Natal where seven innocent souls perished. We extend our heartfelt condolences to those families of those loved ones. About 30 people were injured and we also extend our well wishes and wish them a speedy recovery.

 

 

We call on the department and the Minister of Transport to get to the bottom of the cause of this crash. Road crashes can be prevented and we believe they can be prevented and we call on the department to deal with this scourge on our roads.

 

 

The ANC stands in support of this amendment of the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill as it has been presented. We also welcome and appreciate the support from all the opposition parties which fully participated in the debate in the portfolio committee barring one or two things that one does

 

not know where they come from when we come to this platform but we will deal with them time permitting.

 

 

The country's civil aviation has already said to be operating in the best international standards and has got a superb safety track record and this amendment Bill seeks to reinforce exactly that. The amendment Bill before this House is geared to operationalise certain aspects of legislation and regulations that are critical for the maintenance and continuation of these international standards into the future.

 

 

This Bill also ensures that it puts aviation at the centre of economic recovery in this country into the future. It is an economic enabler in the country. However, of major concern to the ANC and we call upon the Minister to look into this is that the industry remains the least transformed. It remains an elitist industry and we are calling upon the Minister and all of us to ensure that transformation happens in this industry.

 

 

A lot of aspects that relate to this Bill have been articulated by colleagues, safe to say that it really recalibrates the current legislation and industry amongst them there has been mentioned about the preferred creditors status.

 

Unfortunately, Mr Sibisi who does not participate in the committee raises issues here which were dealt with there because this preferred creditors status is people who are collecting money on behalf of SACCA. It is not their money in the first place. So, if the member was in the committee that matter would never have arisen.

 

 

Chapter 4 of the Act also makes provision for the investigation that has been mentioned. What is critical is that the ANC led government is resolute to ensure proper governance and the parameters and powers of the functioning of this board are highlighted here.

 

 

We introduced in this draft Bill elements of the Public Finance Management Act that have not been there before as a demonstration of the resoluteness of this government to clean governance and transparency. So, Deputy Speaker, we also welcome as I said unfortunately hon Swart there invokes issues of the Heidelberg and the subpar which I think are very unfortunate given that we are all in support of this legislation. [Injterjections.] Once more we welcome the support of all the opposition parties and the ANC supports this Bill. Thank you Deputy Speaker.

 

THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT: Chair, we wish to thank the portfolio committee, members of the public, stakeholders in aviation and members of Parliament for their valuable input to this day.

 

 

As a country we have distinguished ourselves in ensuring that public participation plays a pivotal role. The Bill has been enriched through public participation. Deputy Speaker, the much needed vaccines were received through this field of transport. Air ambulance become of importance in saving lives especially those who get involved in serious motor accidents.

 

 

The strengthening of the aviation safety investigation board and its independence bring the much need independence and assures members of the public the public that investigations are not just independent that are said to be independent.

 

 

We welcome the political parties that have supported this Bill to ensure safety of the airlines. We are on track in terms of transforming and ensuring that we bring about necessary legislation. That also includes matters that will come before us in no time with regard to transformation. Thank you very much Deputy Speaker.

 

Debate concluded.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

Bill Agreed to.

 

 

Bill read a second time.

 

 

UNFOLDING DNA CRISIS AT SA POLICE SERVICE

 

 

(Subject for discussion)

 

 

Mr A G WHITFIELD: Deputy Speaker, in 2013 this House passed the DNA Bill and in 2014 it was accented to by the President. This historic act paved the way for the expansion of the national forensic DNA database an improved regulation in the field of DNA forensic. Most notably, this Act mad it possible to compel violent schedule 8 offenders to submit their DNA profiles to the database so as to establish any past or future crimes. In 2016 a gentleman by the name of Sikhangele Mki was arrested for an assault with an intent to do grievous bodily harm. His arrest and subsequent sentencing in 2017 triggered a DNA test in terms of the Act and his profile as a convicted offender was loaded into the national forensic DNA database

 

thereby linking Mkhi to 30 counts of rape, 27 counts of kidnapping and 12 counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances. Mkhi, seemingly a first time offender who was set to serve a five-year suspended sentence, was ultimately sentenced to 15 life terms an additional 120 years in prison because of the work done by this House and countless others in the civil society in bringing the DNA Act to life.

 

 

Mkhi was exposed for the violent criminal he is because the DNA Act required that the National Commissioner of Police must, together with the National Commissioner of Correctional Services ensure that the buccal sample is taken within two years of any person serving a sentence of imprisonment for a schedule 8 offence. Regrettably, this transitional provision of the Act expired in 2017 and the state could therefore no longer compel violent schedule 8 offenders to submit their DNA profiles. An amendment Bill was drafted to correct this issue but it has been ignored by Cabinet since 2017. In 2019, I asked the Civilian Secretariat for Police what the number was of schedule 8 offenders who had not yet submitted their DNA profile as a consequence the delay in processing the amendment Bill. I was told it was more than 47 000. More than 47 000 violent criminals who could potentially be linked to multiple other crimes thereby incurring harsher sentences may well be

 

realised after serving their sentence without ever having their DNA samples because a simple amendment to the DNA Act has been gathering dust in Cabinet since 2017. The reason given to Parliament for this unfathomable delay is that the Minister of Police together with the Minister of Home Affairs are exploring the possibility of creating a national DNA database which will require every single South African citizen to submit their DNA profile to the state. This delusional DNA dystopia in which the Minister lives, besides being completely unaffordable will be entirely unconstitutional and is certainly no reason to delay the critical important amendment Bill which is now four years overdue.

 

 

This debate today is not about politics, but it is about executive accountability. Because the Minister has failed so spectacularly to resolve the crisis of which he has presided, the buck today must stop with the President. Fundamentally, though this is a debate about justice while the failure today to take forensic signs has seriously led to miscarriage of justice for thousands of victims of some of the most violent and heinous crimes in our country. It is about ensuring that there are consequences for violent criminals and that they are not put back to our streets to rape and murder with impunity.

 

This debate today is about a five-year-old Chantel Mokoena from Rocklands in Nelson Mandela Bay who, in 2019, was brutally raped and killed by a man who was out on bail for rape. Chantel Mokoena was raped and killed on 06 August, and six weeks later there has been no arrest. In an act of violent desperation Chantel’s mother with the help of the community caught the alleged perpetrator, cut of his penis and put it in his mouth. Chantel’s mother was swiftly arrested, imprisoned and separated from her breast feeding infant. After more than two years Chantel Mokoena’s DNA samples still has not been analysed due to the lack of consumables. Since Minister Cele has been Minister of Police from February 2018 appointed by President Ramaphosa he has presided over an explosion in the backlog of DNA case exhibits from just over 7 000 in 2017-18 to over 225 000 this year. That is nearly a quarter of a million, and is more than 3 000% increase in the backlog under his watch. It has never been this bad before.

 

 

In January and February this year not a single DNA sample was processed due to the lack of consumables. In response to this alarming fact the Minister said no one has reported it before and one only heard it by chance. This is a proof that the Minister does not take the DNA crisis seriously and he is

 

paying a lip service to the President’s commitment to half

 

violent crime in his term of office.

 

 

 Critical vacancies in the SA Police Service forensic division is the result of the internecine battle between the Minister of Police and the national commissioner combined with catastrophic contract mismanagement has led to the backlog which is now completely out of control. Thanks to the work done by the portfolio committee in Parliament highlighting these issues. We are starting to see a faint flickering light at the end of a very, very dark and long tunnel. The reality is that even though every vacancy is filled and every contract is awarded a backlog will not be addressed within a year because every single day more and more case exhibits arrive at our laboratories.

 

 

In order to address the backlog and restore the integrity of our forensic laboratories’ capability we have to do the following with urgency. The President must instruct the Minister of Police to bring the DNA Amendment Bill to Parliament immediately so that we can do our work. The SA Police Service must ensure that all vacancies are filled with urgency and that all outstanding contract are expedited. The SAPs now need to partner urgently with the private sector and

 

our university laboratories to address the DNA backlog by the end of this year.

 

 

To ensure that these crises never happens again SAPS need to guarantee more transparency for victims and the public at large to be able to monitor the progress of their cases on a live DNA dashboard. The DNA backlog was a completely avoidable crisis if sufficient care and attention were paid to this issue when I first raised it in 2019.

 

 

Mr President, you have ignored my letters, you have ignored the cries of victims of violent crime like Chantel Mokoena and you have ignored the failure of your Minister to prevent the situation. Mr President, you are complacent in this unprecedented crisis. I thank you.

 

 

Ms T M JOEMAT-PETTERSSEN: Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Minister of Police, members, fighting crime in South Africa requires all

of us in government, in Parliament and in our communities to do our part to make South Africa safer. It does not call on us today to howl from opposition benches, because this is a serious matter. We require a workable partnership in order to make sure that criminals are prevented from committing crime in the first place. Where do we commit crime? Where do they

 

commit crime? We must be sure that they will be traced and there will be consequences for their actions. That requires that the SA Police Service, the SAPS, and other government departments in the criminal justice system must play their

part and fulfil their obligations to the South African public.

