Questions and Replies

Reply:

1. It is a matter of public record that Mr Nhlanhla Nene was relieved from his duties as a Minister of Finance on 9 December 2015. It is the prerogative of a sitting President to appoint and change members of his/her Cabinet as he deems necessary. It is the same prerogative enshrined in the Constitution that I exercised on 9 December 2015.

2. Decisions to make changes to the Cabinet are made with the best intentions and for the public interest, including the economy.

Reply:

1. I appointed the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in terms of section 91(2) of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996.

Reply:

I appointed the Minister of Finance because I have confidence in his ability to execute his responsibilities. The fiscal consolidation programme he announced in the Budget Speech was developed collectively by the Cabinet and is fully supported by the Cabinet.

Reply:

(a)(b) PRASA has not undertaken any specific research or cost analysis into the use of locomotive manufacturers that Transnet uses in the acquisition of new locomotives. PRASA will only embark on such exercise when it is ready to procure additional locomotives for the long-distance rail service and this will be done through a market engagement process with the locomotive manufactures.

(i)(aa)(bb) See above.

(ii) See above.

(iii) See above.

Reply:

1. I have not met with representatives of any specific race groups to discuss the resurgence of racism in our society. The matter has been discussed at various forums where I have met with various stakeholders, but I have not called a meeting of specific race groups to discuss the matter.

As you may be aware, I declared the Human Rights Month, March 2016, as the month to focus on fighting the scourge of racism. The campaigns and programmes that were undertaken during the month culminated in the Human Rights Day event at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, which had a strong focus on uniting society against racism.

2. Promoting national unity and social cohesion is a constitutional imperative. We have used every avenue to promote the unity of our people and to advance social cohesion. We have done this through the statements we have made during important National Days, and through implementing the government’s programme of transforming our country into a truly non-sexist and non-racial society.

We urge leaders of all sectors to play their part in building a non-racial society.

Reply:

(1) One of the key performance indicators (KPI) and targets in SANBI’s approved Corporate Strategic Plan is the development of black biodiversity professionals. By the year 2019/2020, SANBI’s target is to develop 140 black biodiversity professionals which is on track and consistently monitored and reported on.

• Recently SANBI, together with partners in the biodiversity sector, has just included implementation of the Groen Sebenza Programme which is a pioneering and innovative initiative that has developed 854 young black biodiversity professionals.
• Career ladders for scientists and horticulturists were introduced in order to attract, develop and retain black biodiversity professionals.
• In addition, the following interventions are being implemented to ensure that our black scientists’ careers development paths are supported:

o Staff bursaries towards higher degrees;

o Scientific writing training courses;

o Studentships and Internships programmes;

o Mentorship/coaching; and

o Participation in workshops and conferences (local and international).

(2) The Board of Directors appointed by the Minister provides oversight to SANBI on all organisational matters including human related matters (NEMBA Section 13). The department through its governance protocol with its entities (including SANBI), provides support for the operationalisation of the business processes. In terms of the established governance practices, the current institutional arrangements suffice to enable SANBI to discharge its operational duties including the analysis of the outcomes of exit interviews. The specific matter of Mr Qwede is being addressed by SANBI Management and the department will address the same when it is raised through proper channels.

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Reply:

The question by the Honourable member should be directed to the National Treasury. The National Treasury manages the expenditure and the budgets of municipalities in line with the provisions in the Municipal Finance Management Act. Municipalities report budgetary matters in terms of s71 of the MFMA and are best placed to respond to matters relating to budget and expenditures of all municipalities.

Reply:

On 03 June 2015 the National Assembly recommended that I appoint Mr Ntenteni as a member of the MDDA board. Acting on the recommendation I the appointed Mr Ntenteni on 19 June 2015.

The security screening that we undertook later revealed that he was convicted of culpable homicide in 1998. Following the results of the security screening I requested the National Assembly on 07 December 2015 to initiate a process of checking if Mr Ntenteni is suitable to be a member of the board of the MDDA.

I will be guided be by the outcome of the parliamentary process in this matter.

Reply:

1. What I said when I addressed the National House of Traditional Leaders is that a vast number of black people in South Africa had already been dispossessed of their land when the Natives Land Act was passed in 1913. I then asked a question whether in view of this fact it made sense to have 1913 as the starting date for land restitution.

By posing the question mentioned above I was not saying the existing policy on land restitution in no longer operational. Should there be a need for a change of policy in this area, proper procedures of policy development will be followed, which will include consulting important stakeholders in the sector.

2. The pace of land reform has been very slow. One of the major contributors has been the matter of property valuations, which resulted to some landowners pricing the land under consideration for land redistribution very high. It is for this reason that we submitted to Parliament the Property Valuation Bill, which Parliament subsequently passed into law. One of the provisions of the Property Valuation Act is the establishment of the Office of the Valuer-General, which is tasked with the responsibility of valuating property that has been identified for expropriation and land reform purposes.

It is our belief that the establishment of this office will assist in accelerating the pace of land reform.

Reply:

The requested information from Metropolitan Municipalities is yet to be received and the efforts are being made to follow up on them. The Honourable Member will therefore be updated on progress.

Reply:

1. I have publicly stated on several occasions that South Africa nominated Mr Nhlanhla Nene for the position of head of the African Regional Centre of the New Development Bank, also known as the BRICS Bank. Processes to make an appointment to that position are underway under the aegis of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, China.
2. See the reply to question 1 above.
3. See the reply to question 1 above.

Reply:

1. Drought conditions may lead to numerous short and long term human health impacts, ranging from the risks of the spread of waterborne diseases due to compromised quantity and quality of drinking water and poor sanitation and hygiene, to hunger and malnutrition due to food unavailability and security issues.

With drought conditions, it is required that integrated solutions be employed to control the threat of drought on environmental and human health. Therefore a collaborated, intergovernmental response is required to protect the public from health risks associated with the drought. The Department of Health, however, continues to employ a holistic approach to health interventions by providing preventative, promotive and curative health care services to the public for protection on human health, including the mitigation of drought conditions on human health. These services include:

• Strengthening and maintaining disease surveillance, and maintain capacity to respond to communicable diseases;
• Monitoring and activating disease outbreaks and preparedness team where outbreaks are reported;
• Health-related water quality monitoring to detect changes in water quality in collaboration with municipality and water services authorities;
• Strengthening health promotion and public education on water conservation, hygiene and emergency treatment of water and the impacts of drought on human health;
• Monitoring of infectious diseases in young children, including diarrhoea and malnutrition through the District Health Information System;
• Provision of emergency medical services;
• Increased surveillance of imported goods, especially agricultural consignments in points of entry;
• Monitor nutrition of vulnerable populations; and
• Strengthening monitoring and surveillance of environmental conditions that may constitute health hazards or risks, as a result of the drought, dust conditions, sanitation, food control, etc.

2. (a) Yes, the health sector does receive financial resources from Government to provide health services to South Africans. This includes resources for disaster preparedness.

(b) The health sector continues to ensure that adequate and skilled human resources are available in the health sector in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) priorities.

3. To ensure health sector readiness to deal with climate change impacts, the Department has developed a climate change and health adaptation plan. The plan provides a broad framework for health sector action towards climate change impacts, such as drought, and effectively guide the management of climate change impacts on health through interventions and emergency response capacity.

