Questions and Replies

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

(1)

(a) I have been informed by the Department that the entrances to the property were previously boarded up. However, vandals have since removed the boards at the entrances and regained access. Subsequently, on 1 May 2022 the Department’s Security Division conducted a site visit, during which it was established that is not feasible to brick up / board up the openings of the buildings due to the extent of the damages to the building. A decision has been taken to deploy a security company to monitor the remains of the building as well as to prevent further vandalism and any illicit activities from taking place. The security company will be appointed by June, so as to allow the SCM processes for the appointment to unfold.

(b) The Department will deploy a security company to monitor the property. Subsequent to our previous response, the Client Department, South African Police Service, has expressed interest in the property for official accommodation purposes.

A Technical team has visited the site to conduct a Technical Condition Assessment of the facility to quantify the extent of the damage as well as costing. The Assessment Report will be finalized by the end of May 2022. The outcome will determine whether the nature of the work to be done is of a capital nature or it is work that can be done by our in-house team.

(2)

(a)

(i) Approvals: Depending on the outcome of the Technical Condition Assessment on the extent and cost of the damage, a formal process of registering a project for budget allocation purposes will be followed during the budget process of the 2022/23 financial year.

(ii) Authorities: Currently not applicable.

b) Timeline: A Project Execution Plan will be developed and available once the Assessment Report has been finalized by the Technical Team.

c) Status of the subdivision – This is no longer required.

d) Proposed timeline – Not applicable as the subdivision of the property is no longer required.

Reply:

(a) The appointment of the legal team was handled by the Office of the State Attorney according to its procurement processes.

(b)(i) Advocate R Schorn, Advocate SJ Coetzee SC and Advocate P Nonyane.

(ii) They were appointed to advise the Department on the actions to be taken by the department or the specific entity based on the findings and recommendations of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture particularly those that relate to the State-Owned Enterprises within the Department’s portfolio.

(iii)(aa) The appointment is product-based. Once the advice has been provided, the instruction will automatically terminate.

(bb) There is no monetary value set for each contract. Counsels are paid on the submission of an invoice submitted to the Office of the State Attorney for the work done.

Reply:

The department remains the custodian of the State’s 20% stake in West Coast Resources (WCR). WCR is currently under business rescue. A 7-year business rescue plan was approved in July 2020. The shareholding is held through a special purpose vehicle created by De Beers called Mainstreet( Pty) Ltd. The Department is currently working on a process to have the shareholding held in the name of the State directly or through one of the State-Owned Entities.

Reply:

Attached find here: Reply

Reply:

The Department has no commercial contracts with the government of the Russian Federation

Reply:

Honourable Member, the National Department of Health is consulting with the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Health to source the full details of this matter. The Minister will provide the Honourable Member and Parliament with the response as soon as the details have been received from the Province.

END.

Reply:

DPE Response

The Department has not concluded any commercial contracts with the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017

According to the information received from Alexkor

There is no contract with the Russian Federation and / or any other entity based in the Russian Federation recorded in the Alexkor SOC Limited contract register since 1 April 2017.

According to the information received from Denel

(i) No (ii) Yes (aa) Ohotnik v Sheremetievo Ltd. (bb) R4,525,815.33 (cc) 2017 to 2018 (dd) Commercial ammunition (ee) Sales

According to the information received from Eskom

(b)(i) and (ii)

Eskom has not concluded any commercial contracts with the government of the Russian Federation, or any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

However, Eskom had a commercial contract with a Russian entity that commenced in 2010 and ended in 2017.

(aa)

The contract was with Tenex, a Russian Joint Stock Company owned by the Russian state- owned company Rosatom, to supply the Koeberg Nuclear Power Plant with Enriched Uranium Product (EUP).

The sourced EUP is delivered to the Eskom nuclear fuel suppliers abroad where it is processed into small pellets, which are loaded into the metallic fuel rods that make up a nuclear fuel assembly.

(bb)

The value of the contract was $411 121 667,50.

 

(cc)

The contract commenced on 9 March 2010 and ended on 31 December 2017.

(dd)

The contract was for the supply of EUP.

(ee)

The reason EUP is not procured within the Republic is due to the unavailability of enrichment and/or conversion facilities in South Africa.

According to the information received from SAFCOL

(b) According to records at our disposal SAFCOL had never concluded any commercial contracts with (i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or (ii) any other entities based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017. SAFCOL procures its goods and services within the boundaries of the Republic of South Africa, there are and were never intentions to contract any commercial contracts with the Russian Federation.

According to the information received from SAA

SAA has no commercial contracts with the Russian Federation nor any entity based in the Russian Federation to supply goods and services.

According to the information received from Transnet

(b)

On 05 March 2018, Transnet SOC Limited (Transnet) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Joint Stock Company Russian Railways. This MOU is for 5 years, and it is valid until 2023. However, Transnet has not concluded any commercial agreements to date. The objective of this MoU was to collaborate on the following areas:

• Implementation of railway infrastructure projects.
• Provision of consulting services in the field of development of passenger and freight traffic solutions.
• Cooperation in the field of innovation, scientific Research & Development and experience exchange.
• Integration of railway and port infrastructure.
• Staff training.
• Interaction with the BRICS New Development Bank.

To date none, of the above projects has been implemented because Transnet could not find an appropriate procurement mechanism to procure the necessary services from Russian Railways.

 

 

Reply:

(a) The Auditor General signed off on the 2019/20 audit report on 18 December 2020, and the 2019/20 Annual Report was sent to Parliament for tabling on 30 September 2021.

(b) The main reason for the delay was the interactions between Management and the Auditor-General and the disputes that arose from the Auditor-General’s findings that ultimately led to a disclaimer opinion being issued.

END

Reply:

(a) and (b)

Following the retirement of the former Director-General, the Department advertised the position in July 2021. At the same time, a process to consider a reconfiguration of the Department commenced, which process was put on hold to enable staff to focus on the work required to support firms and workers affected by the July unrest last year. A Transition Team of three senior staff was put in place, with two Deputy Directors General and the Chief Financial Officer. The approach also provided leadership stability during this key period leading up to the conclusion of the Annual Performance Plan and the Budget of the Department. This affected the timelines on the recruitment processes. The recruitment process is now recommencing following the completion of the Department’s Annual Performance Plan.

-END-

Reply:

Bid number DPE07-2021-2022 relating to the Appointment of Service Provider to assist with determining the Optimal Operating Model for the State’s Diamond Assets

Status: It was cancelled due to the changed of circumstances, there is no longer a need for the services requested.

Reply:

(a)(i) People who have lost their IDs are already being helped. The Provincial Manager of Home Affairs in KZN has attended meetings of the Disaster Management Center since its inception. The Center provided him with a list of affected people/families. The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs led a campaign to trace such people, offer them identity documents and these are in two forms, (a) Temporary Identity Certificate (TIC) )which they get same time on the scene. (b) An application for a smart card which is issued after a week. All these are provided free of charge.

(ii) Yes their applications are fast tracked, because this is a special project.

(b) The people who have lost their documentation are already in the system, i.e the National Population Register (NPR), hence this whole exercise is a replacement exercise, where there is no chance of fraud.