 

The ANC has led efforts to create safer spaces for women and children in our country by leading the fight against gender-

based violence, GBV, and femicide, and by leading our fight against crime.

 

 

Now, this debate has come at the right time but this debate

 

has also come very late for the hon Whitfield because, as he

 

said, we started addressing this matter in 2019 already. When

 

the SAPS’ forensic service was undertaking a turnaround

 

strategy to address the backlog in DNA processing, it was the collective achievement of the portfolio committee led by the

ANC that addressed this matter and that worked in partnership. We wish to thank the hon member Whitfield for the role he

played, but his was not the only political party. He was part of a collective. The problem is that he does not understand the role which was played by the FF Plus, by the IFP. For once, we actually had a partnership, even with the EFF, to solve this matter.

 

The debate is an opportune moment to highlight the role we played, through our oversight role on the challenges of the backlog in DNA processing with the SAPS, with the Minister, with the national commissioner, how we highlighted significant

interventions which were required and how the Minister and the

 

national commissioner worked with the portfolio committee to address and reverse the problems which we had. So this debate

is quite late. Why? Last week, the President already answered to a question by the hon Dr Groenewald. He was on time. Hon

Whitfield, you are late. Your debate is stale already. [Laughter.]

 

 

However, what is really, really problematic is when we start using GBV and femicide ... when you start using GBV and

femicide for political point scoring. This is reprehensible and it should be condemned with the contempt it deserves. It

should be set aside and it should be condemned as the secondary victimisation of survivors of GBV. Let us not come

into this House to score political points. This is political opportunism of the worst kind and it should be rejected by all members of political parties, including all members of this House. It is totally abhorrent behaviour. I would like us to look at this matter with the multiparty women’s caucus, to see how we can explain why GBV is abused in debates, when in fact

 

we are looking at justice for all, even those who are victims of violent crime.

 

 

The forensic science laboratories in our country have been

 

modernised and have sophisticated equipment to process its DNA

 

samples in line with the provision of the Criminal Law Forensic Procedures Act. The Portfolio Committee on Police

held three hearings on the effectiveness of processing backlogged DNA samples at the forensic science laboratories.

Furthermore, this weekend, on Saturday, we shall be conducting an oversight visit at the forensic science laboratories.

 

 

We know that the COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to our service delivery in all our government departments. Our

budgets have been cut, but with the dwindling budget the SAPS has, because of our reprioritisation, used an operational

budget ... reprioritised and ... increased this budget for forensic science laboratories by R250 million. The hon

President said this. So why do you want to keep the hon President responsible for a matter which you have assisted us in solving? There is something really wrong in the thought process of someone who assists in solving a matter but then continues to insist that there is a crisis. We are not saying that there is no crisis. We are saying that we are attending

 

to it. We are addressing it and we thank the hon Whitfield for assisting us in doing this. [Interjections.] Yes ... [Inaudible] ... but he doesn’t realise that he’s actually being successful in his very own work that he has done. I

suppose that is because he always needs to be led and he

 

always needs to be led by the ANC. [Laughter.]

 

 

 

We were concerned about consumables, chemicals, quantification kits. We were concerned about the equipment required to keep

the forensic science laboratories operational. We were concerned in the face of dwindling budgets. We were first to

notice it and to bring it to the attention of the SAPS as part

 

of our monitoring mandate. We have held these hearings because it is part of our oversight responsibility. We heard about the

backlog totalling 172 787 cases. Yes, but, we are eating this and eating bit by bit. He speaks about the private sector. Hon

Whitfield, we are already partnering with the private sector. The hon President said this. The hon President has established

a focus area to monitor ... It’s called a technical advisory committee, which has been established for benchmarking and the piloting of new, modern and specialised forensic equipment.

New methods to meet international standards and current priorities are focused on mobile DNA laboratory capacity. A research and feasibility study is being conducted.

 

Hon Whitfield, please come physically to the House so that when the President responds to questions ... you know something is happening when you link to the President’s responses technically. I think you should come to the House,

you should listen, you should be focused and you should

 

acknowledge your own role and the role of your party in assisting us to solve this problem. For once, we could work as

a collective. So don’t come to the House and say that we have

 

not solved the problem when you were part of solving it. Thank

 

you.

 

 

 

MS N N CHIRWA: Deputy Speaker greetings, the

 

Commander-in-Chief CIC of the EFF, Julius Sello Malema, the Deputy President Chief Whip in Parliament, commissar Floyd

Nyiko Shivambu, all officials, commissars and ground forces of the EFF. Early this year the EFF raised an issue of the crisis

of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, kits in police stations across

 

the country. And through to the Minister’s habitual pattern to

 

prioritise public relations, PR, over the actual work you are meant to, but failed to do. You are quick to say we were lying, knowing very well the harrowing stories of children as young as three years old being subjected to seeing their rape is roaming the streets because you did not process DNA rape evidence, kits.

 

Children, women and the aged, particularly who suffer some gruesome crimes at the hands of treacherous men must today acknowledge that there are rapists more than 100 000 of them multiplying each year are not behind bars, because the

government of the day is hoarding evidence of their rapes in

 

the fringe, and will continue to do so for years to come.

 

 

 

Rapist and sexual violence perpetrators in this country will continue to terrorise marginalised people because they find

confidence in that, no matter how many times they rape, no matter how many people they kill, no matter how many times the

terrorised people, their genitalia and body fluids, and the

 

evidence that they live on their victim’s bodies which are

 

living crime scenes will rot in the hands of the state. Rapist

 

is in South Africa, arrest their confidence in the South African Police Service as a dependable ally that will misplace

evidence, lose evidence, not process evidence or simply not collect it at all.

 

 

Year in and year out, even to the admittance of Minister Ronald Lamola on 19 March 2021, in his response to written question, states that there are cases that are being struck off the roll by the court due to outstanding DNA evidence. Why then must children make up 40% of rape victims go to the SAPS,

 

will not even process the evidence these children carried to your police stations after being raped and molested, if the forensic laboratory services will not even process it in the interest of their justice. Why do we continue to tell rape

victims to not bath and to carry evidence on their bodies, to

 

come and report rape cases to you as early as possible if you will stop the evidence for years on end living rapist is to go

about their lives, while the lives of rape survivors come to an end, waiting and chasing a justice that will never happen

because you refuse to process rape kits? Rapists is in South Africa depend on the ANC-led government to continue raping and

getting away with it, that is a fact

 

 

 

Now to move on from this, fund rape testing kids with urgency,

 

establish a capacitated and cutting edge rape and DNA database system. The women and children and lesbian, gay, bisexual,

transgender, intersex, and questioning, LGBTIQ, of this country are desperate from SAPS, that don’t treat rape and

sexual violence crimes, with the urgency that they truly deserve. Ensure that it is standard procedure to process fingerprints and rape DNA database vetting for each and every public servant existing currently and entering estate personnel.

 

For all, we know some of these rape evidence kits will point right in our benches, in this very House, in legislatures and councils and municipalities.

 

 

Resource and innovative technological projects through

 

amalgamate the Home Affairs fingerprint collection system with that of the SAPS, for speedy tracking of criminals. In sourced

the entire process of manufacturing rape kits, delivering them to police stations, storing them and processing rape evidence

in less than a week.

 

 

 

Minister, you have not done this because you are not committed

 

to justice for rape victims and the country, you are committed to tender systems that will expand opportunities for your

comrades behind the door payments while flooding rape victims with the rhetoric of how passionate you are about fighting the

rape crisis, when the issue of backlogs of evidence can be resolved by processing it to speed up convictions, and you are

not doing that. Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker.

 

 

 

THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: The next speaker is hon Majozi ... [Interjection.]

 

Mr N SINGH: Hon Deputy Speaker, this is IFP Chief Whip, Singh. Hon Majozi is having some connection problem. So may I continue with reading her remarks?

 

 

THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: That’s the rule go ahead sir.

 

 

 

Mr N SINGH: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker, according the

 

most recent data given to the Portfolio Committee on Police, the national backlog in forensic cases currently stands at

172 000. These are cases that involve deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, samples. It is a devastating miscarriage of justice for

all 150 000 people living in South Africa, who are unable to

 

have their cases heard or concluded do this appalling delay.

 

 

 

The South African Police Services, forensic division has immigrant has, because of mismanagement and poor leadership,

failure to adequately resource and support the national forensic science laboratories to ensure that DNA cases

exhibits are processed with the urgency they deserve. We have been briefed on the continuing lack of basic consumer boards, and the failure to properly maintain highly sensitive equipment, which stretches back over more than two years.

 

A key area of concern in the bounds of the delays are linked to rape and murder cases across the country, in a country with an ever increasing rape of gender-based violence, and the astronomically high crime rate in general. This delay means

that there are murderers and rapists among others, roaming our

 

communities and terrorise our citizens with impunity. They operate without consequence because of this failure to ensure

that our justice system is adequately supported and resourced. This delay has, no doubt contributed to the mistrust our

citizens have in the South African Police Services, SAPS, who

 

... [Inaudible.] ... such violent crimes lead to distrust.

 

 

 

Deputy speaker, the IFP welcomes, the appointment of the new National Forensic Ethics Board and trusts that, despite the

Board inheriting this immense backlogs and other issues that the members will learn from the failings of the predecessors.

