Hansard: NA: Mini-plenary 2
House: National Assembly
Date of Meeting: 20 May 2022
Summary
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Minutes
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VOTE NO 9 – PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Watch: Mini-Plenary
PROCEEDINGS OF MINI-PLENARY SESSION — NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
____
Members of the mini-plenary session met on the virtual
platform at 10:00.
Acting Chairperson Mr Q R Dyantyi took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayer or meditation.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): Hon members, before we proceed, I would like to remind you that the virtual mini— plenary is deemed to be in the precinct of Parliament and constitutes a meeting of the National Assembly for debating purposes only. In addition to the Rules of the virtual sitting, the Rules of the National Assembly, including the rules of debate, will apply. Members enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in sittings of the National Assembly. Members should equally note that anything said on the virtual platform is deemed to have been said to the House and may be ruled upon.
All members who have logged in shall be considered to be present and are requested to mute their microphones and only unmute when recognised to speak. This is very important. This is because the microphones are very sensitive and will pick up noise which might disturb the attention of other members. When recognised to speak, please unmute your microphone and connect your video. Members may make use of the icons on the bar at the bottom of their screens which has an option that allows a member to put up his or her hand. The secretariat will assist in alerting the Chairperson of members requesting to speak. When using the virtual system, members are urged to refrain or desist from unnecessary points of order or interjections.
We shall now proceed to the Order which is the debate on Vote No 9 — Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Appropriation Bill. I now recognise the hon Minister in the Presidency hon Mondli Gungubele. The Minister? Hon Minister in the Presidency, are you in the House? Hon Deputy Minister Kekana, is your Minister
online?
The DEPUTY MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY (Ms P S Kekana): Let me check. I think he should be, hon Chair.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): I now again recognise the hon Minister in the Presidency if he is online.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Ms T M Joemat-Pettersen): Hon Chairperson, this is the Acting Chair Tina Joemat-Pettersen.
We have not yet noted the Minister.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): Okay, thank you, hon Acting Chair Joemat-Pettersen. Hon Deputy Minister, are we
able to locate where the Minister is in the next few seconds? Is he struggling with ... network? What is happening?
Mr J J MCGLUWA: Chairperson?
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): Is that a point of order?
Mr J J MCGLUWA: No Chair. I want to suggest something for ... progress. Is it possible that we maybe ask another ANC
Minister or the Deputy Minister to speak? Unless we wait for five minutes for the Minister to come on.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): Thank you, hon McGluwa. We will wait for two minutes. Your suggestion is appreciated but you know it’s not workable. Thank you, hon McGluwa. Apologies, hon members.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Ms T M Joemat-Pettersen): Hon Chairperson?
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): Thank you, hon Acting
Chair. I now recognise that the Minister is online. Hon Minister in the Presidency, I recognised you to speak and to lead this important debate but it so happened that you were not online when we started. I again recognise you, hon Minister Gungubele to lead the debate.
APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Vote No 9 — Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation:
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Thank you, hon Chair. I’m trying to sort out ... connectivity. My apologies. I don’t know what went wrong.
Hon Chairperson of the session, Deputy Minister in the Presidency Ms Pinky Kekana, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration Mr T H James, members of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, hon members of the House, the Director- General, DG, for the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Mr Robert Nkuna, distinguished guests, members of the media and fellow South Africans, I am pleased and honoured to table the budget policy statement of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation for the financial year
2022-23. This occasion happens as we celebrate Africa Month and the formation of the AU. During this month we are all called upon to embrace our being as Africans and to work towards the development of our continent and the African populace. As South Africa, we reiterate our commitment to
building a better Africa and a better world through dedicated programmes to reduce unemployment and inequality, and to eliminate poverty. Many of the people on the continent and in our country are still trapped in poverty, with limited prospects for employment. Hence, we welcome the AU’s timely decision to dedicate this year towards the safeguarding of nutrition and food security across the continent. This is consistent with our strategic long-term goals to reduce unemployment, poverty and inequality, as expressed in the National Development Plan, NDP, and so on.
Our government is already seized with endeavours to ensure that South Africans, especially the poor, do not only have access to food but to nutrition as well. Government has established the Food and Nutrition Council which is led by His Excellency the Deputy President David Mabuza, with the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation providing secretariat services. Through this effort, we intend to mobilise other stakeholders across society to ensure that South Africans have access to nutrition ... [Inaudible.] Government is already a significant contributor to food nutrition through its programmes and activities spread across departments such as Social Development, Health and Basic Education. We will brief Parliament on progress in this regard as we move along with the implementation of this important effort. The NDP remains our lodestar as we continue to deal with current and future challenges post-COVID-19. Besides the devastation caused by the pandemic, and most recently floods in parts of our country, including the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-
Natal and North West provinces, there is still scope to make significant strides to achieve the goals of the NDP. For us to effectively achieve these goals as encapsulated in the NDP, we have to overcome the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, rebuild our economy, equip our people with the necessary skills, and fight corruption both in government and in the private sector.
Just as in many other African countries, our economy was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the past two years, we have had to battle the unpredictable surge of the coronavirus, find solutions to protect lives and livelihoods and keep the system running in the service of the people. Our economy was badly affected with some strategic businesses closed and with many of our people losing their jobs. In the worst cases, many of our family members who may also have been breadwinners, succumbed to the pandemic and left families in the worst economic circumstances and emotional distress. This was further compounded by horrific emergent developments in
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the country, such as the July 2021 unrest, floods and drought
in the KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West provinces.
Underlying and parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic, we also have
to deal with the abuse, violation and killing of women; an
unpleasant phenomenon which continues to hinder women’s
participation in the economy and their full enjoyment of basic
human rights.
We would like to commend the efforts of all who continue to
collaborate with government to ameliorate the impact of these
unfortunate incidents. In a manner that signified the ultimate
demonstration of our nation’s rootedness to the ethos of
Ubuntu, frontline workers put their lives on the line to save
those affected.
Ordinary individuals and community members worked with
government to quell the July unrest and protect targeted
economic infrastructure. Various civil society organisations
joined government to deal with the devastating aftermath of
the floods. We continue to work with all organisations and
stakeholders nationwide to call for an end to gender-based
violence, GBV. The impact of these emergent circumstances is
so vast and deep that our victory will only prevail if we
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continue to work together in the manner that we respond to
these challenges.
The President reminded us during the state of the nation
address to build on the foundation of the Economic
Reconstruction and Recovery Plan and to continue to implement
the seven priorities of the 2019-24 Medium-Term Strategic
Framework, MTSF, which is the five-year plan of government
towards the implementation of the NDP. The President
emphasised the need to work collectively with all partners to
overcome the pandemic, to massively roll out the
infrastructure programme, to substantially increase local
production, to implement the economic stimulus to create jobs
and to rapidly expand our energy generation capacity. The
President also announced the amendment and tightening of laws
that are critical in dealing with the scourge of GBV and
femicide.
It is upon us to ensure that all these key focus areas are
implemented to help catapult our country out of this current
situation. We need to forge a solid and seamless synergy with
all government departments, entities and social partners, and
align our plans to these strategic objectives and long-term
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developmental plans. We must recalibrate our efforts to ensure
that our plans are implemented within the set time and
allocated budgets.
It is for this reason that we have identified the
institutionalisation of planning, monitoring and evaluation as
the theme and programme of this year. The Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation has to increase its
effectiveness to ensure that we institutionalise these tools
in such a way that we achieve tangible results. Our resolve as
the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is to
ensure that this outcome action-orientated planning and
implementation process should happen consistently across all
spheres of government and agencies. This synergy should entail
mechanisms for us to be each other’s watchdog and encourage us
to aspire to the highest levels of accountability. In this way
we will ensure that work gets done according to our plans, and
in a manner that improves people’s livelihoods and allows for
the full participation of all the citizenry.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, working
together with the National Planning Commission, NPC, and all
spheres of government, is at the heart of this synergy and has
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a critical task to institutionalise planning and alignment
with developmental goals and outcomes in government, provide
effective monitoring mechanisms and evaluate all critical
programmes to assess the nature of our impact in society.