END

 

 

Reply:

Currently, SAFCOL has a total of 189 747 hectares with plantable area of 120 644 hectares. As a result, only 116 695 hectares is planted and 3 949 hectares is “Temporary Unplanted” (TUP). This is approximately 3% of the total ,which was maintained for the past 5 years, is in line with annual industry targets.

The Department of Public Enterprises has since requested SAFCOL to consider assisting the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) in reducing its TUP which is currently above 30%, either by leasing or managing plantations near its operations in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KZN. This will not only reduce unlimited risks DFFE is currently exposed to but also increase rural employment and sawlog availability for supply of raw material to small and medium business in response to sector transformation and addressing the Commercial Forestry Masterplan objectives.

Furthermore, DPE has encouraged SAFCOL to ensure that it remains a preferred partner post the land settlement process as currently 57% of SAFCOL land under operation is under land claim. This is in collaboration with DFFE and the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform.

 

Reply:

It is important to note that the Fire Brigade Services Act, 1987 (Act 99 of 1987) is the primary legislation regulating the provision of fire services. Section 5 (1)  a controlling authority shall appoint a person who possesses the prescribed qualifications and experience, as chief fire officer to be in charge of its service. In response to the above questions:

a) What  action has she taken to hold municipalities accountable for such irregularities?

The Directorate facilitated the process of developing Fire Service career path as part of Municipal Staff Regulations which will come into effect from 1 July 2022.

b) What oversight mechanisms has her Department implemented to monitor the redress of the situation?                                                

The Department is in the process of developing an oversight mechanism for Municipal Fire Services career path once the Regulations is effective. The Directorate will monitor and support the implementation of the Municipal Staff Regulations.

The link to the Municipal Staff Regulations is below

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202109/45181gon891.pdf

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Reply:

The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG) will be strengthening the support to municipalities in the following:

• The development and implementation of disaster management plans as per Sections 38, 39, 52 and 53 of the Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002;
• The assessment of submitted disaster management plans to check amongst others the level of compliance with the Disaster Management Act as well as the alignment with the guidelines on “development and structure of a disaster management plan”.
• Whether these plans incorporate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation measures for inclusion into municipal programmes and projects as required for by the priorities and targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).
• Engagement sessions with municipalities and Provincial Disaster Management Centres within respective provinces to discuss the respective assessment feedbacks. 

DCOG will continue to collaborate with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) in supporting the district municipalities to develop the district climate change adaptation plans as well as providing capacity building programmes to the district municipalities on climate change with the view to facilitate mainstreaming of climate consideration into the municipal planning system. This will be done with the development of various tools such as Greenbook and Let-respond Toolkit which are aimed at offering the municipality with tools that could be used in planning for climate change response.

The above-mentioned inter-institutional support complements the current and planned work of the NDMC on disaster management planning and Impact Based Early Warning training with the South African Weather Service. The NDMC and the South African Weather Service will conduct Impact Based training for all districts in KZN for the 2022/23 financial year. The South African Weather Service and the NDMC will continue issuing of weekly Impact Based Early Warnings for approaching severe weather systems, especially in eastern coastal area. The NDMC will continue to distribute seasonal plans to all disaster management stakeholders highlighting hazard prone areas for medium term planning. and informed decision-making.

Reply:

a) The two events were scheduled to take place in KwaZulu Natal and the Eastern Cape

b) A call centre has been established to assist creatives and athletes around the clock as they require assistance with the services provided by the Silapha Wellness programme. Different social media platforms have been provided where artists and athletes are able to interact with experts in the area of mental health; financial management etc.

Interventions were also made through the Silapha Ambassadors who use their social media platforms to engage the creatives and athletes on the work done by Silapha and for them to ask questions and get direct response/assistance from Silapha counsellors.

Reply:

Makhado Local Municipality (MLM) is currently constructing the culvert bridge and the progress on the 3rd of May 2022 is as per pictures below. According to MLM, the completion date is the 31st of May 2022.

Reply:

Water Service Authorities (WSAs) are required to monitor the quality of drinking water as per the South African National Standard 241 (SANS 241). The SANS 241 is a drinking water specification that provides the minimum requirements for potable water to be considered safe for human consumption. These requirements include microbiological, chemical and physical properties of water.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) monitors the management of drinking water quality compliance by WSAs and further engages the WSAs where non-compliance is detected. WSAs are required to register for the monitoring programme on the DWS’s Integrated Regulatory Information System (IRIS). The monitoring program indicates the sampling point, frequency of monitoring and what determinants are monitored. All the drinking water quality results must be uploaded on the IRIS as required.

According to DWS, DWS has resuscitated the Blue Drop Certification Programme which aims to address the challenges associated with the provision of water. This programme seeks to implement a proactive drinking water quality risk management approach to ensure that quality failures are minimised, but when and where it inevitably occurs that acceptable responses are implemented to safeguard affected communities.

In the event of non-compliance to provide access to potable water, section 63 of the Water Services Act, No. 108 of 1997 provides, among other things, as follows:

“(1) If a water services authority has not effectively performed any function imposed on it by or under this Act, the Minister (Minister of Water and Sanitation) may, in consultation with the Minister for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development (then), request the relevant Province to intervene in terms of section 139 of the Constitution.

(2) If, within a reasonable time after the request, the Province—

(a) has unjustifiably failed to intervene; or

(b) has intervened but has failed to do so effectively, the Minister (Minister of Water and Sanitation) may assume responsibility for that function to the extent necessary—

• • 1. to maintain essential national standards;
    2. to meet established minimum standards for providing services…”

In light of the above, it is suggested that this parliamentary question be redirected to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

 

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

a) Eskom’s Generation fleet is unreliable and unpredictable because its plants have been run for over 10 years at exceptionally high utilisation factors, with less than adequate maintenance. there has been insufficient investment in maintenance as a result of inadequate ENERGY capacity and years of tariffs that were not reflective of prudent and efficient costs. Together with inadequate capacity on the system, this unreliability and unpredictability has led to load shedding and this also means that the risk of load shedding remains if there are more breakdowns than predicted in the base planning scenarios.

b) A reduction in the risk of load shedding depends on two factors. Firstly, an additional 6 000MW is required to be commissioned. This is being driven by the DMRE. Secondly, Eskom needs to improve the reliability and predictability of the coal fleet. This requires adequate financial resources and “space” on the system to execute the required additional reliability maintenance. To achieve this, Eskom is driving the Generation Turnaround Programme that includes focussing on the Seven Strategic Initiatives that include the 2035 Strategy, the 9-Point Plan and the Reliability Maintenance Recovery Programme.

In addition, special programs to deploy experienced personnel to assist power station managers, and a mentoring and training program is also being put in place to improve operational efficiency.

the negative impact of criminality, corruption, sabotage and fraud must also be taken into account. urgent law enforcement measures must be put in place to combat this.

please be assured that the management is very aware that agility, accountability and responsiveness is critical to the more efficient operation of plant.

Reply:

1. According to the time periods stated by the question, the information is currently not available because it being handled by various bodies such as those that are responsible for population register and as such the department does not keep this information. Stats-SA which is the health entity supporting us in this area of work, has the report on the official statistics as regards to intentional self-harm (suicide) by gender and age up to 2018. This means that the report for 2019,2020 and 2021 is not yet available.