 

 

The IFP also trust that the plan of action that has been

 

outlined will indeed yield immediate and impactful results in the following areas, amongst others: reduction of DNA case backlog, especially for GBV cases, the establishment of forensic investigative units across the country, so as to ease the burden on the existing infrastructure, the modernisation and maintenance of forensic equipment and methods, the

 

appointment adequate staff to meet increasing demands for forensic products, the full accreditation of all laboratories to combat DNA analysis and the monitoring of utilisation and impact the forensic products in the investigation of crime and

... [Inaudible.]

 

 

 

Finally, Deputy Speaker, the IFP demands together with all

 

South Africans, more transparency and accountability regarding this critical link between our justice system and our

citizens. I thank you.

 

 

Dr P J GROENEWALD: Hon Deputy Speaker, we must start to say that we must look at the statistics to realise the real effect of the problem when it comes to DNA tests. In an official question to the hon President, he officially replied that by

25 February this year, the backlog on DNA tests was 122 787 cases. Now, we have to deal with that. The hon Minister is here and he will respond by the end of this debate. Maybe, hon Minister, you should inform the people of South Africa what the backlog is at present.

 

 

So, the backlog is one issue but it is, as far as I am concerned, because of two main reasons. The one is the fact that the hon Minister also admitted at the portfolio committee

 

at the beginning of March that there are no consumables available to all the forensic laboratories of the police. That is totally unacceptable. How can you get into a situation where no consumables are available? The Minister did not even know about it.

 

 

The second issue, whether we like it or not, is about the electronic management system of DNA systems. I still do not understand how it came to a situation where a company, Forensic Data Analysts, FDA, just stop their systems by June last year, where the whole system actually came to a standstill. And I am not here to lobby for any company. I am here to say that we must act in the best interest of South Africa. What happened? That was because of court cases - nine of them - about intellectual property of FDA. The police have lost all the cases. The last one, a Constitutional Court case determined, yes, FDA is the intellectual property owner of the system.

 

 

Now, we said that we are going to have a new system. Then Sita came forward and now they said yes, from 6 April, everything is running well. Hon Minister, I must inform you this afternoon that FDA has laid a new application to say that their intellectual property is still misused by Sita in the

 

system. So, by next week, I foresee that there is going to be an interdict, preventing the use of the system. So, everything is back to square one.

 

 

Hon Minister - and this is also what the hon chair of the portfolio committee said - we have to solve the problems. As far as I’m concerned, the one problem is that the differences between the hon Minister and the National Commissioner of Police must be solved. We cannot go back to a situation where we have political appointments for national commissioners. We had it since 2000. General Sithole is an experienced police officer who came through the ranks, with 35 years of experience in the police. We have to solve that.

 

 

I also want to say to the hon President who said that opposition parties should not get involved in internal matters of the ANC. He is correct. The FF Plus does not want to get involved, but what I want to say to the hon President, sort your differences and your factionalism and everything out, so that you can focus on the problems of South Africa and not on party political issues. Thank you.

 

 

Rev K R J MESHOE: Deputy Speaker, in December last year, there was a backlog of almost 120 000 samples at the National

 

Forensic Science Laboratory. SAPS spokesperson, Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, stated that 60 to 70% of the unprocessed samples were for rape cases and most of the rest for murders. By March 2012, the DNA backlog had increased to 172 000, which is totally unacceptable.

 

 

The ACDP believes that these backlogs at our forensic laboratories are empowering the murderers and rapists of South Africa, while destroying the lives of tens of thousands of suffering families. Murder victims cannot speak for themselves. They need a voice, and that voice is DNA results. Traumatised, mentally challenged and child rape victims may not even go to court, if they do not have a friend to accompany them, and their best friend to win the case is DNA results. DNA results help identify perpetrators, they help to convict perpetrators, and they help to deter potential or repeat offenders.

 

 

According to NPA spokesperson, Sipho Ngwema, DNA results are essentials, specifically in those cases where identity is in dispute and no other corroborative witnesses are available. Furthermore, the DNA backlog gives perpetrators the freedom

...[Inaudible.] ... for their aggression. In Durban, a serial rapist was given only five years suspended sentence for

 

grievous bodily harm. This was before DNA processing and matching was done. After DNA processing was done, the forensic laboratory results spoke for his 30 rape victims, nine of whom were under 16, and one only 11 years old. Because of the DNA results, a new sentence of 120 years was handed down.

 

 

According to former Deputy Chair of the National Forensic Oversight and Ethics Board, Vanessa Lynch, rape kits should be processed in 30 days. The ACDP agrees with her statement that the backlog is a travesty to justice, as for every sexual assault kit, which lies in the forensic science laboratory, which has not been analysed effectively, someone’s life is being put on hold, and worse still, it fails to identify the perpetrators who are with no doubt still at large, raping again and again.

 

 

This ... [Inaudible.] ... must be addressed urgently. All vacancies must be filled without delay, and consumables must be made available at all forensic Laboratories. Furthermore,

... [Time expired.]. Thank you very much.

 

 

Mr N L S KWANKWA: Deputy speaker and hon members, the unfolding DNA crisis at SAPS is yet another indication that all is not well SAPS. So, according to reports, the SAPS

 

backlog of DNA tests approached a staggering almost 200 000 over the past couple of months, due to primarily the bitter battle between SAPS, Sita and FDA, who switched off their systems.

 

 

This has crippled SAPS’ crime fighting capacity and has had an enormous impact, especially on the rape and gender-based violence cases in South Africa. Recent reports also paint a very gloomy picture that, due to this fight between SAPS and FDA, approximately 8 million pieces of evidence, including DNA samples, may have been lost. Unfortunately, this results in a situation where criminals run, rampage and scot free, whilst victims live in fear.

 

 

This also regrettably occurs in a context of a South Africa where thousands of women are raped every day, and thousands of people are also raped on average, over a period of time. This requires political will on the part of the Ministry and government to address and deal with this unfolding crisis, as failure to do so, is irresponsible.

 

 

We must understand that there is a chain of events happening from the time a victim reports an incident at the police station until every DNA evidence can be presented to court. If

 

the system is not in place, it exposes the chain and jeopardises the credibility of the evidence, and also negatively impacts the entire justice system.

 

 

However, more so, what is also regrettable about this impact is that thousands of rape and gender based-violence cases will never see the light of day in court, justice may never be served, and victims will always be reminded of how the law- enforcement agency and the justice system, which we have set up to protect them, has failed them dismally.

 

 

We call on the Minister and the department and government to address these issues with immediate effect. I thank you. Thank you.

 

 

Ms P FAKU: Hon Deputy Speaker, hon Minister of Police, hon Deputy Minister of Police, hon members. I have listened closely to my hon colleagues, and no one can deny the critical role that the DNA analysis play in fighting crime, and the vital link thereof in the criminal justice system value chain. No one can deny that there have been some challenges that led to the backlog in DNA analysis. However, it is also clear that the police have recognised this and they are not shying away from these challenges. There are tackling the backlog head on,

 

to address the situation with speed and dedication. I just want to confirm to hon Whitfield that, the Minister has not failed. If you were participating of late to the portfolio committee meetings, you would understand, for some time now you have been absent. The Minister has not failed. We have full confidence in the Minister. As you listen to what I would be saying, you will really understand the work that has been done thus far.

 

 

Hon Deputy Speaker, a critical area in enhancing of DNA analysis, lies the capacitating of provincial forensic services. The SA Police Service has four forensic laboratories, of which only two are performing both evidence recovery and DNA analysis. The laboratories in KwaZulu-Natal, KZN and the Eastern Cape are only doing evidence recovering. However, this will be addressed through the DNA turnaround strategy that was implemented by SA Police Service, SAPS. The forensic services function is currently performed and accounted for at national level. Thus, no budget allocation is made to relevant provincial commissioners. The police could possibly consider the decentralisation of some of the responsibilities to the provincial level to improve accountability to provincial commissioners in the provinces where the DNA analysis laboratories are located. Ideally, all

 

nine provinces should have forensic DNA Laboratories. The current economic outlook and the financial constraints made this as ideal situation difficult, if not impossible.

 

 

Hon Deputy Speaker, the Minister of police has made no secret of the fact of shortage of various consumables for DNA analysis, and the delays in awarding tenders are to be blamed for the current backlog at the forensic laboratories. The corporate renewal strategy focus, and optimisation of the financial and supply chain management process, to support the provision of the forensic services, including the procurement of consumables and semi-automated DNA analysis system. There are specifics shortages in consumables to complete the DNA analysis, and specific consumables related to the kits.

Shortages are specific to qualification kits, amplification kits, direct amplification kits for the DNA analysis samples. Various tenders are currently being concluded to ensure the availability of the conduct of these consumables.

 

 

Last month the SA Police Service concluded crucial a two-year contract with a specific service provider to supply specific consumables. I am not sure when Dr Groenewald raises the issue of this previous service provider, where are you getting that information? As an hon member you are supposed to stand up and

 

support the Minister in the portfolio committee and not have conversation when people are going out and speaking to different service providers. Why do you want to see there at the SA Police Service fail? It is because of the injustices of the past that you have created and your party.

