Questions and Replies

Reply:

(1)(a)&(b) On 30 October 2014, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), submitted the Moloto Rail Corridor, Public Private Partnership (PPP), Treasury Approval 1 application to National Treasury for consideration. On 3 December 2015, the DirectorGeneral of National Treasury responded to the CEO of PRASA informing him that the Treasury Approval 1 application was not granted.

On 31 October 2017, the Department motivated funding through the National Treasury’s Budget Facility on Infrastructure (BFI) for the development of the Moloto Rail Corridor. On 5 April 2018, the Department received the outcome of the application indicating that the request for funding was not supported and that no funding will be made available to further develop a rapid rail solution because the exploration of non-transport solutions should be investigated in addition to transport solutions to comprehensively respond to corridor challenges.

(2) Please refer to response in (1)

(3) Seven (7) public engagements in the form of Imbizoshave been conducted with the Siyabuswa, KwaMhlanga, Moloto and surrounding communities. These were conducted as part of providing progress on the planned Moloto Rail Project, Road expansion project and the overall exposure of the service delivery by Government and the Department of Transport’s public entities. The last public engagement conducted with a purpose of providing information on the status of both the road and rail initiatives status was held on 5 June 2017.

With regard to the Moloto Road Project, SANRAL concluded 12 stakeholder engagements sessions prior to Covid-19 Lockdown, details listed in the table below. With the easing the COVID19 lockdown restrictions, SANRAL will be resuming the stakeholder engagements as planned or necessitated by events on the ground in project sites.

SANRAL Moloto Road Corridor Stakeholder Engagements

TYPE OF ENGAGEMENT	ROAD SECTION / TARGET AREA (COMMUNITY)	DATE
Stakeholder engagement: Taking SANRAL to Moloto	R573 Section 1 & 2 - Moloto	2 March 2018
Mpumalanga Youth Dialogue - Engagement	R573 Section 2 - KwaMhlanga	5 December 2018
Stakeholder Engagement - Taking SANRAL to Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality	R573 Section 3- Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality	30 May 2019
Access Agreement meeting	R573 Section 3 – Slovo/ Moteti B	29 August 2019
Access Agreement meeting	R573 Section 3 – Slovo/ Moteti B &Oorlog Villages	11 October 2019
Ministerial Event: Signing of MOU – Transfer of R573 Sec 1 to SANRAL	R573 Section 1 & 2 - Moloto	15 November 2019
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 2 - Kwaggafontein A & B	4 February 2020
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 2 - Mandlethu (Vlaklaagte No.1) &Mobhoko Village	5 February 2020
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 2 - Mzimkhulu	6 February 2020
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 2 - Tweefontein E &Buhlebesiswe (Vlaklaagte No.2)	18 February 2020
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 3 – Slovo, Moteti B &Oorlog Villages	10 March 2020
Pre- Community Resolution meeting/ Information session	R573 Section 3 – Stompo/Waalkraal B, Waalkraal A and Waalkraal Ext Villages	11 March 2020

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

1. As at 9 October 2020, 7 038 prepaid electricity meters faults were reported in October 2020. Of these, 3 698 prepaid electricity meters have been maintained and faults were resolved/closed.

The 3 340 prepaid electricity meter work orders that are still open are reported by zero-buying customers, that is the meters indicated that the customers are not consuming electricity. In these cases, Eskom first scheduled the fault for investigation, after which the following actions will follow:

Where a customer is found to have tampered with the supply or meter, a tamper fine will be issued, the meter will be maintained and then the customer’s supply restored.

Where a meter is found to be bypassed, a tamper fine will be issued. The meter will be maintained however then the customer’s supply will be restored once the tamper fine is paid or a deferred payment form is signed.

Where the customer is zero buying but no tamper is found, the prepaid electricity meter will be maintained and the work order closed.

(2) Prepayment meters are full electronic devices with no moving parts on the measurement circuit that require calibration during the lifespan of the meter. They are electronically calibrated during the manufacturing process using high-tech calibration equipment embedded in the production line.

The accuracy is regularly certified by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS). All the calibration results of individual meters are loaded into the Eskom Customer Care and Billing System for future reference. The calibration is not expected to drift in anyway during the lifespan of meter.

In instances where a customer complains that a meter is inaccurate, Eskom uses SABS certified equipment to verify the accuracy of the meter. In the unlikely event that the meter is found to be inaccurate, the meter is replaced with a new one. The faulty meter is then sent to the supplier for full analysis and the supplier is expected to submit a comprehensive report to Eskom.

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

Eskom recognizes the negative impact that load shedding has on the lives of the people and the economy of South Africa. Eskom endeavours not to load shed and does so only as a last resort to ensure the security of the electricity network. However, Eskom’s generating fleet is ageing, at around 39 years on average, and it is both unreliable and unpredictable. As Eskom has often stated, until all the required reliability maintenance has been executed, all the new build units come on line and the DMRE emergency generation comes on line, the system remains constrained and the risk of load shedding remains high in the foreseeable future.

Reply:

According to the information received from Transnet:

a) The Transnet Academy has identified the requisite technology requirements, developed the strategy and agreed business requirements with the Transnet Information, Communication and Technology Management (ICTM). Budget provisions have been made by ICTM as part of the Transnet Capex funding requirements.

b) Transnet has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with the TVET Directorate. This approach has an advantage of building capacity across the country on an integrated basis.

University partnerships form the bedrock of the Academy strategy and this includes previously disadvantaged Universities to be included in the partnering review.

The Transnet Head of Academy serves as a Board member on the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) and Transnet plays a pivotal role in the SETA’s. To date, three Transnet Employees serve in the Rail, Freight Handling, and Maritime Chamber. As members’ their role is to advise as industry experts in skills development.

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

1. Mr André de Ruyter obtained his Master of Business Administration qualification on 17 September 1998.

2. The qualification was verified on behalf of Eskom, prior to Mr de Ruyter’s appointment, by Lexis Refcheck. Eskom did not request SAQA to evaluate or verify the qualification.

As part of all executive appointments in Eskom, a full verification by a reputable company has to be done to verify ID number, driver’s license and criminalrecords and ensure the candidate has obtained all the qualifications listed on their résumés.

SAQA evaluation/verification of overseas qualifications is not a specific requirement for the appointments of executives at Eskom. A SAQA verification by the qualification holder will be requested only when the foreign qualification is a minimum requirement.

It is also important to note that as of 16 September 2019, only qualification holders (QHs) may apply for the evaluation of their foreign qualifications.

The above requirement according to SAQA, is to ensure that QHs are the prima facie owners of their applications and the outcomes thereof, including the protection of their private details. For this reason, SAQA will only interact directly with QHs, and involve third parties only when they are the parents or legal guardians of the affected QHs.

Please note that the change in the SAQA approach took place before Mr de Ruyter’s appointment and verification of his qualification. 

Government has total confidence in Mr de Ruyter who has already made a substantial difference in Eskom. We call on all stakeholders to support the efforts of the Board and management team in their efforts to restore good governance, operational effectiveness, financial stability and efficiently implement the Eskom Roadmap.