2. The Department is implementing a number of interventions in collaboration with other stakeholders to address factors that increase the risks for suicide including prevention, education and early intervention. Among others these include:

• The Department has established a training programme for professional nurses and medical doctors on clinical mental health since 2018/19 to enhance early detection, diagnosis, treatment, referral and rehabilitation of mental disorders at Primary Health Care.
• Screening for mental health has been included as part of health care package of services at primary health care to bolster early identification and intervention services
• The Department is continually educating the public on mental health issues using various platforms with special emphasis in July on mental illness and October on mental health, on annual basis to increase public awareness on mental health issues that can contribute to suicide as well as where the public can access mental health services.
• Mental health has been integrated into Integrated School Health Programmes to ensure early identification through screening and referral of learners that need further assessment and management.

• Mental health is being included in the package of services that are rendered by Community Health Care Workers to ensure integration of education, early identification and referral at community level
• The Department is funding the South African Federation for Mental Health to provide mental health advocacy and health promotion interventions. Since COVID-19 the organisation has utilised the funding to run a mental health information and support desk to strengthen access to information on mental health including how and where to access mental health services
• The Department if working closely with the Higher Education and Training sector through providing support to Higher Health organisation to strengthen mental health interventions among students in higher education institutions.

END.

Reply:

Moses Kotane Local Municipality (MKLM) provided for installation of high mast lights in Ward 6 in its current 3-year capital budget plan and 2021/22 Integrated Development Plan. According to MMKLM, MKLM installed high mast lights in Motlhabe village in Ward 6 this financial year and has planned to install high mast lights in Mapaputle and Molorwe villages in Ward 6 in the 2022/23 financial year by the 30th of June 2023.

Reply:

I am advised by the Department as follows:

(1) There are 3 (three) officials who are undergoing disciplinary action and 1 (one) official who was suspended.

No	(a)(i) Disciplinary action	(a)(ii) Suspension	(b) Job Title	(c) Reason for disciplinary action and/or suspension	(d) Reasons for non-finalisation
1	Yes	No	Deputy Director	Failure to fully disclose financial interest	The audi alteram partem letter was issued and the official’s representation is pending.
2	Yes	No	Chief Director	Alleged fraud	The notice still to be served. The identified witnesses were not cooperating to prepare for the hearing. The Department of Agriculture is being requested to release the witnesses.
3	Yes	No	Director	Incompatibility/ Insubordination	The matter was postponed by the Chairperson and could not be set down expeditiously until the Promotion of Access to Information Act application was finalised. The appointed external Chairperson could not continue with the matter and a new Chairperson had to be appointed. The matter is scheduled for 25 and 26 May 2022.
4	No	Yes	Cashier: Financial Accounting	Alleged fraud	The matter is under investigation. However, the official resigned on 4 March 2022, with his last working day on 31 March 2022. The new employer was informed and the outcome is pending the findings.

2. The official was suspended for four (4) working days with effect from 25 March 2022, he resigned on 4 March 2022 and his last day with the Department was 31 March 2022.

2. Yes, the official was suspended with full pay and received R3,712.51 as part of his monthly remuneration during the period of his suspension.

-END-

Reply:

1. Indeed, there was a security incident at Tswelopele Correctional Centre on 05 March 2022, wherein one (01) official was injured and two (02) offenders died. It can be confirmed that eight (08) and not seventeen (17) officials were immediately placed on precautionary suspension pending outcome of the investigation. The investigation has been finalised and consequence management is to be applied following departmental protocols including the review of suspensions.

2. Trauma management is provided to the officials who are exposed to acts of violence from offenders. Trauma counselling is provided by the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) officers of the Department.

END

Reply:

In response to the questions above, the National Prosecuting Authority has informed me as follows:

1. Orlando CAS 150/08/19

It was declined to prosecute the matter, as the case docket contained very scant evidence. Mr Tshepo Mhlongo, provided a very cryptic statement where he mentioned that he is the lawful owner of a certain property and alleged that Sibusiso Duma and his two brothers are collecting rent. The accused denies this allegation. The decision to decline a prosecution was made on 11 December 2019. The Investigating Officer was informed that he may re-submit the case docket once further admissible evidence that objectively supports the allegation made by Mr Mhlongo is obtained. Up to date, no such evidence has been obtained.

2. Orlando CAS 220/11/2019

The matter is on the court roll as prosecution was instituted. This matter is partly heard and Mr T Mhlongo is again the complainant herein. The State of Disaster that existed, the non-availability of Legal Aid South Africa, the absence of accused on more than one occasion, the non-availability of the docket and the non-functioning of the court recording machine are cited as reasons for the number of remands. The matter was remanded to 22 April 2022 for continuation of the trial. The Presiding Magistrate came from another court to attend to the partly heard matter, but unfortunately the matter could again not proceed due to a faulty recording machine. The case was subsequently remanded to 21 June 2022 to court “A” for hearing further evidence. The State’s case is not closed yet as the Investigating Officer still needs to testify.

3. Orlando CAS 551/04/2018

This matter involves the brother of Mr T Mhlongo who is called Lincoln Mhlongo. This matter was finalised on the 29 August 2019 wherein the accused was found guilty of assault and sentenced to twelve (12) months imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five (5) years.

4. Orlando CAS 133/10/2015 (with Orlando CAS 513/04/2019)

These matters are being dealt with at the Office of the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) under DPP ref 10/2/4/3-306/19 and as per the latest correspondence to the South African Police Service (SAPS) Provincial Head, Gauteng Detectives dated 30 March 2022, it is clear that there are still investigations outstanding and a return date of 14 April 2022 is stated for an update from SAPS side. SAPS is supposed to advise the DPP’s office on the appointment of an expert who will do a voice comparison.

5. Orlando CAS 40/10/2019

The complainant is also Mr T Mhlongo. This case is also on the court roll after prosecution was instituted. On 07 May 2021, warrants of arrest were authorised against the two (2) accused. As warrants of arrest were issued, it is unclear when the warrants will be executed as this function falls within the ambit of SAPS.

6. None of the cases mentioned above were withdrawn.

Reply:

(a) (i) The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) is administered by the Department of Cooperative Governance with the aim of developing infrastructure to provide poor households with at least a basic level of service. Municipalities have been allocated R15,6 billion in 2021/22 that is aligned to the municipal financial year that will end on 30 June 2022.

Municipalities have reported expenditure on the MIG over the last 5 years 2016/17 - 2020/21) as follows:

Financial year	Transferred	Spent by receiving municipalities	% spent against transferred
2016/17	14,914,028	13,784,509	92.40%
2017/18	15,891,252	14,545,025	91.50%
2018/19	15,287,685	13,831,893	90.48%
2019/20	14,816,103	11,720,688	79.11%
2020/21	14,491,065	13,226,723	91.28%
Total	75,400,133	67,108,838	89.00%

Disaster Grant contribution to Infrastructure Development (NDMC):

Funding allocations have been done from the Disaster Grants within the NDMC to augment resources of affected organs of state regarding infrastructure development: The funds were allocated from the Municipal Disaster Relief Grant, Provincial Disaster Relief Grant and Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant mainly in addressing the drought conditions in affected provinces and municipalities. The allocations were as follows:

Financial years	Type of grants	Amounts transferred	Purpose of allocation
2017/2018	Municipal Disaster Relief Grant	R341 373 000	Drought interventions: Infrastructure
	Provincial Disaster Relief Grant	R78 000 000
2018/2019	Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant	R 1 025 484 000
2019/2020	No disaster grant allocations
2020/2021	Provincial Disaster Relief Grant	R138 489 000
2021/2022	Municipal Disaster Relief Grant	R 173 132 000
	Provincial Disaster Relief Grant	R48 100 000
Total (infrastructure development)	R1 804 578 000

(ii) According to the MIG Framework, which stipulates the conditions under which the funds allocated to municipalities must be used, indicates that funds for the maintenance of roads must be in line with the maintenance priorities identified through the Rural Roads Asset Management System (RRAMS) administered by the Department of Transport. Although this provision has been made within the MIG no maintenance on roads maintenance has been funded form the MIG within the last 5 years.

