Questions and Replies

Reply:

In the wake of the July 2021 civil unrest, I appointed an Expert Panel to critically review the security services’ handling of those events. Among other things, the panel recommended the appointment of suitable persons into the leadership of the security services.

On 25 February 2022, I announced the termination, by mututal agreement, of the contract of the National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Khehla Sitole with effect from 31 March 2022.

On 28 February 2022, I announced the appointment of Ambassador Thembisile Majola as the Director-General of the State Security Agency with effect from 1 March 2022.

On 31 March 2022, I announced the appointment of General Sehlahle Fannie Masemola as the new National Commissioner of the South African Police Service.

Reply:

I have not expressed dismay at anything the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation has done in fulfilment of her mandate.

2. South Africa’s position on the conflict in Ukraine has been articulated on several occasions, most recently in my response to Questions for Oral Reply in the National Assembly on 17 March 2022, where I stated the following:

“The international community needs to work together to achieve a cessation of hostilities and to prevent further loss of life and displacement of civilians in Ukraine. It needs to support meaningful dialogue towards a lasting and meaningful peace, which ensures the security and stability of all nations.

“As a country, we are committed to the articles of the United Nations Charter, including the principle that all members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means. We support the principle that members should refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of other states.

"That is why, at the UN General Assembly Emergency Special Session, South Africa strongly urged all sides to uphold international law, including humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty as well.

“While there are people within our country and elsewhere that want South Africa to adopt a more adversarial position, our position seeks to contribute to the creation of conditions that make the achievement of a durable resolution of the conflict possible.

“Our approach is informed by an analysis of the causes of this conflict. This includes a view shared by many leading scholars, politicians and other people, that the war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from among its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region.

“While it is important to understand and articulate the causes of the conflict, and advocate for peace building measures, we cannot condone the use of force or violation of international law.

“We also need to recognise that coercive measures, such as sanctions outside of the legal prescripts of the United Nations, may serve to prolong and intensify the conflict.”

3. Many countries have diplomatic representation in South Africa. It is the practice of our government that when a diplomatic mission is hosting a key event, a Minister is assigned to represent our government.

This applies to all countries represented in South Africa. South Africa will continue with this diplomatic practice, which all diplomatic missions expect. The assignment of Ministers to these events is coordinated by State Protocol. This practice is also extended in all our diplomatic missions abroad when they are hosting such events.

Reply:

No such correspondence was received.

Reply:

No. I have received correspondence from the leaders of political parties represented in Parliament and the Judicial Service Commission, as required by the Constitution.

Section 174(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, requires the President as the head of the national executive, after consulting leaders of political parties represented in the National Assembly and the Judicial Service Commission, to appoint the Chief Justice.

For the purpose of promoting transparency and encouraging public participation, I invited the public to nominate suitable persons to be considered for the appointment as Chief Justice. I appointed a Panel of eminent persons with relevant experience to shortlist candidates from the list of nominees.

As required by the provisions of the Constitution, I have consulted the leaders of the political parties represented in the National Assembly and the Judicial Service Commission on the candidates I identified from the shortlist for the appointment of the Chief Justice. This process has been concluded as I have received the responses from the political parties’ leaders and the Judicial Service Commission.

Reply:

a) Particulars of the members of the CRL Selection Panel are as follows:

B) In terms of section 9 of the CRL Rights Act, the President appoints the chairperson and no fewer than eleven (11) and not more than seventeen (17) persons as members. Persons recommended to the President by the CRL Selection Panel for appointment as members of the CRL Commission in terms of section 11(3)(d) are listed below:

* Ms Marah Louw did not participate in the process due to ill health.

Reply:

The appointment of members of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Commission) is regulated in terms of the Commission on Cultural, Linguistic and Religious Communities Act, Act 19 of 2002 (“the Act”).

As required by section 11(4) of the Act, the members of the Commission that I appointed on 7 June 2019 were from the names submitted to me by the Selection Panel.

