Questions and Replies

Reply:

1. No. The Department of Small Business Development is supporting small businesses through various COVID-19 Intervention schemes.

2. Falls away.

Reply:

(a)(i),(ii),(b),(c),(d) Please refer to the table below.

2017 – 2018
Acting Employee	Acting position	(c) Acting Remuneration	(d) Acting Period
CLARKE DG	CHIEF SURVEYOR GENERAL	R0.00	10 MONTHS
NTOAGAE SM	CHIEF DIRECTOR: SERVICE DELIVERY COORDINATOR	R131 246.30	9 MONTHS
XALISA ZK	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL SURVEY TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT	R22 921.78	3 MONTHS
JANSE VAN RENSBURG ET	SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R48 664.66	5 MONTHS AND 16 DAYS
NAPOLEON MM	DIRECTOR: MAPPING SERVICES	R93461.60	6 MONTHS
SIKO X	OFFICE ASSISTANT	R2 294.12	1 MONTH
NEL DL	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL	R40 045.50	6 MONTHS
REYNECKE DA	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL: GAUTENG	R0.00	9 MONTHS
BALLANTYNE A	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL	R40 045.50	6 MONTHS
2018 – 2019
CLARKE DG	CHIEF SURVEYOR GENERAL	R0.00	4 MONTHS AND 16 DAYS
XALISA ZK	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL SURVEY TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT	R22 921.78	3 MONTHS
SIKO X	OFFICE ASSISTANT	R20 647.12	9 MONTHS
TSOTETSI P	SURVEYOR GENERAL	R53 053.00	6 MONTHS
DLUDLA IN	SURVEYOR GENERAL	R44 802.25	4 MONTHS
NAPOLEON MM	DIRECTOR: MAPPING SERVICES	R32 381.41	2 MONTHS
PETERS DG	DIRECTOR: SURVEY SERVICES	R49 411.98	2 MONTHS
SIHLANGU JA	CONTROL SURVEY TECHNICIAN	R95 120.24	4 MONTHS
HINDE GH	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL	R26 067.00	6 MONTHS
STEENKAMP BC	DEPUTY SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R7107.00	3 MONTHS
MDUBEKI R	CHIEF SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R0.00	7 MONTHS
REYNECKE DA	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL: GAUTENG	R0.00	12 MONTHS
2019 – 2020
GOGOBALA A	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL SURVEY TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT	R35 705.00	4 MONTHS
DLUDLA IN	SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R80 056.24	7 MONTHS, 15 DAYS
CELE B	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL INFORMATION MAINTENANCE & SUPPLY SERVICES	R146.300.75	6 MONTHS
SHONGWE EV	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL INFORMATION MAINTENANCE & SUPPLY SERVICES	R48 987.70	2 MONTHS
PARKER A	CHIEF DIRECTOR: NGI	R47 520.00	6 MONTHS
MDUBEKI R	CHIEF SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R0.00	12 MONTHS
REYNECKE DA	DEPUTY SURVEYOR GENERAL: GAUTENG	R0.00	12 MONTHS
(ii) April 2020 to 30 June 2020
SHONGWE EV	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL INFORMATION MAINTENANCE & SUPPLY SERVICES	R48 987.70	2 MONTHS
GOGOBALA A	DIRECTOR: CADASTRAL SURVEY TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT	R26 778.75	2 MONTHS
MDUBEKI R	CHIEF SURVEYOR-GENERAL	R0.00	3 MONTHS

Reply:

(a)(i)According to the Department of Social Development’s prescripts homeless children are considered as street children. Therefore measures used to identify them are provided for in the Children’s Act 38/2005. For an example,section 191 (2)(k) makes provision for therapeutic intervention services for them.

Furthermore, section 150 (1) (c) makes room for street children to be found or identified as children in need of care and protection after the social worker has conducted the home investigation and recommended to Children’s Court that they be found children in need of care and protection.

(ii) Like any other child, street children are covered by section 28 of the Constitution of the Republic, 1996which guarantees right to education.

(b) Rendering services to street children is not easy because they have lived long on the street, have learnt street life and it may be difficult for them to live a normal life.

The department has developed Stabilization programme to assist the Child and Youth Care Centres to manage the behaviour of street children.

Furthermore the Department has developed Strategy and Guidelines on Drop in Centres to inform provision of services of Orphans and Vulnerable Children, which includes street children. The Department also developed a Strategy and Guidelines that inform various programmes for street children using the following levels of interventions: Prevention; Early Intervention; Statutory Services; Reunification and After Care.

At all levels, children are encouraged and motivated to attend school. It is compulsory for those who have been admitted in a child and youth care centre to attend school, therefore all of them do attend school once they are in a child and youth care centre.

The main challenge is that the street children are nomadic and most of the time they abscond from the intervention centres. They are used to uncontrolled environment.

Reply:

1. The information requested is not available in the Department of Basic Education but rather in the respective Provincial Education Departments. In terms of Section 3(7)(a) of the Public Service Act, 1994 (Proclamation 103 of 1994) the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) in a province determines districts’ public service staff establishment and also determines the educator staff establishment in terms of Section 5(1) of the Employment of Educators Act, 1998 (Act 76 of 1998). The honourable member is requested to direct the question to the provinces

2(aa) (National Department)

2(a)(i) 49 (Directors)

2(a)(ii) 134 (Deputy Directors)

2(b) Former principals:

8 Directors

3 Deputy Directors

bb. This information is available at the national department and should be directed to the provinces.

Reply:

The governance and management of schools is the competence of Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) and as such, my Department has requested the PEDs to provide necessary response to this question. I will therefore provide the reply as soon as the information has been received.

Reply:

(1) and (2) The National Department of Basic Education does not keep the requested data and the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs) under the Executive Authority of the Members of the Executive Councils (MECs)  are best suited to provide the requested data. 

Reply:

No.  The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which outline protocols that should be followed in the event that positive cases of COVID19 are identified among staff or learners in schools. Schools were encouraged to implement the SOPs appropriately.

Reply:

(a)(b)(c) According to the South African Police Service (SAPS) Crime Administration System (CAS), ther are four cases, where a person with the same name and surname, as provided in this question, is a victim or complainant. In order to respond accurately, more detail will be required, e.g the name of the police station, the case number, the nature of the charge that the complainant has opened and the victim’s identity number.

Reply to question 1131 recommended

GENERAL NATIONAL COMMISSIONER: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
KJ SITOLE (SOEG)
Date: 2020/06/25

Reply for question 1131 approved

MINISTER OF POLICE
GENERAL BH CELE (MP)
Date: 02/07/2020

Reply:

Yes, the Minister contacted Home Education Associations during her extensive consultation process relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

(a)(i) The following representatives of Home Education Associations attended the meeting: Bouwer Van der Eems; Natasha Yazbek; Phillip Doubell; Ponnie Moodley; Shaun Green; Karim van Oostrum; Christopher Cordeiro; Uda de Wet; Peter Reynolds; Nunuki; Rebbeka Liebenberg; Debbie Lemmer; and Mrs Ueckermann.

(ii) 05 May 2020

(iii) The Department of Basic Education shared their plans to the associations. The parties agreed to collaborate and update each other regarding developments and implementation of the Policy on Home Education. 