The NPC in particular, as the custodian of the NDP, should
assist with the institutionalisation of planning amongst all
social partners, provide critical research on the
implementation of key focus areas and mobilise stakeholders
outside government to contribute towards the attainment of our
developmental goals.
I am excited that the newly appointed commissioners of the NPC
have already shown the zeal to work with us towards the
mainstreaming of long-term planning and the attainment of the
NDP goals. They bring with them a wealth of experience in
various sectors of our society and help us reach as many
potential stakeholders as possible. We expect them to build on
the crucial research outputs of the previous NPC and help to
create a credible repository of evidence that will support the
work towards the NDP goals.
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This third NPC, which commenced its duty last year in
December, has a critical mandate to lead the development
agenda; advise on key developmental issues; accelerate,
promote, monitor and assess the implementation of the NDP;
conduct long-term research and create a body of evidence; help
the country to look ahead in a futuristic manner; and ensure
international partnerships for development in our country.
Although the NPC is an independent advisory body, we want to
see them work closely with the Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation and create a framework for
integrated planning in government. We remain committed to
produce a legal framework that will usher in a new predictable
and automated planning paradigm and discipline within and
across all spheres of government.
In this regard, the Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation will undertake intergovernmental and public
consultations on the revised Integrated Development Planning
Framework Bill. We anticipate that these consultations would
be finalised by September 2022 and the necessary updates to
incorporate comments will be effected by March 2023.
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The finalisation and ascension of this Bill will build on the
existing work that is happening in the Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation to institutionalise planning and
assist with the alignment of key priorities. Over the years,
the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation has
consistently assessed all departmental strategic plans and
annual performance plans, APPs, to ensure that they are
aligned to the MTSF and NDP. These efforts were augmented with
a series of training sessions for key planning functionaries
in government to get them up to speed with the planning
framework and guiding concepts. This work, which will continue
in the financial year 2022-23, has been enhanced by the
development of a much more nuanced theory of change that would
guide integrated development planning in government and ensure
that all components of government’s machinery work
collaboratively to achieve the set MTSF and NDP outcomes.
This work has also been strengthened by the introduction of
the National Annual Strategic Plan, Nasp, instrument in the
planning cycle of government to improve developmental results.
The Nasp instrument sets out the priorities for the year ahead
and improves alignment between medium-term strategic
priorities and annual plans and budgets of departments.
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The Nasp, as it is commonly called now, is in alignment with
the priorities that were set out in the President’s 2022 state
of the nation address, and is aligned with the NDP and the
MTSF. It is anchored on four key areas that are aimed at
stabilising the current situation and leads to full recovery,
namely the management of the pandemic, economic recovery,
employment support and relief and building state capability
for effective delivery.
In line with the key areas, the Nasp identifies 10 critical
interventions that should find expression in departments’
APPs. These top 10 interventions include the need to massify
job creation, effect structural reforms and create conditions
for ease of doing business in the country, digitisation and
modernisation, food security and household income, provision
of basic income services, access to clean drinkable water and
dignified sanitation, encourage citizens to take up vaccines
for protection against COVID-19 and deal decisively with
corruption. The implementation of these top 10 interventions
will be monitored and evaluated on a monthly basis to ensure
consistency in alignment and delivery.
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We will ensure that this enhanced planning paradigm finds
expression across all spheres of government through the
District Development Model, DDM. The Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation chairs the Presidency Steering
Committee on the DDM and has already established a number of
workstreams to assist in driving integrated planning and
implementation of programmes in the 44 pilot districts.
As you may be aware, the DDM adopts an integrated approach and
dispels silos in the implementation of government programmes
across the three tiers of government. Its intention is to
ensure that plans translate into implementable programmes that
yield demonstrable results. The DDM calls for government to
co-ordinate and integrate development plans and budgets, and
mobilise the capacity and resources of social partners in
pursuit of inclusive growth and job creation.
A number of pilot districts have launched the model and are
beginning to realise its delivery capability across the three
spheres of government. Most of the districts have submitted
their one plans which co-ordinates developmental efforts and
sets specific timelines for delivery. These one plans also
encapsulate identified catalytic projects which will help
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stabilise the current situation and lead to sustainable
economic recovery and growth. The Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation will review these plans regularly to
ensure alignment with the Nasp, MTSF 2019-24 and NDP
developmental goals.
We are building in effective monitoring mechanisms around all
the plans to track implementation and develop timely
corrective measures. The department will, over the medium
term, continue to monitor government performance towards the
achievement of envisaged outcomes, by among others conducting
biannual integrated MTSF monitoring reviews. These reviews are
aimed at measuring progress against MTSF priorities to achieve
improved accountability of the government in the
implementation of service-delivery programmes and projects.
The reviews will include monitoring of the implementation of
the industrial master plans, food and nutrition security, GBV
and femicide, COVID-19 assessments, Operation Phakisa
assessments and the ease of doing business in the country.
As this financial year marks the midpoint of our MTSF 2019-24,
the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation will
also produce a mid-term review report of government’s
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performance against the set seven priorities. We want to
bolster the evidence that is generated through the monthly,
biannual, mid-term and sectoral reviews with rapid evaluations
of key government programmes. Our evaluation team at the
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation will conduct
rapid evaluations on programmes that are aimed at achieving
our annual apex priorities as detailed in the Nasp.
Rapid evaluations will be implemented alongside the approved
national evaluation plan which is anchored on the seven
priorities of the MTSF 2019-24. We need this feedback to
design appropriate corrective interventions, improve our plans
and fine-tune the delivery mechanisms.
We are working on the development of a large-scale tertiary
knowledge hub that will host all this evidence and link us to
research outputs in various sectors. The Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation will create a real-time
data centre that is geographically referenced to enable the
President to have a line of sight of government interventions
and the impact that these interventions have on the objects of
change, the people of our country.
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We want to work towards a scenario where all the citizens can
access and track progress in the implementation of government
programmes against the set targets. As a result, the
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is at the
advanced stage in the development of the Centralised Data
Management and Analytical System, CDMAS, which will enable
data users to access, retrieve, analyse and visualise data.
We want all citizens to be a part of the envisaged growth and
development by building the necessary capability in the state
and working towards the highest standards of accountability.
Hence, we consider the signing and reviews of performance
agreements for the executive and heads of departments an
important element in the capability of the state. The
department has a task to co-ordinate the signing of
performance agreements for the Minister and heads of
departments, and ensure alignment with the APPs and overall
developmental goals.
Our frontline monitoring team is on the ground to review the
quality of government services, identify potential hindrances
and bring in the necessary evidence. We want to ensure that
no-one is left behind as we rebuild our country amidst this
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pandemic and work towards inclusive development and growth. We
encourage all the people in South Africa to vaccinate against
coronavirus to offset its impact in our society. We call on
all South Africans to protect critical economic infrastructure
to safeguard existing jobs and sources of livelihoods. Let us
lead the charge against corruption because it compromises all
our efforts to accelerate the recovery process and set our
economy on a positive economic trajectory. No woman must be
subjected to abuse, violation and discriminated against in all
facets of our lives. The youth must adopt this recovery and
stabilisation ... as its main course and participate
effectively in all programmes that seek to grow the country.
We want a skilled youthful workforce that can drive this
recovery with the necessary vigour and speed.
We commit to deploy the Budget Vote for the financial year
2022-23, which amounts to R470,9 million, towards building an
integrated evidence-based planning, monitoring and evaluation
system. It is our view that this will significantly improve
the capability of the state to deliver and promote the
participation of various stakeholders and ordinary people.
With the budget made available, we have allocated and will
spend as follows:
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Firstly, R190,4 million will be dedicated to the compensation
of employees, goods and services;
Secondly, R84,6 million will contribute to the improved
development outcomes for the country through the co-ordination
and institutionalisation of an integrated government planning
system. Examples of interventions include the monitoring of
the NDP, automation of the planning system across all
government institutions and stakeholder engagement programmes
of the NPC;
Thirdly, R69,4 million is dedicated to monitoring government’s
progress on its achievement of the goals set out in the NDP.