Reply:

1.a) Please see column 1 (a) in Table 1 below for planning and design status.

(b) The Environmental Impact Assessment process commenced in 2016 for Moloto Road Corridor and the Environmental Authorization was issued on 12/05/2017 (DEA Ref 14/12/16/3/1/162).

(c) Please see column 1 (c) in Table 1 below for status of contractor appointments.

(d) (i) Please see column 1 (d) (i) in Table 1 below for projected costs.

(d) (ii) Please see column 1 (d) (ii) in Table 1 below for projected timelines.

(2) (a) There has not been any progress on the proposed rail link project due to funding availability. The application for funding the Moloto Rail Project submitted to National Treasury in October 2014, in the form of a Treasury Approval (TA 1) was not approved. The subsequent request for funding submitted to National Treasury in 2017 under the Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BFI), was also not granted.

(b) Refer to (2) (a)

(c) Refer to (2) (a)

(3) (a) Please see Table 2 below for the SANRAL Moloto Road expenditure to date.

(b) No budget has been spent on the proposed Rail Project since the last feasibility study was completed in 2014.

(4)

Table 1: SANRAL R573 Road Projects

SANRAL Project (Project Numbers)	SECTION & PROVINCE	1 (a) Planning and Design update	1 (c) Appointment of contractors	1(d)(i) projected cost (Incl. VAT)	1(d)(ii) Timelines	Comments
R.573-010-2021/1	Stormvoel (km 0,0) to Baviaanspoort road (km 2,4)(Moepel road)	Design 95 % Completed	No	R423 million	December 2021 to May 2023	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2023/1	Km 2,4 to km 4,0 (Interchange)	Design 90 % Completed	No	R488 million	April 2022 to September 2024	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2022/1	Km 4,0 to km 8,4 and PWV 2	Design 90 % Completed	No	R1 300 million	April 2022 to March 2025	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2024/1	Km 8,4 to km 18,4	Design 70 % Completed	No	R700 million	Start April 2024	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2023/2	Km 18,4 to km 28,4	Design 70 % Completed	No	R700 million	Start April 2023	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2024/2	Km 28,4 to km 37,4	Design 70 % Completed	No	R700 million	Start April 2024	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-010-2022/1	Km 37,4 to km 48,568	Design 80 % Completed	No	R600 million	December 2022 to November 2024	Gauteng Section of R573 only gazetted as National Road on 5th June 2020, enabling SANRAL to now proceed with finalisation of designs and issuing of construction tenders.
R.573-020-2016/1	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Completed	Yes	R105 million	Completed	4 intersections upgraded
R.573-020-2019/4	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Completed	No	R560 million	April 2021 to Sept 2023	Tender adjudication process for the appointment of a contractor underway.
R573-020-2019/1	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Design 90 % Completed	No	R346 million	April 2022 to October 2023	Finalising bridge designs.
R573-020-2019/2	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Design 65 % Completed	No	R197 million	June 2022 to June 2023	Covid19 delayed Resolution of the Kwamhlanga business node due to encroachment within the road reserve.
R573-020-2019/3	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Completed	No	R413 million	November 2021 to February 2023	Planning Pre-community resolution meeting and Community resolution meeting as part of land acquisition process.
R573-020-2019/5	Section 2 - Mpumalanga	Design 65 % Completed	No	R406 million	March 2022 to June 2024	Resolution of the Kwaggafontein business node due to encroachment within the road reserve.
R.573-030-2016/1	Section 3 - Limpopo	Completed	Yes	R244 million	January 2017 to October 2021	The Contractor has since re-established the site after experiencing cashflow problems.
R.573-030-2019/1	Section 3 - Limpopo	Completed	No	R362 million	April 2021 to Sept 2023	Tender adjudication process for the appointment of a contractor underway.
R.573-023-2019/1	Section 3 - Limpopo	Completed	No	R405 million	January 2022 to June 2024	Covid19 delayed the Community Resolution meetings required to finalise the land acquisition process.
R.573-030-2019/2	Section 3 – Mpumalanga	Design 90 % Completed	No	R450 million	April 2022 to September 2024	Finalising the bridge designs.

Table 2: SANRAL R73 Moloto Expenditure to Date

Table 2: SANRAL R73 Moloto Expenditure to Date

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

1. Eskom has not cut off electricity supply for the Phase 3 customers in Braamfisherville. The transformers have failed as a result of overloading networks caused by meter bypasses and ghost vending, as well as the illegal operations by third parties. In order to avoid this phenomenon from repeatedly reoccurring, Eskom has decided to audit the meters, fine those who have illegally bypassed their meters or are purchasing ghost vouchers, and replace the damaged meters before replacing the transformers. This process has been resisted by customers and hence delayed the process of transformer replacement across Braamfisherville.

We have currently agreed with ward councilors and the Gauteng Province to defer the payment of fines where customers who cannot afford them will have to agree to a payment arrangement by signing the relevant forms.

It was only after the payment arrangement was agreed upon that customers agreed that we implement the process. This process has created a backlog of about 70 transformers that need to be replaced. We have drafted a schedule to replace these transformers and are progressing very well.

2. A number of transformers are offline in Phase 3 as a result of the reasons provided above. The replacement of transformers in Phase 3 is expected to be completed by 21 December 2020 subject to the customers signing the deferred payment agreements and material availability. Eskom will have to be provided with the meter or reference number in order to provide a more specific date.

Reply:

1. The loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa to South African Airways (SAA) was paidON THE DIRECTION OF THE NATIONAL TREASURY,on 27 August 2020.

2. The loan was repaid from the 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) allocation for the period 2020/21 to 2022/23 financial year, for the purchase of equity in SAA.

Reply:

According to the information received from Eskom

The Port St Johns Local Municipality (Turnkey) Electrification Project is a schedule 5B project that is managed by the municipality. The question should therefore be directed to the municipality.

Reply:

According to the information received from SAA:

(a) The failure to transform the pilot corps at SAA is a symptom of the general failure of leadership at the airline to make pertinent decisions and ensure their implementation. The Regulating Agreement (RA) entered into in 1988’s primary objective was to preserve undeserved privileges accrued through unjust laws that preserved aviation careers to a small minority in this country.

These privileges came with unaffordable perks and salary framework which should have long been remedied. The airline (i.e. the Business Rescue Practitioners) on insistence of the Department is addressing the matter of RA as it cannot become part of the new SAA.

The following is the background to the RA:

1.1  The Regulating Agreement, (“The RA”) is an evergreen collective agreement entered into between South African Airways Pilots Association (SAAPA) and South African Airways (SOC) LTD (SAA) in 1988. The RA regulates the terms and conditions of employment of pilots and contains volumes of onerous provisions on SAA.

1.2. It is our view that the RA is unconstitutional and unlawful, and it is imperative that it be terminated.

1.3. The unconstitutionality and unlawfulness of the RA relates to the following:

1.3.1 First, the evergreen nature of the regulating agreement is in breach of section 23(4) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (“the LRA”). Section 23(4) of the LRA does not contemplate or permit collective agreements which have no fixed term, no specific notice period and which may not be terminated on reasonable notice – in other words it does not contemplate or permit evergreen collective agreements.