The following persons were appointed by the Minister of Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) as members of the Selection Panel in terms of Section 11(1)(d) of the Act:

1. Professor Sihawukele Ngubane (Chairperson)
2. Hosi Nwamitwa II
3. Dr Wally Mongane Serote
4. Mr Ashwin Trikamjee
5. Mr Marlene Bethlehem
6. Father Tseko Rakeketsi
7. Ms Marah Louw (Did not participate in the process due to ill health)

The Selection Panel, after concluding the interviews, submitted a list of 22 persons. According to Section 9(1) of the Act, the Commission consists of a Chairperson appointed by the President and no fewer than 11 and no more than 17 other members appointed by the President. After consideration of the list of the names provided by the Selection Panel, I appointed the current 13 members of the CRL Commission:

1. Prof Luka David Mosoma
2. Ms Sheila Khama
3. Ms Tsholofelo Mosala
4. Mr Sicelo Emmanuel Dlamini
5. Dr Oscarine Nokuzula Mdende
6. Prof Pitika Ntuli
7. Dr Sylvia Mmamohapi Pheto
8. Dr Muneer Abduroaf
9. Ms Nomalanga Tyamzashe
10. Ms Ramokone Tryphina Kgatla
11. Adv Richard Botha
12. Mr Mandla Langa
13. Mr Renier Schoeman

Reply:

Mechanisms are in place that address the grievances of Directors-General.

Section 35 of the Public Service Act, 1994, as amended, provides for procedures in respect of grievances of employees in the Public Service, including Heads of Department.

Subject to the above, grievances of Heads of Department are handled in terms of Chapter 10 of the Senior Management Services (SMS) Handbook. This specifies the procedural stages to address the grievance of a head of department either to the relevant executive authoirty or the Public Service Commission directly.

Reply:

The President of the Republic has not entered into any agreements with any vaccine manufacturers. Such agreements are entered into by the relevant line department.

Reply:

Yes, the non-payment of leases by farmers due to lack of post settlement support is partially correct. However, there are other reasons listed below, which the Department is trying to address:

• non-availability of lease agreements has resulted to some extent, in farmers not paying rentals;
• there has been a culture of non-payment from some of the farmers, despite having received post settlement support;
• farmers were incorrectly categorised as 1 and 2 instead of Category 3; according to the State Land Lease and Disposal Policy (SLLDP), Categories 1 and 2 are not required to pay rental, only Category 3;

In order to correct, this situation the Department has embarked on the following actions:

• when the land development support implementation manual was revised, a condition to force farmers to have valid signed lease agreements was included to ensure that there is a legal contract in place to deal with non-paying farmers;
• the process of making sure that all farmers have valid signed lease agreements is underway;
• when farmers are provided with land development support, their categorisation is confirmed and if it is not category 3, the process to correct this is undertaken;
• review and alignment of the SLLDP with other Departmental policies is also paramount in dealing with this matter and other issues, and is expected to commence in the 2022/23 financial year; and
• as the officials conduct site visits to farmers who have received land development support, the latter are encouraged to pay their rental, since this money will assist in expanding the support to other farmers who are still awaiting development support.

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Yes, Mr. Classen was indeed in the farm on the joint venture arrangement known to the Department. Recently the relationship between the two parties has deteriorated and to that extent the department served Mr Classen with the eviction letter signed on the 1st of February 2022 whilst on the other hand the lessee has taken this matter to court.

In order to assist black farmers, the Department of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development is using the policy and the condition stipulated in the lease agreement to ensure that farmers do not enter into any partnership without the consent of the Department. This is to ensure that any relationship that will be establish with anyone is fair and non-exploitive.

Paragraph 5.7 of the State Land Lease and Disposal Policy makes provision that “The Lessee shall utilise the Farm in line with standard farming practices and may not deviate there from substantially without the prior written consent of the Lessor, who shall exercise this discretion taking into account prevailing agricultural and business conditions”.

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The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure

a) I’ve been informed by the Department that out of the six Councils for the built environment professions, only two of them have the positions of President of Council being vacant. That is the Engineering Council of South Africa (ESCA) and the South African Council for the Landscape Architectural Profession (SACLAP).

The SACLAP Council has just been appointed and will have its first meeting during the month of April 2022. The Council members will then be able to elect the President and Vice-President of the Council.

ECSA is yet to decide on who will be elected as President, to replace the late Mr Lebea.

All the Acts of Parliament establishing the six Councils provide for the election of the Presidents by the Council members themselves.

b) As indicated above no officials are implicated as the filling of the positions of the President of a Council is the domain of the Councils themselves.

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1. Reporting of jobs created and maintained by a respective financial Intermediary is furnished by the Financial Intermediary through capturing such information on the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (sefa) Intermediary portal. The legal agreement between the sefa and the financial Intermediaries requires the financial Intermediaries to have supporting documents to support their developmental information (such as, application forms, FICA documents and signed contractual agreement between SMME and the Financial Intermediary) for verification by sefa and its external auditors.