There are many interventions that will be implemented. To name
a few, monitoring reviews that measure progress against MTSF
priorities and submitted to Cabinet on the state of government
performance against the MTSF, monitoring the implementation of
Operation Phakisa Labs, and implementing the Local Government
Management Improvement Model;
Fourthly, R83,1 million is dedicated towards providing support
for the implementation of the MTSF, with the following key
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interventions: monitoring and reporting on the performance
agreements and implementation of the Ministerial Performance
Management and Development System, PMDS, and monitoring and
reporting on the performance analysis of DGs and the
performance and capability of national and provincial
departments. Other key areas include the monitoring of the
contribution of state-owned entities, SOEs, towards the MTSF
and frontline services on the implementation of the MTSF
priorities at district level, and monitoring the
institutionalisation of the National Anticorruption Strategy;
and
Fifthly, towards the end, R43,4 is dedicated towards advancing
evidence?based planning, monitoring and evaluation. This will
enable reporting on selected indicators on economic and social
development in South Africa, technical support interventions,
including training, capacity development, facilitation, data
assessment and standard-setting documents and guidelines and
development, piloting and deployment of the CDMAS.
As I conclude, I want to thank the Deputy Ministers in the
Presidency who relentlessly support the work of the
department. I also want to thank the DG of the Department of
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Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and his team for their
commitment to work towards building a synergised system and
delivery mechanism. I also want to thank the portfolio
committee, as always, with regard to their very vigorous and
robust oversight and interrogation of our work. Without them,
the little improvements that we are proud of would not have
been there. This year is a turning point and we would
appreciate it if Members of Parliament could approve our
programme of action against the voted funds ... [Inaudible.]
[Time expired.]
Mr T H JAMES: Hon House Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy
Minister, hon members of the portfolio committee, chairperson
of the Planning Commission and Commissioners, senior officials
of the department in this portfolio committee and within our
sector, we recognise the National Development Plan as a
national blue print, which proposes the following for our
sector in a bigger scheme of things: The plan argues that
decentralising authority to Ministers and their department
heads will not be effective unless accompanied by increased
delegation, particularly to those at media middle management
level who are mandated to make day-to-day decisions.
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In the absence of such effective delegation decision-making is
slowed down rather and implementation is delayed. Moreover,
accountability is weakened if paperwork has to be signed by
middle people or at multiple stages of the process. The plan
thus submit that streamlined processes are needed that clarify
accountability and that makes it easier for department to make
decisions. Furthermore, the plan raises concern about whether
Parliament is fulfilling its role in building an accountable
and responsive state. The National Planning Commission
proposes the following steps to strengthen delegation
accountability and oversight: Encouraging greater and more
consistent delegation supported by effective systems of
support and oversight; ensuring that all service delivery
points provide clear information on where citizens can go and
who can they talk to if they are dissatisfied; requiring
frontline staff to wear name tags to make it easier for
citizen to provide feedback on the standard of service
delivery they received; and strengthening the oversight role
of Parliament and provincial legislatures.
The plan argues that some of the government’s best performing
institutions are those with a stable leadership and policy
approach. However, it is not always clear how the roles and
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responsibilities are divided between political principals and
administrative heads, which often undermines the stability. In
order to stabilise the political administrative interface the
commission proposes that the role of the Public Service
Commission in championing norms and standards and monitoring
recruitment processes is strengthened. An administrative head
of Public Service be created and would be responsible for the
managing career progression of heads of department, including
convening panel for recruitment, performance assessment and
disciplinary procedures.
A hybrid approach to top appointments be employed that allows
for reconciliation of administrative and political priorities.
It purely administrative approach to lower level appointments
be adopted with senior officials given full authority to
appoint staff in their departments. Chairperson, Ministers and
hon members, our approach as the portfolio committee is that
this department should plan, monitor and evaluate government’s
work around and against these policy principles towards 2030.
There should be already markers and milestones towards
achieving the National Development 2030. 2030 is just eight
years away from now.
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It is the ANC government’ commitment to achieve this plan,
since it was well thought, presented and then gradually
implemented by different sectors of economy and government.
Implementation is still ongoing because the culmination is
2030. The social idiom prevailing is that the wheels of
government turn slowly. However, the reforms that have been
introduced and carried through regarding the National
Development Plan demonstrate that as the ruling party and
Parliament, we cordially wanting to see the planning out so
well to transform government and the Public Service and
society. Within this, we need to be each other’s keepers and
watchdogs.
We need the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
coming hard with other departments to move towards their
sector goals towards 2030. We need the Ministry to be hard on
colleagues in Cabinet to move towards their sector goals
towards 2030. We need ourselves as Parliament to ensure that
both government and Public Service are moving towards
achieving what must be achieved concerning the National
Development Plan, 2030. As the department is planning to
produce 2 reports per year over the Medium-Term Expenditure
Framework to monitor the impact of the policy priorities in
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relation to actual service delivery through various frontline
monitoring programme.
These reports must be objective and introspective to
government. They must not save face. That will not help
because our constituent society and opposition are not kind to
us as the party in government. Due to the objectivity in
judging us, also migrate to extreme subjectivity, subjectivity
against us. Also, the ANC government still wants to govern
because it has a massive experience in governing and steering
the country and the economy. Therefore, we need to be
objective to ourselves and be more critical to ourselves so
that we correct a governance mistakes where we fail, improve
where we do better and glitter where we shine.
Our engine room and our room should really be such well-oiled
and well equipped. Targeted site visits, citizen-based
monitoring and the presidential hotline must be strengthened
and invigorated. What they actually reveal to us must be what
we fix. No time to save face. A real story is a good story to
tell. We want this department to be evidence-based so that
planning is done against reality. In that way, the diminishing
resources can be targeted towards real challenges and
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therefore be used to optimal without wastage. To enhance
capacity over the medium-term, the performance of heads of
department must be realistic, developmental, capacitating and
evaluating. Performance of Ministers must be National
Development Plan-based aligned with government program of
action and analysed as much as they are medium-term.
Never allow this performance agreement to be assessed outside
and given year, otherwise, milestone and key performance areas
against the annual performance plan cannot be measured.
Challenges and shortcomings will not be addressed immediately
going into the subsequent year. Every correct and true
assessment of persons and entities is cumulative so that
challenges and shortcomings can be detected earlier. As
government and the Public Service become more professionalised
and developmental, each department is drastically and actually
a leaning organisation, meaning, they are critically and truly
assessed with a view to building them up than breaking them
down.
This does not mean the assessment will be patronized, it means
it will be evidence-based in order to create space for
improvement. If that space of improvement is not honored. They
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VOTE NO 9 – PLANNING, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
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... [Time expired.] ... Thank you, hon House Chairperson. We
support the Budget Vote of the department.
IsiZulu:
Mnu Z N MBHELE: Ngiyabonga Sihlalo ngaphambili, ...
English:
... and good morning, year after year, ANC governments have
announced plans and programmes but fallen short on achieving
them to address our challenges. We have been witness to a
never ending stream of promises without performance,
intentions without implementation, and policies without
political will. Economic growth is in chronic stagnation, job
creation is in reverse gear, and the opportunities, and
increasingly the stomachs, of too many of our people are
shrinking in the face of our current crisis of rising living
costs and food insecurity.
Ten years after the adoption of the National Development Plan,
NDP, this prevailing situation in our country is very far from
the story we should have been telling today. Given that one of
the key mandates of the Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation is facilitating the implementation of the NDP, it
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is clearly failing in that mandate. The Minister in his speech
earlier referred to the NDP as our load star, which means it
is our compass by which to navigate and find true north. But
under the steerage of the ANC the SS South Africa is
hopelessly lost and adrift at sea.
Just this week, the portfolio committee received a monitoring
report evaluation from the departments in which they admitted
that since the NDP was adopted, progress has been slow towards
achieving our main goals and that South Africa is
underperforming on various targets. Ten years in, we are
nowhere near the lofty ambitions of eradicating poverty, or
creating 11 million new jobs.