1.3.2 The regulating agreement precludes and impedes SAA achieving meaningful and expeditious transformation which is in breach of the Constitution and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. In particular, in terms of the RA, the principle of seniority rigidly and directly affects and controls all elements of the manner in which pilots are employed and dealt with by SAA, including promotions, demotions, salaries and so on. Given the make-up of SAA’s pilot list, which comprises overwhelmingly of white males, this operates to the detriment of and discriminates unfairly against white women, black men, and especially black women.

1.3.3 The regulating agreement effectively removes core elements of decision-making from the board and management of SAA and precludes SAA from giving effect to its procurement obligations. This is in breach of the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 and the Companies Act 71 of 2008. The effect of the Regulating Agreement is that SAA is precluded from reaching any agreement to wet-lease SAA aircraft without the consent of SAAPA. The RA has a “succession of ownership” provision which means that notwithstanding any changes in ownership of SAA, the RA will remain in full operation. Considering the fact that Government has taken a decision to find a strategic equity partner (SEP) for SAA, the RA in its current form, combined with succession clauses, will no doubt make SAA less attractive to potential partners.

The RA also subjects key SAA procurement decisions such as which hotels to contract with to the control of SAAPA in that SAAPA is entitled to select the short-list of three hotels from which SAA can choose and even within this short-list, SAA is required to take SAAPA’s preferences into account. It requires SAA to act in breach of Treasury instructions – such as requiring SAA to accommodate pilots and crew in four- or five-star hotels when the Treasury instruction requires that three-star hotels be used.

1.3.4 The negotiations at the LCF with the DPE. After more than two and a half months of engagements, no agreement on the restructure of SAA was concluded and no agreement was reached on the VSP offered by DPE. In fact, SAAPA are on record at different forums and in writing to SAA that they never agreed to the VSP and reserve their rights in that regard.

(B) In engagement with potential Strategic Equity Partners (SEPs), the Department has placed the transformation of pilot corps as an imperative to the partnership. This is to ensure that National developmental objectives in Aviation should still receive priority in the new SAA. An appropriate balance must be attained to correct historical discrimination, retention of key skills, and achieving the correct demographic and gender objectives. This is a non-negotiable set of objectives. It is important that all pilots cooperate in achieving these objectives.

Reply:

SAA did not use Treasury Regulation 16A6.6 to appoint Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) as a transaction advisor to oversee the Strategic Equity Partner transaction of Airchefs. SAA used normal open competitive procurement processes to appoint RMB as transaction advisor for Airchefs.

The Department however, used Treasury Regulation 16A6.6 to appoint RMB as a transaction advisor to oversee the Strategic Equity Partner (SEP) transaction for SAA. This was carried out in order to speed up the process of assessing the best SEP for SAA as part of the work of concluding the business rescue process given the fact that RMB was already underseeing this SEP transaction with Airchefs.

Reply:

1. The vetting target for the financial years as indicated was as follows:

Financial Year	Target	Achievement
2017/18	6500	4328
2018/19	7000	3584
2019/20	7500	7167

2. The Defence Intelligence presents bi-annually to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), which includes the personnel strength of both uniform and civilian members of the Division.

Reply:

1. Provisional allocation

The R6.5 billion formed part of the R16.4 billion announced by during the February 2020 budget speech for payment of guaranteed debt and interest. This amount was split as follows:

(i) R10.3 billion in 2020/21

(ii) R4.3 billion in 2021/22; and

(iii) R1.8 billion in 2022/23.

Of the R10.3 billion in 2020/21, only R3.8 billion was included in the Appropriation Act (7 of 2020) leaving R6.5 billion unappropriated. SAA had R3.6 billion government guaranteed debt maturing on 31 July 2020 and the amount already included in the Appropriation Act was utilised to settle this debt.Additional government guaranteed debt of R6.7 billion matured on 31 August 2020 for which section 6 of the Appropriation Act (7 of 2020) was invoked in order for the debt to be settled.

2. Total allocation to SAA for 2020/21

Of the R16.4 billion allocated to SAA at the time of the February budget speech, R10.3 billion was allocated in the current financial year to pay for maturing government guaranteed debt. The balance of R6.1 billion will be allocated to SAA over the next two fiscal years as and when the airline’s government guaranteed debt matures.

An additional R10.5 billion was allocated to SAA in 2020/21 to provide for the implementation of the airline’s business rescue.

Therefore, the total amount that has been allocated to SAA in the 2020/21 fiscal year amounts to R20.8 billion.

3. Framework used to determine funding allocation to SAA

SAA was placed into voluntary business rescue on 6 December 2019, following which the business rescue practitioners concluded a creditor approved business rescue plan which required additional funding for implementation.

Cabinet advised by Inter-ministerial Committee (IMC) on SAA, took a decision not to place SAA under liquidation but rather to support the business rescue plan. The allocation of the R10.5 billion for the implementation of SAA’s business rescue plan is proposed by Cabinet for parliament’s consideration and approval.

Reply:

Government guarantees granted to SAA

SAA GUARANTEES	Date issued	Amount (R' Million)
Going Concern Guarantee	March 2007	1 300
Going Concern Guarantee	September 2009	1 600
Going Concern Guarantee	July 2012	5 006
Going Concern Guarantee	December 2014	6 488
Going Concern Guarantee	September 2016	4 720
Total Guarantees issued		19 114

SAA has been granted several guarantees since being unbundled out of the Transnet Group in 2007. All the guaranteed issued to SAA were for the granted to allow the airline to meet the going concern requirements for signing off the airline’s financial statements. Total guarantees granted from 2007 to date amount to R19.1 billion.

Due to the poor financial performance and deteriorating solvency position of the airline, SAA could not raise debt funding on the strength of its balance sheet. Local and international lenders thus required any funding provided to SAA to be backed by a sovereign guarantee. Each of the guarantees provided to SAA was based on business plans which forecasted that the airline would attain financial sustainability and be able to settle its debts from internally generated funds.

Government guaranteedobligations settled through recapitalisations from government

Since June 2017, R26.4 billion of the recapitalisations that government provided to SAA have been made to settle the airline’s government guaranteed obligations. This includes R10.3 billion of the R16.4 billion announced in the February 2020 budget that will be provided to SAA over the 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for the settlement of government guaranteed obligations but excludes the R10.5 billion for business rescue implementation announced in the 2020 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS).

Historically, once SAA’s guaranteed obligations have been settled, the airline had used its freed-up guarantee facility to raise additional government guaranteed debt. Conditions have been put in place to reduce this risk to the fiscus.

Reply:

No, the National Department of Transport will not be funding the proposed North West Public Transport Intervention Team. The National Department does not provide funding to the Provincial Department as a consequence of Section 100(1)(b) intervention.