The health sector, in implementing the plan, continues to engage and negotiate across sectors in the interest of public health. The aim is to ensure that human health is central to planning across all sectors to improve public health and reduce vulnerability to climate change.

END.

Reply:

 

SAPO has advised me as follows:

There has been no recent strike at SAPO, the last strike was in 2014.

(1)(a) 851 Post Offices (including 13 mail centres) were closed across the country at the start of the strike. In the third and fourth week 634 post offices (including 14 mail centres) and 714 post offices (including 9 mail centres) were respectively closed. The closures were mostly in the Gauteng Province followed by Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal. These were mainly in; Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The closures in other provinces were sporadic in nature.

(b) A total of 4656 employees were reported to be on strike. However the level of intimidation and violence that was experienced during the strike led to more employees not being at their workstations during the strike due to fears of intimidation and violence.

(2) The details of the grievances included:

    (i) Back pay for the 2014 salary increases

     (ii) Casual employees requesting full time employment with full benefits

     (iii) Permanent Part time employees (flexible labour contracts) requesting full time employment

     (iv) Equal work for equal pay

    (v) The 588 employees that were previously dismissed due to illegal strike but then re-employed in 2013 after agreements between SAPO and labour Unions demanded re-instatement of full benefits

(3) The Minister established the National Leadership Forum at SAPO in October 2014. This was used as a platform to re-establish the engagements between representatives of the organised labour and SAPO management with the Department attending as an observer. SAPO workforce forums were subsequently established and settlement agreements reached with labour representatives taking into account SAPO’s financial situation. These agreements included:

    (i) Back pay for 2014/2015 salary increases

    (ii) Conversion of casual and permanent part-time workers to permanent full time employees

    (iii) Equal pay for work of equal value

    (iv) 2015/2016 salary increases

Of the above agreements, the conversion of the temporary employees (casuals and flexible labour contracts) to permanent employees started in 2014 in a phased-in approach but was stopped due to financial constraints. Other settlements agreements were not honoured altogether due the entity’s continued constrained cash-flow position as the entity battled to recover financially post the strike action.

Reply:

The requested information is yet to be received from the Metropolitan Municipalities. We are however, making efforts to follow-up on it and the Honourable Member will therefore be updated on progress.

 

Reply:

The Department is able to provide information for learners with disabilities in the schooling system for 2015. The Department is currently collating 2016 learner information. Below is the summary of information on learners with disabilities as reported by the Provincial Education Departments.

(a)(b)

Table 1: Number of learners with disabilities, in special schools, by age, in 2015 see link:

http://www.pmg.org.za/files/RNW854Province.docx

Source: Special Needs Education Centre’s SNAP 2015

(c)

Table 2: Number of learners with disabilities, in special schools, by grade, in 2015

Note1: Kindly note that not all Special Needs Education (SNE) centre’s learners are classified

into grade.

Grade	Total
Grade R	4 102
Grade 1	7 939
Grade 2	6 046
Grade 3	6 679
Grade 4	4 293
Grade 5	4 283
Grade 6	5 057
Grade 7	5 214
Grade 8	6 134
Grade 9	5 409
Grade 10	4 181
Grade 11	2 384
Grade 12	1 828
Special	55 097*
Total	118 645

Source: Special Needs Education Centre’s SNAP 2015

* Learners not classified according to the grade.

(d)

Table 3: Number of learners with disabilities, in special schools, by race, in 2015

RACE	TOTAL
AFRICABN/ BLACK	77 830
COLOURED	20 820
INDIAN/ASIANS	2 377
OTHER	263
WHITE	17 355
TOTAL	118 645

Source: Special Needs Education Centre’s SNAP 2015

Reply:

Due to the court challenge relating to the appointment of the Head: DPCI which is currently before the High( Gauteng North).The list of shortlisted candidates and their curriculam vitae will be delivered to Parliament once that process is finalized.

Reply:

(a) There are 53 key indicators for the ten Medium-Term Strategic Framework Outcomes, namely a) Universal Health coverage progressively achieved through implementation of National Health Insurance; b) Improved quality of health care; c) Implement the re-engineering of Primary Health Care; d) Reduced health care costs; e) Improved human resources for health; f) Improved health management and leadership; g) Improved health facility planning and infrastructure delivery; h) HIV & AIDS and Tuberculosis prevented and successfully managed; i) Maternal, infant and child mortality reduced; and j) Efficient Health Management Information System developed and implemented for improved decision-making

The result of the above work is aimed at improving of the health status of South Africans. The impact indicators and targets are: see the link: http://www.pmg.org.za/files/RNW83Table.docx

(b) Cabinet, chaired by the President, monitors performance on the Programme of Action which includes MTSF outcome Two, and its sub-outcomes for every quarter of the financial year (i.e. four times per financial year).

(c) The Minister accounts to Cabinet on a quarterly basis on these key indicators. Some of the high level indicator achievements for this MTSF period against set targets are as follows:

• The Life expectancy at birth (which has a target of 63 years in March 2019) has increased from 60 years in 2012 to 62.9 years in 2014.
• Maternal Mortality ratio (which has a target of < 100 per 100,000 live births by March 2019) reduced from 269 per 100,000 live births in 2012 to 155 per 100,000 live births in 2014.
• The Under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) significantly decreased from 56 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2009, to 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014. The health system is working towards a further 25% reduction of child mortality with a target of 30 per 1000 live births by 2019.
• The infant mortality rate (IMR) decreased from 39 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2009, to 28 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014.
• The Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) also declined from 14 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2009 to 11 per 1,000 live births in 2014. It has remained stable at 11 per 1,000 live births for the past 3 years.

(Source: The Rapid Mortality Surveillance Report, 2015)

More information on progress made on the Programme of Action is published on the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation website.

(d) The targets of the MTSF sub-outcomes are set as annual and five-year targets but monitored quarterly. Impact indicators do not change much within a year. On a quarterly basis, performance of some MTSF sub-outcome indicators has been below planned annual targets due to data inaccuracies, poor recording at health facility levels and incomplete reporting by health facilities. For example, low coverage of long-acting contraceptive methods and inappropriate recording of the oral method have been found in some areas. This is resulting to quarterly Couple Year Protection Rates lower than the planned annual MSTF target. Similarly, poor data recording is also causing sub-optimal in-year performance of planned MTSF targets for multi-resistant TB and male medical circumcisions. For example, currently only male medical circumcision performed among men between the ages of 15 and 49 years is reported. Data systems on male medical circumcisions performed is being developed for young boys between ages of 10 to 14 years and men who are 50 years and above.

(e) Annual Performance Plans of the National and Provincial Department of Health are largely aligned to MTSF outcome and sub-outcomes. Remedial actions to challenges of implementation are therefore captured and recorded through the quarterly reporting system of the Annual Performance Plans. These actions are then taken through the various national policy and strategic forums at national level which are filtered down at provincial levels. For example with the regard to Couple Year Protection Rate data, re-training of providers has been undertaken.

Implementing partners have also committed to assist with addressing data capturing issues on MDR-TB indicators. Partners are assisting with addressing the data quality issues with regards to male medical circumcisions. The Department is strengthening data collection systems for these developing programmes through the development of patient-based information system and implementation e-Health strategy.

END.

Reply:

(a)

This needs to be responded to by the Department of Water and Sanitation.

(b) (i), (ii) and (iii)

Yes.