While we acknowledge that the DPME is not an implementing
agent, it does need to demonstrate its merits more concretely
through consistent follow-ups and leveraging of its position
at the nerve centre hub of government, as the Minister himself
conceded to SCOPA earlier this year concerning complaints of
SIU reports gathering dust, despite corruption findings across
the state.
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This being a planning department, one is pressed to ask: Where
is the clear and convincing practical plan, facilitated by
DPME, to stimulate economic growth to at least 4% per year?
Being a monitoring and evaluation department, one is also
pressed to ask: Why are shortcomings with reaching performance
targets not leading to capacity-building and remedial
corrections? Surely the Presidency has the power to do so?
But any informed observer of the governing party will already
know that the Presidency does not have the power to help
translate planning into performance, or monitoring and
evaluation into meritocracy and innovation, because the ANC in
government is run on cadre deployment, and its animating
lifeblood is patronage and political horse-trading. Under such
conditions, there is no fitness-for-purpose, no
accountability, and no drive for achievement, let alone
excellence. Instead, there is loyalty-for-reward, impunity for
failure, and bumbling mediocrity at best or catastrophic
incompetence at worst.
We need look no further than the shocking amateur hour that
was the woeful preparedness and response of ANC governments
and political office-bearers to the July 2021 riots and KZN
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floods this year. Unsurprisingly, no heads have rolled or
consequences sanctioned for those in high government office
who let citizens down as they faced chaos, destruction of
infrastructure, and loss of lives and livelihoods.
The small ray of hope that shone through during those
disasters as they unfolded and in their aftermath was a gritty
demonstration of the adage that the things that are wrong in
South Africa – poor governance, dysfunction, incompetence and
mismanagement – can be fixed by what is right about South
Africa – the resilience, decency, enterprising spirit, and
pragmatism of our people.
One of the seminal scenario planning exercises ever produced
in South Africa is the Dinokeng Scenarios, whose optimal
scenario called ‘Walk Together’ could also be described as the
achievement of the vision of the National Development Plan. In
that vision, a capable state and active citizens work together
to fulfil the potential of this country for the realisation of
social cohesion and shared prosperity.
Its worst scenario is called ‘Walk Apart’, in which
disappointed citizens who no longer trust the government after
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multiple failures, essentially disengage from the weak and
ineffective state. Already there have been growing signs of
this ‘walking apart’ for close to 20 years: as trust
diminished in state schooling, government healthcare and
policing, citizens who could afford to have switched to
relying primarily on private education, healthcare and
security.
As the state-run freight and commuter rail service gradually
ground to dysfunction, businesses switched to private freight
trucking and commuters switched to private taxi transport
services. And more recently, as intensified load-shedding
exposes the terminal decline of Eskom, households and
businesses are switching from state-run power generation and
supply to private alternatives that minimise or eliminate
these disruptions.
The simple truth, Minister, is that unless the planning,
monitoring and evaluation work of this Department starts to
yield material and positive results, then the households,
businesses, communities, and competent local and provincial
governments in this country will increasingly find themselves
having to “walk apart” from an ineffective and incompetent
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state, to do their own planning, their own monitoring and
evaluation, and their own implementation to secure their
desired future. I thank you.
Ms C V KING: Chairperson, hon Mbhele had ten seconds left. Can
that be added to hon Mc Gluwa, please.
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Mr Q R Dyantyi): You are not going to
that. I now recognise the EFF.
Ms C C S MOTSEPE: Thank you very much, hon House Chairperson,
allow me not to switch on my video due to unstable network
where I am. Chairperson, we reject Budget Vote 9 on Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation. This is one of those departments
that have not justified their existence and which cannot point
to any meaningful contribution to the development of this
country. It was in November 2011 when Cabinet approve the
National Evaluation Policy Framework which was purportedly
meant to guide the government’s monitoring of its performance.
An integral part of any monitoring framework is its ability to
feed back to policy making and to performance improvement. The
Minister would be the hard pressed to point any policy
improvement in his country made because of the intervention of
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this department. He can never point to any area of performance
in government that has improved because of areas of
improvement identified through the intervention of this
department.
Chairperson programme three of the department is about public
sector monitoring and capacity development with a very
specific focus on building the capacity of the local
government spheres. We now all know that about two thirds of
the country’s municipalities are completely dysfunctional,
unable to deliver basic services such as refuse collection.
This is even in big municipalities such as Mangaung. This
Minister here cannot stand up and speak with any conviction of
any intervention they have made in working with these
municipalities to improve their management.
The Presidential Hotline under the so called frontline and
citizen-based service delivery monitoring has to be one of the
biggest frauds of this regime. Not only is it poorly known
among citizens, but it is also woefully useless amongst the
few citizens who do know about it. Many questions have been
asked about the useful of this Hotline and both the Minister
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and the President cannot say exactly what service delivery
issues have been resolved as a result of this Hotline.
Central to the establishment of the department was the
National Planning Commission which also gifted the country
with a poorly conceptualised National Development Plan. When
it was adopted, the NDP planned to have unemployment reduced
to 6% by 2030. Unemployment rate at that time the NDP was
adopted was at 24,6%. Yet, today unemployment rate in the
country is almost 35% and the expanded definition of
unemployment is sitting at 46%. To attain this goal, the NDP
claimed that the GDP of the country would now grow at 5,4% and
that 11 million new jobs would be created. This was a pie in
the sky.
We now all know that it is so because it was promised on
faulty conceptual grounds. In an economy such as ours,
characterised by a large number of poorly educated and less
skilled labour force, you need direct state intervention to
catalyse labour-intensive development. We need to build
infrastructure that connects people and businesses. We need
public service that is able to respond timeously to service
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delivery and development bottlenecks. We need economy growth
driven by redistribution of resources.
The NDP failed to appreciate this and the Ramaphosa regime is
still labouring under the same misconception that a deeply
racist and unpatriotic private sector would be able to drive
growth and eliminate poverty and unemployment in this country.
It will never happen. The people voted for you. Solve their
problem. They did not vote for the whites who give you crumbs
and who make you feel like you are better than the rest of the
citizen. The NDP must be shelved and we must go back to
basics.
The Reconstruction and Development Programme in 1994 correctly
identified that needs to be done when it observed that. No
political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of
our people remain in poverty without land. Tangible prospects
for a better life. Attacking poverty and deprivation must
therefore be the first priority of a democratic government.
Failures to resolve this issue are threating the very
existence of our democracy. We reject this budget report and
will work tirelessly to ensure that the vast majority of our
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citizens reject the ruling party too. I thank you House,
Chairperson.
Ms S A BUTHELEZI: Thank you hon Chairperson, may I kindly not
activate my video due to having an unstable connection,
please. Hon Speaker, according to a 2018 Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, DPME, report in 2009,
Ministers for planning and performance monitoring and
evaluation were introduced in the Presidency followed by a
consolidation of two ministries into the Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in 2014.
This means that this department has been in operation in some
or the other for 13 years. Let me remind the House of the
vision of the DPME which is to coordinate government,
planning, monitoring and evaluation to address poverty,
unemployment and inequality.
This staff tails with the department’s mission of mobilising
stakeholders and harnessing resources towards the
implementation of the NDP. As this department is located with
the Presidency, one would assume that it should lead from the
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front and be exemplary when it comes to its own planning,
monitoring and evaluation efforts.
This is not the case. For example, the department’s own
website is point of contact for the general public is horribly
outdated. The section title is mentions a total of 38
evaluations are currently in the system either completed,
underway or starting and will be going to Cabinet during the
2014/15 financial year.
According to the portfolio committee report, in each year over
the medium-term, the department expects to produce 47
assessment reports. Which information is accurate? If it is a
latter, why has the website not been updated for seven years.
According to its website, the department is also responsible
for its citizen based monitoring, CBM, which is listed first
among the key focus areas. The website states that the
experiences of citizens, the intended beneficiaries of
government services are critical component of the performance
of government and for the delivery of appropriate and quality
services.
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However, seeing that this critical feedback was only gathered
up to 2016 which is the most recent report available, again,
is this work actually being done? Either way as the IFP we
have serious concerns about the way this department operates.