(b) MIG receiving municipalities reported that:

- In 2019/20 MIG allocations were reprioritised in April 2020 to address Covid-19 related areas. The expenditure reported on projects was R204 million.
- In 2020/21 (period 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022) MIG receiving municipalities reported expenditure of R609 million.

Disaster Grant allocation to Covid-19 response measures

Financial years	Type of grants	Amounts transferred	Purpose of allocation
2019/2020	Provincial Disaster Relief Grant	R 466 392 000	Covid-19 response measures
2020/2021	Municipal Disaster Relief Grant	R150 970 000
Total (Covid-19)	R617 362 000

(c)

Financial years	Type of grant	Amounts transferred	Purpose of allocation
2016/2017	No disaster grant allocations
2017/2018	Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant	R26 147 000	Interventions to sinkhole formation conditions
		R16 304 000	Interventions to storm damages
2018/2019		R200 654 000
2019/2020	No disaster grant allocations
2020/2021	Municipal Disaster Relief Grant	R157 137 000
Total (flood and storm damage interventions)	R400 242 000

(d) (i) The total amount of R14,7 billion was transferred to the eThekwini over the last 5 years and (ii) R909 million had to be returned to the National Fiscus.

The eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality has received various grants (conditional and unconditional) from the national fiscus over the last five years to assist with infrastructure development. They are:

• Municipal Emergency Housing Grant
• Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant
• Integrated National Electrification Programme (Municipal) Grant
• Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Grant
• Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant
• Public Transport Network Grant
• Urban Settlements Development Grant
• Integrated City Development Grant

Financial tear	Grants received	Actual Expenditure reported	Total unspent	Approved Rollover	Amount to be returned
2016/17	2,976,972	2,948,818	28,154	-	28,154
2017/18	3,036,370	2,700,090	336,280	554	335,726
2018/19	2,984,325	2,482,135	502,190	2,662	499,528
2019/20	3,189,069	3,120,680	68,389	32,449	35,940
2020/21	2,515,345	2,497,398	17,947	8,528	9,419
Total	14,702,081	13,749,121	952,960	44,193	908,767

National Treasury

(ii) The total amount of R908.7 million was recorded as unspent conditional grants by the National Treasury (this amount has since returned to the NRF). This amount excludes the grants allocated for operational purposes, unconditional grants, indirect grants and the rollover approved amount of R44.2 million. 

Reply:

Honourable Member, this information is not readily available at the National Department of Health but is with the provinces. The National Department of Health is therefore consulting with all the Provincial Departments of Health to source the full details on this matter. The Minister will provide the Honourable Member and Parliament with the response as soon as the details have been received from the Provinces.

END.

Reply:

The funding made available to the Solidarity Fund, like that of all donors, are not ring-fenced to individual projects. The reports of the Solidarity Fund, setting out its work is obtainable from its website at https://solidarityfund.co.za/

In respect of the National Lotteries Commission (NLC), the following information has been provided:

• the NLC approved micro pro-active funding of R 10 Million for basic and essential hygiene goods, food parcels and cooked meals to assist the most vulnerable groups. To ensure that the approved funds reach affected citizen, the funds were allocated to fifty-four (54) organisations across the country. The above intervention assisted in providing immediate relief programme to affected communities.
• The NLC concluded that many Non-Profit Entities (NPEs) were at a brink of collapse because of the nation-wide lockdown. The NLC approved further funding of R 150 Million to assist NPEs to stay afloat. The fund targeted mainly the operational cost of the organisations. In order to ensure that the approved funds yield the envisaged return, the funding was divided into two categories:

(1) R 100 Million will fund operational cost for the qualifying NPOs and

(2) R 50 Million will be for macro projects that will assist in cross-functional relief programme nationally.

(b) The list of organisations that received R10 million for food and hygiene hampers is attached as Annexure A.

(c) The list of organisations that received R150 million for relief fund to assist struggling non-profit organisations to keep afloat and cross functional relief programmes is attached as Annexure B.

In terms of the Covid Fund Relief, R145 799 864 was allocated from the R150 million. There was a saving of R4 200 136 from the amount that was approved. Details of the beneficiaries and different categories have been attached in Annexure B.

-END-

Reply:

According to the information received from Transnet

The information as requested is reflected in the table below. The cost in terms of question (b)(i) and (b)(ii) is the same and therefore depicted as (b)(i) in the table.

Member	Date of entry	Tenure (a)	Annual remuneration FY2018/19 R 000 (b)(i)	Annual remuneration FY2019/20 R 000 (b)(i)	Annual remuneration FY2020/21 R 000 (b)(i)
PS Molefe (Chairperson)	May 2018	4 years	1 078	1 278	1 278
LL Von Zeuner	May 2018	4 years	647	777	840
DC Matshoga	May 2018	4 years	566	671	575
UN Fikelepi	May 2018	4 years	485	675	671
GT Ramphaka	May 2018	4 years	472	656	671
FS Mufamadi	May 2018	4 years	550	671	671
AP Ramabulana	May 2018	4 years	472	575	575
ME Letlape	May 2018	4 years	517	671	834

FY2021/22 annual remuneration figures will be issued following finalization of the audit and other governance approvals.

Reply:

(a) Provincial Disaster Management Plan (s)

It is encouraging to note that all provinces submitted their disaster management plans to the NDMC. Following submission of the plans by these organs of state, the NDMC assesses them to check amongst others the following:

• Level of compliance with the Disaster Management Act of 2002, other relevant legislative frameworks, policies and bylaws.
• Alignment with the guidelines on “development and structure of a disaster management plan”.
• Whether these plans incorporate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation measures for inclusion into sector programmes and projects as required for by the priorities and targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030).

The NDMC further provides written feedback as well as hold engagement sessions on this feedback with provinces through Provincial Disaster Management Centres (PDMCs) as the custodians of these plans.

(b) District Disaster Management Plan (s) 

It is encouraging to note that 38 District Municipalities and 7 Metropolitan Municipalities submitted their disaster management plans to the NDMC. Following submission of the plans by these organs of state, the NDMC develops the “municipal support schedule” in line with the APP project to “provide support to a number of municipalities in priority disaster areas to prevent, prepare and mitigate disaster risks through implementation of applicable disaster management plans”. In line with the developed Support Schedule, the NDMC assesses these identified disaster management plans to check amongst others the following:

• Level of compliance with the Disaster Management Act of 2002, other relevant legislative frameworks, policies and bylaws.
• Alignment with the guidelines on “development and structure of a disaster management plan”.
• Whether these plans incorporate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation measures for inclusion into sector programmes and projects as required for by the priorities and targets of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). 