All cities can be considered environmental hotspots simply due to the density of people – this shear density of humanity means that cities are huge sinks for food, water, energy and other natural resources as well as being significant sources of waste, effluent, heat and atmospheric emissions (often mostly vehicle emissions). Nevertheless, in the Western and Eastern coastal regions of the South African ocean space, abalone and rock lobster are currently over-exploited and showing signs of depletion.

With this, it is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities and urban areas. These large communities provide both challenges and opportunities for environmentally-conscious developers, and there are distinct advantages to further defining and working towards the goals of sustainable cities. Humans are social creatures and thrive in urban spaces that foster social connections. Because of this, a shift to denser, urban living provides an outlet for social interaction and conditions under which humans can prosper. Thus, contrary to popular belief cities can be more environmentally sustainable than rural or suburban living. With people and resource located so close to one another, it is possible to save energy for transportation and mass transit systems, and resources such as food.

Operation Phakisa led by the Department of Environmental Affairs has key focus areas on Marine Protection Services and Governance that include key initiatives addressing over-exploitation and depletion of natural resources or marine living species. These include a network of 22 of Marine Protected Areas and Coordinated enforcement programmes.

The monitoring and evaluation of local authorities’ performance is the mandate of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).

(c) (i), (ii) and (iii)

Yes

The South African coastline currently has areas that are prone to soil and beach erosion, and these include Glentana, Oyster Bay, St Francis Bay, Langebaan and Milnerton. The Department of Environmental Affairs however, is in the process of conducting a National Coastal Assessment which will identify such hotspots.

(d) (i), (ii) and (iii)

Yes

Coastal cities by their nature are potential environmental hotspots with respect to water quality. As an example, some of recreational beaches in Durban have lost their Blue Flag status due to poor water quality. The department has tools whose aim is to assist the municipalities to better manage water quality.

(e) (i), (ii) and (iii)

Yes

All cities contain highly prized ecosystems which are eroded on account of the pressing needs of ever expanding cities to provide for housing and other land uses. However, most of the more advanced metropolitan areas and bigger cities entertain these pressures through proper land use planning. Conservation plans and other tools are in place to indicate where the environmental hotspots are located. Planning of infrastructure is taking these hotspots into consideration. Designing these cities consider environmental impacts and is dedicated to the minimization of the required inputs of energy, water and food, waste output and water pollution.

A number of conservation and legislative tools to ensure conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity have been developed and these include:

• Bioregional Plans developed in terms of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, 2004 (Act No. 10 of 2004). Bioregional Plans provide for integrated and coordinated biodiversity planning to ensure the monitoring of the conservation status of various components of South Africa’s biodiversity and promote biodiversity research. A number of Bioregional Plans exist such as in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan (Eastern Cape Province), the City of Cape Town (Western Cape Province), the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan and the West Rand District Municipality (Gauteng Province), the City of Tshwane (Gauteng Province), the Gert Sibanda (Mpumalanga Province) as well as the draft Bioregional Plan for the Waterberg District (Limpopo Province).

• Biodiversity Management Plans for ecosystems are also made provision for in terms of the Biodiversity Act. These plans can be developed by any person, organisation or organ of state and are intended to ensure the long term persistence of an ecosystem that is of special concern. Management interventions put in place for landowners, resource users and other key stakeholders can impact positively on the functioning of the particular ecosystem. The department is in the process of developing the first Biodiversity Management Plan for an ecosystem which will be addressing threats to the Colbyn Valley Wetland and its associated sub-catchment (Hartebeesspruit River).

In addition to these biodiversity legislative tools, the government has taken steps towards local government support relating to the mainstreaming of environmental considerations into local government and such interventions undertaken include:

• The Environment Sector Local Government Support Strategy. The strategy which is being implemented mainstreams relevant environmental priorities into local government. This came about from a need for a more coordinated and structured mechanism of dealing with sustainable environmental management in local government. The objectives of the strategy are to:
  • clarify the environmental sector mandate for local government support;
  • clarify the local government mandate for environmental management;
  • identify opportunities for streamlining and integrating the support initiatives of the environment sector with the local government development agenda;
  • identify gaps in cooperation with the local government sector;
  • rationalise municipal reporting requirements;
  • promote consistency and synergy in approach with provinces on local government support programmes (LGSPs); and
  • maximise the environmental sector’s relations with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) the South African Cities Network (SACN) and COGTA as representative organs of local government.

The implementation of the strategy is done through the establishment and regular convening of the Local Government Task Team.

Government has also developed the National Framework for Biodiversity Mainstreaming in Local Authorities which sets out biodiversity specific considerations that should be mainstreamed into Local Authorities. The development of this framework was conducted through a series of Local Authority stakeholder workshops. Government recognises the need to implement this framework, an important intervention to strengthen support to Local Authorities towards mainstreaming biodiversity in Local Government.

In addition

The department has developed a proposed Strategic Integrated Project (SIP) known as
SIP 19: Ecological Infrastructure for Water Security. The proposed SIP 19 is the second water-related SIP and provides a framework for the integration of a number of impactful water-related ecological infrastructure investments and interventions into a coordinated, coherent and focused project specifically aimed at improving South Africa’s water resource quality and quantity. Thus, the purpose of SIP 19 is to make a significant contribution to the overall goal of ensuring a sustainable supply of fresh, healthy water to equitably meet South Africa’s social, economic and environmental water needs for current and future generations through the integrated implementation of projects within identified priority water catchments.

Although, the concept of ecological infrastructure is not very well known in traditional infrastructure sectors, the essential life-supporting and life-enhancing ecosystem goods and services that are generated by this infrastructure are universally experienced (for instance, nutrient dispersal and cycling; seed dispersal; food (such as seafood, fresh-water fish and game); crops; wild foods; spices; water; minerals; medicinal plants; pharmaceuticals; bio-chemicals; industrial products; energy (hydropower, biomass fuels); carbon sequestration and climate regulation; waste decomposition and detoxification; purification of water and air; crop pollination; pest and disease control; cultural, intellectual and spiritual inspiration; recreational experiences (including ecotourism) and scientific discovery).

Thus, as infrastructure is often broadly defined as the substructure or underlying foundation on which the continuance or growth of a community or state depends, similarly, ecological infrastructure is the networks of natural lands, working landscapes and other open spaces that are the substructure or underlying foundation on which the continuance or growth of ecosystem goods and services depends.

In terms of cities and the impact SIP 19 may have on cities like Durban, in recent years, a number of ecologists and economists have touted New York City's (NYC’s) efforts to preserve the Catskills watershed, one of three major basins from which the city obtains its water supply, as a key example of the benefits of effective watershed management.

New York City’s water supply system is still largely derived from surface water north of the metropolitan area with the Catskill and Delaware watersheds supplying 5.3 billion liters of safe, but unfiltered, drinking water to nearly half of the population. The reliable function and safety of this water supply was, and is, absolutely essential to the existence of NYC and is entirely based on the maintenance of ecological infrastructure. In terms of cost-effectiveness, although NYC invested $1.5 billion on watershed protection over 10 years they avoided at least $6 billion in capital costs and $300 million in annual operating costs if their ecological infrastructure was replaced by a traditional water treatment plant.

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Reply:

DRAFT REPLY

There is a sitting Commissioner of SARS, so there is no need to look at potential candidates when there is no vacancy.