Reply:

There is a significant decrease of 71,7 %, from 29 March 2019 to 21 May 2019, compared to 27 March 2020 to 19 May 2020, with regard to the number of contact crimes, which were reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The relevant details of the statistics, with regard to the number of arrests made, are as follows:

Province	Number of Persons Arrested from 27 March 2020 to 19 May 2020
Eastern Cape	26 382
Free State	24 848
Gauteng	79 363
KwaZulu-Natal	41 175
Limpopo	22 209
Mpumalangs	15 868
North West	13 899
Northern Cape	11 873
Western Cape	48 407
Other	368
Total	264 392

Reply to question 1005 recommended

GENERAL COMMISSIONER: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SREDVICE
KJ SITOLE (SOEDG)
Date: 2020/06/25

Reply to question 1005 approved

GENERAL BH CELE (MP)
MINISTER OF POLICE
Date: 02/07/2020

Reply:

The question has been referred to Gauteng Departments of Education for a response. The response will be forwarded as soon as it is received.

Reply:

(1)    For the 2020/21 financial year, an amount of R198 734 325 was provided to eThekwini TVET College with regards to programme funding. This amount is the budget before the special budget adjustment announced by the National Treasury in June 2020. The new budget allocations will be issued to the TVET colleges as soon as it is approved.

(2)     The initial 2020/21 budget allocation of R198 734 325 consisted of the following economic categories:

            (a)       Compensation of Employees (PERSAL)        R 100 067 099

            (b)       Direct Transfers (subsidies)                             R 59 906 226

         (c) NSFAS Tuition Fees                                         R 38 761 000

(3)    Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges did not receive COVID-19 relief funding during the initial budget allocation (before the COVID-19 pandemic) and colleges were requested to reprioritise its budget to accommodate COVID-19 related expenditure. Based on the new special budget adjustment announced by the National Treasury in June 2020, an earmarked COVID-19 budget allocation has been made available to TVET colleges and will be issued to TVET colleges as soon as it is approved.

Reply:

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has provided the following response to the questions posed: 

(1)   In general, the examination of theses by academics is considered as a collegial activity and part of academic citizenship. Some colleagues have declared the external examination of theses as part of the private work declaration as an indication of transparency for additional funds received. It is thus not a requirement, but an optional declaration that promotes transparency.

(2) The amounts paid to external academics who examine (i) Masters and (ii) Doctoral theses vary markedly between institutions, and the remuneration generally takes the form of a cash payment into the academic’s bank account.

(3) (a) Most, if not all, institutions would regard it as academic citizenship, as is the norm at UKZN.

 (b) There are no financial implications for external academics who perform collegial activities. Both internal and external academics such as Honorary Research Fellows are paid for examining theses.

(4) The requirement to declare external thesis examination as private work in UKZN's Graduate School of Business and Leadership, has resulted in contestation by some academics, but has not directly led to academics being discouraged from examining theses, as per academic citizenry. However, the previous instances of excessive external examination have subsided due to the transparency of the process.

Reply:

(a) The 875 Offences, which are mentioned in this question, refer to the movement between province metropolitan and district areas during lockdown, other than provided for in the Regulations of the Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No 57 of 2002). These offences are all detected due to police action. The high number of offences registered is indicative of the successful enforcement of the Regulation and a clear indication that the current plans, to deal with the enforcement of cross-border offences, are effective.

(b) The Border Policing Component, in the South African Police Service (SAPS), is responsible for the policing and security of identified Ports of entry. Section 13(6) of the Police Act, 1995 (Act No. 68 of 1995), mandates the SAPS to search people, premises and vehicle, without a warrant, within 10 kilometres or a reasonable distance from any border of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and a foreign state. Members of the SAPS Border Policing Component, conduct as hoc patrols along the borderline. In conjunction with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). Through the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NATJOINTS), the SAPS also conduct specific joint operations with the SANDF.

Reply for question 810 recommended

GENERAL NATIONAL COMMISSIONER: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
KJ SITOLE (SOEG)

Reply for question 810 approved

MINISTER OF POLICE
GENERAL BH CELE (MP)
Date: 02/07/2020

Reply:

(1) (a) Given that only few Grades or a limited number of Grades have returned to schools, there is currently no need to replace educators that have become ill due to COVID-19 (ii) a total of 811 educators were appointed in schools to replace educators due to comorbidities as at 17 July 2020. It should be noted, however, that there is currently a limited need to provide substitute educators. Only in specific cases where there is no other educator qualified in the specialisation or in case of class teaching is the substitute provided. (b) (i) The details requested are currently not available and will be requested from provinces and will be provided once obtained. (ii) The details are as follows: KwaZulu-Natal (628); Mpumalanga (8); Northern Cape (78); and Western Cape (97).

(2) All educators employed are employed on a substitute basis on a fixed term contract that is renewable based on the continued need. The details on the employment periods of the appointed teachers are not available and will be requested from provinces and submitted when they are obtained. 

(3) It is expected that where the need is identified, the period should not exceed five (5) days.

(4) The following table shows the number of vacant posts per province as at the end of May 2020. The vacancies reported here are in terms of the approved post establishments. They do not include educators not at work due to comorbidities.

Province	Approved Post establishment	Number of Vacancies	Vacancy Rate
EC	52662	3418	6.5%
FS	20238	715	3.5%
GP	59080	2033	3.4%
KZN	95492	4568	4.8%
LP	56493	4948	8.8%
MP	33968	1867	5.5%
NC	9149	610	6.7%
NW	25863	838	3.2%
WC	28947	466	1.6%
Tot	381892	19463	5.1%

Source: Persal May 2020

Reply:

1. (a) There are eighteen (18) African natural medicines that have been through various levels of the value chain of medicines development, to the point of being prescribed by traditional health practitioners (i) of which fourteen (14) were in progress since 2015, and (ii) four (4) were since 1 April 2020.

(b) The (i) names and (ii) treatment purposes for each of these African natural medicines are listed in Table 1.

(c) (i) There are twelve (12 African natural medicines currently under further development, and Table 2 provides (ii) the reasons and (iii) the status of each investigation.

2. Table 3 illustrates the list of completed and ongoing African Natural Medicines studies, funded between 2015 and 01 April 2020

Table 1: List of African Natural Medicines and Types of Health Conditions each Treats

African Natural Medicine	Treatment
Phela	Immune-Modulator (HIV, Covid-19)
Medical Cannabis	Cancers, Diabetes, Pain, Alzheimer’s
Nkabinde	Anti-Viral
Marula	Diabetes, Health Food
Liv Green	Tuberculosis
Manay-Immune	Immune-Modulators
Four New Herbs	Covid-19 Anti-Virals, Immune-Modulators
Lenong	Wound Healing, Arthritis
Machaba	Immune -Booster (Infectious Diseases)
Prijap	Diabetes, Immune-Modulator
Umphetha	Immune -Booster (Infectious Diseases)
Aloe Path	Wound Healing
Moshumasekgwa	Immune-Modulator
BP6	Anti-Viral
BP05	Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (Swollen Prostate)

Table 2: List of African Natural Medicines, Reasons for Continuity and Progress

African Natural Medicine	Progress and Reason for Continuity
Phela	Positive Phase 1 clinical trial for immune-modulation
Medical Cannabis	Activity for cancers, diabetes, hypertension and pain
Nkabinde	Activity for Anti-HIV latency and ACE-2 inhibitors
Marula	Techno-economic for large-scale manufacturing
Liv Green	Good pre-clinical and anti-hepatotoxicity activity
Manay-Immune	Positive pre-clinical studies for immune-modulation
Prijap	Activity for diabetes and general immune-modulation
BP05	Activity against benign prostatic hyperplasia
Four New Herbs	Covid-19: Anti-virals and immune-modulation evidence

Lenong, Machaba, Umpetha, Aloe Path and Moshumasekgwa are complete and will be handed over to traditional health practitioners in September 2020 for upscaling and full commercialisation

Table 3: List of completed and ongoing studies, between 2015 and 01 April 2020

Completed Research Studies		Ongoing (New) Research Studies
Product	Investment		Product	Investment
Lenong	R1 000 000		Phela	R2 000 000
Machaba	R1 200 000		Medical Cannabis	R6 000 000
Prijap	R1400 000		Nkabinde	R10 000 000
Umphetha	R1 000 000		Marula	R2 000 000
Aloe Path	R1 100 000		Liv Green	R1 000 000
Moshumasekgwa	R1 000 000		Manay-Immune	R1 400 000
BP6	R1 200 000		Four New Herbs	R1 000 000
			BP05	R9 996 908
Total	R7 900 000		Total	R33 396 908

Reply:

The question has been referred to the Gauteng Department of Education for a response. The response will be forwarded as soon as it is received.

