MPs raise concerns as Economic Development Minister addresses Committee

Yesterday marked the beginning of the second week of meetings for parliamentary committees. Last week, Committees met to formally elect their Chairpersons, while this week will focus on presentations of Annual Performance Plans (APP) and Strategic Plans, as well as budget discussions. People’s Assembly attended a joint meeting of the Economic Development Portfolio Committee and the newly established Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development, where Economic Development Minister, Ebrahim Patel, briefed the Committees on his Department’s APP.

Minister Patel took the Committees through his Department’s core mandate, reminding MPs that the Department had been founded at the beginning of the Fourth Term, so the previous years were used to get the entity up and running. And since many of the MPs were new, he reminded them that the APP sets annual targets and serves as an implementation plan for the Department’s Strategic Plan, which in turn implements the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF). Other aspects of the presentation included a summary of the Department’s R697 million budget, the 5 core-mandate strategic objectives, the 22 Key Performance Indicators, and 154 targets/outcomes.

MPs raised concerns around the implementation of the Department’s plans and whether the budgetary needs were going to be met.

The DA’s Sarel Marais, noted that the Minister spoke about the MTSF, but “that requires budget”, and if there is no money, then “it nullifies a good idea”.

The Minister reminded the Committees that the journey started with effective implementation and the “better use of money” – it was not about having more money. “It’s about getting projects started. Sometimes it’s better to spend less, not more,” he quipped.

Although the ANC’s Xitlhangoma Mabasa congratulated the Minister on the Department’s achievements so far, he was concerned about one of the biggest challenges the country faces – the increasing gap between the rich and poor.

“If we don’t consciously address that [income inequality], we run the risk of producing singular millionaires instead of producing many economically empowered people,” said Mabasa.

He stated that one of the ways to counter income inequality was to embrace and actively support cooperatives. According to Mabasa, cooperatives “should not only fall in the social economy, they should also fall in the real economy… we must empower the disempowered straight out of universities.”

Although the Minister agreed that cooperatives had great potential to grow the economy, the real challenge was “to move from advocacy to implementation”. However, the State is not allowed to create cooperatives, but they can support them.

Although Minister Patel assured MPs that his Department did not want to measure their impact on the economy just by looking at growth, but rather on the type and quality of economic growth, there still seemed to be lingering questions about the up-skilling of South African citizens for the future.

The DA’s Patrick Atkinson raised the issue of mining and beneficiation. He said that one of the biggest concerns was that the mining industry was changing and that the hundreds of thousands of workers in the mining industry were likely to reduce dramatically over the next few years due to mechanisation of mining itself. “What is being thought about [in terms of] re-skilling people who are involved in mining now?” he asked.

A concern was also raised about promoting local manufacturers and supporting them with finances and skills.

Generally, MPs from both Committees seemed to be dedicated to promoting skill policies within the country, with an ANC MP asking “How can we ensure that more and more of our people are empowered so they understand what is available to them?”