Reply:

1. The National Development Plan is supported by the vast majority of South Africans and many important stakeholders in our society. Government, working together with other societal sectors, is implementing the NDP through the Medium Term Strategic Framework. The meeting with the captains of industry in February 2016 reached a decision that the eight points you have alluded to in the question will be processed by a joint government-business task lead led by the Minister of Finance and the Chairperson of the board of Telkom, Mr Jabu Mabuza.
2. I have said on many occasions that South Africa is open for business. This is the same message the South African delegation took to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January this year. Recently the Minister of Finance led a South African delegation of government, business and labour leaders on an international tour meeting with investors to communicate the message that South Africa is open for business and investment. I have also established an Inter- Ministerial Committee which I chair to look at ways in which investment can be attracted to our country and to remove obstacles to investments.

Reply:

1. I am unaware of such a meeting taking place except for the public statement that was recently made by the Deputy Minister of Finance.

Reply:

Province	(1)(a)	(1)(b)	(1)(c)(i)	(1)(c)(ii)	(2)
Mpumalanga	38	37	One (1) investigation is still active (ongoing).	5 cases are pending in court One case is with IPID	Provincial Taxi Contingency and Operational Plan is in place.
Free State	8	6	Four (4) warning statements are outstanding. One (1) docket is at the DPP for a decision.	Investigation is ongoing.	Not Applicable
Eastern Cape	2	1	One (1) investigation is still active (ongoing). The accused is deceased. Suspected that more perpetrators are involved.	Investigation is ongoing in respect of the other perpetrators possibly involved.	Information received regarding a second party that was with the accused currently at Waterval Prison is being pursued.
Northern Cape	0	0	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
North West	6	5	One (1) investigation is still active (ongoing) because the suspect is still unknown.	Investigation still active (ongoing)	N/A

Province	(1)(a)	(1)(b)	(1)(c)(i)	(1)(c)(ii)	(2)
KwaZulu-Natal	66	20	Forty six (46) investigations are still active (ongoing) because a break-through has not been made.	THE PROVJOINTS has established a priority committee comprising of all security agencies, joint intelligence committee, Provincial Department of Transport, Department of Community Safety and liaison. PSIRA and other municipal role players. The priority committee meets monthly to address TAXI and Transport Violence committee. Special efforts are put in place to ensure visible presence from uniform and Public Order Police . Metro Police and Road Traffic Inspectorate.	A task team at Provincial level has been established to investigate all cases at Provincial level. Specialised prosecutors have been appointed to deal with matters at court. SAPS are involved in supporting mediation efforts of the Department of Community Safety and Liaison.
Guateng	153	38	One hundred and fifteen (115) investigations are still active (ongoing) because a break-through has not yet been made due to: Witnesses reluctant to come forward and provide statements. Witnesses intimidated after suspects are arrested.	Potential witnesses are informed of the Witnesses Protection Programme in order to keep them save. A special investigation team was formed to deal with Taxi violence cases This team is working closely with Crime Intelligence in order to identify suspects and solve cases. The investigation team also communicate with their counter parts in other Provinces. The team is constantly striving to improve the informer network.	The officers in the investigation team have regular meetings with the HOD of the Department of Transport and other stakeholders, in order to identify potential conflict in the industry and to possible solve it. The SAPS has formed the taxi stability task team, who is mandated to inspect and impound taxis that are operating illegally, they also patrol taxi violence hotspot. Members of the investigation team also patrol identified hotspot and are tasked to gather information. The HOD in the Department of Transport and officers of the investigation team meet with rival taxi associations in order to resolve their differences.

AXI VIOLENCE CONTINGENCY

Province	(1)(a)	(1)(b)	(1)(c)(i)	(1)(c)(ii)	(2)
Western Cape	85	30	Fifty five (55) Investigations are still active (ongoing).	All cases were assigned to new investigating officers. Witnesses are being re-interviewed to obtain further information.	A task team at Provincial level has been established to investigate all cases at Provincial level.
Limpopo	1	0	One (1) investigation is still active (ongoing).	N/A	All taxi related incidents are being discussed during the Cluster JOINT Meetings Members attached to POP and Vispol Monitor Taxi ranks where suspicions of any Taxi relate incidents Regular interaction with all Taxi Associations and during the Rural Safety meeting

Reply:

The initial advert of 2014 did not attract a suitable candidate. In the intervening period an acting person was put in place. The post has since been re-advertised and the closing date was 18 March 2016. The applications received are still being processed.

Reply:

1. The surplus is based on an actuarial valuation of a guaranteed statutory increase of 2% per annum, as the bonuses are not guaranteed.

While the actuary had indicated that a 10% bonus was affordable the actuarial surplus would reduce to a very insignificant amount or to nil should a CPI linked pension increase (in addition to the statutory increase of 2% per annum) be implemented in future together with a 13th cheque. To improve the affordability of implementing such an increase policy, the Board of Trustees resolved to pay a 13th cheque (8.33%) as per the practice of the Board of Trustees since 2010.

2. The Board of Trustees has not taken a resolution proposing payment of a further bonus in 2016.

3. (a) The firm was appointed by the Board of Trustees to implement a Liability

Driven Investment mandate with the objective to enhance investment returns;

(b) An amount of R 9 billion was allocated by the Board of Trustees; and

(c) The firm was appointed by the Board of Trustees based on the outcome of a

tender process.

 

Reply:

(1)(a) The latest results available for E coli for Apies River reveal medium to low risk. This can be attributed to the improvement made at the Rooiwal waste water treatment plant since my Department’s intervention.

(1)(b) Tests conducted in adjacent boreholes revealed low to medium risk levels of E-coli found.

(2) The action plan was requested for end of August 2015.

(3) Yes. The action plan was submitted on 31 August 2015. A copy of the action plan is attached. It must be noted that the action plan is a living document and it is revised as and when required.

(4)(a) If all avenues provided for by the Inter- governmental relations framework Act, Act 13 of 20015 has been exhausted and no noticeable improvement can be observed, Criminal Charges are laid against the relevant organ of state.

(4)(b) These criminal charges are pursued in terms of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No. 36 of 1998).

(5) No. My Department has not pursued the alternative (criminal charges) thus far. My Department is engaging with the City of Tshwane on the action plan and the last engagement was on 8 December 2015. During the engagement, the City Manager committed R140 000 000 to upgrade the plant. Furthermore, the municipality is currently looking at all legal avenues within the supply chain process (SCM) to fast track the procurement of the contractors to urgently start with the required upgrade. My Department is closely monitoring the SCM process and the development at the woks. The last visit at the plant was on 15 January 2016 and there is promising improvement, within the current treatment capacity.

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Reply:

1(a). I was wary of allowing the current CEO of PanSALB to act as both the Accounting Officer and Accounting Authority since he was fairly new to the job and could be overwhelmed with work. The Department is trying to avoid similar challenges that occurred in the past when the former caretaker CEO acted as the Accounting Authority

(b). The basis for the appointment was made in terms of section 49 (3) of the Public Finance Management Act, as the National Heritage Council is one of the public entities reporting to me as the Executive Authority. We proceeded because initially we received concurrence from National Treasury, but later the National Treasury withdrew the advice they gave me, immediately thereafter the National Heritage Council was withdrawn, I realised that PANSALB is a constitutional entity, and is not part of the entities listed by the PFMA, therefore it cannot be governed under those rules.

