Question & Replies No 401 to 425

2009-07-20

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[PMG note: Replies are inserted as soon as they are provided by the Minister]

QUESTION NO 402

DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: TUESDAY, 11 AUGUST 2009

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: FRIDAY, 03 JULY 2009 (INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 5 – 2009)

Mr S B Farrow (DA) asked the Minister of Transport:

(1) Whether he purchased a new vehicle on his appointment to office; if so, (a) why, (b) what make and model is the vehicle, (c) what did the vehicle cost and (d)(i) what accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and (ii) what was the cost of such accessories; if not,

(2) whether he inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle?

NW463E

REPLY:

The Minister of Transport:

(1) No.

(a), (b), (c) and (d) (i) and (ii) Fall away.

(2) No.

(a) and (b) Fall away.

_{QUESTION: NO 406

(Internal Question Paper No 5 - 2009)
Mr J J van der Linde (DA) to ask the Minister of Sport and Recreation:

(1) Whether he purchased a new vehicle on his appointment to office; if so,

(a) Why,

(b) What make and model Is the vehicle,

(c) What did the vehicle cost and

(d) (i) What accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and

(ii) What was the cost of such accessories; if not,

(2) Whether he Inherited an existing vehicle; if so,

(a) What was the make and model and

(b) How old is the vehicle?

REPLY:

(1) No

(a) Not applicable
(b) Not applicable
(c) Not applicable
(d) Not applicable
(2) Yes

(a) 2 x Mercedes Benz S 350

(b) 3 years}

_{QUESTION 407}

_{FOR WRITTEN REPLY}

_{Date of publication on internal question paper: Jun 2009}

_{Internal question paper no:}

_{Ms S P Kopane (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development:}

_{(1) Whether she purchased a new vehicle on her appointment to office; if so, (a) why, (b) what make and model is the vehicle, (c) what did the vehicle cost and (d)(i) what accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and (ii) what was the cost of such accessories; if not,}

_{(2) whether she inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle? NW468E}

_REPLY:

_{(1) No. The Minister is utilising a vehicle provided by the Department of Transport as a transitional measures until a permanent arrangement is finalised. DSD is however currently in the process of procuring a new vehicle for the minister through either a hire purchase or an operating lease.}

_{(a) The lease of the former Minister's vehicle is in the process of being terminated as it was an interim arrangement for a period of two years.}

_{(b) No new vehicle has been procured yet. Various options, including the value of any extras, are still being evaluated within the prescripts of the Ministerial Handbook.}

_{(c) Not available.}

_{(d)(i) Not available, refer to (b) above,}

_{(ii) Not available, refer to (b) above.}

_{(2) Yes, for official duties in}_{Cape Town}_.

_{(a) Mercedes Benz S500}

_{(b) 2005}

_{QUESTION 409}

_{INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER [NO 5-2009]}

_{DATE OF PUBLICATION: 3 JULY 2009}

_{409. Mrs A Steyn (DA) to ask the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform:}

_{(1) Whether he purchased a new vehicle on his appointment to office; if so, (a) why, (b) what make and model is the vehicle, (c) what did the vehicle cost and (d)(i) what accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and (ii) what was the cost of such accessories; if not,}

_{(2) whether he inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle? NW470E}

_{THE MINISTER OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM:}

_{(1) No. The Department does not possess official ministerial vehicles and is currently in the process of procuring an official vehicle for the Minister.}

_{(a), (b), (c) & (d)(i)-(ii) Fall away.}

_{(2) No.}

_{(a) & (b) Fall away.}

QUESTION: 410 Monday, 3^rd Jul 2009

410. Ms A M Dreyer (DA) to ask the Minister for the Public Service and Administration:

(1) Whether he purchased a new vehicle on his appointment to office; if so, (a) why, (b)

what make and model is the vehicle, (c) what did the vehicle cost and (d)(i) what

accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and (ii) what was

the cost of such accessories; if not,

(2) whether he inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and

(b) how old is the vehicle? NW471E

REPLY

(1) No, the minister did not purchase a new vehicle on his appointment to office.