The NDMC further provides written feedback as well as hold engagement sessions with municipalities and PDMCs in the provinces within which municipalities whose disaster management plans were assessed belong. The NDMC further developed the “Support Plan” to assist and guide municipalities to address identified challenges prohibiting them to develop fit-for-purpose disaster management plans. Also, the NDMC developed “Guidelines on the integration of DRR, IDPs and DDM-One Plans of each District and Metropolitan Municipalities”. Both (Guidelines and the Support Plan) will be rolled out in all the provinces through the Provincial Disaster Management Centres (PDMC) for the duration of the current financial year. The  DG of DCOG regularly writes letters to Accounting Officers within provinces and municipalities for non-submission of, as well as a reminder to update and review their plans that were previously developed and are outdated.

To complement all NDMC efforts in (a) and (b) above, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) supported all district municipalities to develop the district climate change adaptation plans. Furthermore, all provinces have been supported to develop their provincial climate change adaptation strategies. DFFE further provided capacity building programmes on climate change to all district municipalities with the view to facilitate mainstreaming of climate change considerations into the municipal planning system. This was done with the development of various tools such as Greenbook and Let-respond Toolkit which are aimed at offering municipalities with tools that could be used for climate change response planning. All the inter-institutional support complements the current and planned work of the NDMC on disaster management planning and Impact Based Early Warning training that the NDMC does with the South African Weather Service. In the 2022/23 financial year, the NDMC and SAWS will conduct Impact Based training for all districts in KZN. Both will continue to issue weekly Impact Based Early Warnings for the approaching severe weather systems, especially in the eastern coastal area. The NDMC Autumn and Winter seasonal plans highlighting hazard prone areas will also be distributed to all disaster management stakeholders in the province of KZN for the medium-term planning.

Reply:

According to the information received from Alexkor

The audit process has taken longer than expected. In this regard, the Company requested a concession for late submission of their integrated report. The new interim board is working as expeditiously as possible to finalise the integrated report.

Accordingly, the approval of integrated report and publication of the same will be concluded at the annual general meeting (AGM), to be held in a fortnight at the latest.

Reply:

Ward 26 falls under the Eskom Licenced Area of Supply which is the Wonderkop area. Ward 26 is situated on private land and Eskom has since asked landowners for consent to electrify the area. No response has been received and the local municipality (Madibeng) has been asked to assist with the process. Electrification of the area can therefore only resume as soon as all the above issues are resolved.

Reply:

The North West Provincial Department of Human Settlements has indicated that it is currently seized with the installation of engineering services. Once completed, housing construction will commence and thereafter qualifying beneficiaries will be allocated houses as soon as construction is completed.

Reply:

Treasury Bills (T-bills) are held by every commercial bank in the country that holds a banking license since they form part of the High-Quality Liquid Assets (HQLA) which are required by the Prudential Authority. These assets allow banks to meet their short-term liquidity requirements and can be used as collateral for central bank operations, as well as benchmarking for pricing financial assets. The same banks may hold both T-bills and bonds on behalf of clients in their stockbroking or wealth management units. For the latter reason, it would be impossible for the National Treasury (NT) to determine what rate investors bought the bonds at and who the clients are.

Long term loans are bought by the 9 primary dealers in the primary market on behalf of insurers, asset managers, hedge funds and others on a weekly basis. These bonds are then traded in the secondary market where they are bought and sold by different entities. The 9 primary dealers are:

1. ABSA
2. HSBC
3. NEDBANK
4. CITIBANK
5. STANDARD BANK
6. INVESTEC BANK
7. DEUTSCHE BANK
8. RMB
9. JP MORGAN

To qualify as a primary dealer, applying banks are required to comply with capital adequacy requirements as well as additional NT requirements. These banks would buy these bonds at different rates on a weekly basis and distribute these bonds in the secondary markets both on exchange and over the counter which also impacts the rates at which the bonds trade. The interest rates and amounts at which the bonds are auctioned in the primary market are available on the NT website on a weekly basis. The amount that each bank buys in the auction are not public information since this information is sensitive for the ongoing auction process. There are no terms associated with each bond purchase except the obligation to pay the interest rate and principal when it is due on NT’s part.

The ultimate holders of the bonds can categorized as follows:

1. Monetary Institutions

a) Banks

b) SARB

2. Insurers

a) Long Term Insurers

b) Short Term Insurers

3. Pension Funds

a) PIC

b) Private self-administered pension funds

c) Official Pension Funds

4. Other Financial Institutions

a) Unit Trusts

b) Participation Mortgage bond schemes

c) Financial Public enterprises

The details of the ultimate holders are not recorded by NT. It is in the secondary market where these bonds bought and sold by various institutions. The JSE, STRATE and the institutions themselves would be best placed to provide details in terms of the quantity of bonds they hold. Market data systems like Bloomberg and Reuters would also provide details for the reported market.

It is worth remembering is that these institutions would themselves be holding these bonds on behalf of individual investors or policy holders who cannot be legally disclosed as per FICA and POPIA act. The holdings change regularly owing to the needs of each category of holder. It is therefore impractical for NT to quantify how much each institutional holder owns at a point in time or what interest rate they are receiving.

Retail bonds are held by individual investors whose names cannot be disclosed. Retail bond interest rates are available on the retail bonds website along with the terms and conditions of each retail bond.

The National Treasury publishes monthly detailed information on outstanding bonds, redemption dates, redemption amounts, and coupon rates, which can be found on the National Treasury's investor website.

Table 7.5 of the 2022 Budget Review reflects the international financing institution borrowings. The table provides information on the institution, disbursement date, interest rate, terms (years), grace period (years), and amount (billion). From the table, the borrowing has only been long-term in nature, with no short-term loans being entered into.

Reply:

Below are the names of the INTERIM board members appointed by the Department:

Alexkor Board (Company Secretary) Mr Lopang Peacock
Dr Patricia (Trish) Elizabeth Hanekom	Non- Executive Director CHAIRPERSON	Female	White
Ms May Hermanus	Non- Executive Director	Female	Coloured
Mr Alan Aubrey Roberts	Non- Executive Director	Male	Indian
Ms Hilary Alana Swartbooi	Non- Executive Director	Female	Coloured
Ms Dineo Peta	Non- Executive Director	Female	African
Ms Karabo Mbele	Non- Executive Director	Female	African
PSJV board (Company Secretary) Mr Lopang Peacock
Dr Patricia (Trish) Elizabeth Hanekom	Non- Executive Director CHAIRPERSON	Female	White
Ms Dineo Peta	Non- Executive Director	Female	African
Ms Karabo Mbele	Non- Executive Director	Female	African
Mr Brain Grobbelaar	Non- Executive Director	Male	African
Ms Adelaide Ranape	Non- Executive Director	Female	African
Mr Raymond Maboe	Non- Executive Director	Female	African

Reply:

1. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) has implemented a wide range of security measures within its information processing environment, intended to prevent any unauthorized access to and/or use of sensitive information and ensure that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal information remain protected. These security measures are categorized into two (2) groups as follows:

a) Managerial controls, including a set of approved, published and implemented information security policies, standards, procedures and guidelines. Awareness of the existing information security policies and cybersecurity risks within our information processing environment is proactively and regularly being promoted amongst DoJ&CD’s users to ensure positive security behaviors and adherence to prescribed rules.