 

 

However, as the SA Police Service explained previously, before the qualification of kits can be procured, the validation of kits is being done, and it is vital to ensure that these are valid for the process. It is expected that the process will be concluded in the next two months. SA Police Service has used quotation system to procure sufficient number of qualification kits to be used over the next three months up until the validation process is completed.

 

 

Hon Deputy Speaker, we cannot deny the significant impact that the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown restriction had on all sectors in South Africa. It did not spare the SAPS, especially in terms of procurement. Certain consumables are procured from overseas suppliers, hon Whitfield, which was hampered by the restriction on economic activities. Further thereto, awarding of tenders is reliant on different factors, like site visit, potential bidders which could not be conducted during the strict levels of lockdown.

 

Currently, the SA Police Service has increased the workforce for forensic analysis to provide sufficient overtime. The South African government is committed in capacitating forensic services in the fight against gender based violence. Hence R250 million was set aside to address the DNA backlog. We have witnessed the impact of the current intervention where investigations are continuing. Just recently, a week ago a serial rapist was arrested in Ekurhuleni and he was linked to about 16 cases of rape. Further, it is alleged that he could be linked to almost 100 rape cases. That proves the commitment of the Minister of Police in fighting against gender-based violence and violence.

 

 

It is estimated that the number of cases dealt with within a week has improved, and there is work done in the forensic services at a faster pace. We must commend the SA Police Service for the work they have done thus far, irrespective of the current challenges we are facing as a nation. It is so irresponsible for some hon members to want to gain political scores, because you are speaking about this matter at this time.

 

 

Hon Chirwa, I wish that we could use this energy that you have as the women of this country, when we go to victims and try to

 

support them. You have so much energy; you must contact me; I will help you. Hon Deputy Speaker, the procurement of manual and semi-automatic DNA processes is crucial, and the current handed to procure the semi-automated system is at an advanced stage. The tender specification is detailed to provide performance qualification, training and maintenance plan. This will ensure the transfer of skills and building capacity in the Forensic Science Laboratory Division of Police.

 

 

The procurement of automatic process system for the Gqeberha Laboratory, I hope that Executive Mayor Nqaba Bhanga, is listening when I say Gqeberha. The laboratory will assist the police to cope with ever increasing demand of forensic DNA analysis capacity. The system will minimise analysis time as well as caused a human error.

 

 

In conclusion hon Deputy Speaker, I want to urge the Minister and his team to address the critical challenges experienced in the supply chain management and contract management division of police. These divisions have such great responsibility in securing the tools of trade to enable men and women in blue to perform their duties effectively. If supply chain management fail, they fail to. I have unwavering confidence in the police

 

to eliminate the backlog speedily, and to further prevent such situation from reoccurring. Thank you,

 

 

Mr O S TERBLANCHE: From world pioneers to total incompetence – yes, Deputy Speaker, hon members and fellow South Africans - that is exactly what happened to the SA Police Service, the SAPS, in the field of DNA analysis. Engineering News and Mining Weekly reported in an article dated 21 October 2006 that the world’s first fully automated system for high volume forensic DNA and profiling went live in Arcadia, Tshwane - South Africa in August 2006, putting the biology unit of SAPS forensic science laboratory at the forefront of global DNA analysis technology.

 

 

It further states that as the world’s first fully automated system by which blood or other biological samples can be processed or DNA analysis, the facility is expected to support the efforts of both the police service and the criminal justice system. The turnaround time for forensic results based on DNA analysis was cut from 10 weeks to only one week. This achievement was so significant that even the FPI visited South Africa in 2006. At the time it was expected that the system would have be replicated in several other countries around the world ...

 

Afrikaans:

 

My kollega, die agb Andrew Whitfield het breedvoerig gepraat oor die getalle ter sprake en die implikasies wat dit tot gevolg het.

 

 

English:

 

A DNA profile is like a genetic fingerprint. Every person has a unique DNA profile, making it useful for identifying people involved in crime. It can be used by scientists who identify criminals or determine parentage. DNA evidence is a useful and neutral tool in the search for justice. It will play an increasingly important role in serving crimes in future, and the results will be better justice for victims and safer communities.

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Suid-Afrika gaan tans gebuk onder ’n geweldige vlaag van ernstige misdaad soos byvoorbeeld moord, verkragting, aanranding, misdaad teen vroue en kinders, plaasmoorde, dwelm- en bendeverwante misdaad, ens.

 

 

English:

 

We were the world leaders in respect of this much-needed competency, but lost our competitive edge to the extent that

 

many victims of these horrendous crimes are denied justice. Our citizens are robbed of their constitutional right to safety. The huge backlog gives true meaning to the phrase, “justice delayed is justice denied”. Deputy Speaker ...

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Die vraag is dan: Wat het verkeerd gegaan?

 

 

English:

 

What went wrong?

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Die kort antwoord is een, swak leierskap; twee, korrupsie; drie, kaderontplooiing en onbevoedheid; vier, die corona-virus en die bestuur daarvan.

 

 

English:

 

The police were involved in ongoing discussions in several court battles with the owner of the forensic data analysis, FBA, who switched the property control and exhibit management, PCEM, system off in June 2020. Dozen other contracts were further adversely influenced by alleged corruption.

 

 

Afrikaans:

 

Hierdie fiasko het afgespeel, terwyl die betrokk twee hoogsbetaalde here reeds in beheer was. Die bestuur van die polisiediens was aan hulle toevertrou. Ons weet vandag dat beide ’n groot rol in hierdie mensgemaakde tragedie gespeel het en dat hulle Suid-Afrika jammerlik gefaal het.

 

 

English:

 

While General Sithole’s dedication was unmatched pursuing the procurement of the grappler device, the renewal of the DNA contract did unfortunately not enjoy the same commitment.

Minister Cele still enjoys the role of super national commissioner and is South Africa’s number one beach patroller. At the moment they are in a fierce battle for control of the police. It’s time to decide who must go, Mr President. Who will it be? Cele or Sithole, or maybe both?

 

 

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon members, I am going to ask the hon Sibisi to come in, but I would like to say to the hon Terblanche that I am going to look at his remarks and would like to communicate to him about those remarks. Hon Sibisi from the NFP?

 

 

Mr C H M SIBISI: Hon Deputy Speaker, there is no doubt that this is an important debate because it brings to light and to

 

the attention of the majority of South Africans the issue of the DNA crisis and the SA Police Service. Deputy Speaker, this matter stretches back to more than two years. Thus, it has led to demonstrating delays in processing DNA samples name to a significant number of murders and rape surpassed across the country.

 

 

On the one hand the President has put a system message on the government’s commitment to fight against crime, gender-based violence, GBV, amongst others. But on the other hand we have dysfunctional national forensic science laboratories - this is utterly counterproductive. Therefore, let’s suggest that a thorough analysis of these backlogs must be conducted to ascertain the impact on the backlog of DNA cases and the outcome of those cases. This is a direct indictment on the Minister of Police. In response to this backlog, last night the Minister said in his statement that the State Information Technology Agency has a new digital system and is able to trace seven to eight thousand samples a week, adding that the new system helps in bringing the perpetrators of crime to book.

 

 

The Minister has not yet assured the country about whether the backlog that has actually been addressed without compromising

 

the quality of these cases that were largely dependent on both DNA results to be processed on time. All the Minister said is that they have a backlog. We cannot deny that more than

200 000 guinea cases exhibits. Families of rape survivors raised concerns about the backlogs saying that the snail’s pace in the processing of DNA evidence samples is preventing justice from taking its course. South Africans have lamented about the continued denied justice they have experienced as a result of this issue.

 

 

We as the NFP stand in solidarity with those families and victims who have been denied justice because of incapacity of personnel, lack of basic consumables and contract mismanagement in the institutions that are the custodian of the DNA processes. I thank you, Deputy Speaker.

 

 

Mr N NYHONTSO: I’m sorry, Deputy Speaker, I’m here but I’m not

 

speaking.

 

 

Mr M G E HENDRICKS: Thank you very much, hon Deputy Speaker. Hon Deputy Speaker, the backlog by deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, testing will grow. I’m very concerned about the provision in the Green Paper of the Marriage Act where women are allowed to take more than one husband. So, you can imagine when the child

 

is born, more DNA tests will be needed to determine who the father is. Therefore, the problem is only going to get worse. However, I’m very confident that the Minister of Police will fast track the problems we are facing with DNA testing. We need to reduce the reliance on DNA testing.

 

 

Therefore, one of the areas Al Jama-ah has identified is the over 5 000 bodies of African brothers lying on ice because they were undocumented and their bodies can’t be released, because there is a need for DNA testing. We went to the High Court to assist with the Tanzanian who jumped into the river to save a young girl and he was lying on ice for three months and the judge told me, hon Hendricks, what is a Member of Parliament doing in my court. You should be in Parliament changing your legislation to sort this out. And that is precisely what Al Jama-ah wants to do. And we hope we can count on the Minister of Police for his assistance because he is meant to help us win that particular case. Thank you very much, hon Deputy Speaker.