Reply:

(a) The Department of Human Settlements, working closely with provincial Departments of Human Settlements and municipalities has put in place a strategy and implementation plan to ensure that there is sufficient sanitation in informal settlements across the Republic, where persons often share ablution facilities. Informal settlements have been identified as high priority area for mass sanitisation disinfection. Areas to be disinfected include communal water collection points and communal toilet facilities. The response plan provides measures proposed through the current Informal Settlements Upgrading Programme (UISP) to immediately:

1. Minimise and mitigate the rate of COVID-19 infections and spread, through interventions in vulnerable households and communities, focused on informal settlements, hostels, inner-cities and backyards.

2. Enable households to observe physical and/or social distancing and self-isolation in terms of public health regulations.

3. Resettlement of identified dense and overcrowded settlements through the establishment of Transitional Residential Areas (TRAs).

4. Enhance implementation process of the projects currently underway with specific focus on projects benefiting informal settlements households.

(b) The Department together with Provinces have identified informal settlements without and those with limited services to determine what would be sufficient ablution facilities to enable the social distancing now required to combat Covid-19 by installing new or augmenting the existing basic services i.e. communal water points and communal toilet facilities. Additional action to mitigate COVID-19 has been established through a National Human Settlements Command Centre (NHSCC) that has been set up at the HDA. All Provinces and Metropolitan Municipalities are members of the NHSCC.

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

a)  There is no provision in the Regulations for the establishment of a “central executive committee” in relation to this operator.

During the approval process for Ultimate Heli, the following stakeholders were consulted:

1. Johannesburg Metro,whose responsibility is the proper zoning and use of land in accordance with their restrictions, as mandated by the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA), Act 16 of 2013, as well as enforcement of environmental requirements in their areas of jurisdiction. No restrictions were imposed by the Metro.
2. Grand Central Airport.
3. The National Airspace Committee (NASCOM), comprising of industry stakeholders and associations including Airports Company of South Africa, Department of Transport, Department of Environmental Affairs Forestry and Fishing (DEFF), SA Airforce (SAAF), Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company (ATNS), etc.
4. Waterfall property management.
5. SA National Roads Agency (SANRAL).
6. Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA).

b) All Civil Aviation Regulations have been followed in certifying Ultimate Heli as an operator. Records are kept by the SACAA for all oversight activityon all operators.

Reply:

1. The Defence Intelligence, Directorate Vetting Strategy and Implementation Plan is being implemented, however, due to capacity challenges the previous vetting targets of FY2019/20 could not be achieved.

2. Defence Intelligence has managed to make progress to achieve the vetting targets which relates to:

a. The staffing of vacant post to capacitate Directorate Vetting.

b. The decentralisation of confidential clearances to the lowest level within the SANDF.

Reply:

HISTORIC SAA RECAPITALISATIONS
Purpose	Date	Repayment of debt (R')	Working Capital Requirements	Total
SAA Labour Restructuring Plan and provision of working capital	2007		744 000 000	744 000 000
	2009		1 560 000 000	1 560 000 000
Repayment of Government guaranteed debt	Jun-17	2 208 000 000		2 208 000 000
Repayment of Government guaranteed debt	Sep-17	1 800 000 000	1 200 000 000	3 000 000 000
Repayment of government guaranteed debt; settlement of outstanding creditors and provision of working capital	Dec-17	3 600 000 000	1 192 000 000	4 792 000 000
Repayment of domestic lenders	Feb-19	5 000 000 000		5 000 000 000
Working capital requirements	Aug-19		2 000 000 000	2 000 000 000
Repayment of domestic lenders	Sep-19	3 500 000 000		3 500 000 000
Repayment of government guaranteed Post Commencement Funding	Aug-20	10 300 000 000		10 300 000 000
Total		26 408 000 000	6 696 000 000	33 104 000 000

SAA has been recapitalised by R33.1 billion since being unbundled out of the Transnet Group in 2007. Of the total amount historically provided for recapitalization, R26.4 billion has been provided for the repayment of government guaranteed debt whilst R6.7 billion has been for the provision of working capital.

Reply:

1. (a) The Cyber Defence Strategy was approved by the Council of Defence.

(b) The Defence Intelligence presents bi-annually to the Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence (JSCI), which includes the funds spend and members trained towards the fulfilment

Reply:

South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

1. (a) The SA Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) does follow up with routine inspections as part of its mandate andan inspection on Ultimate Heli was conducted on 20 March 2019. A meeting was held with the operator on27 June 2019 regarding environmental complaintsfrom the Buccleuch residents.The last physical inspection was conducted on 23 October 2019 for compliance monitoring. In addition, a meeting was held with the operator on 24 January 2020,relating to continued operational compliance. Further interaction occurredvirtually during the lockdown period, in relation to compliance, as it was not possible to conduct physical oversight during lockdown. Physical inspections are now resumed during level 1 lockdown with a routine compliance inspection scheduled for Ultimate Heli for 28 October 2020.

(b)The facility was found to be compliant with requirements. Third party information can only be released with the consent of the approval holder. The reports contain 3rd party proprietary and commercially sensitive information, is confidential in nature and may contain personal information, which was provided in confidence, and the SACAA does not have consent from the operator to release such.

(c) The SACAA Inspectors were from the areas of Aviation Infrastructure and Flight Operations.

2. Ultimate Heli has been operating in accordance with the SACAA regulations and there is no evidence of the company not operating in compliance with regulations.

Reply:

The Minister was informed by the MEC about the proposed North West Public Transport Intervention Team, as supported by the Provincial Executive Council and consent given by the Section 100 Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT), as provided for in the Section 100 MOU signed by the Province and the IMTT. No approval was sought from the Minister. As indicated in the question, the process has since been reversed.

Reply:

Department of Transport does not have SA commuter Transit Project within their portfolio.

Therefore (a)(b) (c) (d) falls away.

Reply:

a) Profit – Internationally well performing mass public transport systems cover between 30% and 60% of operational costs. Only a few systems in dense Asian cities can cover a higher amount of direct operating costs. Given that Ekurhuleni is still in an unfinished pilot phase, which has witnessed delays in ramping up to envisaged 200 buses, the current fare box coverage of direct operating costs is disproportionally low.

Currently the city is yet to negotiate the final contract with the Bus Operating Company which they plan to conclude by July 2021. This final contract will include a market related profit margin for the Bus Operating Company.

b) Loss - From 2017/18 to 2019/20 financial years, the total operational deficit was approximately R290 million to June 2020, due to the fact as highlighted in (a) above that the pilot ramp up has been delayed, thus limiting the amount of fare revenue collected. Currently the city is covering the operational deficit.

Reply:

(a) In terms of our Constitutional delineation of responsibilities, municipalities are responsible for housing lists. The National Department of Human Settlements sets norms and standards, and monitor their implementation. Having realised the lack of capacity in certain municipalities, we decided to institute a National Housing Needs Register on which household can record their housing needs.

This National Housing Needs Register is different from a waiting list as it is used by provinces to select household who can be approached with an offer to apply for specific housing opportunities as these are created within Greenfield projects. Provinces and municipalities are encouraged to make use of the National Housing Needs Register system as it provides for a fair, transparent and just process of selection of prospective subsidy beneficiaries and allows for regional specific preferential selection criteria.