b) Technical Controls – In addition to the native security features provided by our systems and platforms, we have deployed a set of automated security tools and processes to improve our defensive capabilities and safeguard our ICT infrastructure and systems. These technical tools enable us to effectively restrict and control access to our ICT systems, applications and services, manage vulnerabilities, proactively monitor, protect and respond to security threats and incidents. We have also deployed disaster recovery capabilities to ensure continued availability of business-critical information in case of any adverse event impacting DoJ&CD’s services. Technologies that are currently implemented include:

1. Antivirus – Endpoint (PCs) Antivirus Software. All endpoint devices were equipped with Antivirus software which offers advanced automated threat detection and response against an ever-growing variety of threats and malware.
2. Advanced Threat Protection – A limited number of critical servers have protection against attacks, advanced threats and ransomware, giving the Departments the power to detect, analyze and respond today’s stealthy attaches in real time.
3. Network Discovery and Analysis – A limited number of critical services have advanced tools installed that provides 360 degrees of visibility by monitoring and reporting on all network ports network traffic. This detects targeted attacks designed to evade standard security solutions.
4. Mail Security Gateway – providing Integrated-tiered spam prevention and anti-phishing spyware. The appliance provides a comprehensive gateway email security.
5. Web Security Gateway – Provide a proactive web traffic detection and blocking services based on reputation services.
6. Firewalls – Network security appliance that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. This device typically establishes a barrier between a trusted network and untrusted networks such as the internet. The firewall provides protection against outside cyber-attackers by shielding the Department’s computers or network from malicious or unnecessary network traffic.
7. MIMECAST – Provides the Department with email security services. It is used to protect the Department’s email system, ensure access and simplify the tasks of managing emails system.
8. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) – A Software solution that aggregates and analyzes activity from many different resources across your entire IT Infrastructure. SIEM collects security data from network devices, servers, domain controllers, and may more log sources. SIEM provides real-time analysis of security alerts generated by applications and network hardware.
9. Proxies – This solution offers the Department reverse proxy services. A reverse proxy ultimately forwards user/web browser requests to the web servers. However, the reverse proxy server protects the web server’s identity. It helps increase performance, security and reliability.
10. Vulnerability Scan Tools – These tools were deployed in the environment to scan and report on a quarterly basis the vulnerability levels of the Department in terms of missing patches.
11. Virtual Private Network Technology – This tool grants complete access to the Department’s Local Area Network to authorized users via encrypted secure tunnels.
12. User awareness and training tools – These tools allow the Department to provide target security awareness messages to end users. It also allows for simulated attacks and end user training in the event where awareness is lacking. Post the breach, this tool was deployed to 2000 users in the Headquarters, with plans to roll it out to all users in this financial year.

a) In addition to the already implemented security tools, the Department has, post the ransomware, enabled the following additional security measures:

(i) Zero Trust Network Tool – The Zero Trust Network Access Tool will help the Department to provide secure remote user access to applications and services based on defined access control policies, the tool defaults to deny, providing only the access to services the users has been explicitly granted. With this Zero Trust Network Tool, access is established after the user has been authenticated to the tool first. The tool then provisions access to the application on the user’s behalf through a secure, encrypted tunnel. This provides an added layer of protection for the Department’s applications and services by shielding otherwise publicly visible Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. With this solution, users will only see applications that they have access to. This tool is to replace the current VPN tools which grant complete access to all applications.

(ii) The Department also implemented a tiered administrative model on the active directory and that will help the Department to better secure its ICT environments. The model defines three (3) tiers that create buffer zones to separate administration of high-risk PCs and valuable assets like domain controllers.

(iii) We have also reviewed and/or enhanced our security policies on all our security appliances to safeguard against future security attacks.

b) Going forward, the following technologies are to be implemented to further enhance the security of the ICT environment:

(i) Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) will be implemented in the 2022/23 financial year.

CSOC is a centralize function within an organization employing people, processes and technology to continuously monitor and improve an organization’s security posture while preventing, detecting, analyzing and responding to cybersecurity incidents. CSOC will act like the hub or central command post, taking in telemetry from across the Department’s IT infrastructure, including its networks, devices, appliances, and information stores wherever those assets reside. The proliferation of an advanced threat places a premium on collecting content from diverse sources. Essentially, the CSOC will be the correlation point for event logged within the Department. This will be implemented by way of a hybrid model using existing tools aggregated on the one platform.

(ii) External Penetration Testing.

Discussions and planning had already commenced with some of the industry partners in terms of providing a comprehensive external penetration testing, with the aim of identifying any gaps in our security environment. This process is expected to be finalized by the middle of the year, and be completed annually going forward.

2. Where the Master of the High Court and the High Court share the same building, each operates independently as the Master’s Office falls within the ambit of the DoJ&CD and runs on the DoJ&CD Virtual Private Network (VPN), whereas the High Court falls under the ambit of the Office of the Chief Justice (OCJ) and runs on the OCJ VPN.

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom:

In accordance with the Eskom Memorandum of Incorporation, the directors serving on the Board of Eskom are appointed on a three-year term, which is reviewed annually by the Shareholder. The directors may serve up to three terms with the approval of the Shareholder.

The period served by the current directors on the Eskom Board is as set out in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Tenure of Eskom Directors

Name of Director	Date appointed	Length of term to date
Non -executive directors
Dr Pulane Elsie Molokwane	15 December 2017	4 years,4 months
Dr Banothile Charity Events Makhubela	15 December 2017	4 years,4 months
Prof Malegapuru William Makgoba	15 December 2017	4 years,4 months
Prof Tshepo Herbert Mongalo	20 January 2018	4 years,3 months
Ms Busisiwe Mavuso	20 January 2018	4 years,3 months
Dr Roderick de Brissac Crompton	20 January 2018	4 years,3 months
Executive Directors
Mr André de Ruyter	December 2019	2 years ,4 months
Mr Calib Cassim	28 July 2017	4 years, 10 months

The annual remuneration for each of the past five years for the current Non-Executive and Executive Directors is set out in the Table 2 below.

Table 2: Annual Remuneration of Eskom Directors

Name of Director	2017/2018 (R)	2018/2019 (R)	2019/2020 (R)	2020/2021 (R)	2021/2022 (R)
Director Fees of Non-Executive Directors
Ms Busisiwe Mavuso	112 000,00	593 000,00	593,000.00	711,000.00	592 889,40
Dr Banothile Charity Events Makhubela	543 000,00	489 000,00	497,000.00	593,000.00	682 164.60
Dr Pulane Elsie Molokwane	640 000,00	578 000,00	618,000.00	717,000.00	710 530,56
Prof Tshepo Herbert Mongalo	196 000,00	593 000,00	543,000.00	717,000.00	716 766,36
Prof Malegapuru William Makgoba	233 000,00	717 000,00	952,000.00	1,687,000.00	1 598 571.96
Dr Roderick de Brissac Crompton	101 000,00	524 000,00	540,000.00	717 000,00	716 766,36
Cost to Company of Executive Directors
Mr André de Ruyter	-	-	1,654,000.00 (3 months)	7,040,010.00	7,040,010.00
Mr Calib Cassim	1 649 000,00	3 130 000,00	4,900,020.00	4,900,020.00	4,900,020.00