The information is captured, verified and approved by the respective financial Intermediary before sefa authorises it on the system. It is therefore the Intermediary’s responsibility to ensure that correct and reliable information is shared with sefa

2. sefa has not picked up any inaccurate financial reports nor a claim or complaint of such that could have required intervention. sefa hereby confirms that the said financial Intermediary has repaid the facility in full, both Capital and Interest advanced under the agreement. The last payment received was on 12 October 2020. The relationship between sefa and the financial Intermediary ended when the loan was fully amortised.

STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS

MINISTER: SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

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In responding to the Report of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development developed the National Beneficiary Selection and Land Allocation Policy (Annexure A) which was subsequently approved by Cabinet.

The Policy aims, amongst other things, to achieve the following:

• Provide a uniform, fair, credible and transparent process and criteria for the selection of beneficiaries for land allocation or leasing of state properties by:

• Establishing independent Beneficiary Selection Land Allocation panels to preside over the selection of suitable candidates for land allocation;
• Implementing a standardised national on-line land application system to ensure a fair and transparent process of beneficiary selection and the rationing of resources; and
• Creating a land application register for potential beneficiaries of land allocation.

• Ensure qualified, suitable and deserving candidates gain access to land on an equitable basis and that the selected beneficiaries have the appropriate skills and capacity to optimally utilise state properties.
• Ensure that special target groups of land reform beneficiaries (as outlined in the Policy) have access to land for purposes of agricultural production.
• To give effect to these controls, an on-line land allocation system has been developed. The system has a clearly define automated qualifying criteria through which the beneficiary selection must pass.

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The expenditure on catering and entertainment relates to amounts incurred on refreshments for Departmental conferences, workshops, indabas, courses, forums, recruitment interviews, training sessions, hearings and management meetings. The amounts for catering in 2019/20 financial year was for external stakeholder meetings during the pre-Covid19 period.

The entertainment expenditure is for luncheon meetings held with colleagues, foreign delegations and/or other individuals from within or outside the public sector including dinner for meetings that go into late afternoon and evening.

The accommodation expenditure is for official trips, namely, domestic and international. These trips are to attend conferences, parliament briefings, bilateral meetings, visits to offices and for border deployment of officials to borderlines during festive/ Easter periods

The total amounts, in Rands, that have been spent on the following items since 01 April 2019 to 18 March 2022 are;

a)

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No cases of sexual harassment and sexual assault were reported during the afore-mentioned period.

STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS

MINISTER: SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Reply:

The Republic of South Africa has no exposure to the Russian Federation in terms of a loans, grants, donations and other forms of support.

Reply:

(a) The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities spent R 994 955.80 on advertising for the 2020-21 financial year;

(b) The National Youth Development Agency spent R 1 891 696 on advertising for the 2020-21 financial year.

Reply:

In terms of section 160(d) of the Constitution, it is the mandate of the municipal council whether or not to approve borrowing. The National Treasury’s responsibility when a municipality decides to incur borrowing is set out in Section 46 of the Municipal Finance Management Act. In terms of that section, the National Treasury must submit written comments or representations in respect of the proposed borrowing. The National Treasury looks at a number of issues, including affordability, when providing written comments to municipalities. The National Treasury does not support instances where the borrowing is unaffordable for the municipality. Therefore, the municipality must have financial stability, and the planned borrowing must have been budgeted for before considering any borrowing.

Also, as emphasised in the Original Borrowing Policy framework passed by Cabinet in 2000, financiers/lenders are encouraged to perform their own due diligence assessments to ascertain a municipality’s creditworthiness. Financiers/lenders whose capital is at risk have both the incentive and the means to limit or deny credit if they doubt the sustainability of a proposed borrowing.

a) Project finance is part of the many funding mechanisms that have been identified in the 2017 Updated Policy Framework for Municipal Borrowing as mechanisms that are permissible within our current legislative framework. Municipalities can utilise project-based financing to fast-track infrastructure development; however, such a financing choice should be solely based on the strength of the municipality’s finances or the credibility of the assumptions and arrangements that inform the project package. Besides borrowing, municipalities may consider other funding mechanisms such as public-private partnerships to enable them to finance projects. In these types of transactions, the private party assumes the financial responsibility, amongst others, for the implementation of projects.

It is important to note that the updated policy emphasises that only creditworthy municipalities should borrow based on the strength of their balance sheets whilst encouraging responsible borrowing and lending. Therefore, municipalities deemed non-creditworthy (lack fiscal discipline and sustainable financial management; have no resources or capacity to repay the debt) should not borrow. This is further cemented by the principle of non-guarantee of municipal debt by neither provincial nor national government, as reflected in the updated policy and in section 51 of the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA). Incurring a loan when a municipality is not in the financial position to repay the loan will add to a municipality’s financial problems.