Reply:

The new Department of Communications was only established by President Jacob Zuma after the 2014 national and provincial general elections. The changes in the structure and administration of government were introduced in the 5th democratically-elected government thorough the introduction of the Proclamation to split the then Department into two Departments namely, Department of Communications (now the new Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services), and the New Department of Communications. The Presidential proclamation issued in December 2014, also re-organized the reporting structure of entities, which historically reported to one old Department while other entities including the public broadcaster, the SABC were transferred to the new Department.

Having given this background, it is therefore clear that the new Department of Communications has not allocated or spent any public money towards the hosting of the annual Metro FM Awards. In addition, the Annual Metro FM Awards takes place at no costs to the SABC. The annual awards are fully funded through sponsorships and partnerships.

 

MR NN MUNZHELELE

DIRECTOR GENERAL [ACTING]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

MS AF MUTHAMBI (MP)

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

Reply:

1. The clinic at Senekal, OR Tambo Section, in the Eastern Free State province, was not completed because the contractor failed to comply with the terms and conditions of the contract, and as such was never handed over to the provincial department of health, and as such it could not be opened.
2. The damage, due to the vandalism of the facility, is a responsibility the contractor because it was never handed over to the provincial department of health.

END.

Reply:

1. SAPO is cooperating and implementing the recommendations of both the Public Protector and the SIU Reports.
2. The Minister through our department is monitoring that SAPO complies with the recommendations of the Reports.

Reply:

I have been advised by the Department as follows:-

(a) The funds reflected under the Consultants: Business and advisory services line item are not funds that will be used to procure consultancy services. National Treasury allocated Phase 1 roll-out funding under the Economic classification (Goods and Services: Consultants: Business and advisory services) line item. These funds will be used to procure connectivity services for the facilities targeted for the Phase 1 roll-out over the MTEF period.

The increase in the allocation is due to additional funds that National Treasury allocated towards the SA Connect Phase 1 implementation.

(b) Additional funding was allocated by National Treasury in 2017/18 and 2018/19 as it was envisaged that lessons learnt from the Phase 1 pilot will allow for a ramp up of the project in the outer years. This funding is in addition to the partial funding that was allocated for the Phase 1 roll-out during the 2014 MTEF allocation period, covering the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years.

(c) There will not be any consultants procured using the funds allocated for the roll-out.

(d) Refer to (c)

 

Reply:

Find here: Reply

Reply:

(1) In line with a cooperative governance approach, indeed the concerns in Isithebe area were attended to at an early stage through the intervention of provincial government leadership and by engaging with business, communities and other stakeholders in order to find solutions to the challenges. It was through these engagements it was established that interventions to the challenges needed a multi-sectoral approach. To this end, it was agreed that interventions should focus, amongst other, on the need to expedite service delivery. Mass prayers and community dialogue were facilitated to emphasize the need for constructive engagement, peaceful protests, respect for rights and properties of others as well as education on rights to recourse as well as poverty alleviation programmes.

To date, Lower Tugela Bulk Water Supply for the area was launched on 22 March 2016 as one of the service delivery responses which also present the people of Isithebe with jobs as well as skills development opportunities. A prayer meeting for peace and stability in Isithebe was held 31 March 2016. Other activities are planned to take place in the area.

(2) In 2014, government adopted the Local Government Back to Basics Strategy as a response to challenging situations at local government level. Recognising the need for inter-sphere collaboration, the strategy is implemented and monitored collaboratively, with the Department of Cooperative Governance taking the lead in the coordination of the following five pillars of the strategy:

(i) put people and their concerns first and ensure constant contact with communities through effective public participation platforms;

(ii) create conditions for decent living by consistently delivering municipal services of the right quality and standard;

(iii) demonstration of good governance and administration;

(iv) ensuring sound financial management and accounting; and

(v) building and maintaining sound institutional and administrative capabilities, administered and managed by dedicated and skilled personnel at all levels.

Since the strategy was implemented, the department’s monitoring of municipalities has shown signs of municipal performance improvement in the KZN Province. The Department also established Back to Basic teams clustered in Provinces to provide oversight and rapid response.

Reply:

(1) (a) All project applicants submit their business plans and requested budgets. After engagement with MDDA Project Staff members through on site assessment, a needs analysis is conducted with the applicants, this entails interrogating each budget line item and a recommended budget is decided based on that need analysis. Below is the costing for 2011 and 2013 funding to Treasure Magazine:

2011

Item description	Quantity	Cost
Printing	10 000 copies @ R 70,100.00  (bi monthly, 64 pager, full colour) x 6 annually	R 420, 600.00
Distribution	10 000 @ R 3,000.00 (bi monthly, 64 pager full colour) x 6 annually	R 18, 000.00
Software – in design	@ R8,000.00	R 8,000.00
Public Relations & Promotions	@ R 2,000.00 per month x 12	R 24,000.00
Email & internet connection	@ R500.00 per month x 12	R 6,000.00
Website developer and hosting	@ R 1,000.00 per month x 12	R 12,000.00
Photo & Illustration	@ R 2,000.00 per issue x 6	R 12,000.00
Bank charges	@ R 400.00 per month x 12	R 4,800.00
Stipends	1 x Journalists @ R 5,500.00 per month x 12	R 66,000.00
	1 x Layout & Graphic Designer @ R6,500.00 x 6 editions	R 39,000.00
	Publisher @ R 8,500.00 x 12	R 102,000.00
	1 x Marketing and Sales Officer @ R 5,500.00 per month x 12	R 66,000.00
	1 x sub-editor @ R 8,500.00 per edition x 6	R 51,000.00
Audit & Accounting fees	Once off	R 10,000.00
Total		R 839,400.00

2013

Item Description	Quantity	Costs per month	Total Costs
Printing	10 000 copies @ R72,400.00 (bi monthly) x 6 editions	R 72,400.00	R 434,400.00
Distribution	10 000 copies @ R 2,000.00 (bi monthly)x 6 editions	R 2,000.00	R 12,000.00
Bank Charges	12 months	R 400.00	R4,800.00
Telecommunications	12 months	R2, 000.00	R24,000.00
Audit Fee	Once off	R 14,800.00	R 14,800.00
Total Budget			R490,000.00

1. (b) The printing costs are reflected on the costing above as quoted by Paarlcoldset printers in Cape Town
2. The MDDA funding criteria is embedded in Section 3 of the MDDA Act of 2002. Treasure Magazine meets all the objects as stipulated in the Act and therefore a successful project established and managed by a black young woman. The MDDA measures the success of each supported project based on its sustainability which is driven by the publication’s ability to generate revenue through advertising and other promotion, sales and marketing activities. A magazine that sells 8000 copies can per month be deemed to be successful if it has managed to generate enough advertising that will enable it to continue printing, cover all its operational costs including staff retention.

 

MR NN MUNZHELELE

DIRECTOR GENERAL [ACTING]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

MS AF MUTHAMBI (MP)

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE

Reply:

(1)(a) The DTPS will increase the number of schools per province from one (1) to two (2) as reflected in quarterly targets in the 2016/17 Business Plan. The Child Online Protection Programme also includes the e-Parenting Programme and in this regard the DTPS intends to develop an interactive e-platform for parents and an e-guide for parents to capacitate them to cope with issues of exposure of the children to harmful content online.