There are many other examples of outdated information across
the website. Truth be told, one struggles to find anything
current.
Yes, it seems that consequence management is non-existent and
this plays a fair attitude towards achieving targets and goals
this means the DPME does have a foot to stand on when it comes
to monitoring outcomes set for other departments and entities.
Another prime example is the outcomes delivery agreement.
There are 12 with each linked to a key focus area between now
and 2014. Again, this is the most recent document available.
The agreement for outcome 6 is listed as inefficient,
competitive, responsive, economic infrastructure and network
and was signed by various Minister on 29 October 2010. The
agreement lists a work stream on energy and in reference to
government’s reporting arrangements, it states and I quote:
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“Ensure reliable generation, distribution and transmission
of electricity.”
This agreement was signed 12 years ago with a deadline for
2014 which was 8 years ago. As we sit here today, chances are
very good that Eskom will plunge the country into darkness
later today, bringing the total hours of load shedding for
2022 to 594 hours which equates to 25 days without
electricity.
One is forced to question the efficiency of the DPME as this
is but one of many deadlines that have been allowed to lapse
with no consequences.
According to the portfolio committee report, the main aim of
the department is to address the country’s development
priorities through the coordination and institutionalisation
of an integrated planning system.
On paper, this does not appear to be happening. How is South
Africa expected to meet the NDP’S 2030 goals when over the
medium-term it appears goals set for 2014 are yet to be
achieved? This department needs to get itself in order and
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consequence management needs to become the order of the day
with deep reservations, the IFP accepts the budget. Thank you
Chairperson.
Rev K R J MESHOE: Thank you Chairperson. The Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is a key player in
government and therefore should set a good example when it
comes to performance. According to the committee report, the
mandate of the department is derived from section 85(2) of the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa which includes
developing and implementing national policy and coordinating
the functions of state departments and administration.
On Sunday when President Ramaphosa addressed the Durban
Chamber of Commerce on the recent floods in KZN, he said,
“This disaster proved to us that we are not as ready as we
should be, and we will need to work together.”
A department that monitors frontline service delivery and
manages the Presidential Hotline has to operate across all
sectors of government. It has to coordinate departments, while
persuading cooperation between local, provincial and national
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levels. Where capacity and political will are lacking, much
planning, monitoring and evaluation are needed to turn budgets
and grants into actual local service delivery.
The President is correct about our lack of disaster
preparedness. But he neglected to mention the existence of a
strategic report that could have made a difference in what
happened in KZN, if it had been taken seriously and if its
recommendations had been implemented.
Hon members, it is unfortunate, that the 2021 review of the
KZN Provincial Growth and Development Strategy was not
considered and acted upon. This report was written by the KZN
Planning Commission which works for the National Planning
Commission, which the Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation has a constitutional mandate to support.
The KZN Planning Commission report, however, had already
warned in 2021 of the impact of climate change and the
concomitant natural catastrophes. It called for the evolution
of settlements and land use patterns that can withstand
natural shocks.
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Last month, the President told Parliament that there would be
a real time audit of emergency flood relief. He admitted that
it is a great shame that it has become necessary for people to
say they do not trust public officials in government because
relief funds might be stolen by government officials.
The ACDP agrees that this is a great shame, this because
corruption has become part of the new culture of the current
government in South Africa today.
I was surprised and disappointed this morning when I heard on
ENCA news that Cabinet... [Time expired.]
The DEPUTY MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Hon House Chair,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Chairperson, hon James, and
members of the portfolio committee, hon Members of Parliament,
team Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, DPME,
as led by our Director General, DG Nkuna, distinguished
guests, fellow South Africans. We thank you for this
opportunity, to present the Budget Vote of the Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, DPME, together with the
Minister in the Presidency, Mr Mondli Gungubele.
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The President has instructed us in his 2022 state of the
nation address, to ensure that no one is left behind. Our
recovery must be all-inclusive. And this is the theme of my
presentation here today.
Lest we forget that our Constitution says:
Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the
potential of each person; and build a united and democratic
South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign
state in the family of nations.
Our responsibility as the DPME is to ensure that government’s
developmental plans, implementation mechanisms, and most
importantly, our performance, must be obligatory to all South
Africans.
This obligation is founded in our Constitution and is
translated for all South Africans into the National
Development Plan, NDP, and the 2nd Medium-Term Strategic
Framework, the MTSF, 2019-2024 which is aligned to the
electoral mandate of the Sixth Administration.
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Aligned to this, on 15 of October 2020, His Excellency,
President Cyril Ramaphosa launched South Africa’s blueprint,
the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, ERRP.
For the purposes of this engagement, I wish to reiterate the
national objectives, of the ERRP, for all government
departments, being: To create jobs, primarily through
aggressive infrastructure investment and mass employment
programmes; to reindustrialise our economy, focusing on
growing small businesses; to accelerate economic reforms and
unlock investment and growth; to fight crime and corruption;
and lastly, to improve the capability of the state.
To ensure inclusive economic stabilisation and recovery, as
articulated by the Minister earlier, it is our responsibility
to monitor and evaluate the performance of all national
government departments, and use the data to inform the forward
planning and the implementation approaches, but most
importantly, we have stepped up efforts in assessing the
delivery to our people on objectives as laid out in the annual
performance plans, and most critically, against the ERRP.
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The DPME was created to ensure that the voices of the citizens
form the biggest part of the continuum of evidence on
government performance. In this, we are consistently striving
to reach as many people as possible to provide feedback on
government performance.
We are in this together. As the DPME, we want a state that
works with our people to take joint ownership of the
development of the country and reflect on their lived
experience as they interact with government on programmes and
services.
Our stepped up efforts have rendered great results in improved
delivery, as a result, for the next budget year, we will be
aggressively refining our channels to ensure efficient
facilitation of citizen-government engagements. Together with
the Government Communication and Information System, the GCIS,
we have reintroduced the Sona Presidential Izimbizos, to
create a platform for citizens to engage with government
directly on issues that undermines their full inclusive
participation in the development of the country.
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As we sit here today, the President himself is engaging
communities in the Mpumalanga Province, and some of our team
members are there to record the feedback from those
communities and get the unfiltered truth. Feedback like this
is constantly being solicited, and is submitted into our
monitoring system that allows government departments to
evaluate and understand exactly what their respective impacts
are, in according to their annual performance plans, APP’s,
and ultimately what their status is, in service to our people.
We have Frontline Monitoring Support Teams, whose jobs is to
visit service centres in line with the priorities of
government, as I have listed at the beginning of this
presentation. The team also visited a number of health
facilities to assess their state of readiness to handle
COVID-19 related cases and later to incubate and rollout
vaccines. We have been to schools to assess their state of
readiness to receive children and protect them against the
virus, and its variants, as they arose.
When Gender-Based Violence and Femicide, GBVF, first became a
critical growing challenge in the various stages of lockdown,
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we visited a number of police stations to assess how they are
dealing with these cases amidst the pandemic.
We met with various leaders in communities to determine
possible interventions to rebuild our country.
All of this has been developed into reports, highlighting
areas of improvements for the various government departments
and we are working with the relevant stakeholders to ensure
that all challenges are addressed.
We can’t turn things around overnight, we wish we could, but
we can ensure that delivery to our people is focused on, in a
way that is tangible and valuable. The adage goes, “what gets
measured, gets managed” – WE are the measurement part of that
adage, so that management of the challenges are made clear to
all those responsible, because how we manage this country is
this administration’s chapter in the history books of South
Africa.
The floods in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West
Provinces have left many people devastated and dislocated from
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their homes, without food, shelter, and many other basic
amenities, while dealing with the hurt or loss of loved ones.
As the monitors of the country, we have to ensure that all
relevant national resources are deployed accordingly to
restore the dignity of the victims and the economic
infrastructure. We have deployed an experienced team that will
be able to identify challenges, propose interventions to fast-
track the rebuilding process, and capture the response and
feedback on the ground.
The Presidential Hotline continues to be an expedient platform
for thousands of citizens to make their voices heard, but more
importantly, today I want to confirm to our people – WE ARE
LISTENING!