Reply:

1. There are 4776 Bachelor of Education and PGCE FunzaLushaka bursary students in their final year of study who may be available to assist with substituting and/or assisting educators affected by COVID-19. A further 5664 FunzaLushaka unplaced graduates are also available to assist with substituting and/or assisting educators affected by COVID-19. 

2. The number of Bachelor of Education and PGCE FunzaLushaka bursary students in their final year of study and unplaced graduates in each province potentially available as substitutes for educators with comorbidities or who are infected with COVID-19 are presented in the table below.

PROVINCE	4th YEAR BEd&PGCE	UNPLACED GRADUATES	TOTAL
Eastern Cape	640	793	1433
Free State	349	310	659
Gauteng	984	1267	1267
KwaZulu-Natal	976	1251	1251
Limpopo	413	190	190
Mpumalanga	444	438	438
North West	227	114	114
Northern Cape	90	92	92
Western Cape	653	1209	1209
Grand Total	4776	5664	10440

 

Reply:

(1)(a) No, guidelines were issued, in terms of the Disaster Management, 2002 (Act No. 57 of 2002), relating to the respective offences, for enforcement of the Regulations of the Disaster Management Act.

(1)(b) No, guidelines were issued, in terms of the Disaster Management Act, relating to the respective offences, for enforcement of the Regulations of the Disaster Management.

(1)(b)(i) Certain goods may be confiscated, depending on the contravention of the Regulation, e.g. the sale or transportation of liquor or tobacco.

(1)(b)(ii) The Disaster Management Act, Regulation No. 318, issued on 18 March 2020, made no prohibition on the sale of œoked or prepared food.

The Disaster Management Act, Regulation No. 471, issued on 20 April 2020, made a provision for any food product, including non-alcoholic beverages, but excluding warm cooked food.

The Disaster Management Act, Regulation No. 480, issued on 29 April 2020, permitted the sale of warm cooked food, only for home delivery.

The National Core Command Group (NCCG) Supplementary Instruction, issued on 22 April 2020, provided guidance to members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) that any food product, excluding warm cooked food, may be sold or permitted, in terms of the Regulation No. 465, issued on 16 April 2020.

The NCCG Supplementary Instruction, issued on 1 May 2020, provided guidance to SAPS members that the sale of warm cooked food, for home delivery, was permitted, in terms of the Regulations.

(2)(a) No, guidelines were issued, in terms of the Disaster Management Act, relating to the respective offences, for enforcement of the Regulations of the Disaster Management Act.

(2)(b) No, guidelines were issued, in terms of the Disaster Management Act, relating to the respective offences, for enforcement of the Regulations of the Disaster Management Act.

(2)(b)(i) Grocery stores and wholesale produce markets, including spaza shops and informal food traders, were permitted to operate, with written permission from a municipal authority.

(2)(b)(ii) The South African Police Service (SAPS) has developed clear directives for members in the application of the amended Regulations to the Disaster Management Act .These directives are updates in accordance with periodic amendments to the aforementioned legislation. The circulation of these directives is effected via established internal communication platforms, to all levels.

The SAPS has deployed Senior Management Service (SMS) members at local level to enhance overall command and control and to guide and advise members on the application of lockdown directives.

The Minister of Police and the Deputy Minister of Police have undertaken numerous visits to deployed SAPS members, in conjunction with SAPS top management and have emphasized the correct and professional application of lockdown directives, by SAPS members.

The SAPS Disciplinary Regulation, 2016, are envoked in instancing where members have been found to have contravened the lockdown regulations. In instances where criminal offences, in terms of the lockdown regulations, have been committed by SAPS members, criminal cases are opened, in conjunction with departmental cases. The criminal cases are investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).

The SAPS has also maintained the Complaints Management capability, with the Division: Inspectorate, which manages complaints against the SAPS, including those related to the application of COVID-19 directives.

Any spaza shop owner, who feels abused by members of the SAPS, may report such a member of members to the nearest police station.

Reply to question 962 recommended

GENERAL NATIONAL COMMISSIONER: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
KJ SITOLE (SOEG)
Date: 2020/06/25

Reply to question 962 approved

MINISTER OF POLICE
GENERAL BH CELE (MP)
Date: 02/07/2020

'

Reply:

a) The total expenditure for PPE's and COVID-19 related equipment for the Department of Basic Education was R 710 605.85.

b) To be requested from the provinces

(i) N/A

(aa) N/A

(bb) N/A

(ii) N/A

(iii) N/A

Reply:

a) and (b)

The total number of gender-based violence (GBV) cases, which were reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS), since the beginning of the lockdown, on 26 March 2020, in each province and the number of the specified GBV cases, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators in each case, are reflected in the table below:

Province	(a)	(b)
	Total reported	Total persons charged	Total persons convicted
Eastern Cape	243	488	8
Free State	189	373	18
Gauteng	743	1 137	23
KwaZulu-Natal	230	375	4
Limpopo	97	253	31
Mpumalanga	88	151	7
North West	77	140	3
Northern Cape	37	122	1
Western Cape	530	1 019	35
Total	2 234	4 058	130

Reply to question 1074 recommended

GENERAL NATIONAL COMMISSIONER: SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SREVICE
KJ SITOLE
Date: 2020/08/28

Reply to question 1074 approved/

MINISTER OF POLICE
GENERAL BH CELE, MP
Date: 09/09/2020

 

 

 

 

 

Reply:

Yes.Please refer to the table below for a comprehensive schedule of legislation administered by the three spheres of Government, including Municipal Planning By-laws aligned to the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 16 of 2013.

NATIONAL LAWS

NATIONAL ACTS, NATIONAL REGULATIONS, ASSIGNED NATIONAL ACTS AND REGULATIONS, ASSIGNED HOMELAND LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL BILLS

NATIONAL ACTS

Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013 (Act No. 16 of 2013)

National Environmental Management Act, 1998 (Act No. 107 of 1998)

National Environmental Management: Integrated Coastal Management Act, 2008 (Act No. 24 of 2008)

National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 (Act No. 57 of 2003)

Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, 1970 (Act No. 70 of 1970)

NATIONAL REGULATIONS

Regulations for the Administration and Control of Townships in Black Areas, 1962 (Proclamation No. R293 of 1962) (Regulation 6A - not assigned)

ASSIGNED NATIONAL REGULATIONS

Regulations Relating to Township Establishment and Land Use, 1986 (Regulation No. R. 1897 of 1986)

Township Development Regulations for Towns, 1990 (Regulation No. R. 1886 of 1990)

Land Use and Planning Regulations, 1990 (Regulation No. R. 1888 of 1990)

Regulations for the Administration and Control of Townships in Black Areas, 1962 (Proclamation No. R293 of 1962)

Regulations for the Establishment and Development of Towns, 1983 (Regulation No. R. 154 of 1983)