 

 

The CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Deputy Speaker, it’s hon Mazzone. Deputy Speaker, I’m afraid I have to interrupt proceedings because I would like you to refer what the last speaker, who I will not refer to as hon, has just said and how

 

insulting he has been to every woman in this country regarding the rights of women to have multiple husbands, but the rights of men to have multiple wives. I think that in this day and age in the year 2021, to think that a public representative of this country would dare stand up in the Parliament of South Africa and say something like that is an absolute disgrace. I want it referred to the Ethics Committee as well as the Rules Committee of Parliament. And may I say that the only woman in this country who would possibly feel that way is his wife.

 

 

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Mazzone, we will examine that. However, I do wish to say to you that even when you are outraged, your language must be careful as well. You need not cross boundaries because you are outraged by what someone said. We will look at what the hon member said and will report back to the House. Hon Maphatsoe, please go ahead.

 

 

Mr E R K MAPHATSOE: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. This issue that we are discussing today is of national importance. We said in our committee that we must not politicise issues that affect our people, especially the gender-based violence, and we all agreed in those meetings. However, this challenge of the backlog does not start now and all of them they are agreeing that it does not start now. But, in the sixth administration,

 

when we came in we prioritise these that it must be prioritised, and we played our oversight role correctly, and time again we have been calling the department to come and account. And I must say that the Minister and the Deputy Minister have been playing that important role, including the commissioner briefing the portfolio committee about what is happening.

 

 

Now, what they’re not telling the people and hon members the truth is that there were challenges and when we identified those challenges, we then asked them to give us a regular report and these other things that they have identified which created the backlog. The one is that the problem was characterised by corruption which featured across forensic supply chain and technology management service which the department acted upon through arrests, dismissal and a series of internal investigations. The above described situation led to mismanagement in the contract management environment in which most contracts expired without renewal either because of court challenges, omissions or lack of capacity. These included contracts for consumables, which then halted the processing of DNA and creating the backlog. The capacity lost through resignations, arrest and dismissals emanating from the actions taking impacted negatively on the staff compliments,

 

and hence worsening the backlog. These included displacement of scientists, analysts who left the environment either because of promotion or other form of mobility.

 

 

So, with the relationship between the DNA backlog and the Forensic Data Analysts, FDA, which hon Groenewald referred to, it was that the DNA processing is a scientific process which takes place within and handled by forensic laboratories. The FDA that is speaking to hon Groenewald, it was the one that was providing the exhibit tracking and trace system which is called Property Control and Exhibit Management, PCEM, which assist with the tracking and tracing in all exhibit. It’s important to mention that the PCEM system or any other FDA related system did not have any direct impact on the DNA backlog nor assisting DNA. There was the process, Deputy Speaker, that unfolded which was that is either when the contract came to an end with the FDA that we wanted the department to buy all their systems. The department said no, we cannot buy all your systems, we only need one system.

 

 

In that process again, there are companies that claimed the intellectual property, IP, and we were very shocked to say that that means our sovereignty is at risk because the data that they take it might go to other countries which they will

 

use it against us. However, we develop them and an action oriented solution which exhibit was executed by the department, one is in responding for corruption, both former divisional commissioners of the three environments were charged criminally and departmental with two dismissed. More than 60 arrest effected across three environments with supply chain accounting for more than 40. A ... [Inaudible.] ... of section 81 investigations initiated to recover from those who use resignation to escape. The co-operate renewal strategies designed and implemented at all three divisions with management overall. The new divisional commissioner appointed at supply chain and forensic with the technology management services is still in the process.

 

 

Deputy Speaker, in reorganising and restructuring in progress at all three environments which include the capacitation of the environment it’s one, the contract management strategy introduced in the organisation through the turnaround vision. The contract management committee appointed consisting of senior members. Contract with forensic revived and renewed including those consumables. Contract for extension of laboratory services in the Eastern Cape already signed off and DNA processes service expected to take off towards the end of the year. The additional interventions, Deputy Speaker, it is

 

what the President has already spoken about last week that the partnership entered with the private sector who are prepared to avail the services from their laboratories to assist with the alleviation of the DNA backlog, and a multidisciplinary scope with regard to DNA backlog and processing enhancement, which will extend to other organisation.

 

 

The issue that has been a problem is a track and tracing relief. So, immediately after the expiry of the contract with FDA, including the termination of the latest arrangements, the department with ... [Inaudible.] ... developed a new track and trace system which replaced the PCEM capability. The system has been activated on 6 April. The system compliments and enhance exhibit track. Important to mention that the ones halted DNA process has been unlocked. Current backlog address and structured multidisciplinary project action plan. The contract management revived for consumables, which include rape kits and co-operate renewal progress address capacity.

However, the President has emphasised, Deputy Speaker, that the public-private partnership is important. The department has entered into an integrated task team which has been established with private sectors and the SA Police Services. Thank you, Deputy Speaker. [Time expired.]

 

Ms N K SHARIF: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. The weakest link in the fight against gender-based violence and femicide is the SA Police Service. The DNA crisis is but only one of the reasons why the SA Police Service, SAPS, continues to fail women and members of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, LGBTQ+, community. During the DA’s oversight visit to provinces across the country, looking specifically at the interventions by government on gender- based violence and femicide, GBVF, has proven that there are too many gaps and cases gone and forgotten. The process around DNA rape kits at police stations and ... [Inaudible.] ... units is not working and we see these failures on the ground. This is why it is important to ensure that there are DNA rape kits available at Thuthuzela Care Centres, because waiting to find the ... [Inaudible.] ... rape kits is simply ridiculous.

 

 

After you, Minister, told us that these are ... [Inaudible.]

 

... at every police station, still waiting for a DNA rape kit today means Thuthuzela Care Centres, TCCs, and hospitals will have to ask survivors they have just been raped to wait for a police officer to find a rape kit. And this sometimes means that the survivor cannot wash four days because of fear of losing DNA evidence. This, hon Joemat-Pettersson, is what contributes to secondary trauma ... [Inaudible.] ... for

 

committed GBVF frontline workers then have to use their initiative to make up for the failure by the SAPS in collecting DNA.

 

 

There are forensic nurses who told us that they need to use sanitary pads in an attempt to save as much DNA evidence as possible by asking survivors to store these pads in brown bags and bring them back to get process. It seems as though everything in this country takes long and has long waiting periods from days to months and up to years. The slow processing of DNA is breaking down what needs to be a strong justice system. The backlog at DNA labs is shocking and the fact that survivors and TCCs have to wait for months and sometimes years to get evidence back is literally a long way

... [Inaudible.] ... to walk free, and survivors left waiting for an incompetent state to ensure that the SAPS in ... [Inaudible.] ... do their jobs in time. The slow pace in which this government moves is killing us. The only option we have is to fire the ANC. There are so many issues and, Minister, it is not only about doing better, just do something. DNA evidence is one of the most important aspects that lead to conviction, and this needs to be fixed now. I thank you.

 

THE MINISTER OF POLICE: Hon Deputy Speaker, thanks to the person who raised this debate today which happens to be hon Whitfield. The only problem about him is that his memory has got a very short foot because he only started on the year 2018 He forgets that the people that are in laboratory are going in court because they are arrested for corruption there. He forgets that people in supply chain and management are in court because they were arrested for corruption there. So, your memory is in a very short radar of your circle of thinking.

 

 

IsiZulu:

 

Malungu ahloniphekile ePhalamende lolu daba okuxoxwa ngalo namhlanje selwaba yinsakavukela umchili wesidwaba. Kumele sime kancane ngokushayana ngamazwi nokujikijelana kodwa sibambisane ukulungisa lapho konakele khona.

 

 

English:

 

The backlog experience at the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory has given us sleepless nights. Equally, it has been nightmare for every one relying on the service of the laboratories to find justice and closure. But as a police, we did not just choose and turn in our beds from the sleepless nights only. We spring to actions, roll out our sleeves and put our heads

 

together. We knew it was a race against time to urgently find a way out of a nightmare holding the criminal justice system at ransomed.

 

 

As a Minister of Police, on behalf of the SAPS I want to take this opportunity to apologies sincerely to all victims of crime for ... [Applause.] ... the pain and anguish this delays have caused. We owe it to all of you to transparent about how we got here and how we will improve these situations as we go forward. I am not going to spend time on how we got here. I am going to try to spend time on how we are going to get out of here. Moreover, from June 2020 there were no electronic track and trace functionality available due to the discontinuation of the system by the service provider. I this is what I think hon Groenewald spoke about. I know doctor that you are good in law. Maybe they have hired you. That’s why you know better that they are going to court and we don’t know. Please work with us not with the people that work against the Parliament.

 

 

This meant the tracking and tracing of exhibit could only be done manually. This manual work saw a rapid buildup as forensic analyst were only processing a fraction of what could be processed with the discontinuation system. Furthermore, the testing of specimens for DNA also reached a bottleneck. This

 

was a direct result of the shortage of the quantification kits of so called DNA consumables. These kits are essential for DNA testing as the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory.

 

 

The reality is that this particular shortage was due to poor contract management in SAPS. That’s why we had to change the entire management in supply and laboratory.      But you are here and you forget where we started. Thank you.

 

 

Currently, the national backlog at our Forensic Science Laboratory stands at 208 291 cases not 172 000 ...