(2) The Minister for Public Service and Administration inherited two vehicles (one vehicle for use in Cape Town and one vehicle for use in Pretoria in line with paragraph 1.2.1 of Chapter 5 of the Ministerial Handbook).

(a) The make and model of the two cars are:-

· 2004 BMW 530D and

· 2005 Mercedes Benz E350

(b) The BMW 530D is five years old and has reached a mileage of 106 238 km whereas the Mercedes Benz E350 is four years old with a mileage of 119 410 km as on Monday 6 July 2009.

It is clear that the two vehicles have almost completed their lifespan of 120 000 km (Mercedes Benz at 119 410 km) or 5 years (BMW purchased in 2004), as prescribed in paragraph 1.2.3, chapter 5 of the Ministerial Handbook.

QUESTION 411 (WRITTEN REPLY) FRIDAY, 17J ULY 2009

411. Mr S J Masango (DA) to ask the Minister of Public Works:

(2) whether he inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle? NW472E

MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS

(1) (a-d) No new vehicle has been purchased since Minister's appointment to office.

(2 The Minister inherited the following vehicles from the former Minister:

(a) BMW550i, 2006 model in Pretoria. Reg. CA806313; this vehicle is in its 4^th year; and

(b) BMW545I, 2005 model in Cape Town. Reg. SPP664GP; this vehicle is in its 5^th year.

QUESTION NO 413

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 3 JULY 2009

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 5 - 2009)

Date reply submitted: 3 August 2009

Mrs D A Schäfer (DA) to ask the Minister of Police:

(2) whether he inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle?

NW474E

REPLY:

(1)(a) No, on appointment the Minister inherited the following vehicles from the previous Minister, a BMW X5, 2003 model (SAP 201890T) and a Audi A8

(SAP BPK 294B) 2006 model.

Both these vehicles were however mechanical unsound and were replaced in terms of the Ministerial Handbook Chapter 5 Paragraph 1.4, with the following vehicles:

(b) 2008 BMW X5 3.0D and 2009 BMW X5 Si 3.0.

(d)(i) Innovations Package including items such as reverse cameras, navigation system, sport suspension, sunroof and electric seat adjustment.

(d)(ii) R80 000,00 and R122 050,00.

(2)(a) Yes, the Audi A8 and BMW X5 as per paragraph 1(a).

(b) Year of first registration - 2003 and 2006.

QUESTION NO 415

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 03 JULY 2009

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 5)

Adv H C Schmidt (DA) to ask the Minister of Mineral Resources:

(1) Whether she purchased a new vehicle on her appointment to office; if so, (a) why, (b) what make and model is the vehicle, (c) what did the vehicle cost and (d)(i) what accessories were included in excess of the vehicle's purchase price and (ii) what was the cost of such accessories; if not,

(2) whether she inherited an existing vehicle; if so, (a) what was the make and model and (b) how old is the vehicle? NW476E

REPLY

(1) No, I have not yet purchased a vehicle since my appointment. I am currently making use of loan vehicles from BMW in terms of the arrangement between BMW and the Department of Transport.

(2) Falls away. Refer to the explanation above.

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES

WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO 417

(Internal Question Paper No 29 - 2009)

Mr P J Groenewald (DFF Plus) to ask the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:

1. How many of the 139 municipalities that have received assistance through Project

Consolidate are (i) currently in a better financial state than before the commencement of this project and (ii) still not rendering the required services and

(b) what were the costs to the state for helping each municipality in Project

Consolidate;

2. How many (a) municipal officials and (b) service-delivery facilitator in respect of

this project were (i) appointed and (ii) trained,(b) what did their (i) appointment and

(ii) training cost in each case and (c) how many of the (i) officials and (ii) service

deiivery facilitators are still in the employ of municipalities that were included in

Project Consolidate

3. How many of the municipalities that were include in Project Consolidate are still

receiving special assistance from Government in terms of the five-year strategic

agenda for local government and (b) what are the costs associated with the

assistance to municipalities in terms of the five-year strategic agenda for local

government.

Answer

Since the question requires a detailed response pertaining to each recipient municipality of Project Consolidate intervention the department would like to be given more time to

consolidate the response.