So much so, that the DPME is upgrading the Presidential
Hotline with advanced new technologies for tracking of
progress in the resolution of complaints. Last year, we
piloted the Presidential Hotline Mobile Application, App, in
partnership with the Limpopo Provincial Government to allow
citizens to engage with government.
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On my visits home, I have been inundated with compliments
about its impact, but officially, we are currently assessing
the feedback we are receiving from this pilot exercise, and
once all the kinks of the pilot test have been registered and
fixed, we will roll out the mobile app nationally.
To ensure that it responds to the needs of the people with
efficiency and speed, we are exploring the signing of
memorandums of agreement with national, provincial and local
government leaders and bureaucrats, on clear operational terms
and conditions.
Hon House Chair, the official feedback from citizens have
spotlighted the shortcomings in both the government system and
the abilities of officials to deliver services to our people.
We are critically monitoring the dangerous levels of
corruption in our country and to this end, we welcome the
efforts of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security, JCPS
cluster to deal with this scourge. We call on our people to
continue to report fraud and corruption to the relevant law
enforcement agencies.
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I want to reiterate to our people that as the DPME, we are
your voice in government. As citizenry, we need to work
together to ensure that corruption does not undermine the
efforts made by the majority to rebuild our country, our
economy, and to create much needed jobs.
On that note, we are also working closely with National
Treasury to monitor the payment of services within the
prescribed 30 days.
Entrepreneurs have been calling on government to ensure that
all its departments and entities comply with the 30-day
payment prescription to protect business activity and jobs.
Our assessment thus far, shows that many departments are
indeed complying with the 30-day rule, especially in the
Gauteng Province, but we call on all departments, to exceed,
not just comply – this way our country gets an economic boost
by literally putting money into the hands of our people.
As I conclude hon members, this country belongs to the people
of South Africa. We invite all stakeholders to form a compact
with us as government, partner with us in head and heart to
reconstruct and recover our economy, improve the livelihoods,
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and truly live beyond this pandemic to create a prosperous
nation. I thank you.
Ms M T KIBI: Hon Chairperson and hon Minister and Deputy
Ministers, hon Chief Whip and hon Deputy Chief Whip, hon
members, the ANC remains committed to the vision of a capable
ethical and developmental state that was outlined in the
National Development Plan, NDP. This was described as a state
with the capacity to foster and guide socioeconomic
development and in effectively use state resources to meet the
needs and demands of the people.
There must be sufficient capacity in the public service to
deliver health care, housing, education and other government
services to the people. The developmental state is the
critical core in the transformation of the political economy
from colonial apartheid spatiality to a vibrant mixed economy,
informed by the fundamental insight that the inclusive
reconstruction and development of the economy in which the
state place both a regulatory role and one of influencing the
direction of investment in the productive sectors of the
economy. Facilitate public private partnerships for strategic
objectives. Ensure that public good and interest are protected
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from excessive market forces who are less interested in these
areas.
It is within this broader context that we should make an
appropriation of the planning, monitoring and evaluation,
place in state discourse. The planning, monitoring and
evaluation approach draws from results-based management which
is orientated towards achieving clearly defined and
demonstrated results.
This increases transparency and accountability. Allows
interventions to complement each other and avoid overlap and
waste, as the state is expected to direct investment towards
productive sectors. This approach enables the state to greatly
enhance the effectiveness of investment projects and plans.
This approach provides the state with successful set of goals
which provide the barometer to measure the overall trust of
the state towards achieving and fulfilling its developmental
mandate that is addressing the triple challenges of poverty,
unemployment and inequality.
The United Nations Development Assistance Framework which draw
upon the comparative strengths and by practices of the various
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elements of the UN system, monitoring and evaluation provided
coherent support to help strengthen the national data systems
to track the implementation of the sustainable development of
the strengthened developmental goals that are prominent
features in the NDP.
Monitoring alignment of national polices and frameworks with
international norms and commitments, monitor the situation of
vulnerable groups such as women and the youth and enable
meaningful engagement to citizens in the development process
that benefits everyone. The UN Development Assistance
Framework ensures that changes to the context in learning from
implementation enable quick adjustments to programming
approaches whenever necessary.
Hon Chairperson and hon members, in 2020, the National
Planning Commission, undertook a review of the NDP. This was
seven years after it was adopted, with an intention to examine
the progress made with regards with to meeting the strategic
objectives identifying the challenges and bottlenecks.
Recommend recourse and correction in order to get back to the
trajectory that was envisaged by the NDP.
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One of the overarching challenges identified by the review is
the systematic erosion of the state capacity through the
weakening of institutions and agencies. Lack of human
resources capacity and the lack of confidence from the private
sector.
The review also amplified the point that the developmental
state must prioritize the vulnerable in our society.
Especially those living with high-levels of poverty and be
more deliberate about closing the gap between the rich and the
poor.
We must build on existing social wage and social protection
policies and measures. One of these most immediate challenges
identified in the review is the need for energy security in
our economy. The growth prospects on our economy or
significantly dampened by energy insecurity which increases
the cost of doing business especially for small and medium
enterprises which must be the engines of job creation.
The review called for a broader consensus on the economy of
which an integral part must or lack off necessitate also
include building and deepening consensus around a common
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vision for a just transition to a low carbon climate resilient
economy and society.
The NDP made a submission that developing proposals for
pathways to achieve this transition in crucial whilst
recognising that transitions are already underway. Planning,
monitoring and evaluation is going to be a very big part of
the success of these interventions.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to place a strain not only our
economy, but also the entire global economy. According to the
World Bank a global economic prospects, global recovery is set
to decelerate, amid continued COVID-19 flare ups. Diminished
policy support and lingering supplying bottlenecks having
drawn from the COVID-19 experience and what was raised by the
Auditor-General and various institutions regarding the lack of
monitoring and evaluation which was evident in many
departments, and even in local government.
The state must put in place plans that take into cognisance
the emerging realities that will be thrusted upon us by COVID-
19 and other developments in the global arena. Following the
devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic on our economy, the
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President announced the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery
Plan which was in three phases. Engaged and reserves which
included a comprehensive health response to save lives and
curb the spread of the pandemic recovery and reform which is
about restoring the economy. Controlling the health risks and
lastly, reconstruct and transformations that entail building a
sustainable resilient and an inclusive economy. The Department
of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation has a critical role in
all these stages to ensure that we achieve the desired
results.
One of the most critical aspects that is amplified in this
budget is the role of Brand SA in mobilizing stakeholders in
society behind the NDP and the Economic and Reconstruction
Recovery Plan. However, also equally important is the making
of South Africa to be an investment destination in the
postCOVID-19 economy. This requires us to ensure that Brand SA
is able to have a wider reach both domestically and
internationally. This is why it is important to attend to the
challenges which have been cited in the report and restore an
environment of certainty and sustainability in the
organisation.
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I thank you, hon Chairperson and the ANC supports this Budget
Vote.
Mr J J MCGLUWA: Chairperson, over the last decade, it has
become difficult listening to government departments
presenting their strategic plans, their Annual Performance
Plans, and budget allocations. A case in point is this Budget
Vote. On 11 February 1990, South Africa witnessed the release
of the late President Nelson Mandela. In 1994, when the ANC
came into power, it was a foundation to build on. We boasted
with some of the finest infrastructure on the African
continent. We had good roads, functional railways, excellent
schools and maintained law and order.
Considering that many communities could not access many of
these, it was a foundation that the ANC could build on. The
Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation should play
a vital role in terms of planning, annual performance,
strategic monitoring and evaluation, and to assess the impact
of policy priorities in relation to actual service delivery
programs, including various frontline monitoring programmes.
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The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation’s
overall budget allocation for the years 2022-23 increased by
17.84% and will receive R470,9 million. The budget increase is
due to the appointment of a second Deputy Minister by
President. Well, the President may have exercised his
executive authority, but to many South Africans, the empty
promises of this ANC means nothing. Sadly, we do not have a
government anymore. A fish rots from its head.
The role of Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation,
clearly this department has become bankrupt and incoherent.