[Interjections.] 208 291 ... [Interjections.] Not 225 000. Maybe you have an exaggerated mathematics.

 

 

Over 60 000 of these have been received by the laboratory but have not been analysed, 36 626 are DNA related and 82 000 of these are cases related to gender-based violence and femicide.

 

 

Out of our four SAPS Forensic Laboratories, the Gauteng province experienced the largest degree of DNA followed by Western Cape, followed by Eastern Cape and then KwaZulu-Natal.

 

 

Chairperson, as the hon President has pronounced last week that the huge backlog is unacceptable. We fully confirmed. We

 

totally agree that the SAPS has been hard at work to implement an action turnaround plan for the sake of all victims especially women and children.

 

 

About 42% of the of dockets for crimes committed against women and children that had been outstanding for over a year have been finalised. All cases related to the gender-based violence, GBV, and femicide are being prioritised based on guidance from the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, 77 485 such cases which are court ready but has outstanding results from our forensic laboratory are being processed. Over 2 500 of such cases have been finalised so far. Our goal is to bring normality back to the operations of the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory within the next 18 months. We hope we are realistically about it.

 

 

On our quest for the respond of the country forensic capacity, building of the DNA analyst capacity of the Eastern Cape forensic laboratory is underway. A contract has been awarded and the preferred bidder has commenced with the onsight preparations. The Eastern Cape and the KwaZulu-Natal laboratories are currently providing limited services.

 

Hon members, another dilemma before us is inability to track and trace exhibit from our laboratories. These was due to the withdrawal of the system by the service provider in June 2020.

 

 

The SAPS has worked together with the State Information Technology Agency, Sita, and develop a new system to track and trace forensic and is called the firm system and is now fully operational. That system is internally developed by the government. Where we were supposed to have paid R300 million we have paid only R3,5 million as a government to develop that system. The firm system went live on 6 April and rolled out to the four SAPS laboratories. Firm has tracked and traced functionality and has replaced the previous system. Before 6 April forensic analyst could only tracked and traced forensic evidence manually. They were only traced around 1 000 specimen a week. But within a month since this has been established a total of 63 576 cases were registered, tracked and traced automatically, which means we are doing 11 000 a week instead of 1 000 a week.

 

 

There is a contract management system overhauled that is currently underway in the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratory. Currently, long term contracts are under review and are being addressed. A total of 16 new contracts have been awarded. So

 

far each of them have an average of two to three years. So, we are not going to have a problem now since the contracts are there and will be there for a long time. Seven more contracts are under review.

 

 

The procurement of consumables of quotation basis has been realised through a R4,2 million deviation granted by the National Treasury. Why this deviation? Because the supply chain system was taking too long. We had to run to the Treasury who has granted us his permission. So, we do have consumables now. I would like to again, to assure the nation that this particular task is receiving urgent attention and R250 million has been found to give extra money on this matter.

 

 

Once Covid-19 is compromising the availability operational capacity in our laboratories, we are stepping up on human capacity building to meet the demands. So far, hon Minister, Whitfield, so far, 128 SAPS scientists have been promoted internally and now they are working on the operational environment of the forensic laboratories. A further 28 of the appointment were to be finalised and will provide support service.

 

We are also recruiting outside of the organisation for forensic analyst who will work at warrant officer level. When these recruitment is finalised there will be an additional 150 scientist analyst to add to the existing staff complement by end of July. This is the capacity we are building.

 

 

The forensic analyst work force has also been adjusted to allow for overtime. Continues talks with labour is there to make sure that we are working on overtime. Our goal is to have 40% of human resources dedicated for addressing the backlog whilst 60% of the staff at our laboratories will be handling the new cases.

 

 

Chairperson, we must ensure that history never repeat itself. This is why we have put in place the following checks and balances: Firstly, strengthening internal controls and oversite on the functioning of the Forensic and Science Laboratory. Secondly, eliminate corrupt practices. Thirdly, implement and effective contract management plan. Fourthly, we are also developing an early warning system for effective response to system. Fifthly, address taking problems experienced in the firm. Sixthly, there will also be a weekly technical and mechanical progress evaluation by SAPS and the

 

DNA board. Lastly, there will also be collaborative work between SAPS, the Department of Justice and the NPA.

 

 

Chairperson, we want to assure that this august House and the rest of the nation that while we are not out of the wounds, yet we certainly are out in the path moving towards improvement. We are fully aware of the significance and severe impact that the backlog and delays have caused. However, we remain confidence in our intervention measures that our aimed at regaining public confidence and equally restore organisational repartition and image.

 

 

In conclusion, the combined effort in normalising current situation are already yielding fruits. On 23 April 2021 a Benoni man was confirmed as a serious rapist after being positively linked to 60 rape cases through DNA identification and we are expecting to reach 100. This man was arrested on a single rape charge and the evidence collected at the crime scene match with evidence collected over 60 other rape cases. This case is one of the GBV related cases that have been prioritised. However, it is one of many cases that are now before the court as the backlog is accordingly addressed and eventually and clear. Chairperson, we are turning the tide and this environment will change ...

 

IsiZulu:

 

... zizojika izinto. [Ihlombe.]

 

 

English:

 

Chairperson, there is hon member here called Terblanche. Terblanche worked as a police. I want to make a call on the leadership of the DA to investigate him. He was part of the three maskidoes. It was Hlela, the Deputy Commissioner, and there is one who was reporting to him as a head of the property of the police and himself as a head of the property in the SA Police. You check how he managed to be running some properties today. What they did, they would produce the police station like iNanda one which was budgeted at R15 million but it was built on R47 million.

 

 

THE CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Deputy Speaker, on a point of order.

 

 

The MINISTER OF POLICE: You check on him.

 

 

THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Minister, hold on. Hon Mazzone?

 

 

THE CHIEF WHIP OF THE OPPOSITION: Deputy Speaker, through you I will be very pleased to investigate what the hon Minister is

 

saying but as you know he has to produce a substantive motion and once he has done that I will do a fully investigation and report back to him at a greatest of pleasure.

 

 

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Minister, motion is sustained that point of order is sustained.

 

 

The MINISTER OF POLICE: No, I didn’t say we must debate it here. I said they must investigate. I will give the information. In didn’t talk about a debate. I spoke about investigation. So, I will give it to you. He is one of the person who put the ...

 

 

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Minister, don’t proceed with that line. If you want to talk anymore about what he does, what he did and what roles he played and so on. In what you are suggesting you have to do it by a substantive motion. You know that, hon Minister.

 

 

Debate concluded.

 

 

PASSING OF QUEEN SHIYIWE MANTFOMBI DLAMINI ZULU

 

 

(Motion of Condolence)

 

Ms R M M Lesoma: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes with sadness the unexpected passing of Her Majesty Queen Shiyiwe Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu, regent of the Zulu nation, on Thursday, 29 April 2021, after a short illness;

 

 

(2) further notes that the 65-year-old Queen had been appointed regent on 24 March 2021, pending the installation of a successor to her late husband, His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu;

 

 

(3) remembers that the queen married King Zwelithini in 1977, becoming his third wife;

 

 

(4) further remembers that she is the sister to King Mswati III of eSwatini and was regarded as the bridge between the Zulu and eSwatini nations; and

 

 

(5) conveys its condolences to the Zulu royal family and the Zulu nation.

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

TSHAKHUMA TSHA MADZIVHANDLA WINS OVER CHIPPA UNITED IN FOOTBALL

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr T W MHLONGO: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that the Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) Football Club beat Chippa United with a score of 1-0 in the final of the Nedbank Cup at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein on 8 May 2021;

 

 

(2) further notes that TTM is the second Limpopo-based football club to win the Nedbank Cup, following in the footsteps of Baroka Football Club who won in 2019;

 

(3) recognises that TTM deserves to be the 2021 Nedbank Cup champion after beating the star-studded Mamelodi Sundowns, SuperSport United, Swallows Football Club and Black Leopards, all Premiership sides, during the Cup;

 

 

(4) acknowledges that the TTM will represent the Republic at the CAF Confederation Cup next year; and

 

 

(5) congratulates coaches Dylan Kerr, Mpho Maleka, David Mathebula and all the players and management of the TTM on this historic victory, and wishes them well in the CAF Confederation Cup next year.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

ISRAELI STATE COMMITS GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

Mr S TAMBO: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes the genocide committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people during the religious period of Ramadaan, just to ensure a provocative demonstration of Zionist land theft that commemorates the dispossession of Palestinian land in 1967 take place;

 

 

(2) further notes that for far too long, this government played silent diplomacy with a state that has dispossessed the people of Palestine of their land, jailed them without a fair trial, and used ammunition against women and children;

 

 

(3) acknowledges that it is shocking that, for a country that has its own experience of land dispossession and crimes against humanity, there is silence when war criminals commemorate land theft and crimes against humanity else;

 

(4) believes that South Africans must all do for the people of Palestine what the people of Cuban did for us during the dark days of Apartheid;

 

 

(5) supports, as a show of solidary with the people of Palestine, the calls for the closure of the Israeli Embassy in South Africa and withdrawal of the South Africa Ambassador in Tel Aviv for the continued human rights violations against Palestinian people until the land that belongs to the people of Palestine is returned to its owners; and

 

 

(6) condemns with contempt the violence perpetrated by the Apartheid Israeli state on unarmed Palestinian people.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

Objections noted.