QUESTION 419

DATE OF PUBLICATION: Friday, 3 July 2009

INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 5 of 2009

Dr C P Mulder (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Home Affairs:†

(1) Whether it has been established that the new personal information processing system which she referred to in the National Assembly on 26 June 2009 has contributed to the safeguarding of passports in order to meet international safety standards; if not, why not; if so, (a) who came to this conclusion and (b) what were the details of this finding;

(2) (a) how much did this system cost, (b) how many officials have been trained to use the new system and (c) how much did this training cost?

NW480E

REPLY

(1)(a) & (b) The new personal information processing system referred to, entails the upgrading of the passport capturing, and enrolment processes to ensure higher standards of security to the passport application process, by ensuring that potential fraudulent activities are minimised. That includes enhancements with the likes of Live Capture, Biometric Access Control, and Photo Enhancement processes.

The benchmarking against the international standards, as enshrined in the

prescripts of the International Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and more and

above, the known weaknesses of the document, convinced us that our

passport security features require extensive upgrading.

There were various loopholes that inadvertently allow fraudulent activities with the passport capturing process, namely:

1.1 The two paper based photographs required with every application submission, allowed: (a) The swapping of photos of legitimate applicants with illegitimate ones. Photos of applicants were laminated onto the passport; of which fraudsters were able to remove, and paste illegal ones onto the passport document. (b) Photos submitted were often of poor quality, and didn't conform to the international requirements of picture quality, as stipulated in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). In effect, the Live Capture process was introduced to solve this problem. This ensures that photos are captured live onto the system at the time of application. That is, in the presence of the citizen, allowing recapturing, if needs be, to correct any quality and compliance, immediately, online, with automated software through digital cameras. Photos are digitally printed onto the passport. The applicant's record, together with pictures, is, then, transferred for printing to Government Printing Works (GPW). There is less intervention by officials, and this has resulted in minimising possible fraudulent activities.

During the transition from old passport system to the new one, the Department had to develop a solution (enhancement module) to deal with the bad quality pictures that were, already, captured in the old system which were not compliant to the ICAO standards. The enhancement module functionality was developed and introduced. This functionality enhances the photograph by fine tuning it, until it is at the correct resolution (colour, clarity etc). Progressively, the backlog, which was caused by bad quality pictures, has been reduced without asking applicants to have their pictures taken, again. In effect, the Live Capture has dramatically decreased the time to produce the Travel Document with a marked increase in quality.

Following these vital developments, we are in the process of rolling out the Live Capture system. Already, we have installed it in forty (40) Home Affairs offices, with one (1) station, in each of them, and we are hoping to have more, before the end of the financial year. However, because of financial constraints, we may not have it in every office.

1.2. Users within the Department, with the rights to perform activities, on the passport application system, were accessing the system using password authentication. With this mechanism, users would swap passwords, leave their workstations unattended, and, then, fraudsters would get an opportunity to tamper with the system. Even though, there was audit trail, it was not easy to link the fraudulent action to the owner of the password, as there was no conclusive proof that they, indeed, performed the transaction.

The Biometric Access login was, then, introduced for the passport application process. This solution uses the fingerprint authentication, and the Smart Card mechanism. Each time, a user has to perform critical functions on the system, they are required to authenticate themselves, using their fingerprints. The system does not allow progression to another step in the process, until authentication has been performed.

A non-repudiation database is kept for all transactions performed during the process of issuing passports, the specific user doing the transaction is linked, date, or time of the transaction. This is, in fact, admissible evidence in a court of law.

(2)(a)(b)(c) Cost of the Live Capture system:-R10 Million (for the recently completed 40

offices). Training costs are included.

Cost of Biometric Log - on system:–R29 million. (with 850 enrolled users)

Training costs are included.

QUESTION NO.: 421

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03 July 2009

Mr L W Greyling (ID) to ask the Minister of Public Enterprises:

(1) Whether Eskom will remain the sole purchaser for power locally; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so,

(2) whether this will pose a barrier to independent power producers wanting to take advantage of the renewable energy feed-in tariff; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details? NW482E

REPLY

(1) The draft New Generation regulations, which was published in January 2009 for public comment, set out the regulations under which independent power producers can participate in the South African Power Generation sector. The future role of Eskom as the buyer of energy produced by independent power producers (IPPs), will be clarified in the regulation which will be published in due course.