The System is linked to National Guidelines for the Allocation of Housing Opportunities created through the National Housing Programmes. The total number of households that have registered their need for adequate shelter as on 23 October 2020 is 2,537,968. The Honourable Member should note that the Western Cape does not utilize the National Housing Needs Register

(b) Below breakdown of number of households that have registered their need for adequate shelter per province as on 23 October 2020 on the National Housing Needs Register:

(c) The number of houses build by provinces depends on the HSDG budget allocation to each province every financial year. In the 2020/21 financial year the Department has planned to deliver the number of housing units and serviced as indicated below:

	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Province	Total No of projects	Serviced sites	Housing Units	CRU (units)	FLISP	Planned sites	Planned units	Planned sites	Planned units
Eastern Cape	465	3 727	7 025	0	200	5 056	7 805	5 413	8 172
Free State	155	3 778	2 431	100	100	1 000	5 858	1 000	5 107
Gauteng	184	13 851	9 563	0	100	9 977	16 011	10 177	16 311
KwaZulu Natal	346	5 208	11 020	400	252	2 846	13 176	2 458	14 877
Limpopo	163	2 839	5 214	150	25	2 500	5 664	2 500	2 896
Mpumalanga	153	3 426	4 369	128	100	4 400	4 436	5 000	3 793
Northern Cape	47	2 329	376	190	20	4 352	909	2 470	103
North West	351	3 692	6 381	0	40	5 198	6 156	7 663	5 776
Western Cape	147	5 697	7 843	0	598	10 736	11 450	6 323	10 241
Nat Total	2011	44 547	54 222	968	1 435	46 065	71 465	43 004	67 276

 

Further to the above, the Department will through the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) deliver the following in the 2020/21 MTEF:

	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Planned Social Housing Units	5 800	6 700	8 000

 

Reply:

Any assistance with water required by our communities is rendered by municipalities. Should a municipality have difficulties, it approaches the Water Board that services the area. In this case, Lepelle Northern Water would assist the said municipality.

Notwithstanding, the information available on the matter raised by the Honourable Member, is that three (3) Eskom poles were damaged due to heavy rainfalls in the area since 07 October 2020, which affected the transmission of electricity.

However, Eskom reconnected the supply of electricity on 16 October 2020. Water is currently being pumped from the package plant and the supply is back to normality. The community is now receiving water without difficulties.

Reply:

a) There are 9 international development finance institutions that lend to the SOEs as listed below. The typical financing instrument they use are foreign currency and domestic currency bilateral loans. MIGA is listed below as one of the institutions, however, their participation is usually in the form of providing credit enhancing guarantees on behalf of the SOE and to the benefit of other lenders that would otherwise not lend to a South African SOE owing to the credit rating.

China Development Bank

African Development Bank

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

New Development Bank (BRICS Bank)

European Investment Bank

AgenceFrançaise de Développement (AFD)

World Bank

KreditanstaltfürWiederaufbau (KfW)

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)

In the case of SOEs that issue bonds in foreign jurisdictions, information of registered holders is not recorded in such a manner as to be able to establish how many different individuals or institutions (hedge funds for example) are the ultimate beneficial holders of those bonds.

b) There are no facilities that have been called prematurely in the sense of accelerating debt is due. Rather, some guaranteed debt has been called to service interest and capital payments that became due, but these facilities did not accelerate. The call on guarantees to international lenders for the current fiscal year were in respect of the Land Bank and amounts to R74 million.

Reply:

The Hout Bay Gate Ways Project is a private initiative. The Department of Tourism has not played any role in this project. TheDepartment is therefore not in a position to provide further information related to this project.

9a0 – (e) Not applicable

Reply:

1) (a) The position of General Manager: Fraud and Compliance was advertised on 08 September 2019, with the closing date of 23 September 2019. (b) (i) the following criteria was utilised to recruit the candidate:

• NQF Level 7 qualification;
• Five (5) years’ experience at Senior Managerial level in the relevant field;
• Employment Equity Target: African Female, Coloured Female and African Male;
• Valid drivers’ license;
• Computer Literacy; and
• SA Citizenship / Permanent Resident.

(b) (ii) the following interview process was followed:

• Interview session (question and answer session) (80%);
• Technical Test (20%) (Presentation)

(2)The candidate was not asked to declare anything since this is not part of the process, however, the process requires that candidates complete the HR checklist. Amongst the questions outlined in the mentioned checklist, these two (2) questions are included: (a) Have you ever been dismissed or is there any pending disciplinary actions, cases against you; and (b) are you aware of anything that can hamper your service delivery in the post. The answers to both questions were “no”.

(3) The mentioned name was the selected candidate for the position of General Manager: Fraud and Compliance Management.

(4) The candidate was not withdrawn, he declined the offer through an email dated 21 July 2020, wherein he indicated that certain personal issues had arisen which prevent him from accepting the offer and he further expressed his sincere gratitude for the HCM team’s professionalism.

National AssemblyWritten Reply: 2464 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

Yes, upon learning of the non-payments. I requested all MEC’s furnish me with the updated report from all provinces.

The non-payments were experienced in the Eastern Capeand North West Provinces.

Reasons given are as follows:

1. Eastern Cape Province non-payments were due to lockdown and other factors including six months strike of Social Work Managerswho are responsible for various programmes. This created a void resulting in non-payments and delays in the entire process as the finalization of the master-lists took longer and the verification of the information which was also rejected by the IT payment system causing errors.The Province is also experiencing challenges with office accommodation as the building is not safe for occupation and this wascoupled with the closure of offices due to covid-19 positive cases.

2. North Westdelays were due to the migration from BAS system to LOGIS which delayed the paymentsas NPOs were required to register on the Central Supplier Database.

a) There were no budget cuts to (i) old age and (ii) children’s homes of over three months during the lockdown as residential care facilities are prioritised for full subsidy payments. The budget cutswere applied to other programmes that were not fully operational during the lockdown period. These NPOs that were not funded fully, they were paidfor personnel and operational costs. Also, budget cuts for other programmes were as a result of a call from the Provincial Treasuries for the Departments to cut budgetsin response to the Covid-19 budget adjustment. These measures impacted on the allocations that were initially considered for the NPOs as the available budget had to be reviewed and re-prioritised.

b) payment delays to (i) old age and (ii) children’s homes of over three months during the lockdown were experienced in the Eastern Cape, due to reasons mentioned under (a) above and also due to newly funded organisations that had to go through the BAS registration process, and correct documents for this process could not be obtained from the NPOs due to lockdown. Document correction and verification took longer than anticipated due to lockdown restrictions which affected movement between the Department and NPOs. For North West and Limpopo delays are due to migration from BAS payment system to LOGIS which requires registration on the Central Supplier Database. Delays in Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga for the second quarter payments were due to covid-19 positive cases resulting to office closures, delayed signing of Service Level Agreements by the NPOs and non-compliant NPOs.

Measures to curb the spread of the virus were put in place by the various provinces in the residential care facilities, including adherence to the regulations issued by the National Department. The gazetted regulations on the management of Covid-19 pandemic were shared with NPO’s that manage residential care facilities.The facilities were encouraged to observe Covid-19 protocols such as social distancing, washing of hands and wearing of masks, creation of spaces for isolation rooms, no discharges allowed and staff members who attended funeral to report to the manager and be put on quarantine.