Municipalities have not pursued project loan financing but rather use general loans to finance various projects. This is mainly due to the capability of these municipalities in preparing bankable projects that would attract financing and the financial support required for project preparation activities. To assist metropolitan municipalities with funding for project preparation, the Programme and Project Preparation Support Grant was established in 2021 to institutionalise an effective and efficient system of developing a pipeline of investment projects that would be financed by an array of financing instruments, including project-based loans. To this end, National Treasury will allocate R1.1 billion to metropolitan municipalities over the 2022 MTEF to support project preparation.

b) In addition, to assist some of the municipalities facing financial difficulties, National Treasury has institutionalised the Municipal Financial Recovery Services with the core objective of identifying and resolving financial challenges, with the City of Tshwane and Mangaung being part of the programme. Through the success of the Municipal Financial Recovery Service and other initiatives around revenue management, National Treasury hopes to achieve strengthened operating performance for some metropolitan municipalities, thus allowing them to access the market and pursue mechanisms such as project-based loan financing.

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The National Treasury are not custodians of the commercial contracts between South Africa and other countries. If and should there be any goods and services contracts entered by the SA government it will be with suppliers in Russia, and that level of detail is not available in National Treasury but in the departments doing business with such suppliers in Russia.

Reply:

(a), Government’s gross borrowing requirement is financed through the issuance of domestic short and long-term loans, foreign currency long-term loans and the use of cash balances. Domestic short (Treasury bills) and long-term loans (bonds) are issued to market participants in the primary market (primary dealers and other financial institutions) through weekly auctions. The market participants buy these bonds on behalf of their clients which include pension funds, foreign investors, insurers, monetary institutions, other financial institutions, and individuals to name a few.

Gross loan debt has increased from R2.5 trillion in 2017/18 to R4.3 trillion in 2021/22. Government has therefore borrowed an additional R1.8 trillion from both domestic and international investors.

Table 1. Domestic and foreign loans for the period 2017/18 – 2021/22

Figure 1 shows the ownership distribution of domestic long-term loans. The share of domestic bonds held by foreign investors declined to a 10-year low of 28.2 per cent by December 2021. Although these investors remain the largest category of domestic bondholders, risk aversion is rising due to global and domestic events. Other financial institutions and pension funds increased their holdings from 17.6 per cent and 22.4 per cent in 2020 to 20.1 per cent and 23.5 per cent in 2021 respectively. South African banks have been holding significantly more government debt because of weak demand for private credit and relatively high interest rates on government debt.

Figure 1. Ownership distribution of domestic long-term loans

Foreign currency long-term loans are raised through the combination of marketable loans - raised in the international capital markets - these foreign bonds are mostly bought by foreign institutions and are traded on the secondary market on the Luxembourg exchange. Non-marketable loans - concessional financing - includes borrowing from multilateral development banks (MDBs) and International Financing Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, new development bank, African development bank and the International Monetary fund

Some of the loans from multilateral development banks includes but not limited to the following, which can be found in Table 7.5 of the Budget Review 2022.

(b), Detailed information about outstanding bonds, redemption dates, redemption amounts, and coupon rates can be found on the National Treasury's investor website.

Retail investors who purchase directly from the National Treasury take up the remainder of the loans. They consist of both individuals and co-operatives registered with the Co-operatives Banks Development Agency (CBDA). The terms and conditions of retail bonds are available on the retail bonds website https://secure.rsaretailbonds.gov.za/Home.aspx. Additional information about issued loans can be found in the annual debt management report on http://investor.treasury.gov.za/Publications/Forms/AllItems.aspx.

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The total amount in Rand that has been spent on (a) catering, (b) entertainment and (c) accommodation for (i) Minister, (ii) the Deputy Minister and (iii) officials of the department since 29 May 2019 to 16 March 2022 is R12 328 894.17

The breakdown is as follows:

a) Catering

1. Minister : R9 425.50
2. Deputy Minister : R2 311.05
3. Department : R1 091 326.99

Total : R1 103 063.54

b) Entertainment

1. Minister : R1 339.60
2. Deputy Minister : R0.00
3. Department : R0.00

Total : R1 339.60

c) Accommodation

1. Minister : R536 132.09
2. Deputy Minister : R489 473.23
3. Department : R10 198 885.71

Total : R11 224 491.03

Reply:

1. A Financial Recovery Plan (FRP) is currently in place at Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality. The municipality adopted a voluntary FRP in July 2018 but unfortunately there was no evidence that the implementation of the FRP translated into any meaningful improvements on any of the key focus areas. Subsequently, a new FRP was developed following the Section 139(5)(a) and (c) mandatory intervention invoked in December 2019 by the Free State Provincial Government. The mandatory FRP was implemented in 2020.