Reply:

According to the information received from Denel

The following are the names of the current Board, their tenure and Remuneration:

Name	Tenure	Remuneration
Gloria Serobe	9 April 2018 (appointment date) 2018/19	R616 000
	2019/2020	R389 000
	2020/2021	R240 151
	2021/2022	R1 042 340
Mandla Mnisi	9 April 2018 (appointment date) 2018/19	R385 000
	2019/2020	R269 000
	2020/2021	R161 259
	2021/2022	R217 775
Thami Magazi	9 April 2018 (appointment date) 2018/19	R693 000
	2019/2020	R751 000
	2020/2021	R325 882
	2021/2022	R275 994
Temba Matanzima	9 April 2018 (appointment date) 2018/19	R112 000
	2019/2020	R326 000
	2020/2021	R105 216
	2021/2022	R231 390
Tshidi Mokgabudi	25 June 2021 (appointment date) 2021/2022	R 12 873
Tryphosa Ramano	23 February 2022 (appointment date) 2021/2022	R21 337

Reply:

According to the information received from Alexkor

1. (a) Ms Leilani Swartbooi was never appointed as CEO or Acting CEO of the PSJV.

(b) Ms Swartbooi was appointed to act in the position of Mr Bowers, the General Mine Manager, for the period 8 February 2022 to 14 February 2022 while Mr Bowers was on leave.

(c) Mr Bowers is still the General Mine Manager of the PSJV. He was never removed from this position.

(2) Mr Bowers has not been removed from the performance of his duties and there has been no change to his remuneration package.

Reply:

a) Work on the drafting of the Framework began in June 2020. Work on the draft was delayed as increasing Covid-19 infections and stringent Covid-19 Regulations required that immediate action and interventions be embarked upon wherever possible to mitigate against their impact on court operations and court efficiency.

The Directions issued by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services contained some of the interventions such as, e.g. the keeping of Priority Rolls; Court staffing arrangements etc, whilst the Court Optimisation Committee, an intervention led by the Deputy Minister, sought to address challenges and bottlenecks being experienced at the court level by bringing together justice stakeholders and members of the judiciary.

As the rate of Covid infections dropped and the Alert Levels changed accordingly with less stringent Regulations, work could resume on bringing about a more permanent and long-term solution to the long-standing issue of criminal case backlogs.

It should be highlighted that addressing the causes of criminal case backlogs requires the buy-in of all stakeholder departments. For this purpose, extensive consultations were conducted, including workshops. Both external stakeholders as well as internal stakeholders had to be consulted in the drafting and finalising of the Framework, before it could be submitted to the Minister. Consultations began in early July 2021 and continued until November 2021. The Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster was also consulted on various occasions through the Development Committee (Sub-Committee of the JCPS Director-Generals’ Cluster). Several versions were submitted for guidance until the final draft Framework was submitted to the Minister on 22 March 2022.

The Framework provides for the establishment of a National Steering Committee comprised of senior officials of all stakeholder departments and entities, viz. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Department of Correctional Services, the Department of Health, the National Prosecuting Authority, Department for Social Development, Legal Aid South Africa, the South African Police Service, and so forth. The National Steering Committee would also need to include representatives of the Judicial Accountability Committee (Magistrates).

The initial responsibility of the National Steering Committee will be to finalise, through various consultations, Memoranda of Understanding between the stakeholder departments and entities outlining each respective department or entity’s responsibility and commitment to perform their individual line functions that they are required to do within their respective mandates, so as to contribute to the reduction of criminal case backlogs.

Each stakeholder department or entity will, in turn, be finalising Annual Performance Indicators within their areas of responsibility, each of which will feed into an overall JCPS Indicator with the desired outcome being reduced criminal case backlogs.

These tools seek to ensure on-going monitoring of performance and the progress being made in reducing the criminal case backlogs consistently and progressively.

Already existing regional and district structures will deal with challenges at local, district and regional level with matters that cannot be resolved at these levels being escalated to the National Steering Committee.

b) The draft Framework will be finalised after the inputs from the Lower Courts Judiciary have been obtained. It must be stressed that these consultations must still take place. Court performance and court efficiency fall within the purview of the judiciary. The Department plans to begin the implementation of the Framework with the convening of the National Steering Committee after consultations with the Lower Courts judiciary have taken place and their inputs have been incorporated.

The Framework aims to provide for a long-term mechanism to address criminal case backlogs. However, the Department has developed an Action Plan to be implemented immediately to address challenges which have a negative impact on the courts and which fall within the Department’s responsibility.

The Action Plan includes interventions such as, amongst others, -

1. Priority Courts identified in terms of highest backlogs and the development of priority rolls;
2. Continuous Rolls - Matters involving multiple accused to be placed on continuous roll for trials;
3. Backlog Courts established where feasible;
4. Client-Liaison Meetings with service providers e.g. CRT service providers
5. Additional Human Resources;
6. Psycho-social support for court officials to improve on the rate of absenteeism;
7. Repairs and Maintenance (IT) - Regional Heads and ISM meet with service provider every Wednesday to track progress;
8. Additional Equipment Procured (IT);
9. Facilities interventions such as procurement of portable battery packs and generators, facilitation of the carrying out of minor maintenance works and procurement of mobile units to be used as court rooms and testifying rooms; and
10. Security measures for the courts.

Reply:

a) The Department has not concluded any commercial contracts with (i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or any other entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

b) None of the Human Settlement Entities have concluded commercial contracts with (i) the government of the Russian Federation and/or any entity based in the Russian Federation since 1 April 2017.

Reply:

The public finances are governed by legislative prescripts and regulatory frameworks that stipulate the conditions including the roles and responsibilities of all relevant stakeholders. It is therefore important that the accounting officers of organs of state and stakeholders ensure that funds are utilised in accordance with the applicable regulatory frameworks. For the response and recovery measures of the recent flooding, government through relevant organs of state has strengthened the monitoring systems through the following key measures:

1. Tracking of expenditure by National Treasury where changes to the fund and project segment have been implemented in the Basic Accounting System (BAS),
2. Tracking procurement where all institutions affected by the flood disaster must report to National Treasury all procurement transactions related to flood interventions,
3. Real time auditing by the Office of the Auditor-General focussing on the following areas:

Prevention – testing the implementation of the preventative controls and the remaining risks will be reported to the accounting officer/authority, 

Detection - high-risk transactions will be subjected to an audit and key observations reported to the accounting officer/authority; and

Reporting on work done by the AGSA, the outcome thereof and the responses by accounting officers and authorities to any weaknesses identified are reported in a special report. The audits are meant to provide independent assurance on whether public funds have been appropriately accounted for and were used for its intended purpose.

Reply:

Attached find here: Reply

Reply:

The matter is not within the mandate of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy as it is an operational matter which should be responded to by the relevant mine(s).

 

Reply:

I have been advised by the IDC and NEF as follows:

Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)

The IDC set aside a R800 million fund that gave financial support to companies providing essential supplies to address the COVID-19 Pandemic. This fund includes R300 million from the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (MCEP). The table below provides details of the companies supported by the COVID Essential Supplies Fund.