The current status of the specified payments nationally is as follows:

(i) Old Age Homes

	#Of Homes	#Paid 1stQtr	% Paid 1stQtr	#Paid 2ndQtr	#Outstanding	% Paid 2ndQtr
EC	43	0	0%	43	0	100%
LMP	7	7	100%	4	3	57%
NW	26	26	100%	20	6	77%
FS	35	35	100%	19	16	54%
MPU	23	22	96%	19	4	86%
GP	73	73	100%	70	3	95%
KZN	40	40	100%	40	0	100%
NC	25	25	100%	25	0	100%
WC	117	117	100%	117	0	100%

(ii) Child and Youth Care Centres

Province	Number of CYCCs	# Paid 1stQtr	%Paid 1stQtr	# Paid 2ndQtr	No Outstanding	% Paid 2ndQtr
LMP	12	12	100%	6	6	50%
NW	9	9	100%	0	9	0%
MPU	23	23	100%	22	1	96%
GP	95	95	100%	73	22	76%
NC	8	8	100%	8	0	100%
WC	53	53	100%	53	0	100%
FS	15	15	100%	15	0	100%
EC	27	0	0%	27	0	100%
KZN	19	19	100%	19	0	100%

The provinces that have outstanding payments are working towards clearing the backlog for the second quarter by the end of September 2020 and the status is improving on a weekly basis. For Eastern Cape the NPOs are being paid both the first and second tranches simultaneously during the second quarter.

National AssemblyWritten Reply: 2088 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. There were no officials implicated in the Charles Nupen report, who had to be subjected to further investigation or disciplinary procedure.

2. (a) There are no officials specified in Charles Nupen report who have been given any postings in 2020 or 2021. (b) There are no officials specified in the Charles Nupen report who will be posted.

Reply:

1 (a) Social Workers have been recruited from the social work graduate database. The deployment of Social Workers has been informed by the possible risk of the spread of the virus, the vastness and geographical spread of provinces, the population size and density in the province and the number of service offices.

(b) Provincial Departments of Social Development in Limpopo, Gauteng, North West, Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and Northern Cape.

(c) Social Workers have been appointed under the Victim Empowerment and Prevention of Gender Based Violence Programme.

(d) The National Department of Social Development is paying their salaries.

(2) Province	Allocation per province	Total Social Workers employed
Northern Cape	33	32
Eastern Cape	171	175
Western Cape	0	The provincial department declined the allocation of social workers and didn’t participate in the process.
Limpopo	116	116
Free State	92	92
Mpumalanga	128	113
North West	81	81
Gauteng	676	160
KZN	266	268
Total	1809	1037

National AssemblyWritten Reply: 1634 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

(1)(a) R198 175 000

ProgrammeFunding Allocations forthe 2020/21 financialyear
Compensation ofEmployees (PERSAL Allocation)	Direct Transfers (Subsidy)	COVID 19 Allocation	TotalDirect Transfers	Total Bursary Allocation (20%)	Total Final Budget Allocation
R’000	R’000	R’000	R’000	R’000	R’000
99 371	57 934	2 109	60 043	38 761	198 175

(1)(b) Interest received 1 514 860

(2)(a) Springfield campus 36 991 576

(2)(b) Thebudgetallocationis perlineitem

Details	R
Administration expenses	293 300
Cleaning and college maintenance	1 216 968
Technology expenses	5 000
Repairs and maintenance	790 258
Security expenses	1 902 000
Student welfare expenses	70 000
Teaching administration and teaching materials	1 451 000
Travelling expenses	9 000
Water and electricity	880 000
PERSAL salaries	24 111 734
Council paid salaries	6 262 316
TOTAL BUDGETED EXPENDITURE	36 991 576

(3)(a) ThekwiniTVETCollegehasbeenoverthe63%salarythresholdandwasnotabletomake appointments. TheCollegeisawarethattheCollegestructureofseniorlecturersandheadsof departmentsneed tobe addressedatall6campusesso thattherecan beimprovedmonitoring ofteachingandlearningactivities,not onlyat theSpringfield Campus.

(3)(b) We hadhopedthattheimplementationofthe Post Provisioning Norms (PPN)thatwasscheduledfor01April2020 wouldassisttheCollegeinaddressingtheproblem. However, the PPN has not been implemented yet.

Reply:

1. The Department was alerted of alleged financial mismanagement related to the Aeroswift 3D printing project.

a) The Department allowed the CSIR Board, as prior recipient of the alleged financial mismanagement, to deal with the matter.

b) The Department will not investigate the matter.

The Department had allowed the CSIR board to investigate the allegations.

2. The Minister might make a statement on the matter, depending the feedback from the CSIR Board.

Reply:

The department met the November deadlines set by the North Gauteng High Court in relation to the comprehensive legal solution in terms of introducing the Children’s Amendment Bill to Parliament (clause 2.21 of the North Gauteng High Court Order). The Minister submitted the Children’s Amendment Bill in August 2020. The Social Assistance Bill was passed by National Assembly on 09 June 2020 and was referred to the NCOP.

Since the Children’s Amendment Bill is not yet passed due to Parliamentary programme; it is not yet able to effectively address foster care challenges, as a result the Minister will approach the North Gauteng High Court requesting an extension of the Court Order to enable parliament processes to unfold in its consideration of the Children’s Amendment Bill. The North Gauteng High Court Order deems the affected foster care orders to be valid, thus there is no backlog. The provinces are implementing their respective recovery plans to obtain foster care orders with extension dates that are beyond the lapse date of the North Gauteng High Court Order.

National AssemblyWritten Reply: 2273 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. The Department is currently running on a mixed Windows server environment, and is in the process of virtualizing ICT Services, leveraging on Microsoft capabilities as per the Enterprise Agreement signed between DIRCO and Microsoft in March 2020. As part of the project, the Department is implementing Microsoft 365 which include modern workplace.

2. There is a team of ICT officials providing maintenance and support of hardware and software in different regions led by Ms R. Phafane (Director: Infrastructure Management).

3. The Department has initiated a process to modernise the ICT Infrastructure, including the server environment for both Head Office and Missions. The critical security and software licenses have been renewed and implemented as part of short-term interventions to stabilize the ICT environment whilst improving the Cybersecurity posture.