(1)(b) The Child Online Protection Programme will be implemented in all nine provinces and in two towns in each province. The e-Parenting Interactive Sessions will be held in all provinces except the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as these provinces were covered in the 2015/2016 financial year.

(2)(a)(i)The DTPS will be hosting School based Awareness Workshops in eighteen (18) schools with grade 9 to 11 learners, at least two hundred and fifty (250) learners per school, and their respective teachers, at least six (6) teachers per school. The content of the workshops includes the following topics: Dangers of being Online, Safety Tips for being Online, Cyberbulling and Sexting, Identity Theft and the impact of creating a negative or positive digital footprint for the individual and the country.

(2)(a)(ii) No training workshops are planned to be implemented in private schools.

(2)(b)(i) The learners and teachers are given content and information in terms of web based resources that may be accessed in order to assist them to mitigate against the online abuse of children.

(2)(b)(ii) No training support is planned to be given to educators in private schools.

Reply:

Yes, I have been engaging with the Minister of Environmental Affairs on different platforms to collectively come up with a coherent programme for preserving our ecological infrastructure. These engagements have resulted in several strategies and action plans, as follows:

1. Chapter 5 of the National Water Resource Strategy 2, outlines the protection strategies for our fresh water ecosystems which are inclusive of rivers, and wetlands. The progress in the implementation of these protection measures is monitored in the outcome 10 report of the Minister of Environmental Affairs as a key performance indicator on the number of rivers that have been classified. A joint Implementation Plan with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has been developed to ensure the implementation of protection measures and the sustainable functioning of ecological infrastructure. It is important to note that this Implementation Plan is also in alignment with the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan developed by the DEA.
2. The Classification, determination of the Reserve and Resource Quality Objectives work done by my Department, takes into cognisance the information contained in the National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas (NFEPA) and Strategic Water Source Areas developed by DEA, in collaboration with SANBI & the CSIR and stringent protection conditions are prescribed to protect ecologically important and sensitive ecological resources e.g. threatened wetland habitat, rivers, lakes, pans and estuaries which have been identified within these studies.
3. These protection measures outlined above are further translated into license conditions when the different water use authorisation applications are approved with clear recommendations on the management of the ecological infrastructure. My Department and DEA have a joint responsibility in the management of estuaries, where my Department is responsible for determining the ecological state, importance and sensitivity of estuaries and DEA is responsible for the regulatory measures for maintaining the ecological state. The ecological information determined by my Department is taken into consideration by DEA when issuing of permits for the utilisation of estuaries.

---00O00---

Reply:

SAPO has advised me as follows:

There has been no recent strike, the last strike was in 2014.

(1)(a) 851 Post Offices (including 13 mail centres) were closed across the country at the start of the strike. In the third and fourth week 634 post offices (including 14 mail centres) and 714 post offices (including 9 mail centres) were respectively closed. The closures were mostly in the Gauteng Province followed by Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal. These were mainly in; Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The closures in other provinces were sporadic in nature.

(b) A total of 4656 employees were reported to be on strike. However the level of intimidation and violence that was experienced during the strike led to more employees not being at their workstations during the strike due to fears of intimidation and violence.

(2) The details of the grievances included:

1. Back pay for the 2014 salary increases
2. Casual employees requesting full time employment with full benefits
3. Permanent Part time employees (flexible labour contracts) requesting full time employment
4. Equal work for equal pay
5. The 588 employees that were previously dismissed due to illegal strike but then re-employed in 2013 after agreements between SAPO and labour Unions demanded re-instatement of full benefits

( 3)The Minister established the National Leadership Forum at SAPO in October 2014. This was used as a platform to re-establish the engagements between representatives of the organised labour and SAPO management with the Department attending as an observer. SAPO workforce forums were subsequently established and settlement agreements reached with labour representatives taking into account SAPO’s financial situation. These agreements included:

1. Back pay for 2014/2015 salary increases
2. Conversion of casual and permanent part-time workers to permanent full time employees
3. Equal pay for work of equal value
4. 2015/2016 salary increases

Of the above agreements, the conversion of the temporary employees (casuals and flexible labour contracts) to permanent employees started in 2014 in a phased-in approach but was stopped due to financial constraints. Other settlements agreements were not honoured altogether due the entity’s continued constrained cash-flow position as the entity battled to recover financially post the strike action.

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works

The investigation into alleged irregularities at the Independent Development Trust (IDT) was not conducted by the Auditor-General of South Africa. The IDT Board of Trustees appointed Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Accounting (PTY) Ltd. (GFIA) to conduct a preliminary investigation into the allegations of irregularities in the procurement of goods and services.

A preliminary report, which was presented to the IDT Board of Trustees, revealed serious irregularities in the supply chain management processes within the IDT and further recommended that certain significant findings required further investigation.

The Board then took a proactive step and referred such an investigation to the Specialised Audit Services Unit (SAS) within the Office of the Accountant-General at the National Treasury. This Unit conducts all its investigations in collaboration with all the law enforcement agencies of Government, including the South African Police Service under the auspices of Anti-Corruption Task Team.

Reply:

(a) No, the Minister has not visited Ga-Rankuwa.
(b) The Minister visited the Tlokwe Local Municipality, since his appointment.
(i)
The Minister has taken steps to address community grievances. These include:

• Ensuring that the department continues to implement the Back-to-Basics (B2B) programme that addresses challenges in the local government sphere

• Directing the department's provincial 828 coordinators to focus on areas where violent protests are taking place, to address community grievances;

(ii) The City of Tshwane is involved in addressing concerns raised by the residents of GaRankuwa.
The Back to Basics provincial teams have identified municipalities where violent protests are taking place and are working at resolving the challenges in these municipalities.
The teams report back to the Minister regularly.

Reply:

Maize:

Grain SA submitted an application for an increase in the dollar based reference price for maize in December 2015. ITAC engaged with stakeholders and solicited comments from 25 interested parties. ITAC staff is now evaluating the application. The preliminary submission will be submitted to the Commissioners of ITAC during the Commission meeting of May 2016 for consideration.

Wheat:

Wheat tariffs are determined by a variable tariff formula based on US dollars. At the request of producers, when the conditions were met for an upward tariff trigger, ITAC applied the formula and tariff increases were accordingly applied. This resulted in an increase of customs duties on wheat from 91.12c/kg to 122.43c/kg and wheaten flour from 136.68c/kg to 183.65c/kg.

However, in light of the drought, the current exchange rate and the impact on food prices, government has requested a review of the variable import duty formula to ensure that consumer needs are properly taken into account.

-END-

Reply:

The Minister of Public Works

(1) Since, my reply to question number 471 for oral reply on 09 September 2015 the Department of Public Works has not received any requests from any Government departments regarding further security upgrades at the President’s private residence in Nkandla.

(2) The Department has not worked on a costing exercise, as the request for the security upgrades has not been received. An estimation or calculation of costs will only be done pursuant to a security assessment and the identification of requirements for the installation of security measures by the relevant departments in the security cluster.

____________________________________________________________________

Reply:

(a) The anticipated total costs of producing and installing the 5 million subsidized STBs, as appropriated, is R2.45 billion.

(b) Over the MTEF period the National Treasury has allocated R1.1 billion.

(c) The funds will be drawn from the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services’ vote.