 

 

Motion was not agreed to.

 

 

HUGO BROOS APPOINTED AS BAFANA BAFANA COACH

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Ms S R VAN SCHALKWYK: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) welcomes the appointment of Hugo Broos as new Bafana Bafana coach by the South African Football Association on Wednesday, 5 May 2021;

 

 

(2) acknowledges that the 69-year-old Belgian who signed a five-year deal was expected in South Africa the following week when he was expected to announce his backroom staff;

 

 

(3) further acknowledges that the appointment of Hugo ends weeks of speculation about who was going to be next to take charge of the South African team;

 

 

(4) recalls that he previously guided Cameroon’s national soccer team to the 2017 Afcon title and the Fifa Confederations Cup later that year; and

 

(5) congratulates Hugo Broos on his appointment and wishes him well on his assignment of taking Bafana Bafana to the World Cup.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

AMAZULU NATION ANNOUNCES HEIR TO THRONE

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr N SINGH: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that in the midst of this painful time of loss for the amaZulu nation, hope has risen with the naming of an heir to the throne;

 

 

(2) welcomes the announcement of His Royal Highness Prince Misuzulu Sinqobile kaZwelithini as the new

 

King of the amaZulu nation as he takes the reigns from his late father, His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu;

 

 

(3) further notes that the new king has pursued international studies, is well-travelled, and understands the present times and the struggles of his people and our nation at large;

 

 

(4) pledges support to His Majesty King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, noting that his reign will continue an uninterrupted lineage of leadership that has seen the Zulu Nation thrive for more than 200 years, since its founding by King Shaka kaSenzangakhona;

 

 

(5) acknowledges that His Majesty ascends to the throne in a time of economic hardship for our country, as well as a global pandemic; and

 

 

(6) recognises the role Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP, in his capacity as traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation, played by displaying sound leadership, guidance, and fortitude during this sad time and for all that he has done to secure peace, continuity and

 

the protection of the Zulu Monarch and nation as well as its rich traditions and values.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

UCOOK ANNOUNCES GAP MARKET SOCIAL INITIATIVE

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Ms T BREEDT: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that on 9 April 2021 the meal-kit delivery company UCook announced an initiative aimed at closing the gap between young farming entrepreneurs, agri-processors and the end consumer;

 

 

(2) further notes that the project named Khulisa Amafama, is being developed in partnership with the

 

Philippi Economic Development Initiative, Pedi, and development organization, Abalimi Bezekhaya;

 

 

(3) congratulates the UCook team on this initiative to provide structured mentoring, infrastructure support, and resources to small scale farmers through this partnership;

 

 

(4) recognises that without the necessary market access and support, subsistence farmers will largely be unable to grow businesses and move out of the subsistence farming sphere; and

 

 

(5) further recognises that this pilot will be used for further programme development, with the aim of rolling it out to a larger community of farmers.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

17 MAY MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF WORLD INFORMATION SOCIETY DAY

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

Ms A H MTHEMBU: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that World Information Society Day is celebrated each year on 17 May;

 

 

(2) further notes that the aim of the day is to remind the world of the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented information society based on fundamental human rights;

 

 

(3) acknowledges that World Information Society Day promotes people’s awareness of the power of information and communication to build societies in which they can create, access, use and share information and knowledge to achieve their full potential;

 

 

(4) further acknowledges that organizations such as Unesco actively take part in the day by inviting

 

people to engage in various activities to promote campaigns centered on this event; and

 

 

(5) calls on all to observe this day and to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the internet and other information and communication technologies could bring to societies and economies, as well as ways to bridge the digital divide.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

WAYNE VAN NIEKERK PREPARES TO DEFEND HIS OLYMPIC TITLE

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr W M THRING: I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

(1) acknowledges the outstanding performance of South African Olympic hero, Wayde van Niekerk, who in 2017 suffered a setback when he injured his knee during a celebrity touch rugby match;

 

 

(2) notes that this injury occurred after he had won the gold medal in the 2016 Olympic Games men’s 400m race, in a record time of 43.03 seconds;

 

 

(3) further notes that against all odds, and like the true champion that he is, van Niekerk has recovered and is currently in the United States of America, USA, preparing to defend his 400m Olympic title at this year’s games in Tokyo, scheduled to get underway in

(1) July; and

 

 

(4) wishes Wayde van Niekerk and all our Olympic athletes well at the Olympic Games.

 

 

Question put.

 

 

No objections.

 

Agreed to.

 

 

COUNCILLOR PETER SUTTON, NOMINATED AS A HERO OF A COMMUNITY BY THE REKORD NEWSPAPER

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr C BRINK: Chair, on behalf of the DA, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that Mr Peter Sutton, a councilor for ward 78 in the City of Tshwane, has been nominated as a hero of a community by the Rekord newspaper in Centurion;

 

 

(2) acknowledges that Mr Sutton has championed such causes as spearheading the clean-up of the Centurion lake, the prevention of river pollution, and the construction of the Centurion taxi rank;

 

 

(3) further acknowledges that while many of these issues cannot be solved in the short-term, Mr Sutton’s dedication to his community, and his tireless efforts

 

on their behalf, should serve as an example to ward councilors across the republic;

 

 

(4) recognises that there is a need for many more councilors like Mr Sutton, who dedicate their lives to be of service to the community especially as we approach the 2021 Local Government Elections; and

 

 

(5) congratulates Mr Sutton on his nomination, if you would allow me Chair, also the birth of his daughter just this morning and;

 

 

(6)        wishes him success in the contest and his future endeavors.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, CPUT, RETAINED THEIR VARSITY SHIELD RUGBY TITLE AGAINST THE ALL BLACKS

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

Mr N M PAULSEN: Chair, on behalf of the EFF, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes the continued Cape Peninsula University of Technology, CPUT, retained their Varsity Shield rugby title after win against Walter Sisulu University, All Blacks, by 30-26 in extra time at the Tuks Stadium in Pretoria on Sunday,

 

 

(2) further notes that the full time saw the two teams level at 26 each, forcing the game into extra time;

 

 

(3) acknowledges the collective effort of the squad of 23, which saw the Cape side winning the game in the dying moments of extra time;

 

 

(4) further acknowledges the dedication and commitment of the management and support staff, consisting of coach Alastair Theys, assistant coach Jongikhaya Nokwe, conditioning coach Sally Jacobs and physiotherapist Baron Isaacs;

 

(5)        realizes that sport is a powerful means of identification to an otherwise abstract notion of a nation. Black people make up 90% of the population and no less than 50% of the rugby players in South Africa. Yet our national rugby team does not reflect this reality,

 

 

(6) recognises the performances of the rugby teams like CPUT and Walter Sisulu University show that our national rugby team should already have been more representative, it would most likely have been even more successful than it has been over the past 30 years of unification,

 

 

(7) further realises that black people who excel in sports and get to represent South Africa in rugby and cricket, still experience racism and ... [Inaudible.] ... players by management and coaching staff; and

 

 

(8) congratulates CPUT for retaining their Varsity Shield title ... [Inaudible.] ... has proved to confront racism forget about as we move to confront

 

racism and ... [Inaudible.] ... labels in sport. [Time expired.]

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Not agreed to.

 

 

THE PASSING AWAY OF THE CITY OF JOHANNESBURG'S FIRST DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED MAYOR AND FORMER ANC CHIEF WHIP, MR ISAAC MOGASE,

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Ms J TSHABALALA: Chair, on behalf of the ANC, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes with sadness the passing of the City of Johannesburg's first democratically elected Mayor and former ANC Chief Whip, Mr Isaac Mogase, popularly known as Ntate Mogase, on Tuesday 27 April 2021;

 

(2) recalls that he wore the mayoral chains between 1995 and 2000 and handed them over to the then councilor and current NCOP Chairperson, Mr Amos Masondo;

 

 

(3) remembers Ntate Mogase as the doyen of the civic movement and a veteran of the freedom struggle;

 

 

(4) further remembers that he was part of the leadership of the Soweto Crisis Committee and was one of the first co-presidents of the Soweto Civic Association when it was founded in 1984;

 

 

(5) further recalls that he became an ANC Member of Parliament in 2004 and was appointed as the party’s Chief Whip in Parliament in 2007; and

 

 

(6) conveys its condolences to his family, friends and the ANC, and.

 

 

(7) Will like to say long live the spirit of Ntate Mogase, long live.

 

 

I thank you.

 

Agreed to.