Regulations Relating to the Imposition and Amendment for Town Planning Schemes for the Province of the Cape of Good Hope, 1989 (Provincial Notice No. 733 of 1989)

ASSIGNED HOMELAND LEGISLATION

Bophuthatswana Land Control Act, 1979 (Bophuthatswana Act No. 39 of 1979)

Ciskei Land Use Regulation Act, 1987 (Ciskei Act No. 15 of 1987)

KwaNdebele Town Planning Act, 1992 (KwaNdebele Act No. 10 of 1992)

KwaZulu Ingonyama Trust Act, 1994 (KwaZulu Act No. 3 of 1994)

Venda Land Affairs Proclamation, 1990 (Venda Proclamation No 45 of 1990)

PROVINCIAL LAWS

PROVINCIAL ACTS, ORDINANCES AND REGULATIONS

EASTERN CAPE

Cape Land Use Planning Ordinance, 1985 (Ordinance No. 15 of 1985)

Cape Township Ordinance, 1934 (Ordinance No. 33 of 1934)

Natal Town Planning Ordinance, 1949 (Ordinance No. 27 of 1949)

FREE STATE

Orange Free State Townships Ordinance, 1969 (Ordinance No. 9 of 1969)

GAUTENG

Division of Land Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1986)

Public Resorts Ordinance, 1969 (Ordinance No. 18 of 1969)

Transvaal Board for the Development of Peri-Urban Areas Ordinance, 1943 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1943)

Transvaal Town Planning and Townships Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 15 of 1986)

Municipal Ordinance, 1974 (Ordinance 20 of 1974),

KWAZULU-NATAL

KwaZulu-Natal Liquor Licensing Act, (Act No. 6 of 2010)

KwaZulu-Natal Planning and Development, 2008 (Act No. 6 of 2008)

Local Authorities Ordinance, 1974 (Ordinance No. 25 of 1974)

LIMPOPO

Division of Land Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1986)

Northern Province Land Administration Act, 1999 (Act No. 6 of 1999)

Public Resorts Ordinance, 1969 (Ordinance No. 18 of 1969)

Transvaal Board for the Development of Peri-Urban Areas Ordinance, 1943 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1943)

Transvaal Town Planning and Townships Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 15 of 1986)

MPUMALANGA

Division of Land Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1986)

Public Resorts Ordinance, 1969 (Ordinance No. 18 of 1969)

Transvaal Board for the Development of Peri-Urban Areas Ordinance, 1943 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1943)

Transvaal Town Planning and Townships Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 15 of 1986)

NORTHERN CAPE

Northern Cape Planning and Development Act, 1998 (Act No. 7 of 1998)

NORTH WEST

Division of Land Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1986)

Public Resorts Ordinance, 1969 (Ordinance No. 18 of 1969)

Transvaal Board for the Development of Peri-Urban Areas Ordinance, 1943 (Ordinance No. 20 of 1943)

Transvaal Town Planning and Townships Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance No. 15 of 1986)

WESTERN CAPE

Western Cape Land Use Planning Act, 2014 (Act No.3 of 2014)

Reply:

1. The initial allocation for the special relief grant of R350 per month from May to October 2020 was R3 457 696 700. Motivation was done to National treasury to indicate that this would not be sufficient. In the special adjustment budget of 24 June 2020, an additional amount of approximately R6 billion was provided for this relief grant.

(a)(i) An additional amount of approximately R6 billion was made available in the special adjustment budget for this grant. However, this is intended to cater for all who qualify, not only the asylum seekers and special permit holders.

(ii) No additional resources other than the current internal resources being used to implement the special relief grant have been made available.

(b) A total of R949 537 750 has been paid out to approved beneficiaries as at 30 June 2020

2. The Department of Social Development has amended the Directions to accommodate asylum seekers and special permit holders from Angola, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, as directed by the court, and the revised Directions were published on 2 July 2020.

3. Yes, SASSA maintains statistics on all applications received, approved and declined.

4. Statistics are not maintained on racial demographics. The table below indicates the approved applications according to citizenship and age.

Age	SA Citizens	Permanent Residents	Refugees	Total
18	182 193	3 438	38	185 669
19	220 690	4 443	90	225 223
20	210 845	4 521	94	215 460
21	218 868	5 450	76	224 394
22	197 327	5 490	80	202 897
23	173 240	5 334	78	178 652
24	145 010	4 758	66	149 834
25	120 722	3 728	55	124 505
26	104 268	3 225	40	107 533
27	89 123	2 595	54	91 772
28	84 157	2 268	40	86 465
29	78 136	2 097	44	80 277
30	74 184	1 988	59	76 231
31	68 719	1 710	57	70 486
32	66 001	1 630	63	67 694
33	63 756	1 500	54	65 310
34	62 572	1 518	60	64 150
35	60 163	1 456	62	61 681
36	57 831	1 388	67	59 286
37	57 910	1 424	69	59 403
38	53 068	1 420	60	54 548
39	49 799	1 259	74	51 132
40	50 840	1 240	88	52 168
41	46 036	1 228	64	47 328
42	45 052	1 181	67	46 300
43	45 651	1 299	68	47 018
44	48 094	1 312	56	49 462
45	47 682	1 360	53	49 095
46	45 889	1 365	47	47 301
47	47 956	1 460	51	49 467
48	46 402	1 377	32	47 811
49	43 844	1 361	25	45 230
50	50 692	1 466	30	52 188
51	49 167	1 437	24	50 628
52	48 707	1 528	25	50 260
53	46 515	1 465	15	47 995
54	50 230	1 534	15	51 779
55	51 778	1 611	17	53 406
56	53 629	1 547	9	55 185
57	54 309	1 646	14	55 969
58	49 561	1 492	8	51 061
59	44 576	1 364	5	45 945
60	2 958	86		3 044
Grand Total	3 408 150	90 999	2 093	3 501 242

5. The qualification criteria for applicants to qualify for the Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant is applied to all applicants. The gazetted criteria, including the recent amendment on 2 July 2020 is as follows:

A special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress of R350 per month may be provided for the period indicated herein to distressed individuals who are:

• South African Citizens, Permanent Residents or Refugees registered on the Home Affairs database,and holders of special permits under the Special Angolan Dispensation, the Lesotho Exemption Permit dispensation and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit Dispensation, and asylum seekers whose section 22 permits or visas are valid or were valid on 15 March 2020;
• Residing within the borders of the Republic of South Africa;
• Above the age of 18;
• Unemployed;
• Not receiving any social grant;
• Not receiving unemployment insurance benefit and does not qualify to receive unemployment insurance benefit;
• Not receiving a stipend from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme;
• Not in receipt of any other government COVID-19 response support; and
• Not a resident in a government funded or subsidised institution.

Applicants are declined if they do not meet any of the above criteria.

Reply:

1. All EMS personnel in Limpopo Province have been issued with personal protective equipment (PPE) from the onset of the lockdown. Limpopo Department of Health procured an additional 5000 three-layer cloth face masks and issued each employee with two face masks. EMS orders and collects PPE from the departmental pharmaceutical depot on a weekly basis to ensure that there is constant supply.

2. There are no EMS teams or hospitals that are not equipped with PPE. The Department has been supplying all the staff members with PPE since the start of the lockdown and the records of the department show no personnel without PPE.

3. In Limpopo, just like in other provinces, the department ensures that there is a constant supply of PPE that is available to issue to the staff hence there are no operational staff without PPE. The pharmaceutical depot orders the PPE which get supplied to various sections/institutions according to their needs.

END.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

In relation to the requirements put in place by the department, regarding resumption of construction activities, the department requested Contractors to conduct a Risk Analysis in terms of lockdown regulations and Method Statements with risk mitigation plans to covid-19 prior to returning to sites.