 

MR NN MUNZHELELE

DIRECTOR GENERAL [ACTING]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

MS AF MUTHAMBI (MP)

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

Reply:

Telkom has provided me with the following response:-

(1)- (3) Telkom as a listed company must comply with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) rules.

In terms of the JSE rules, information that is of financial nature has to be disclosed to all shareholders at once during an open period (reporting period). The company is currently in a closed period.

Furthermore, the information required, requires Telkom to reveal information which is of a commercial nature. The information therefore cannot be shared as it is competitive sensitive.

 

Reply:

There was no decision to ban call-ins on radio SABC’s stations. The SABC management did not prohibit talk shows hosts from having open lines discussions during programmes. Talk show hosts of religious or sport programmes are subject matter experts and will have open line discussions on relevant religious or sporting matters. At the same time, political discussions can only be dealt with during News and Current affairs programmes where presenters/hosts are skilled to deal with these matters. Therefore, the SABC strives to ensure that political discussions are dealt with on the correct platforms.

 

MR NN MUNZHELELE

DIRECTOR GENERAL [ACTING]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

MS AF MUTHAMBI (MP)

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE

Reply:

1(a). The National Archives has been operating at the same level of professionalism and dedication since 1994. Additional functions have been added to the work of the National Archives. These new services/activities include the provision of access to information in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information (PAIA) Act, Act No 2 of 2000, the implementation of Oral History programmes, the provision of policies, the guidelines, procedures and management of Electronic Records Management and Digitisation programmes.

(b). The National Archives is charged with the responsibility of managing government records through its records management unit and having custody of all national records through the National Archives Repository. The filing plan of the National Archives is up to date and properly implemented.

Through Oral History Programmes and projects implemented by the National Archives in partnership with other stakeholders including the Oral History Association of South Africa (OHASA), the National Archives is systematically recording histories of different communities throughout the country. This is in line with section 3(d) of the National Archives and Records Service Act, Act 43 of 1996 as amended, which refers to the collection of non-public records with enduring value of national significance which cannot be more appropriately preserved by another institution with due regard to the need to document aspects of the nation's experience neglected by archives repositories in the past.

Reply:

(1) (a) and (b)

The number of ambulances indicated below serve Mabopane, Ga-rankuwa, Winterveldt and Soshanguve. These ambulances are stationed next to Odi Hospital and serve Odi and Dr George Mukhari Hospitals, all clinics, all Community Health Centres in the Northern Sub-district of Tshwane including house calls.

Type of Vehicles	Number of Allocated Vehicles	Number Operational	Number Not Operational
Ambulances	13	8	5 at workshop
Obstetrics Vehicle	2	1	1 at workshop
Response Vehicle	2	2	0
Planned Patient Transport	4	2	2 at workshop
Rescue Vehicle	1	1	0
Logistic Vehicle	1	0	1 at workshop
TOTAL	23	14	9

(2) (a) Approval has been granted for 7 ambulances to be procured in the 2016/2017 financial year, i.e. 2 Obstetrics and 5 Ambulances. The new ambulances will replace ambulances identified for disposal and to add to the existing fleet.

(b) Ambulance procurement will be completed by the second quarter of 2016/2017.

(3) The average waiting time is as follows:

(a) (i) trauma - green - 57 minutes

(ii) trauma – yellow - 18 minutes

(iii) trauma - red - 13 minutes

(b) OPD referred from clinics - 65 minutes

(c) OPD follow up - 48 minutes

CHALLENGES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF WAITING TIMES

• There is is a general population growth in the surrounding areas.
• Odi District Hospital serves both Gauteng and North West communities and the communities are growing.
• There are a growing number of self-referrals, hence the OPD overflows daily and this affects waiting time.
• There is no regional or tertiary hospital between Odi and DGMA hospital, hence referral to a higher level becomes a challenge and the hospital is required to manage the many patients it cannot refer.
• Patients are reluctant to use the nearby clinics and return to the hospital despite being referred to their respective clinic.
• Most patients with chronic conditions come to the hospital after hours to use the Emergency Centre instead of the OPD during the day; hence the higher patient load and impact on the Emergency Centre.
• Patients with chronic conditions who attend the Emergency Centre after hours complain about long waiting time because acutely ill or injured patients are given priority attention.
• Turnover of clinical and nursing staff is high as they are attracted to higher level hospitals or resign due to pension and this also impacts negatively on waiting time.
• Space in the Emergency Centres and OPD is limited due to infrastructural challenges. Consulting rooms are few so patients cannot be accommodated in comfort while waiting.

END.

Reply:

 

	(1)	(a)	Denel SAAB Aerostructures (“DSA”) was a joint venture formed out of an equity partnership between SAAB and Denel Aerostructures (“DAe”) in January 2007. Prior to the formation of the partnership, DAe entered into two off-set contracts following the eight (8) A400m aircraft order by ARMSCOR. The offset packages with Airbus were to supply airframe structures namely, the Wing-to-Fuselage Fairing (“WFF”) and the Top Shells (“TS”) for the A400M military aircraft. As a result of the exposures with regard to these contracts, a condition precedent to the joint venture was that the Government indemnifies DSA in order to de risk the contracts. The indemnity is for a maximum amount of R1.6 billion (ONE POINT SIX BILLION RANDS) over a fifteen year period. The Indemnity Agreement was concluded on 21 May 2007.
		(b)	(aa)	As a program partner on the A400M, Denel has the obligation of the design, development, manufacture, and sole supply of the WFF and TS structures.
			(bb)	Denel has no obligation to ARMSCOR. DAe is directly contracted by Airbus to deliver the WFF and TS structures to their assembly lines.
			(cc)	As contracted through the Indemnity Agreement, Denel submits a claim to the Department on an annual basis, supported by an audited financial report, fully governed risk mitigation plan and a program report.
	(2)	(a)	From the R1.6 billion (ONE POINT SIX BILLION RANDS) indemnity cover, there is a balance of R359 million (THREE HUNDERED AND FIFTY NINE MILLION RANDS) remaining over the next 5 years.   Amount Capped Claim Value R 1,600,000,000 Claim YTD R 1,240,676,952 Balance R 359,323,048
		(b)	(i)	To date there has been 10 (TEN) claims submitted by Denel. Details of the claims are on the table below.
			(ii)	Amounts paid to Denel are shown on the table below.
		Claim Number Date Claim Submitted (DD/MM/YY) Period (MM/YY) Amount of Claim Amount Paid Balance of the Full Indemnity (over 15 years) R 1 600 000 000 Date of Payment (MM-YY) Status 1 31/07007 04/06 –06/07 R 222,290,420 R 220,980,584 R 1,379,019,416 Nov 07 Paid 2 22/08/08 07/07-07/08 R 259,516,131 R 257,639,637 R 1,121,379,779 Dec 08 Paid 3 20/05/09 08/08 – 03/09 R 191,865,684 R 191,865,684 R 929,514,095 Dec 09 Paid 4 28/10/09 04/09 –07/09 R 103,500,000 R 103,501,382 R 826,012,713 Dec 09 Paid 5 30/06/10 08/09 – 0310 R 96,000,000 R 78,155,111 R 747,857,602 Dec 10 Paid 6 13/06/11 04/10 – 03/11 R 116,634,725 R 116,254,986 R 631,602,616 Dec 11 Paid 7 28/05/12 04/11 – 03/12 R 118,782,844 R 118,782,844 R 512,819,772 Dec 12 Paid 8 18/05/13 04/12 – 03/13 R 57,249,797 R 57,249,797 R 455,569,975 Dec 13 Paid 9 29/05/14 04/13 – 03/14 R 63,140,844 R 63,140,844 R 392,429,131 Dec 14 Paid 10 25/05/15 04/14 – 03/15 R 33,106,083 R 33,106,083 R 359,323,048 Mar 16 Paid
	(3)	Yes oversight has taken place.
		(a)	(i)	As contracted in the Indemnity Agreement, Denel submits a claim to the Department on an annual basis, supported by an audited financial report, fully governed risk mitigation plan and a program report. When a claim is received, the Department appoints its own independent auditors to authenticate the claim as submitted by Denel.
			(ii)	The Department’s auditors physically go and verify relevant documentation and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
		(b)	The Department through its independent auditors. The Department conducts DAe plant visits at least twice a year to appraise itself of the A400M programme status.
		(c)	In instances where discrepencies were discovered, the claimed amounts were reduced accordingly, as indicated on the table above. The value of the annual claims over the past 10 years has reduced from R221 million (TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO MILLION RANDS) to R33.1 million (THIRTY THREE POINT ONE MILLION RANDS). Furthermore, for the past 4 (FOUR) years there has been no errors between the amount claimed by Denel and the audited amounts by the Department.
	(4)	The recent 2015 claim amounted to R33.1 million (THIRTY THREE POINT ONE MILLION RANDS). The R63.1 million (SIXTY THREE POINT ONE MILLION RANDS) was claimed and paid during 2014.   Earned Sales Cost Commitments Claim Serial Production and Ramp-up R184,943,445 R210,517,440 (R15,988,815) (R9,585,180) Jigs/Tooling RNIL R1,726,787 RNIL (R1,726,787) ILS & Freight R NIL R5,288,869 R NIL (R5,288,869) ENG & MODS R NIL R16,505,247 R NIL (R16,505,247) T O T A L (R33,106,083) ACRONYMS: ILS : Integrated Logistics Support ENG & MODS : Engineering and Modifications