Reply:

a) The total number of persons (cumulative) who have been paid across all the months to date is 19 753 894. This is made up as follows:

May 4 423 385

June 4 731 747

July 4 801 860

August 4 564 902

September 616 000

October 616 000

It should be noted that the numbers indicated above change on a daily basis, as payments are made daily. Payments for September and October are currently being done as a single amount of R700 to try and ensure that the backlog of payments is resolved before we move into the extension of the grant for the next 3 months.

b) The cumulative amount paid out so far is R6913862 900

c) The cumulative number of persons who have been rejected in total,across all months is16419 015, as follows:

May 2 180 725

June 2 454 765

July 2 770 269

August 2 927 238

September 3 043 009

October 3 043 009

d) 60 306appeals have been received to date and will be consideredfor the months that they have been declined. However, appeals continue to been received daily, so these numbers will change.

e) Foreign Nationals:

(i) The following applications have been received for foreign nationals but not paid yet as SASSA is still working with other organisations to validate the permit numbers and to verify the income:

750 Asylum Seekers and 1 117 Special Permit holders

(ii) countries from which they emanate:

Angolan Permit Holders 76

Lesotho Permit Holders 551

Zimbabwean Permit Holders 490

f) To date 241 officials who were found to be in the employ of the State were paid the COVID 19 SRD. The reason thereof is that SASSA could not find them on the databases at its disposal, when conducting verification. AGSA has however identified these individuals as Government employees and former government employees who are in receipt of other source of income such as the GEPF. The payment of these grants was immediately stopped when flagged by the AGSA as ineligible applicants for the May applications. SASSA will investigate and has determined a recovery process for grants that were paid to undeserving individuals.

g) The cases are still being investigated and further information will be provided once the investigations are completed.

National AssemblyWritten Reply: 2261 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. In line with similar prognosis on supply and demand, the IRP2019 recognises that there is risk of load shedding in the next 18 to 24 months.

It is for this reason that as one of the 9 (nine) decisions in the IRP2019 we committed to the following:

Decision 1:Undertake a power purchase programme to assist with the acquisition of capacity needed to supplement Eskom’s declining plant performance and to reduce the extensive utilisation of diesel peaking generators in the immediate to medium term. Lead-time is therefore key.

Decision 2: Koeberg power plant design life must be extended by another 20 years by undertaking the necessary technical and regulatory work.

Decision 3: Support Eskom to comply with MES over time, taking into account the energy security imperative and the risk of adverse economic impact.

We in addition to these decisions made provision for distributed generation by allowing electrify consumers to generate their own electricity. We have in this regard taken following steps:

• • The department has enabled generation for own use by removing the licensing requirements for certain category of generation facilities under one megawatt (1 MW). 139 requests for registration have been processed by NERSA to date with capacity of 59. This capacity excludes installations under 1MW that register direct with local municipalities.
  • The department has also eased the licensing of generation for own use above 1 MW which is mainly to supplement power supply to commercial and industrial customers including the mines. The IRP 2019 now makes provision for distributed generation for own use above 1MW, which takes away the need for a Ministerial approval for deviation from the IRP before NERSA can process a generation license application. 5 Licences have been issued to date. The Department has invited applicants experiencing challenges to engage DDG responsible for Programmes and Projects.

2. These initiatives have already beenpublicly pronounced.

 

Reply:

1. a). Domestic Worker Cases

Sector	Received	Inspected	Compliant	Not Compliant	Scheduled	Cancelled
Domestic	25 699	3289	2958	331	3954	473

(i) The statistics for the Lockdown period (Quarters 1 & 2 of the 2020/21 Financial Year is still being verified and interrogated.

(ii) The Department does not maintain statistics in respect of sexual assault cases as these are criminal matters.

(iii) The Department does not maintain statistics in respect of rape cases as these are criminal matters.

(b) In reference to national Minimum Wage (NMW) Cases, 7 days is the turnaround time to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, due to Covid - 19 Pandemic, Inspectors had to undertake Administrative Inspections (working from home) which made adherence to this time-limit difficult.

(c) The statistics for the Lockdown period (Quarters 1 & 2 of the 2020/21 Financial Year is still being verified and interrogated.

(2) Yes, complaints were made through the Impimpa Hotline. Since the inception of the Impimpa Hotline in March 2020, 178 000 cases have been reported

(3) To ensure the effective monitoring and enforcement of the national minimum wage, my department developed a reporting line to allow workers to report cases of non-compliance with the national minimum wage without any cost to them which I subsequently launched on the 5th March 2020.

To recognise the Batho Pele principle of openness and transparency and to hold us accountable on whether the cases reported on the reporting line were resolved within the stipulated time-frames, a dashboard was built to extract data from the system. The data would then be published on the department’s website on a weekly basis.The data was subsequently published on the website but that was unfortunately halted as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown.

4. The success of this hotline was very much dependent on properly marketingit to ensure that it is communicated to all employees. My department therefore engaged GCIS to arrange for the marketing and advertising of this NMW Impimpa reporting line.

It was therefore crucial to use different media platforms in order to ensure that the information on the system reached all the intended beneficiaries. The department therefore made use of about six media platforms (print, radio, taxi rank advertising, train station advertising, television and social media) amounting to R21 620 000 00 to cover the cost of marketing and advertising of the NMW Impimpa hotline.

(5) The department made use of six media platforms (print, radio, taxi rank advertising, train station advertising, television and social media) amounting to R21 620 000 00 to ensure that the message is delivered to all stakeholders.

Since the launch of the NMW Impimpa hotline in March, employees have been making use of this service as to date about 178 000 cases were recorded on the NMW Impimpa dashboardbut it has unfortunately been temporarily put on hold as the department has received more numbers than anticipated which has put the department on pressure with regards to funding.

Reply:

No. The Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act provides for parties in the claims process which are:

• Employers who are required to register, pay annual assessment and submit claims when workers are injured or contract an occupational disease in the workplace.
• Medical Service providers who treat the injured workers or those who contracted occupational diseases and claim such costs from the Compensation Fund
• Workers who when they are injured in the workplace are entitled to benefits as outlined in the Act.

The law is adequate with regards to provisions related to the above mentioned parties hence there has been no need to issue a regulation(s) in terms of the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases for parties who are not in the Act.

Reply:

(1) The judgement by the Eastern Cape High Court instructed the Department Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) to monitor the loading of the sheep and ensure that the exportation is in line with the animal welfare chapter of the Terrestrial Animal Code of the World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

Two Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) employed veterinarians, two Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) employed veterinarians and a DALRRD employed Animal Health Technician participated in the monitoring exercise. One DALRRD veterinarian and one DRDAR veterinarian monitored the loading at the East London harbour and the rest were monitoring the loading at the Castledale feedlot in Berlin.

The judgement also required that the officials submit affidavits to the Registrar of the Animal Improvement Act within a day of completion of the loading. This was done and the Registrar acknowledged receipt of the affidavits. The affidavits were also lodged with the Eastern Cape High Court as required.

(2) As indicated in the response to question one, five government officials participated in the monitoring of the loading exercise both at the feedlot and the harbour. This monitoring exercise was part of ensuring that the loading is done correctly and in line with the court judgement.

Reply:

The department has not made any finding that the animals suffer during live export. The transportation of live animals by sea, if done in compliance to animal welfare and health requirements, does not pose any more challenges to the animals than it would be the case when the animals are kept on a farm or feedlot.

The Muslim Judicial Council has not submitted any statement on live animal exports to the department and therefore the department is not in a position to respond to the question until we have received the statement and studied it.

Access to mainstream markets is the heartbeat of agribusinesses. Ability of smallholder farmers to secure supply contracts for animals at export parity prices is an affirmation to the competitiveness of agribusinesses exporting the animals. In this instance, downstream value chain actors such as abattoirs will need to procure raw material at export parity prices. It is unfair and unjust expectation for smallholder farmers to sell animals at lower than export parity prices with the intention to accommodate downstream activities. Inclusive economic growth of the sector that significantly contributes to job creation and reduction of poverty is directly linked to the competitive performance of agribusinesses.