The method statementsare required to ensure Contractors commit and comply with the key risk compliance areas in terms of the lockdown regulations. This includes thedisinfection of the workplace on regular intervals; ensure Security Staff have PPEs (masks, glove, sanitizers, etc.) and are wearing them all the time; thermal scanners to check temperature of all staff and visitors; register to be implemented for staff and visitors to site with identification criteria “ ID Number, Name, Age, Health Status and Contact details”;

Isolation room identified/constructed on site; ensure sanitizers and soap are available in locker rooms for  staff;ensure staff or visitors are wearing masks before entering; “touch-experience” must be limited as much as  possible; ensure Social distance on site and;

notification about the restriction of the number of people  allowed on site at one time;

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

a) (i)DPWI is working with (4) four implementing agents namely Coega Development Corporation (CDC), Independent Development Trust (IDT), Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC).

(ii)In terms of the construction projects; CDC were allocated 65 projects from the Mthatha Region, IDT were allocated 41 projects from the all Regions, DBSA were allocated 71 projects from the all Regions and GTAC has 1 project. The projects are at various stages in the project life cycle; wherein there are projects in the planning stages (i.e. Town Planning and unfunded projects), design stages and construction.

b) The implementing Agents are required to focus on the current portfolio of projects and bring the projects to completion. The Department is holding the Implementing Agents accountable to complete projects. No decision was taken not to award new projects to the Implementing Agents.

c) (i)The Department will continue to use Implementing Agents to assist the Department in the implementation of infrastructure projects.

The Sustainable Infrastructure Development (SID) methodology aims at consolidating the infrastructure pipeline to address the fragmentation of infrastructure delivery. The methodology compliments and reinforces the requirements for infrastructure development in South Africa, as envisaged by the Infrastructure Development Act of 2014.

(ii)Through the governance structures, the DPWI isconducting oversight.

Reply:

No, COVID-19 has had little impact on the filling of vacancies within the National Department of Health due to the fact that we issued directions in terms of regulation 10(1)(a) of the regulations made under section 27(2) of the Disaster Management Act, 2002, (Act 57 of 2002). Section 2(1) states that “the recruitment process in relation to critical COVID-19 related posts should be shortened by advertising a post and effecting appointments within a period of a week, on condition that an appointment may be set aside depending on the outcome of personnel suitability checks and verification processes…”

A total of 332 appointments have been made in the National Department of Health since the declaration of a COVID-19 disaster, 304 of which are critical posts.

END.

Reply:

1.Cabinet established the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Gender Based Violence and Femicide which will play a key facilitation and political liaison role in the National Council for Gender Based Violence and Femicide (NCGBVF) processes; The National Council which will be tasked with the implementation of the National Strategic Plan (NSP); and take recommendations made at the 2018 Presidential Summit against GBVF forward; The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities (DWYPD) recently met with civil society sector to engage and forge a roadmap for the establishment of the National Council; The Webinar resolved to extend the deadline for the establishment of the National Council to provide Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) the opportunity to consult extensively with their constituencies and communities on processes to be followed towards the establishment of the National Council – that includes discussions on the National Council terms of reference and selection criteria for the representatives. The parties agreed on a timeframe of 3 months following the Webinar.

2.The Department of Social Development (DSD) has appointed the National Development Agency (NDA) as an implementing partner for funding of CSOs from the Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA) Funds. The contract between DSD and NDA was signed for R95 million for funding of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which render services to victims of crime and violence including victims of gender based violence as well as implementing mentoring programme for emerging CSOs. The NDA advertised the call for proposals in January 2020 and the total of 589 proposals were received by closing date. These proposals were evaluated by the inter-sectoral evaluating team comprised of representatives of NDA, DSD and the Interim Steering Committee on GBV and a total of 312 CSOs were recommended for funding. The process of verification for all the recommended CSOs has been conducted and the process of contracting as well transferring the funds to qualifying CSOs is underway.

3.In order to enforce accountability, coordination and leadership, the multi-sectoral GBVF Fund was established by the Interim Gender Based Violence and Femicide Steering Committee (IGBVF-SC) in order to urgently respond to the GBVF crisis and to support interventions rolled-out within the Emergency Response Action Plan (ERAP). Amongst others, the objectives of the a multi-sectoral GBVF Fund are to: a) provide a vehicle for the private sector to respond to the national emergency response on GBVF campaign in a coordinated and strategic manner; and b) provide a vehicle for the private sector to be able to effectively monitor and efficiently spend funds in this regard.

In order to facilitate this process, on 13 December 2019, the South African Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (SABCOHA) was approved by the Department of Women, Youth & Persons with Disabilities, through recommendation by the IGBVF-SC, as the agency to establish the multi-sectoral GBVF Fund in line with the terms of reference crafted by the IGBVF-SC. SABCOHA proceeded with getting approval to open a separate bank account in line with its internal and banking governance requirements. Once established, the NCGBVF will be the custodian of the multi-sectoral GBVF Fund; and will work together with CSOs to develop guidelines for management of the fund based on feminist principles.

.

.

Reply:

1. The matter on permanent appointment of the Director-General is a work in progress, details on the process including the date will be provided to the Parliament Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence.

2. Yes. The contract has been extended until 31 August 2020.

3. The permanent appointment for position of Director: Foreign Branch was made with commencement date of 1 July 2020

4 The number of Deputy Director-Generalpositions occupied in an acting capacity is four (4), permanent appointment to these positions is a workin progress.

5. The Number of General Manager positions occupied in an acting capacity is ten (10), permanent appointment to these positions is a work in progress.

 

Reply:

a) A total of 72 posts are attached to both the Maternity Ward and the Neo Natal Ward, allocated per category type as follows: There are 45 Professional Nurses (PNs) of which 27 are assigned to the Maternity ward, this number includes 2 PNs already issued with job offers and are expected to resume duty on the 1st of August 2020. There are also 17 Enrolled Nurses (ENs) and 8 Enrolled Nursing Assistants (ENAs), of which 8 ENs and 5 ENAs are allocated for the Maternity ward. Currently there are no vacant posts that exist in the maternity Ward.

The Hospital fills replacement /vacant posts within 30 days when they became vacant, especially in the Medical and Nursing(clinical) departments. The Hospital also utilises the service of a Nursing Agency to provide nursing personnel to alleviate pressure in critical areas.

However, it needs to be mentioned that the Hospital was a day hospital, that has since been upgraded recently to a Regional Hospital. A new Organisational Structure has been finalised and approved for the package of care for a Regional Hospital, and a phased-in approach for filling of the posts is being pursued dependent on the available budget. This has not been realised currently, and the Hospitalcontinues to operate with an inadequate structure for the level of care to which it is upgraded.

b) (i) (ii) (iii)

CORRECT DESCRIPTION OF NURSING CATEGORIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

There are three categories of nurses as follows:

• Professional nurses /midwives (also called nursing sisters)
• Enrolled Nurses
• Enrolled Nurse Assistants

PRODUCTION OF NURSES

The training of midwives has been ongoing. Since 1986, all nurses doing the Bachelor degree programme in nursing, offered at universities, as well as the 4-year diploma programme in nursing, offered at nursing colleges, completed their training with a qualification as a midwife. The trend in output of both these nursing programmes, which produced professional nurses (with a midwifery qualification) is as follows:

• 3 528 in 2016,
• 3 322 in 2017 and,
• 3 564 in 2018.

It is envisaged, that this trend will continue in the following years until the teach-out period is reached in 2024.