 

 

THE APARTHEID ISRAEL POLICE STORMED AL AQSA MOSQUE, INJURING

 

178 PALESTINIAN

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr A M SHAIK EMAM: Chair, on behalf of the NFP, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that on the 7 May 2021, the apartheid Israel police stormed Al Aqsa mosque upon injuring 178 Palestinian of which 88 had to be transported to hospital and 33 were hospitalized;

 

 

(2) further notes that despite the large number of injured Palestinians needing attention, the Israeli Police Force continued to storm Al Aqsa mosque targeting worshippers who were praying inside the mosque;

 

(3) realises the barbaric attack of the Israeli police on worshippers in Jerusalem in Al Aqsa mosque is in violation of international law safeguarding Arab right, there is really ... [Inaudible.] ... and ... [Inaudible.] of Palestinian people, both ... [Inaudible.] ... and Christians ... [Inaudible.] ... neighborhood is in violation of human rights of Palestinian people,

 

 

(4) understands that despite condemnation from various nations worldwide, Israel continues to harass, intimidate, murder and evict Palestinian people;

 

 

(5) condemns the barbaric acts of terrorism inflicted on the Palestinian people by the apartheid government;

 

 

(6) called on government to expedite the downgrading of the South African embassy in Israel, and

 

 

(7) further called on the South African government to explore all avenues and international forum to protect the rights of Palestinian people and create a conducive environment for the Palestinian people,

 

to live freely on the land and ensure that they comply with the international law.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Not agreed to.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): Hon Ntombela! House Chairperson, I am informed that the motion read by the hon Tshabalala by the ANC will not go through since the question was not put.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M D L Ntombela): Oh! I am sorry.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): You can put it again. Thank you.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M D L Ntombela): Hon members, if there are no objections on the motion by the ANC, I put the question. If there are no objections, the motion is agreed to. We now move to the motion by the NFP which was objected to.

Therefore, the motion will be converted to a notice of a motion. The next party is the ANC.

 

UNISA BIDS FAREWELL TO ITS STALWART ACADEMIC AND VICE- CHANCELLOR, PROFESSOR MANDLA MAKHANYA

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr W T LETSIE: Chair, on behalf of the ANC, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that on Saturday, 1 May 2021, UNISA bid farewell to its stalwart academic and Vice-Chancellor Professor Mandla Makhanya, who has now left the institution after

33 years of service;

 

 

(2) remembers that among the many responsibilities he had, Professor Makhanya was the ex-officio member of the UNISA council, that required him to be an important link between the council and the university community, while being the lens through which the council saw and understood the university environment;

 

 

(3) understands that he also held several positions outside UNISA, such as treasurer of the African Council for

 

Distance Education and president of the Higher Education Teaching and Learning Association;

 

 

(4) recalls that he shaped his life as a scholar, the journey that saw him contribute to the growth of UNISA and he rose through the ranks until he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor in 2011;

 

 

(5) acknowledges that during his time at UNISA, he worked under four vice-chancellors and has demonstrated loyalty and commitment to the institution, and had been at the center of its trials, tribulations and successes; and

 

 

(6) congratulates Prof Makhanya on a splendid service and wishes him well in his retirement.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

SOUTH AFRICA SECURED ITS FIRST EVER GOLD MEDAL AT THE WORLD ATHLETICS RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr M A ZONDI: Chair, on behalf of the ANC, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes with pride that South Africa secured its first ever gold medal at the World Athletics Relay Championships, with the national 4x100m team delivering a memorable performance in the finals in Silesia, Poland on Sunday, 3 May 2021;

 

 

(2) further notes that the race was so close that the runner-up, Brazil, was already celebrating before the South Africans were announced as winners;

 

 

(3) remembers that the South African record holder, Akani Simbine, inspired the team which included Thando Dlodlo, Gift Leotlela and Clarence Munyai to success;

 

 

(4) recalls that the last time our country won the 4x400m event was in 2001 at the World Championships; and

 

(5) congratulates the team, coaching staff and medical staff that has been assisting them.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

NORTH WEST UNIVERSITY’S TAWANA FOOTBALL CLUB WAS PROMOTED FROM

 

THE SAB LEAGUE TO THE ABC MOTSEPE LEAGUE

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr I S SEITHOLO: Chair, on behalf of the DA, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

That the House –

 

 

(1) notes that the North West University’s, NWU’s, Tawana Football Club was promoted from the SAB League to the ABC Motsepe League in November 2020;

 

 

(2) acknowledges that the NWU Tawana largely consists of students studying at the said university and that the

 

team is currently the only Potchefstroom-based team playing in the ABC Motsepe League;

 

 

(3) recognises that the NWU Tawana currently ranks in the number four position in the league that consists of two streams;

 

 

(4) congratulates their coach, Mr Pule Michael Seleka, the management team and each player on this encouraging achievement; and

 

 

(5) wishes the NWU Tawana all the best in their quest to ultimately be promoted into the Glad Africa League.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

100TH BIRTHDAY OF DISTRICT SIX LEGEND, MRS SHARIEFA KHAN

 

 

(Draft Resolution)

 

 

Mr M G E HENDRICKS: Chair, on behalf of the Al Jama-ah, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

 

(1) acknowledges the 100th birthday of District Six legend, Mrs Shariefa Khan, celebrated on

25 April 2021;

 

 

(2) notes that Mrs Khan and her husband owned the famous Douts Caféin Hanover Street in District Six;

 

 

(3) recognizes her 100th birthday wish to return to her home in District Six;

 

 

(4) further recognizes that it is also her wish to die in her home in District Six; and

 

 

(5) congratulates Mrs Khan on her 100th birthday.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

Agreed to

 

 

Mr P M P MODISE: Chair, on behalf of the ANC, I hereby move without notice:

 

 

 

(1) notes that the World Information Society Day celebrated its day on the 17 May;

 

 

(2) further notes that the aim of this day is to remind the world of the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society to build a peoples’ centered inclusive and development orientated information society based on fundamental human rights;

 

 

(3) acknowledges that the World Information Society Day promotes peoples’ awareness of power to information and communication to build societies in which they can create, access, use and share information and knowledge to achieve their full potential;

 

 

(4) further acknowledges that organizations such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, actively participate in the day by inviting people to engage in various activities to promote campaigns centered on this event; and

 

(5) calls on all to observe this day and to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the internet and other information and communication technologies, could bring two societies and economies, as well as ways to bridge the digital divide.

 

 

I so move.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M L D Ntombela): Thank you, hon member. If there are no objections, I put the motion.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): Hon House Chair.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M L D Ntombela): Yes, Chair.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): I am informed that this motion has already been moved. [Interjections.] Oh! That is the one.

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M L D Ntombela): Has it already been moved? Is that the case hon Chair?

 

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Ms M G Boroto): Okay, I understand now. I will explain to the Table stuff. You may continue.

 

The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr M L D Ntombela): If there are no objections, I put the motion.

 

 

Agreed to.

 

 

NOTICES OF MOTIONS

 

 

Ms S G N MBATHA: Hon Chairperson, I hereby rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting the House debates the implementation and monitoring of South Africa’s national climate change obligations.

 

 

Mr A G WHITFIELD: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the DA, to give notice, that at its next sitting, this House debates the unfolding leadership crisis within the SA Police Service and its impact on the safety of all South Africans.

 

 

Ms S R VAN SCHALK WYK: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting, the House debates resolving the social antagonisms created by apartheid system in the form of national oppression, class super- exploitation and patriarchy.

 

Mr N SINGH: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the IFP, to give notice, that in its next sitting, this House debates the need for government and our nation at large to redouble its efforts to fight gender-based violence as well as supporting women in rural areas.

 

 

Mr I M GROENEWALD: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the FF-Plus, to give notice, that in the next sitting, the House debates the ensuing health crisis in cities and towns due to the municipalities’ failure to deliver basic services, with specific reference to the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality where refuse is not removed, given the fact that residents are paying for services they do not receive.

 

 

Ms N GANTSHO: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting, the House debates addressing the Covid-19 pandemic by tackling ethnic inequalities across many fronts, including reducing structural inequalities, addressing barriers to equitable care and improving uptake of testing and vaccination.

 

 

Mr W M THRING: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ACDP, to give notice, that in the next sitting, the House debates the impact of regulations imposed on the religious sector

 

during the strict lockdown period and the role of the religious sector as a critical partner of the state in times of social crises.

 

 

Ms V VAN DYK: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the DA, to give notice, that at its next sitting this House debates the impact of the lack of strategic support to independent theatres to deal with the crises they face due to the Covid-19 pandemic, especially in light of the recent closure of the Fugard Theatre and other smaller theatres.

 

Ms N V MENTE: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the EFF, to give notice, that in the next sitting, the House debates the snail pace in which SSA is moving in ensuring that all supply chain managers across the spheres of government are vetted.

Ms M D MABILETSA: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting the House debates ethical economics needs to proceed from the basic principle that the economy is meant to serve society and should be reflected in measures to deal with inequality in terms of income, assets, opportunity, social capital and spatial dynamics.

Ms J S MANANISO: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting the House debates monitoring NSFAS efficiency in terms of timeous allowances to students, local offices for access and data management.

Ms Z NKOMO: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting, the House debates that broad-based transformation is of critical importance for South Africa to re-ignite the economy and address the challenges of the past.

Ms B S MASANGO: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the DA, to give notice, that at its next sitting this House debates the future financial security of the over 6 million unemployed South Africans who stopped receiving the R350 SRD Unemployment Grant on 30 April 2021.

Mr T T GUMBU: Hon Chairperson, I rise on behalf of the ANC, to give notice, that in its next sitting, the House debates cyberbullying through online communication platforms and its negative effects on society.

 

 

Notices of motion concluded.

 

House adjourned at 17:42

 

 

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