Deliberations on the South African Post Office SOC Ltd Amendment Bill [B24-2013] and South African Postbank Limited Amendment Bill [B25-2013]

Meeting report

PRESENT:
African National Congress (ANC)
Kholwane, Mr SE (Chairperson)
Morutoa, Ms R
Tsebe, Ms S
Lesoma, Ms M*
Kekana, Mr D
Newhoudt-Druchen, Ms W
Ndlazi, Ms Z

Apologies
Ms M Shinn (DA)
Ms F Muthambi (ANC)
Ms L van der Merwe (IFP)
Ms Z Ndlazi (ANC)

Parliamentary Support Staff:
Mr TK Ngoma, Committee Secretary
Ms T Sepanya, Committee Secretary
Mr S Nene, Committee Researcher
Mr M Maleka, Content Advisor
Mr G Mankay, Committee Assistant
Mr N Mjenxane, Legal Advisor
Dr B Loots, Legal Advisor

ANC Caucus Staff
Mr K Matlala – Assistant to Mr Kekana
Ms R Davids – Assistant to Ms Newhoudt-Druchen

Guests

Department of Communications
Ms R Sekese – Director-General
Mr W Vukela – Deputy Director-General
Mr T Phiri – Deputy Director-General
Mr A Wiltz – Director
Ms Z Xabadiya – Parliamentary Liaison Officer
Mrs PB Dlamini – Deputy Director
Ms DP Mojela – Deputy Director
Ms L Molete – Director, Legal Services
Ms Z Anthony – Parliamentary Liaison Officer

Department of Justice
Mr M Ncolo, State Law Advisor
Mrs X Mdludlu – Principal State Law Advisor

National Treasury
Mrs OY Groenewald – Senior Financial Analyst

South African Post Office
Mr M Faasen – General Manager
Mr H Daniels – Chair of Audit Committee
Mr S Patel - Non-Executive Director
Mr A Nongogo – Senior Manager

1.         Opening and welcome
The Chairperson opened the meeting. He welcomed the members, Ms Sekese and the Department’s team, and everyone else in attendance. He outlined the programme for the day.

2.         South African Post Office SOC Ltd Amendment Bill 2013
Mr Wiltz presented the amendments as follows:
Clause 1 – agreed to
Clause 2 – agreed to
Clause 5 – agreed to
Long title – agreed to
Schedule – agreed to

The Committee agreed that the amendments were captured as proposed in the meeting of 17 September 2013.




2.1        Deliberations
Having deliberated, the Committee requested Ms Sekese to submit a formal confirmation (letter) that all parties involved in the formulation of the Bill had agreed to the amendments.

3.         South African Postbank Limited Amendment Bill 2013
Mr Wiltz presented the amendment list as follows:
Clause 1 – agreed to
Clause 1 (2)(a) change “communications” to “Communications”
Clause 6 – agreed to
Clause 7 – agreed to
Clause 8 – agreed to

The Committee requested that the Department provides it with a confirmation that all stakeholders involved in the processing of the amendment bill agreed with the amendments (National Treasury, Reserve Bank, etc).

Mr Michael Blackbeard explained that the Registrar of Banks does not appoint nor expel non-executive directors. It can only object to the appointment based on the information supplied to the questionnaire that gets completed by all new non-executive directors. For existing Board members, the Registrar of Banks can at any given time request a member to complete the questionnaire.

4.         Presentation by various stakeholders on the Electronic Communications
Amendment Bill 2013 and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Amendment Bill 2013

The following institutions made presentations to the Committee:
Multichoice / Mnet
SOS: Support Public Broadcasting
South African Broadcasting Corporation
National Association for Broadcasters
South African Communications Forum
Wireless Access Provider’s Association



5.         Closing remarks
The Committee welcomed all presentations made by stakeholders. The Chairperson thanked the representatives of all institutions that presented to the Committee. The hearings were scheduled to continue on 2 October 2013.

A full report on the public hearings will be presented to the Committee by the secretariat.

The meeting adjourned at 17:45


Mr SE Kholwane, MP
Chairperson: PC on Communications