Additional numbers of professional nurses were produced through the 2-year Bridging programme. These nurses could go on to do the 1-year diploma in Midwifery, which was offered.

In addition, the Department of Health prioritised midwifery by accrediting five provincial nursing colleges to take an additional intake in the second half of 2019 in order to increase the production of 4-year Diploma programme nurses (who will have midwifery as a qualification) and prevent shortages during the transition to higher education in 2020.

Production of enrolled nursing auxiliaries and enrolled nurses were through the old legacy of both one year and two-year programme, respectively. An overproduction of these categories resulted in many of these nurses not being employed over the last ten years. According to a survey by the South African Nursing Council, up to 60% of these nurses were not employed after completion of their studies.

The abovementioned basic nursing programmes, will be phased out by 2024 and replaced by the new nursing programmes as follows:

• Bachelors degree Nursing & Midwifery National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 8 started 2020
• Advanced midwifery NQF level 7 which will be phased in from 2021
• Diploma in Nursing NQF 6
• Higher Certificate nursing NQF 5

The above information shows that the shortage of nurses is not due to a lack of production of nurses.

OFFSETING OF SHORTAGES

On an Annual basis, a minimum of 3500 Community Services Professional Nurses joins the Public Health Sector, distributed across Provinces, mainly in rural and underserved areas where it is difficult to recruit.

During the period, January 2020 to 30 June 2020, 7393 Nurses were added to the Public Health Sector, which reduces the vacancy rate in the Nursing field with 27%. This is a giant step taken by the Public Health Sector to reduce the number of unemployed nurses to assist in managing, amongst others the Covid-19 pandemic.

CHALLENGES

The challenges observed amongst others include:

The lengthy time span it takes to fill vacant posts.

The non-appointment of community service nurses post their community service training due to budget constraints.

RESPONSE TO ALLEVIATE THE CHALLENGES

The Minister of Health, Dr ZweliMkhize, issued a directive in April 2020, instructing that the recruitment process should be shortened by advertising a post and effecting appointments within a period of a week, on condition that an appointment may be set aside depending on the outcome of personnel suitability checks and verification processes.

Since 2019, Province are expected to develop their Annual Human Resources Plan that includes recruitment plans making provision for the continued appointment of community services nurses post their community service training period. Since Covid-19 surge, a National Data Base System has also been created at the National Department where all unemployed health professionals including nurses are capture. Province have been given rights to access the database when required.

END.

Reply:

MsThabangMampane, Commissioner of the National Lotteries Commission furnished me with a reply to the question submitted, which is reproduced below.

Reply by the National Lotteries Commission, MsThabangMampane:

1. Mr. TebogoSithathu is not part of the media and communications service provider database and/or panel of the National Lotteries Commission. To the best of NLC records, no companies associated with Mr. TebogoSithathuare part of the media and communications service provider database and/or panel of the National Lotteries Commission.

2. Mr. TebogoSithathu has never received any remuneration from the NLC in return for services rendered. To the best of NLC records, no companies associated with Mr.TebogoSithathu have ever received any remuneration from the NLC in return for services rendered.

-END-

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

Yes, Ms Melissa Whitehead is appointed in a position as an Adviser to the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure.

(a) Ms Whitehead was appointed in accordance with the Dispensation on the Appointment and Remuneration of persons (Special Advisers); appointed to Executive Authorities in terms of Section 12A of the Public Service Act, 1994 as amended by Act 30 of 2007.

(b) None. The appointment was made in terms of Section 12A of the Public Service Act, 1994 as amended by Act 30 of 2007

(c) Adviser to the Minister

(d) Yes.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure:

1. (a) The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has informed me that a total 189 NPOswhich were compliant to the central supplier database (CSD) requirements,were contracted by way of an addendum in this current financial year to implement the COVID-19 response project in support of the Department of Healthfor a period of 3 months. Of the 189 NPOs, 143 NPOs have commenced with the COVID-19 Response.

(b) Of the 189 appointed NPOs, 46have delayed implementation due to various challenges at a local level such as (i) late or non-confirmation of deployment sites due to limited capacity to utilise the participants(ii) change of scope of work by someprovincial Departments of Health, (iii) provinces and district municipalities querying participants’ recruitment strategiesand therefore not accepting placement, (iv)district municipalities and provinces not having the required tools for participants to deliver the Public Health Hygiene Strategy interventions at the implementation sites.

(c) So far 171 NPOs have received their personal protective equipment (PPE). The PPEs include hand sanitisers, masks and gloves. Eighteen (18) NPOs (1 in Mpumalanga and 17 in KZN) will receive their PPEsonce the sites have been identified,by municipalities and the provincial Departments of Health, for the deployment of the participants.

2. (a)In terms of the 46 NPOs awaiting commencement, this question is addressed inresponse 1 (b) above.

(b)This is addressed in response 1(c).

Reply:

We had requested provinces to provide us with a full breakdown of Health Care Workers who had acquired the Coronavirus. In addition the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) provided us with data from the private sector. We now share the data collated and verified as at 4 August 2020.

                                                   

The total number of 27,360 health care workers were reported. Of those, 6,027 (22%) were from the private sector and 21,333 (78%) were from the public sector. The overall infection rate amongst health care workers as compared to the total number of cases identified nationally is 5% which is well below the global average of 10%.

A total of 1,644 (6%) of these health care workers were doctors, 14,143 (52%) were nurses, 28 (less than 1%) were Port Health workers and 11,545 (42%) were from other categories of health workers.

Sadly, 240 of our health care workers have succumbed to COVID-19, 37 from the private sector and 203 from the public sector. We salute these fallen soldiers and pay tribute to them for their commitment to serving the people of South Africa right until the very end. We extend our condolences to all the family, friends and col-leagues of these valuable members of society.

The mortality rate amongst health care workers is 0,9%.

The number of health care workers reported to have recovered as at 4 August 2020 is 16,005, which translates to a 58% recovery rate amongst health care workers.

The Provincial Breakdown is as reflected in the following table.

 

Table 1

Province	Doctors	Nurses	Other categories combined	Mortality	Recoveries
Eastern Cape	182	2,748	2,234	85	3,225
Free State	86	369	1,350	21	784
Gauteng	483	4,983	2,702	43	4,509
KwaZulu Natal	319	2,257	1,244	30	1,376
Limpopo	47	302	248	0	464
Mpumalanga	64	392	309	3	329
Northern Cape	17	84	132	4	73
North West	109	654	1,178	16	867
Western Cape	337	2,354	2,176	38	4,378
TOTAL	1,644	14,143	11,573	240	16,005

 

In addition, we have been provided with a snapshot of active cases amongst health care workers as at 7 August 2020. On this day we registered 7,500 active cases of which 751 (10%) were being hospitalized, 6,557 (87%) were in self isolation and 192 (3%) were being isolated in a facility.

 

We wish all health care workers currently battling COVID-19 a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them back to the workforce when they are fully recovered.

 

 

END.

Reply:

a) The cost of the 100 scooters is R10,148,750-00 inclusive of VAT.

b) The tender was awarded to Fabkompt (Pty) Ltd.

END.

Reply:

1. All clients seeking to apply for disability related grants are booked at SASSA Local Offices using the Electronic Medical Assessment Statistical Template. Such clients are booked for an assessment to a particular assessment site on a particular date and there is no differentiation on new and existing beneficiaries. This booking is to assist the Agency to monitor service demands and the time clients have to wait before they are assessed. At this stage clients awaiting an assessment who have already been booked for the specified offices are as below:

• George: 1 385; Knysna: 120; Riversdale: 31, Mossel Bay: 125 and Plettenberg Bay: 32

2. SASSA strives to ensure that all clients booked are assessed within 30 days and clients waiting for longer than 30 days are referred to as backlogs, and programme managers are required to come up with innovative measures to avoid the emergence of backlogs.