2. The municipality’s collection rate remained below the treasury norm of 95 per cent throughout the period of FRP implementation with an average of 86 per cent achieved for the 2020/21 audited financial year. Whilst the collection rate is still below the norm there has been a slight improvement from the 60-70 per cent collection rate reported previously. This indicates that the targets on the FRP to improve the collection rate is not fully yielding the desired results.

In the main, overtime expenditure is a challenge as the municipality is failing to properly plan, manage and control overtime payments and therefore the municipality is continuously overspending on this item. The municipality still has arrear debt with BloemWater amounting to R747 million and there is a revised settlement agreement in place that the municipality needs to align with the FRP targets. In addition, the provincial government owes the Municipality an amount of R1.9 billion for rates and taxes.

The Mangaung Metro is one of 43 municipalities in the country that have been identified to be in financial and service delivery crisis necessitating a mandatory intervention. Since the Mangaung Metro is already subject to a mandatory S139(5) intervention by the Province, measures are being considered to escalate the intervention into a National S139(7) intervention. Preparations are already underway to commence with a Ministerial visit to the municipality in the 1st week of April 2022. This will also be followed with a special induction session for the municipal council in early April 2022.

Reply:

The applications from the SMMEs are funded from the University Technology Fund (UTF) a joint venture between University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University (SU). Although funded through UTF, they are managed by Stocks and Strauss. All the clients that they currently have, are leads from the university and none of them are from the townships. Using the SMMEs CK documents, Stocks and Strauss can pick up the location/address of the clients.

• Stocks and Strauss collects all the documents submitted when applicants apply for funding including the proof of addresses.
• A point of noting is that all the SMMEs funded under UTF are graduates or students of either UCT or SU.
• The criteria are that applicants must be registered or have been with these universities. This means that the University has all the information of the applicants. The Legal agreement stipulates that the identity of the students and applicants be protected.
• According to the legal agreement between sefa, UTF and other funders, the SMMEs should have an idea of the technology to be funded to qualify for funds.
• The idea is then conceptualised on paper at the pre-seed funding stage where sefa does not participate but only the SMME.
• Once the idea is approved for implementation, sefa then starts investing by paying for the legal costs to register the technology and investing in the venture/project. When conducting such exercise all the documents stated above are requested and protected for security reasons in line with the agreement.

The location of ventures/projects of such nature is therefore based on commercial viability and attraction.

STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS

MINISTER: SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Reply:

1(a) Mr. Mogajane, speaking at a post-Budget event said the following:

“We have to remind our leaders – and I’m speaking as a South African – who are in government, in public service and politicians to get off your high horse and do what we have to do to ensure we create access and a conducive environment for people’s lives to change.

If that’s not going to be a motivating factor, we can start calling SA a failing state because the things that define a failing state are beginning to show, where we don’t care about the poor and improving their lives.”

Mr. Mogajane was expressing his personal view on the corrosive impact that corruption has had on the state’s capacity to deliver basic services and warning of the consequences if our leaders fail to take action.

A failed state is a widely understood to be one that has disintegrated to a point where a sovereign government no longer functions properly and therefore cannot execute its basic responsibilities and deliver a minimum standard of living.

Whilst there is no formal framework that the government uses to test whether it is a failing state or not, the state’s ability to perform its basic functions and deliver the requisite level of services to its citizens is monitored, evaluated and regularly commented on, as is the case in many democracies. Examples include the Auditor-General’s annual reports as well as the recent reports from the Zondo Commission.

(b) Unfortunately, no details of this were attached to the submission. Could the Honourable member please resubmit the question with the relevant information to enable us to respond.

2 The National Treasury reviews the economy's outlook and associated risks as quarterly GDP statistics are made available by the relevant authorities. The economic outlook is made publicly available twice a year in the Budget Review and MTBPS. Risks to the outlook are closely monitored and subsequent developments considered in future economic outlook updates. As noted in Chapter 2 of the 2022 Budget Review, emerging geopolitical risks contribute to elevated uncertainty over the medium term.