(2) The finalisation of the regulation will certainly be supportive of the renewable energy programme as published by the regulator's renewable energy feed-in tariff.

QUESTION NO. 424

DATE PUBLISHED: 10 July 2009

DATE SUBMITTED: 24 July 2009

424. Rev KM Zondi (IFP) to ask the President of the Republic:

Whether he intends appointing a judicial commission of enquiry into the disbanded SA Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board; if not, why not; if so, (a) when and (b) what the terms of reference will be? NW483E

REPLY:

Thehearings recently conducted by the Portfolio Committee on Communications into the problems faced by the corporation provided sufficient information on the causes of the current situation and what needs to be done in order to improve the functioning of the SABC.

We have noted the serious issues that surfaced during the inquiry, from both the Board and Executive Management. In this regard, the interim Board will need to take steps to ensure that these issues are addressed.

QUESTION NO: 425

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 10 July 2009

QUESTION PAPER NO: 6

DATE OF REPLY: 17 July 2008

Rev K M Zondi (IFP) asked the Minister of Communications

(1) Whether the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) or any member of its executive management donated any T-shirts or money to buy T-shirts to a certain political organisation (name furnished) for election purposes; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;

(2) whether this was in accordance with policy at the SABC; if so, what are the relevant details; if not,

(3) whether any steps will be taken against those involved; if not, why not; if so, what steps;

(4) whether he will make a statement on the matter?

NW484E

REPLY:

The SABC advised me as follows:

(1) No. It is practice in the SABC to only provide T-shirts for their on-air and ground staff who cover events of National importance to promote the SABC.

(2) Not applicable

(3) Not applicable

(4) No

QUESTION NO 420

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 03 JULY 2009

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 5)

420. Dr C P Mulder (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:†

(1) Whether her department has established the volume of water needed by organised agriculture so as to produce food for the national demand in a profitable way; if not, why not; if so, (a) what is the volume of water needed and (b) how was this figure arrived at;

(2) whether her department has done a survey since 1 January 1999 to establish the actual water consumption figure of the agricultural sector; if not, why not; if so, (a) when was this survey done and (b) which institutions were involved in arriving at these figures;

(3) whether she has entered into discussions with structures within organised agriculture regarding the wastage of water by agriculture; if so, when; if not, why not;

(4) whether she is planning to hold discussions with agricultural organisations regarding water usage by agricultural institutions; if not, why not; if so, when?

NW481E

REPLY:

(1) Yes. Through a series of country-wide situation assessments of all the water sectors, the amount of water abstracted for irrigation is estimated at 7 920.million cubic metres per year, which represented about 62% of all the water used in the country. Although the need for Irrigation Water is constantly growing very little additional water can be made available for agriculture, given other demands.

The country is already a net importer of food due to a number of economic and political reasons other than water. Given that South Africa is Water-Scarce, agriculture water will inevitably have to be reduced gradually in future because of the growing demand for water in the domestic and other sectors. The challenge to the agricultural sector will thus be to produce more food using less water. The Limited Water Resources available for food production are afforded high importance and must be used efficiently. The irrigation water is already subsidised for purposes of food production.

(2)(a) Yes. Available agricultural consumption estimates were collated in 2002/03 for incorporation in the first version of National Water Resource Strategy which was published in September 2004.

-2-

(2)(b) The information was gathered from organised agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Centre for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Irrigation Boards/Water User Associations and was synthesizes and presented during the drafting of NWRS.

(3) Yes. My Department discusses its programme on water wastage control and efficient water use with structures within organised agriculture. However, the nature of discussions is through a formal platform provided for the structures within the organised agriculture. Structures such as National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture, South African Agriculture Union, National African Farmers Union (NAFU), forums for interested and affected irrigation farmers (eg Mhlathuze Irrigation Forum), Water User Associations, Irrigation Boards and Government Water Scheme, Research Institutions e.g. Agriculture Research Council, Water Research Commission and Institutions of Higher Learning are consulted to solicit their comments, inputs and form part of the working committees on any agricultural water programmes.

(4) Yes, we recently held a meeting with Agri-SA and a task team was established for continuous engagement.

2009-07-20

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