The ANC may sing like an angel, walk like an angel and talk
like an angel, Chairperson, behind the empty promises, is a
buffalo in disguise. We don’t have to look any further than
Cuba. Program 4 relates to Public Sector Monitoring and
Capacity Development. It aims to monitor and improve the
capacity of state institutions with references, to ministerial
performance, performance of head of departments and a
development system, including the monitoring of COVID-19 where
crime has paid off so well for ANC comrades.
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The COVID-19 corruption scandal has hit the R5 billion mark.
As I am speaking, some still cashing in. With Ramaphosa’s
spokesperson, Khusela Diko, has swindled the public purse with
Personal Protective Equipment, PPEs contracts under his nose.
She was found guilty, failing to disclose her interests and
served with a written warning. There are numerous allegations
of those having a hand in killing Babita Deokaran, a key
witness into more than R300 million spent on PPEs by the
Gauteng Department of Health. The Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation’s role in monitoring national and
provincial government departments, on COVID-19 programs, has
failed dismally.
Chairperson, we need a vaccine – a vaccine to cure corruption.
The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
announced with fanfare about its monitoring framework to
ensure that all recommendations of the Zondo Commission report
be directed to government departments and to ensure that it be
implemented to close down existing gaps that facilitate
corruption and abuse of power either in policy or
implementation.
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With the ongoing factionalism, it is hard to believe this. The
Guptagate, the travel gate, the Bosasa gravy train, the status
of state-owned enterprises, let alone the absence without
leave tendencies of the Deputy President, a range of scandals.
And, as far as the eye can see, from Cape Town to Joburg, we
are witnessing the great big flag of Mr Mthethwa. No morals or
values. Yet, comrades are still singing: “Thuma Mina”.
The committee raised concerns about poor workmanship in
government construction projects during floods in KwaZulu-
Natal where newly built bridges collapsed. Priority 1 and 6 of
the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation’s Medium
Term Strategic Framework, MTSF seeks to address a capable,
ethical and developmental state, ensure social cohesion and
ensure safety of communities respectively. The looting in
KwaZulu-Natal, glitches in Home Affairs, xenophobic violence,
Digital Vibes, the North West departments under section 100
intervention, even those trashing the system. The list does
not end here. Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation might tell us more.
Then there is Brand SA. It has no footprint amongst South
Africans. Cabinet resolutions to rationalise similar entities
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should be applauded. Minister - through you Chairperson - it
is no surprise that a Board of Trustees are opposing the
merger between the Brand SA and Tourism. The mandate mission
and vision of Brand SA bears no major difference to that of
Tourism.
Instead, the tale is now wagging the dog. With the section of
Parliament burned down, voters do not believe in the ANC
anymore. President Ramaphosa and Mr Zuma have a lot in common
when it comes to the Presidency, the love for Cuba, the lack
of an oversight committee in the Presidency, and they hate to
be held accountable. Minister Gungubele, your predecessor, Mr
Trevor Manuel, has criticised the ANC and resigned. Former
President Motlanthe predicted the end of the ANC. Minister,
your ... [Inaudible.] ... government is about to implode.
Merry Christmas, Mr Gungubele.
Ms V P MALOMANE: Hon Chair, can I switch off my video off due
to the issue of network?
The ACTING CHAIRPERSON (Ms T M Joemat-Pettersson): Allowed!
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Ms V P MALOMANE: Thank you. Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and
Deputy Minister, hon Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip and hon
members. Planning monitoring and evaluation is significant in
ensuring that government execute ANC policies effectively. It
is significant to ensure that there is a proper planning,
policy coherence and policy impact assessment. But most
importantly, it must also ensure that budgets address
alignments to policy and addresses the socioeconomic
challenges that the country experiences.
Without effective planning, monitoring and evaluation, it will
be impossible to judge if government is going in the right
direction, whether progress and success can be claimed, and
how future efforts might be improved. The centre of government
lies at the planning stage and its effective monitoring and
evaluation. Thus, this process that the House is undertaking
is important to ensure that the Budget Votes being debated are
in alignment with government’s policy and most significantly,
aim to address the triple challenge of poverty, inequality and
unemployment.
The National Development Plan was adopted and implemented in
2012 as a country’s blueprint plan to try interventions aimed
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at eliminating poverty, unemployment and reduce inequality.
Government has translated the National Development Plan, NDP
into the Medium-Term Strategic Framework or delivery outcomes.
Various government departments have been implementing the plan
and our communities can attest to have realized the service
delivery. All state institutions consider the NDP as a guiding
document towards the realization of the vision 2030.
If we as government to reach our goals as ... [Inaudible]...
in the NDP, we have to ensure for robust evaluation and
monitoring of policy implementation throughout the public
service. We must guarantee continuous evaluation of critical
government programmes and ensure they have the expected impact
of outcome. The Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation should offer and empower legislatures with a better
opportunity, to identify areas where policies and programmes
are having an impact and where they are not, and therefore
learning from implementation.
The information that monitoring and evaluation programmes and
system generate is critical, for raising awareness and
promoting a debate about the efficiency of public programs and
policies. It can empower citizens to hold their government
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accountable, as long as they are also mechanisms in place for
government to use this feedback to make changes in budgeting,
planning, efficiency of progress. Platforms such as the
Presidential Hotline are avenues where citizens can voice out
their service delivery grievances. This tool assists
government to assess challenges to service delivery in various
areas. We therefore do hope that, the department will resolve
all grievances placed in such platform.
Focusing on the budget and understanding that the budget is a
tool used to ensure for, policy implementation, as the ANC we
therefore welcome the increment in the budget allocation to
the department. The department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation’s overall budget allocation in the 2022-23
financial year is R470,9 million, which is an increase as
compared to R459,2 million in the 2021-22 financial year. This
represents an increase of 17,84% in nominal terms. This
increment will assist the department to address the country’s
development priorities through the co-ordination and
institutionalization of an integrated government planning
system. We are pleased to note that the budget will increase
during the medium term.
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The National Planning Commission was tasked with reviewing
some aspect of the NDP, to address certain implementation
challenges. Over the medium term, this review is expected to
assess the capacity and capability of the state in measuring
the implementation of the NDP. Related activities are set to
be carried out in the Management of National Planning Co-
ordination Programme. We hope that the department will persist
to develop and implement planning framework, and facilitate
the alignment of the planning and budgeting function across
government and in the department.
This is extremely important hon members, to ensure that the
revenue is allocated to where it is required most, and that
the intended impact is made. Through the National Planning
Commission, we have to ensure that the departmental strategic
plans and annual and performance plans are aligned to the
Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF. We therefore welcome
the increment in this programme as well. The department
developed a monitoring and evaluation tool for the measurement
of the piloted District Development Model, and to determine
the efficiency of the model with the aim of improving
coherence, and co-ordination across the spheres of government.
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We commend this as the ANC, as we greatly understand the
significance of coherence in government. Coherence is very
important when it comes to the public service. Coherent
government policies enhance positive impact of business for
sustainable development. For instance, a better co-ordination
between government departments such as education, labour and
social services can contribute to higher productivity, that
creates a winning situation for both societies, the private
sector in the public sector. Thus, programme three of Sector
Monitoring Services is therefore important to ensure
government policy coherence.
We welcome the ... [Inaudible] ... in all the government’s
programmes relating to the vote. Public servants are the
drivers of implementation in the government. It is therefore
become significant to evaluate their performance, to assess
whether they are performing diligently delivering the service
to the nation. We therefore appreciate that the budget will be
used to compile submission on an evaluation of performance
agreements for Ministers, director-generals and heads of
departments. This is critical hon members as it strengthens
accountability in the public service.
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Hon members, 2030 is drawing nearer. We are to be hard at work
if we are to deliver the promises of the NDP to our citizens.
Most importantly, South Africans need to see the impact of
implemented policies in their lives. We commend the impact
assessment conducted by the department ... [Inaudible] ...to
see the impact that we are making in the lives of South
Africans.