3. The South African Social Security Agency contracts doctors provincially so as to allow for the flexibility to deploy such resources to deal with service demands at specific time periods and to allow for rotation as a risk mitigation strategy. SASSA has directly contracted a total of 10 doctors in the Western Cape. The Western Cape SASSA has a contract with all Provincial Health Districts so that the Department of Health doctors can conduct assessments for SASSA clients and claim an assessment fee for each assessment undertaken.

4. SASSA utilises a hybrid model for medial assessment for social grant assessments. This model relies on doctors from both the Department of Healthin accordance with a contract entered into as well as privately contracted medical officers. As reported, SASSA has only 10 privately contracted medical officers in Western Cape. There was an open tender advertised for services, but there was a very low response rate to the process that was undertaken. The Health District in the George area is not coping with the social assistance demands which has resulted in the large number of backlog assessments.

5. The Electronic Medical Assessment Template, flags all clients scheduled more than 30 days for an assessment from the date of booking. In such situations programme managers are expected to either add a resource in the form of a doctor, an additional assessment day within that week or utilise doctors from other areas in the province. In urgent cases, SASSA will request assistances from doctors contracted in other provinces.

In response to the shortage of contracted doctors, SASSA in the Western Cape has on 5 May 2020 been granted approval for deviation from normal tender processes by the National Treasury to appoint doctors in the George and Boland areas through a closed bidding process. The process to be followed is to approach all doctors listed on the Health Professions Council of South Africato ensure that the process is fair and transparent.

Reply:

a) The ECD programmes that qualify to receive PPEs are those both registered and unfunded; and unregistered ECD programmes that are located in poor communities and serve children from poor households

b) Funding has been repurposed from the existing conditional grant allocation and each provincial Department of Social Development will source from their local cooperatives and Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) for the procurement of PPEs

c) The procurement process will take 4-6 weeks and already started the process on 29 June 2020. Expected delivery is mid-August 2020.

Reply:

(a)(b) I would like to inform the honourable member that the Department of Social Development does not issue permits. The Departments of Home Affairs is responsible for this permits.

National Assembly written Reply: 626 of 2020

Reply:

1 (a)

1. (aa) (i) Operational Capacity is: 1501 and

(ii) Administrative Capacity is: 147

1. (bb) (i) Operational Capacity is: 291 and

(ii) Administrative Capacity is: 22

1. (b) None

1. (c) (i) & (ii) Not applicable given 1(b).

2. Not applicable given 1(b).

Reply:

(1)(a) No, the Department did not conduct a formal feasibility study in respect of the employment of 1,809 Social Work graduates in view of the urgency to appoint and short duration of the contracts. The allocation of Social Work graduates was informed by the possible risk of the spread of the virus, the vastness and geographical spread of provinces, the population size and density of the province. It is too early to measure the impact.

(1)(b)(i) 1 June and 1 July 2020.

(1)(b)(ii) The Social Work graduates are reporting physically for work at respective district offices on a daily basis.

(1)(c) Social Work graduates have been employed on contract for 3 months additional to the post establishment of the Department. The screening and vetting is not conducted for short term contract appointments.

(2) Training in psychosocial support forms part of the studies towards obtaining the Social Work degree. Included in the study is the compulsory practical experience required to obtain the social work qualification.

(3)(a) The provinces are responsible for providing these social workers with tools of trade.

(3)(b) The induction will include amongst others the expectations, reporting lines and logistical arrangements. This would be done on the first day of assuming duty and would take approximately 2 to 3 hours.

(4)(a) Ratio of Social Work Supervisor to Social Workers

Province	Supervisor / SW Ratio
Eastern Cape	1: 14
Free State	1:9 & 1: 10
Gauteng	1:6 & 1: 10
Limpopo	1:8
Mpumalanga	1: 14
Northern Cape	1: 10
North West	1:13
KwaZulu-Natal	1:8
Western Cape	1 :6

(4)(b) The generic assessment tools available in government would be used.

Reply:

The Minister of Social Development is the principal custodian of the Children's Act 38 of 2005 and has a legal and political obligation to ensure that all early childhood development programmes and/or partial care facilities are regulated as provided for in this Act.

The Minister of Social Development has in terms of the Regulations published Directions issued in terms of Regulation 4 (5) and (10) of the Regulations made under Section 27 (2) of the Act: Measures to Prevent and Combat the Spread of COVID-19: Phased Return of Children to Early Childhood Development Programmes and Partial Care Facilities issued published by Government Notice No. 762 in Government Gazette No. 43520 of 10 July 2020, that in particular apply to early childhood development programmes and partial care facilities as part her and the Department of Social Development’s responsibilities to ensure compliance with the measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19 as set out in the Regulations.

Furthermore, the Department of Social Development has issued on 23 June 2020 detailed Standard operating procedures and guidelines for an early childhood development programme and/or partial care facility that provides an after-school service on measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19.

The department has further repurposed ECD infrastructure conditional grant allocation for 2020/21 which amounts to 61 million to support ECD programmes that operates in rural areas and townships; and serves poor children.

The Department of Social Development together with the provincial Departments of Social Development has a continued responsibility to monitor that early childhood development programmes and partial care facilities that have reopened continue to comply with the prescribed measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19. This includes providing guidance and advice, as well as ensuring, when needed, that the required steps are taken when any of these programmes do not comply with the prescribed measures.

Reply:

 

​

1. 

1. In theresponse to Parliamentary Question 934 on 8 June 2020, items, suppliers and amounts were tabulated and repeated below:

Hence to answer Parliamentary Question 1159 that asks about specifically companies and total amounts, transactions with Inhlanhla Ga Tshwarelo amounted to R61 700.00, those with Bidvest Steiner to R431 560.00, those with Lechoba Medical Technology to R477 369.80, and those with Ubuntu Technologies to R66 122.70.

(2) Regarding the purchasing of goods and/or services below the amount of R500 000 connected to the Covid-19 pandemic;

(a) goods and/or services were purchased from Ga Tshwarelo, Bidvest Steiner, Lechoba Medical Technology, and Ubuntu Technologies as indicated above.

(b) the transaction amounts are those mentioned in answer (1).

(c) Ga Tshwarelo supplied masks, gloves and disposable masks; Bidvest Steiner provided sanitisers and surface wipes; Lechoba Medical Technology supplied filtering masks, sanitisers and infrared thermometers, and Ubuntu Technologies supplied anti-virus software and licences to ensure secure, remote communication.

(3) SSA followed a deviation process

(a) to provide a Secure Video Conferencing Solution for Government on an urgent basis to allow work to continue while minimising the health risks posed by infectious Covid-19.

(b) The financial details are reflected in the table above.

(4) Goods and/or services were purchased/acquired adhering to National Treasury instructions 2020/2021 in relation to the Emergency Procedures in response to the National State of Disaster. Companies were selected that met National Treasury’s requirements and/or were among those identified and proposed by it.

The reason for choosing the said Information Technology supplier is that the Agency already had contracts with the two companies Nanoteq and TrueConf that provided infrastructure to the SSA on secure communications and video conferencing solutions respectively. Consequently, the SSA approached the two companies to increase the number of licences they were already providing to the SSA so that the need that came from Government could be satisfied.

(5) Whether the Minister makes a statement on the matter remains her prerogative.