 

Reply:

(1)(a) Eskom is in constant interaction with various suppliers for the required goods and services. This interaction includes Microsoft.

(b)(i) Eskom currently has an existing contract that is due to expire on 29 May 2016. A commercial process is currently underway for the renewal of the support and maintenance of the current contract. It must be noted that the bulk of this renewal is to maintain the current investment and ensure adequate maintenance and support of software.

(ii) The current contract with Microsoft expires on 29th May 2016. Please note that price is a confidential matter.

(aa) The current commercial process is to do the renewal of licences, subscription and maintenance.

(bb) The software is already in use as per the existing contract, except for the additional licenses. The additional licence is for functionality requirements from the business aligned to the digitisation strategy which will be deployed via approved projects once contract is approved.

(cc) Eskom’s commercial process which forms part of Eskom’s Procurement and Supply Chain Management Policy and Procedure was followed.

(dd) The commercial process that was followed is in alignment with Eskom’s Procurement and Supply Chain Management Policy and Procedure and Public Finance Management Act.

(2) Yes, Eskom’s process followed on the Microsoft transaction satisfied all prescribed legal requirements. The details are that the commercial process which is provided for in Eskom’s supply chain policies, is aligned to the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA).

(3) There are currently no email capabilities with open source and a number of our critical systems are integrated to our email application (exchange), using open source therefore is not possible. Eskom’s applications are extremely critical, given the nature of our business, use of open source will cause vulnerabilities and security is a risk that cannot be tolerated. Furthermore, using open source will have too many incompatibility issues between different word processing applications. There is also a massive proliferation of excel macros across the organisation which will lead to different version that we will have to manage hence there will be an increase in costs (support and maintenance required).

Reply:

Yes, Government is pursuing a vigorous policy for the early detection of Glaucoma and provision of medical intervention for those who already have the condition. As part of Government’s response to the 1999 Vision 2020 Initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and IAPB, guidelines for Eye Health were developed prioritising the five leading causes of blindness and visual impairment in South Africa, that is Cataract, Glaucoma, Diabetic retinopathy, Childhood blindness and Retractive errors. The following services/activities have taken place as part of a strategy to minimize the impact of eye health conditions and Glaucoma specifically:

• A symptom-based integrated clinical management Primary Care (PC101) guideline incorporates the detection and management of Glaucoma and other eye care conditions at a Primary Health Care (PHC) level;

• Eye Health has been integrated with all other programmes to ensure that eye health is addressed holistically and not as a vertical programme. This allows for the screening of Glaucoma on patients with conditions such as diabetes and hypertension;

• Every year, provinces organise a Glaucoma awareness week to raise awareness about the impact of Glaucoma. During the week, screening and health education on Glaucoma is provided. Different mainstream and social media are also utilised to educate the public on Glaucoma. In 2016, Glaucoma awareness week was commemorated during the week of the 6th to the 12th March 2016; and

• The following services are regularly provided at different facilities:

• Primary level - screening is conducted by PHC nurses, ophthalmic nurses and optometrists. Suspected cases of Glaucoma are referred to hospitals for further assessments and management;

• Secondary level – Ophthalmologists and Optometrists screen the eye and provide management for all Glaucoma cases that are detected. Low vision and rehabilitative services are provided to people whose vision has been irreparably damaged.

• Government has appointed a dedicated eye health person at the National Department of Health to prioritise eye health and develop strategies to eliminate avoidable blindness and visual impairment including the early detection of Glaucoma.

No records are available on specific year on year programmes run during the period 01 June 2009 to 29 February 2016.

END.

Reply:

(1) The legal costs to be paid by ICASA are yet to be determined. The full extent of these costs will only be determined upon taxation by the Taxing Master of the High Court. In terms of the Court Order the taxed costs are to be borne jointly and severally by ICASA, Vodacom and Neotel.

(2) The court found that meetings conducted between ICASA and Vodacom, without the participation of all interested parties, were improper and unlawful in that they were impermissible in respect of a public process and that gave credence to the suspicion of bias. As a result the court concluded that ICASA’s decision is hereby reviewed and set it aside.

Kindly be informed that the Minister is currently in a process of obtaining the relevant information pertaining to the transfer of Neotel`s operating and spectrum licenses to Vodacom. Therefore, once ICASA submits all the information that the Minister requested, the Minister will be able to assess the matter and take the necessary and appropriate steps.

 

MR NN MUNZHELELE

DIRECTOR GENERAL [ACTING]

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE:

MS AF MUTHAMBI (MP)

MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS

DATE

Reply:

The following information was provided by the Tlokwe Local Municipality:

Below is the response regarding the amounts spent by Tlokwe Local Municipality on print media, radio, television, online and outdoors during the 2014/15 financial year and since July 2015:

Amount spent and purpose on advertising by Tlokwe Local Municipality for 2014/15

(a) Print Media

(i) Local Community Newspapers

MEDIA	PURPOSE	COST
Mooivaal Media	The purpose of the advertisements was to inform the communities about public meetings relating to progress on	11 959
lzindwe Marketing		82 100
lzindwe Marketing	service delivery and unexpected interruptions to services	29 000
Total	123 059

Please find here: (ii) National Magazines