Hon Chair, we are engulfed with high levels of unemployment in
the country. As the President had alluded to in his state of
the nation address, we have to co-ordinate the conditions of
employment in our country, as the biggest job creation sector
in the in the private sector. It is therefore significant to
draw our attention to Brand SA, as they have been bestowed
with the responsibility of marketing to the country’s brand to
attract investment into the country. We have to acknowledge
the Brand SA contributes to the nation.
However indirectly, through job creation and poverty.
reduction and to attract inward investment, trade and tourism,
we appreciate that the budget allocation for Brand SA will
increase during the medium term. Hon members, we take this
significantly as investment into the country contributes
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towards job creation which then relates to poverty
alleviation. The ANC supports the Budget Vote 9 as it is aware
that if we are not - as the EFF is not supporting the budget -
I don’t know what their plans are to say what the department
is supposed to work with. When they come to the - what are
they going to do if they don’t support this budget?
What I also want to speak ... Hon Chair, what I want to also
speak about is that, it is shameful that the DA when it comes
and gets an opportunity, it speaks about cadre deployment. I
do not know what their challenge is because, we are telling
them each and every time that cadre deployment – they did so
even in their time. I do not know what is wrong when the ANC
is doing that. We’ve got our own policies, our own guide,
where we deal with cadre deployment
I just to speak to the issue of hon Motsepe of the EFF that,
if you are speaking about any of the performance that is
improved, we know that in the portfolio committee the
department usually comes and speak to us with the reports and
then we adopt the reports and agree with the reports. But I do
understand that, because you are afraid to speak the truth.
Now today, you are saying you don’t support the budget, but
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why? You know within your heart that actually; this is what
you’re supposed to accept.
I think what I would like to say to the department, the
Minister, the Deputy Minister, continue with doing your job.
Continue with monitoring and evaluation of the department,
making sure that the people of South Africa are served
regularly, are served correctly, so that service delivery is
being given to the people of South Africa. We know that we’ve
got this challenge that we are facing with is the triple
challenge We cannot face it alone as government. We also need
the public sector to come out, the private sector to come out
and assist also in making sure that we will fight this triple
challenge. I thank you, hon Chair.
The MINISTER IN THE PRESIDENCY: Hon Chair, may I take this
opportunity to appreciate the robust engagements, the frank
engagements by Members of Parliament in analysing our
presentation and doing their ... [Inaudible.] ... I am very
clear that what I have actually witnessed is a ...
[Inaudible.] ... without which this country will never get
better. It’s only when we listen to that with objectivity that
we are going to be able to make a difference. I therefore
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appreciate that. I listened to members saying how exemplary
the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is
supposed to be and I think that we should take that without
any hesitation. I have listened to embers saying that if we
have to do oversight of the entire state, it starts with us to
be better organised.
I think we should take that because it is only when we accept
that robust criticism that we will be able to get better. My
only fear though is that ... I just want to say upfront that
quite a number of criticisms that have been articulated here
today. We sat down as the Department of Planning, Monitoring
and Evaluation and we have reflected on those. There is a lot
of comparison on a number of issues, both in strengths and
weaknesses that have actually been debated here. I am very
clear in my mind that, unless we sort those issues, we will
not be able to reposition the Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation as we proposed and we will not be
able to contribute to turn around the performance of this
country as we are supposed to.
I think the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
has adopted a vision called leader and the catalyst. In other
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words, accepting a responsibility to be the unlocker of
processes; to be a stimulator and solution enhancer of how
best government can perform. Form the two-day session we had
with the institution, I think we are equal to that task. So,
that stands there. Secondly, I appreciate the progress report
made by the Deputy Minister Kekana on a number of areas where
she works. By the way, you may not know that Deputy Ministers
are working in specific areas and Deputy Minister Kekana is
also specifically in this area of monitoring and evaluation. I
was actually ... [Inaudible.] ... the progress report of the
work that has been done so far.
Having said that, I just want to say that it has been said in
the speech that we are committing to institutionalising the
monitoring and evaluation in South Africa, something we feel
is still lagging. We believe that until monitoring and
evaluation is institutionalised, it’s a natural language that
is spoken by everyone, both in terms of format of reporting
and the language that is being used. When we talk about theory
of change that is spoken by everybody, we are committed to do
that. We will be processing the policy this year and its
articulated in this speech.
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One of the things we are committed to is that we want to
demonstrate our capability this year just by checking the Sona
implementation. There are many things that we are supposed to
look at, but we thought there is a lot purely in the Sona by
the President, because it deals with multibillion value of
infrastructure that will be in construction this year, no less
than R21 billion. The President’s Sona states that the
pipeline projects which Infrastructure SA is attending to
together with the state-owned enterprises to offer about
R96 billion. The President has spoken about ... [Inaudible.]
... energy interventions. The President also spoke about
interventions in terms of removing the red tape.
In other words, the key issue and Minister of Finance has come
to allocate no less than R8,7 billion to Police, no less than
R1 billion to the Justice department. The Minister of Finance
placed no less than R7 billion during the medium term to
unlock the private sector resources to promote the concept of
planned finance for infrastructure and economic recovery. The
President spoke about R133 billion of seven projects in the
private sector which require bulk infrastructure for which the
Minister of Finance has put no less R1,8 billion to unlock.
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We want to say that the Department of Planning, Monitoring and
Evaluation must be tested against these indicatives by the
President. I want to say that I am convinced that Department
of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is equal to that task.
Having said that, I think that this death warrant and the
death wish of the future of the ANC is not new, it was there
even during apartheid - before 1994. I know that Margaret
Thatcher would have said that is an organisation that will
burst; it’s a myth that will burst. Many years later it became
the leader of this country. I know what Verwoerd said about it
– that the black cause is a useless cause. We were going
through challenges that time. You know what, South Africa has
prevailed to get to where we are now.
I have been listening to the hon McGluwa. He reminds me of the
Bible when the Israelites were in the wilderness - not seeing
the back and the front and they contemplated going back to
Egypt. I just want to reassure him that because of liberation
and betterment of human life, against all the difficulties
we’ve gone through – of corruption, looting poor performance,
the people of this country as articulated by the President in
February arose to the challenge of being equal. That is what
our forebears fought and died for. The death wish, the death
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warrant and all this kind of things – I would just want to
reassure the hon McGluwa that he must relax regarding that.
The point I want to make is that, he will know now that in
spite of all the noise they have been making, last year they
have not been the choice of our people, in spite of the
difficulties that we are going through. The ANC remains the
party with the largest following in South Africa. They have
not been the choice for the people, including the EFF. So, we
are happy to be led by the President who doesn’t turn a blind
eye to people’s criticisms, concerns, desperation, who ensured
an unprecedented ... [Inaudible.] ... when the commission’s
report on corruption and state capture was completed and put
on the website for everyone to see his punctuation, with all
the full stops and commas - Professor Sandy report in the
website, Mufamadi report and all. This is a transparent
President who always ensures that regarding our resolves and
our ambitions the solution lies in tabling before the people –
by being transparent. That is why I am very much convinced,
hon McGluwa that the death wish and the death warrant are not
going to succeed.
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Watch the space, because the Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation is equal to that task. Having said
all that, I appreciate the ... [Inaudible.] ... by the hon
members, including the opposition and so on. I am the one who
will never run away from accepting where weaknesses are
actually being pointed. Whether the death wish or the death
warrant, we are actually going to embarrass it because this
organisation is going to plan. This organisation did not plan
itself, it’s the plan of the people. It’s here because the
people want it here. When they could not vote for us, they
didn’t vote for you.
So, we are very much convinced that the Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is equal to that task and
we will come back and report here and we will be alive, hon
McGluwa, and the members of the EFF are alive and the
leadership provided by the members of my party, the chair on
the challenges of the political administrative interface that
we need to look at. Hon member Malomane, about coherence and
the framework that you emphasised on how critical ... those
are the things that we are now implementing to make sure that
we institutionalise. I listened to the hon Kibi. Hon members,
all of you, without exclusion, I respect your criticism and we
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will take them with the Chair and soldier on and do everything
to turn the situation around, but we despise the death wish.
Thank you, hon Chair.
The mini-plenary session rose at 11:57.
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