With respect to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the potential adverse effects to the South African real economy are likely to be fairly contained and mostly indirect if the conflict is not protracted. Historically, South Africa has recorded positive real GDP growth during periods when both Russia and Ukraine faced economic recessions, with the exception of global recession periods.[1] This suggests that the correlation between South Africa’s growth and Russia’s and Ukraine’s is not as strong, particularly during periods where economic movements are dominated by country-specific factors.

With the situation still developing and so much uncertainty, it is relatively difficult at this stage to quantify the potential impact with precision and confidence. However, South Africa’s trade statistics point to a very weak trade intensity between South Africa and Russia and Ukraine on aggregate. Less than 1 per cent of South Africa’s exported goods are destined for Russia and Ukraine combined. A similar number is reflected on inbound goods that are from both these countries. However, within certain industries, the trade exposure is more significant – such as exports of citrus, apples and pears products – where Russia is an important destination market.[2]

Despite relatively limited direct trade exposure to Russia and Ukraine, risks to the real economy could manifest through the import and export price channels given the importance of both countries in key energy and agricultural commodity markets. The persistent higher levels in these prices as suggested by the futures contracts[3] introduces renewed upside risks to the global and domestic inflation and interest rate outlook.

There are risks to the current assessment regarding the impact the conflict may have on South Africa. The risks largely depend on how long the conflict persists for.

1. For example, during the post-soviet market periods from 1994 to 1999 and during the Russia’s invasion of Crimea period, from 2014 to 2015. ↑

2. The diversion of volumes to other export markets or the domestic market could place downward pressure on prices and export earnings from the agriculture sector in 2022 following solid growth in the past two years. See: https://www.agbiz.co.za/content/open/14-march-2022-agri-market-viewpoint ↑

3. A futures contract is a standardised legal agreement to buy or sell something at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future. ↑

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The Republic of South Africa has no exposure to the Russian Federation in respect of a loans, grants, donations and other forms of support.

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The Department of Cooperative Governance (DCOG), through the Municipal Infrastructure Support agent (MISA) is already supporting Msunduzi Local Municipality (MLM) through the deployment of professionally registered technical professionals, a Civil Engineering young graduate, as well as a Town Planning young graduate in accordance with the District Development Model (DDM), to ensure that internal capacity is created with time for optimal delivery of basic services infrastructure.

The MLM is also a beneficiary of two Presidential Economic Stimulus (PES) programmes that MISA is implementing viz the Labour-Intensive Construction (LIC) and the Innovative Solid Waste Management (ISWM). The LIC programme aims to instutionalise LIC methodology and training of municipal officials in an effort maximise creation of work opportunities during project implementation as well as operation and maintenance. The involvement of the local community in infrastructure development contributes, among other things, towards asset ownership, less vandalism and improvement in service reliability. The ISWM programme includes the following activities:

• • Waste Collection & transportation by appointed Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs):
  • Clearing and cleaning of illegal dumping sites:
  • Recycling and separation of waste at source:
  • Ward specific clean up campaigns:
  • 1000 participants working under the ISWM programme.

The above support to MLM is in terms of section 154 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 which provides that “the national government and provincial governments, by legislative and other measures, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers and to perform their functions.”

According to MLM, there is further support provided by government and public institutions. The KwaZulu Natal (KZN) COGTA support includes the deployment of several technical experts for infrastructure delivery, financial management, disaster management and for the revision of the Local Economic Development (LED) Plan. Eskom entered into a partnership agreement with MLM whereby Eskom committed to provide project management and training support to MLM. Umngeni Water also entered into an agreement with MLM regarding the Darvill sewer outfall pipe that requires urgent major repairs. The planning of the works is at an advanced stage.

Government has also taken other steps to support local government including MLM. DCOG together with MISA, all provincial departments responsible for local government and provincial treasury departments, under the leadership of the Minister of COGTA, prepared the State of Local Government (SOLG) report that was tabled and considered by Cabinet in June 2021. Cabinet’s resolutions on the SOLG report included that COGTA and National Treasury should lead the process of the development of the Municipal Support and Intervention Plans (MSIPs) in collaboration with sector departments, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), provinces and municipalities. MSIPs, including that of MLM, have since been prepared.

The implementation of MSIPs will be done in accordance with the DDM approach. The DDM approach includes the whole of government and all other interested and affected parties to plan, implement and monitor developmental work in all 52 district spaces that cover the whole country.

MLM is allocated infrastructure grant funding annually by national government that includes the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) and the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) to fund the implementation of basic services.