Reply:

What we are picking up from our records thus far is that, the learners referred to, do not belong to the Labour Activation Programmes of the Unemployment Insurance Fund. We will continue to investigate this matter with a view to establish as to whether there any links that might be there with our LAP.

However, for information purposes, LAP learners who were active before the nationwide lockdown, supported by attendance registers, are paid Covid-19 lockdown stipends for the months of April, May and June 2020. They are not expected to claim any other grant by virtue of this payment. In cases where they have not yet received their payments, it means there might be other circumstances delaying the payments.

Reply:

(a)

The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities is engaging with the Department of Health on the Investigative Report of the Commission for Gender Equality on Forced Sterilisation of Women living with HIV and Aids. This collaboration is based on the findings and recommendations contained in the report to respond so that justice be served where there is proof of the violation of human rights and dignity, and reproductive injustices committed.

In this regard the redress must include the following that:

• the Department of Health must facilitate engagement with the complainants so that where such violations were committed, the appropriate redress can be provided for;
• there be an immediate review of the policy on sterilisation and if necessary, of the Sterilisation Act No 44 of 1998.
• where necessary, the guidelines and protocols related to the issue of sterilisation be reviewed and amended in order to protect against any loopholes that could lead to such violations;
• the Department of Health investigate the issue so that those doctors and nurses guilty of the alleged heinous acts be appropriately sanctioned.

The meeting between the two departments was to establish what interventions the Department of Health has made to date and to determine how the matter can be expeditiously addressed and redressed. The Department of Health informed the Department of the actions taken to date:

• In February 2020, the Department of Health received the Report from the Commission on Gender Equality, following which the Minister of Health engaged the Chair, Deputy Chair and the CEO of the Commission for Gender Equality, seeking clarity on issues contained in the Report .

• In order to better understand the nature and extend of the complaints and to take corrective action, the Department of Health is establishing a panel of independent experts from various fields to further investigate the matter.

• The Department of Health will request through the media that women who feel that they have been sterilised against their will make representation to the Health Ombudsman confidentially, so that they are not prejudiced

• The Department of Health is probing the consent forms for sterilisation to ascertain whether the provisions contained therein provide for and protect the principle of informed consent in all respects. The Department of Health indicated that the previous consent form has a few limitations which need to be strengthened and tightened to avoid any unintended negative consequences and that they are currently addressing these, including the recommendations from the Commission for Gender Equality report on language of counselling, and the provision of a “cooling off” period for the person seeking the procedure before it is actually performed, among others.

(b) The Department is unable to directly engage the alleged victims as they remain anonymous. It is envisaged that in working with the Department of Health the issue will be addressed though the interventions that the Department of Health is putting into place.

Reply:

The matter was conciliated on 12 December 2019.

The request for Arbitration was received late and the applicant applied for condonation, which was granted on 26 May 2020. The arbitration was scheduled and heard on 1 July 2020 where the applicant was in attendance.

The Commissioner found that the respondent, Tsitsikamma Forest Village Trust, had not dismissed the applicant, Mr. Mzinosi Ntentile, as alleged by the applicant in his referral of his dispute to the CCMA. The Commissioner found further that the applicant’s employment had in fact, come to an end, when his fixed term contract had ended in August 2019. The Arbitration Award was issued and served on 13 July 2020.

END

Reply:

1(a). The Chief Executive Officer of PanSALB, has not resigned as is still in the employ of PanSALB, (b-d) falls off.

2(a). Yes, the Chief Financial Officer of PanSALB, resigned in March 2020, (b) Career Development, Better offer (Competitive Salary package), (c) former Acting CFO Ms. VeliswaDwamena, and (d) acted as CFO from March 2020 to 30 September 2020.

3(a). No, the Executive Head of Languages was dismissed effective 15 June 2017, (b) dismissed due to Ill Health / Incapacity, (c) Joint Acting - Mr. LufunoNdlovu(Acting period: April 2019 – 30 June 2019) and 01 August 2019 until 31 July 2020. Dr. Sally Maepa (Acting period: 01 July 2017 and 01 April 2019 to 30 June 2019), former acting Executive Head: Languages. Ms. NikiweMatebula is currently acting, and (d) Ms. Matebula acted as Executive Head: Languages from 01 August 2020 to date.

Reply:

a) Level 1 Regulations do not pose any restrictions on SADC for South African Citizens to repatriate back home.

b) The Immigration Act requires that any student wishing to register at a recognised learning institution should apply for a study visa authorising them to study in South Africa. Such study visas are issued for the duration of study. South African Missions prioritize study visa applications from all SADC countries. This is done in conjunction with learning institutions to ensure that prospective students from SADC countries are given the necessary support.

END

 

Reply:

(a). No province has yet given input into identifying statues, symbols and monuments that are not in line with the spirit and values of the South African Constitution for relocating, repositioning and curating into Regional Cultural Nation Building Parks. The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) has mandated the South African Heritage Resources Agency to conduct an audit of all monuments and statues in South Africa.

Once the national audit have been conducted and completed, my department will commence with the process of identifying statues, symbols and monuments that are not in line with the spirit and values of the South African Constitution for relocating, repositioning and curating into Regional Cultural Nation Building Parks.

Provinces will form part of the Steering Committee that will drive this process including the necessary consultation processes.(b-e). Falls off as outlined in (a) above, i.e. “Provinces will form part of the Steering Committee that will drive this process including the necessary consultation processes.”

Reply:

1(a). The current number of positions occupied in an acting capacity is Two (2).

(b). Acting Deputy Director: Demand appointed from August 2019 to date; the Acting Executive Head: Languages from 01 August 2020 to date

(c). The previous incumbent (Deputy Director: Demand was dismissed 29 November 2019 due to misconduct.

2(a). The total number of executive positions available is three (3)

(b). The details of specified positions are Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Head: Languages.

(c). The Total number of Executive positions filled in an acting capacity is one, (1) namely, Executive Head: Languages.

3. As per the instruction of the former Chairperson of the board, through the office of the Acting Chief Executive Officer, the office of the Chief Financial Officer was instructed to initiate the process of changing bank accounts. A tender was advertised on 3 September 2020. Bids were received from various banks and to date no action has taken place.

(a) The former Chairperson of the board instructed that the bank account be changed, as the board was not happy with the current bank used.

(b)(i). Person/(s) in charge of the bank accounts as at 2 November 2020 Dr Bongumenzi Mpungose: Chief Executive Officer, Ms Veliswa Dwamena Deputy: Finance Manager (Former Acting Chief Financial Officer)

(ii). Ms Portia Prudence Chilwane: Board member

Reply:

1. The person holds no position within the Department or Ministry of Home Affairs as he is not in the employ of the Department. However, the Advocate has represented the Department in various matters in court, like many other counsel, on behalf of the State Attorney.
2. Not applicable.
3. Not applicable.

 

END