Applicant Name	MCEP Finance	IDC Finance	Total Approved	Total Disbursed
Supra Healthcare	30,000,000	100,000,000	130,000,000	130,000,000
Alternative Living and Technical Solutions for Africa (Pty) Ltd	-	27,000,000	27,000,000	25,639,250
Amka Products (Pty) Ltd	30,000,000	120,000,000	150,000,000	150,000,000
Pharmapac (Pty) Ltd	16,000,000	4,000,000	20,000,000	19,993,500
Blend Tech (Pty) Ltd	30,000,000	27,000,000	57,000,000	56,875,793
Starrate (Pty) Ltd	-	5,000,000	5,000,000	5,000,000
Maba Africa (Pty) Ltd	1,400,000	3,600,000	5,000,000	5,000,000
Isondo Investments (Pty) Ltd	1,200,000	300,000	1,500,000	1,500,000
Crystal Pier 148 (Pty) Ltd	12,000,000	14,000,000	26,000,000	10,728,407
Starrate (Pty) Ltd		13,000,000	13,000,000	13,000,000
GQ Tissue Products (Pty) Ltd	13,000,000	7,200,000	20,200,000	20,200,000
Grand Total	137,000,000	398,531,730	535,531,730	437,936,950

National Empowerment Fund (NEF)

The NEF set aside R200 million to provide financial assistance to companies that manufacture and supply essential products for Covid-19. A total of R211 million support was approved to the following beneficiaries:

-END-

Reply:

1. (a) and (b) Yes. The Department was consulted on the development of a framework aimed at professionalising the public service and its inputs were shared with the Department of Public Service and Administration. A copy of the submission is annexured hereto.

2. Apart from participating in various processes during the development of the said framework, the Department recently promulgated the Municipal Staff Regulations setting out uniform standards and procedures governing career incidents of municipal staff below management echelon. The Regulations were consulted with the Minister of Public Service and Administration whose valuable inputs were received and incorporated into the Regulations.

BACKGROUND:

1. Government in its transformation role of enuring that South Africa becomes a truly nonracial and democratic country, it continues to be grappling with developmental challenges. To respond to these challenges, in 2012, government adopted the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030 as a long-term strategic goal to address the triple challenges of reducing poverty, inequality and unemployment. In the context of the role of the state, Chapter 13 of the NDP envisions South Africa as a Capable and Developmental State. The NDP further makes an assertion that the state needs to play a transformative and developmental role. Accordingly, this requires a well-run and effectively coordinated state institutions with skilled public servants who are committed to the public good and capable of delivering consistently high quality services, while prioritising the nation’s developmental objectives.

2. To realise the above mentioned NDP 2030 vision, in 2018, the Public Service Commission conducted a roundtable discussion on the professionalisation of the pubic service. The roundtable recommended that the implemnentaion of key recommendations in Chapter 13 of the NDP need to be fasttracked, led by Office of the President. These include the creation of the Administrative Head of the Public Service and a strengtherned role for the Public Service Commission. It further recommended that the DPSA should be the champion of the project to professionalise the Public Service.

3. Emanating from the above, the Minister for the Public Service and Administration approved the publication of the draft National Implementation Framework towards the Professionalisation of the Public Service for public comments. The Framework recommends among other provisions, that the public service be merit-based and insulated from party politics. Five critical professionalisation pillars are proposed, namely;

a) Pre-entry recruitment and selection within the public service

b) Induction and onboarding

c) Planning and performance management

d) Continuous learning and professional development

e) Career progression and management of career incidence

4. A number of stakeholders, including government departments, professional bodies, civil society organisations etc were invited to participate and make written submissions during the consultation process.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

(1)

(a) I have been informed by the Department that a Security Company has been appointed as from 4 May 2022 to secure the property, contain invasion and prevent further invasion.

(b)

(i) Yes, now that the State of Disaster has been lifted, the Department will follow due legal processes in dealing with the unlawfull occupants.

(ii) The Cape Town Regional Office has received a request from one of the departmental internal Units, Human Capital Investment, for the coversion and refurbishment of the subject property into student accommodation. The unit provides bursaries to needy and deserving students in the country in line with the unit’s service delivery objectives. The application / request is currently being processed internaly for approval and budget allocation.

(2) The Department has not yet received any request from the surrounding residents for a meeting. However, should such request be received, arrangements will be made to meet with the residents.

Reply:

a) Due to a slow progress, both the Minister and Premier have agreed to transfer the project to the National Department of Health.

b) There is no additional budget. The estimated budget is R1 billion. The project will be completed within budget.

c) End of November 2023.

END.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

No. The Department of Public Works & Infrastructure is not covering the legal costs with regard to the disciplinary process of the Minister’s Special Advisor since public service prescripts do not provide for such payment to be made.

(a) As per the response above that the Department is not covering the legal costs.

(b)(i) There is no agreement in place between the Department, State Attorney, and Special Advisor to pay the legal cost for her disciplinary hearing.

(ii) The Department has not paid any legal cost on behalf of the Special Advisor.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

I have been informed by the Department that as a flagship government programme, the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)’s core objective is to create work opportunities for the poor and unemployed people of South Africa. Enterprise Development support is provided at a marginal scale to assist with sustainable pathways for participants and advance the use of labour-intensive construction methods. The EPWP has a Contractor Development Programme which is called Vuk’uphile. The Vuk’uphile Contractor Development Programme is one of the programmes implemented by public bodies as part of the National Contractor Development Programme (NCDP) that is championed by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). The NCDP aims to develop emerging contractors and transform the construction industry. In the 2021/22 financial year, 215 Contractors were trained through the Vuk’uphile Programme. Amongst the 215 contractors trained in the 2021/22 financial year, the following demographics were included: 91 Women, 45 Youth and 2 Persons with Disabilities. Training offered to contractors in the Vuk’uphile Learnership Programme is at National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 4, covering labour-intensive methods delivered through theoretical and practical training, to ensure contractors can acquire skills to become successful contractors. Public bodies are still being engaged for the 2022/23 financial year, with commitments to train 70 contractors thus far. The EPWP Vuk’uphile Learnership Programme will continue to ensure that the participation of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is optimised in its implementation.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

a) The Department has total number of 17 (Seventeen) infrastructure projects for courts earmarked for the Repairs and Refurbishment Programme in the Eastern Cape Province for the 2022/23 Financial Year. This project pipeline includes 6 infrastructure projects in the Planning and Design phase, 7 infrastructure projects in the Construction phase, 3 infrastructure projects in the Practical Completion phase and 1 infrastructure projects in the Close out phase.

b) The Department has a budget allocation of R93Million (inclusive of Contractor and Consultant allocations) for the courts in the Eastern Cape Province for the 2022/23 Financial Year under the Repair and Refurbishment Programme.

c) The Department has spent R503 967 of its budget allocation as at end April 2022 for courts in the Eastern Cape under the Repair and Refurbishment Programme.

Reply:

a) The department reports the reported deaths of every person that has been diagnosed with COVID-19 at the time of death, whether the COVID-19 is the cause or incidental to a death from any other condition. There is no audit done on reported deaths in hospitals.

b) Deaths are reported by the attending clinicians at public and private facilities at the time of death, therefore on a daily basis, and the reports are captured into the national data base (DATCOV) as they are reported. A corpse may not be released to the undertakers without the death certificate. The deaths reported are available on a daily basis (https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/) and are reported in the national media daily. The department monitors which hospitals are reporting on DATCOV to ensure completeness of data.

END.