Reply:

1. The Department of Defence (SANDF) is a national department that is centrally managed therefore does not disburse funds to provinces. The SANDF’s funds as allocated by the National Treasury (NT) are centralised within the Services and Divisions, therefore no funding is allocated separately to any province. All expenditure with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic management is processed and approved centrally in terms of ordered commitments and appreciated requirements.

Reply:

(1) The department of Water and Sanitation issued a Directive to the company referred to by the Honourable Member on 6 March 2020. The Directive, amongst others, outlined transgressions by the company and requested a remedial action plan. Further, the Directive instructed the company to:

• Appoint an independent environmental consultant to compile and submit a rehabilitation plan for addressing remediation of overflowing manholes and possible groundwater contamination remediation plan and all areas affected by the activity, to the Department within 14 days upon receipt of the directive.

• Implement all the recommendations contained in the rehabilitation plan and remedy the areas affected by the water use activities within thirty (30) working days of Departmental approval of the rehabilitation plan.

(2) In the aftermath of the follow up inspection on 10 February 2020 and 18 May 2020, it was observed that there were no mining activities that were taking place. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has no records of the company’s application for water use authorisation on the Eelectronic Water Use Licence Authorisation Application System (e-WULAAS).

(3) (a) Further administrative enforcement action was taken by issuing another directive dated 11 March 2020 following the notice of intention to issue a directive. After the issuance of the directive, the mine requested a meeting with the department but due to lock down the meeting was postponed.

(b) The letter of appointment of the Environmental Consultant was received after the issuance of the directive dated 11 March 2020 indicating that the Environmental Consultant will compile the rehabilitation plan for the affected areas as per the directive. Based on the follow up inspection of 18 May 2020 there have been no mining activities taking place.

Reply:

(1)  The coordinated response of SADC to the insurgency in Mozambique is a matter involving the member state and the Regional body. The details of that response can best be articulated by the Chair or the Secretariat of SADC.

2. (a) The nature of the coordinated SADC regional political and military approach in response to the insurgency is informed by the decisions of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Affairs.

     (b)  The organ is the determinant of the countries to be involved in such activities. 

(c)     The organ will also prescribe the time lines for the finalization and announcement of such plans to the public. 

Reply:

Kindly note that unfortunately, I will not be in a position to respond to this question as the term of the Free State Provincial Arts and Culture Council is the competency of the Provincial Department and not the National Department.

Reply:

1 (a) The MojaPay system crashed on the evening of 4 May 2020. It unfortunately crashed during the Alert Level 4 lockdown, and as a result, several maintenance beneficiaries did not receive their maintenance benefits.

(b) All provinces were affected by the crash. However, the Eastern Cape (EC) and KwaZulu Natal (KZN) provinces were severely affected by the crash as the disruption was further exacerbated by the migration from the old payment system known as Justice Department of Accounting System (JDAS) to the new MojaPay system.

2. Approximately 1 500 beneficiaries were affected from 1 April 2020, and this resulted in several maintenance beneficiaries not receiving their monthly payments. The reasons for non-receipt of payments are two-fold:

(a) The closure of legacy JDAS system on 31 March 2020 interrupted the processing of payments for some courts primarily in the EC and KZN. In EC, the crash affected 622 maintenance beneficiaries, whereas in KZN only 47 beneficiaries were affected as at the end of June 2020. The closure of the JDAS system was due to the decision taken by the Department that all the beneficiaries who are not on Direct Payment, will have been migrated to MojaPay by 31 March 2020. However, it transpired that there were some courts that had not been able to migrate the beneficiaries’ data to MojaPay by 31 March 2020. The old JDAS system was closed in respect of the EC and KZN despite the fact that not all courts in the two (2) provinces had been successfully migrated to the MojaPay system.

(b) However, it must be noted that beneficiaries are still being migrated from the legacy system JDAS to MojaPay on daily basis. The total number of beneficiaries still to be migrated is approximately 6 500, mainly Eastern Cape and Western Cape compared to 245 000 beneficiaries migrated when the new system (MojaPay) started.

3. Yes, the database on MojaPay is accurate insofar as it reflects the data captured by end users as part of migration to the new system.

4. The MojaPay application has been restored incrementally from 12 May 2020 and is fully functional from 28 May 2020.

In conclusion, it is important to note that the migration from the old JDAS to the new MojaPay system is part of the Department’s endeavour to prevent possible duplicated payments and potential risks to the department’s financial accountability. The decision to nonetheless close the old system has severely affected the livelihoods of the maintenance beneficiaries. It is for this reason that I have directed the Acting Director-General to investigate this matter further. The investigation will include the cause of the crash and its wider impact, besides the maintenance payments. The investigation is with a view of ensuring that an appropriate corrective action is taken to avoid recurrence in the future.

 

Reply:

The solution employed in 2015 is still in use as one of the tactical measures to assist in border safeguarding especially in prevention of illegal cross-border movement and vehicle theft.

(1)(a) The SANDF has not stopped using the concept.

(1)(b) The effort has not been stopped.

(1)(i) No maintenance required as it is a temporary measure.

(1)(ii) The effort has, and is still making a very good impactin reducing the number of stolen vehicles illegally crossing the borderline.

(2)(a) It is not a solution but a military tactic of war, where soldiers create or put obstacles to stop movement or limit the speed of movement where required. The idea or concept can be adopted accordingly to address the porousness of our borders.

(2)(b) Yes, the concept can be a solution to fence security in areas of vehicular breaches on our borders. Evidence to this is that the KZN Provincial government adopted this operational concept and established a project to construct Modified Jersey Barriers to be installed on the borderline to replace the boulders and railway sleepers that the soldiers had put up. The Modified Jersey Barriers are 1.5 meters high and are much more stable and a long term infrastructure to prevent vehicular or wheeled movement across the borderline.

(3) The DOD has identified the use of security technology as one of the solutions that will make a huge and significant improvement in enhancing the borderline security and as such contribute to maintaining the territorial integrity of the RSA.

Reply:

The total number of bucket toilets in use in formal households in the Free State at the end of the 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2019-2020 financial years is indicated in the table below:

Municipality	2016/2017	2017/2018	2019/2020
1. Matjhabeng	1623	654	-
2. Setsoto	6615	6032	6032
3. Phumelela	373	-	-
4. Mafube	3546	-	-
5. Ngwathe	1647	1336	-
6. Tokologo	2543	2543	1279
7. Nketoana	3711	3711	2891
8. Kopanong	276	276	-
TOTAL	17791	11847	10202

The Free State currently remains with seven (7) projects with a backlog of 10 202 buckets to eradicate. These projects are in the process of constructing bulk services such as outfall sewer line (linking the settlement to the Waste Water Treatment Works) as well as pump stations.

Reply:

I have been informed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) that Proclamation R7 of 2014 published in the Government Gazette No. 37346 on 14 February 2014, was amended by Proclamation R599 of 2015 published in the Government Gazette No. 38985 on 10 July 2015 and again amended by Proclamation R32 of 2017 published in the Government Gazette No. 41165 on 6 October 2017.

Proclamation R7 of 2014 and certain amendments of Proclamation R599 of 2015 investigated matters: (1) at the Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Pretoria Registrar of Deeds Offices; and also investigated (2) irregularities by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in relation to the e-Cadastre Project (Gijima).

The investigations into matters (1) and (2) above have been concluded and the final

reports were submitted to the Presidency on 26 March 2020.

Proclamation R599 of 2015 mandated the SIU to investigate matters at the Johannesburg Registrar of Deeds. Proclamation R32 of 2017 mandated the SIU to investigate matters at the Vryburg Registrar of Deeds. Both investigations are still ongoing and they are expected to be completed by the end of the 2020/2021 financial year.