Department of Environmental Affairs & South African National Biodiversity Institute on their 2016 Annual Performance Plan, in presence of Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Election of Acting Chairperson
Mr S Makhubele (ANC) was duly elected as Acting Chairperson.

After he took the Chair, Mr Makhubele thanked the Committee. He noted that the regular Chairperson, Mr J Mthembu (ANC) had recently been deployed as the Chief Whip of the ANC in Parliament and thus could not be here to fulfill his role as Chairperson.

He noted that in a previous session, the r Strategic Plan (SP) had been presented by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA or the Department). He would not require that this be presented again but said that the meeting should engage on further aspects that need clarification, and rather then focus on the Annual Performance Plan (APP).

He noted the apology tendered by Ms Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs. The Deputy Minister, Ms Barbara Thomson, was present.

Department of Environmental Affairs: 2016 Annual Performance Plan briefing
Ms Nosipho Ngcaba, Director General, Department of Environmental Affairs, EA, said that the DEA had tabled its SP and APP before 10 March, as the legislation required. She would summarise the SP and point out any revisions made. The Deputy Director Generals would then take the Committee through their programmes in the APP.

She said the SP is a reflection of the implementation of the New Development Plan (NDP) which is the 2030 vision for government. The APP is also aligned with the sector's Outcome 10 implementation plan. The NDP outlines transition to a society and economy that is internationally competitive, dealing with issues of equity and providing job creation. The NDP indicates growth of 3% to 5%. It also mentions sustainability, and the responsibility and work of the DEA centred heavily on this point, as it had to manage carbon emissions and grow the economy in a manner that will allow South Africa to transition to a low carbon growth.

She read out the main priorities captured in the SP as follows:
- Ecosystems sustainability : ensuring natural resources are used efficiently within the context of sustainability. She pointed out in this regard that some of the fauna and flora is used by society both in terms of economic prosperity and livelihood
- DEA seeks implement an effective climate change mitigation and adaptation response. At the last meeting, the Paris COP 21 outcomes were outlined and South Africa must commit to this. DEA hoped to facilitate actions that would ensure a smooth transition through all other departments

Ms Ngcaba noted that these strategies must be viewed in line with the recent changes in fiscal allocations. As indicated at the last meeting, there have been budget cuts and although the DEA had not completely downscaled all its work it would need to do this. The rather ambitious targets would have to be revised, and the DEA intended to proceed in the next year with the current staff. DEA was expecting a briefing from National Treasury.

The coherent framework that is outlined in the SP will allow for investment in development of new technologies that will contribute to the advancement of the greener economy that the DEA envisaged. DEA hoped that the coherence in fiscal and regulatory systems will also facilitate consumer and societal behavioural change. Environmental awareness requires stewardship and taking citizens on board with behavioural changes. These include changes in behavior such as saving energy, saving water and using natural resources wisely. These are all pressing matters for South Africa and are the responsibility of the DEA. The DEA hoped that this would see aspired transitions and results across South Africa, in both private and public sectors.

The Department’s vision, outlook and mission had not changed. It would ensure, with the SP targets, that the environment is protected, natural resources are protected and sustainable development and growth takes place. The DEA wants a prosperous society that lives in harmony with the environment. The mission and vision can be achieved through effective leadership. It can benefit not only all South Africans but the broader international community as well.

The DEA strategy map outlined the vision, mission and key department outcomes through three pillars:
- the contribution of the environment to economic prosperity
- attaining economic ecological integrity and safeguarding resources
- transformation that would enable benefit that would facilitate social development 

Ms Ngcaba said that she would not go through each of these pillars but the DEA hoped to achieve synergies.

She outlined that the Department has seven programme structures:

Programme 1: Administration
Programme 2: Legal Authorisations and Compliances
Programme 3: Oceans and Coast
Programme 4: Climate Change and Air Quality Management (includes SA Weather Service)
Programme 5: Biodiversity and Conservation
Programme 6: Environmental Programmes
Programme 7: Chemicals and Waste Management

Programme 1: Administration
Mr Riaan Aucamp, Acting Chief Operations Officer, DEA, firstly said that the target for the percentage vacancy rate is 9.5%. The DEA would see cuts in compensation of employees budgets from National Treasury (NT). For 2017/18, vacant posts filling had been estimated at R54 million and for 2018/19 the vacancies were R78 million. Mr Aucamp said that although this year the DEA was not affected, it will have to start implementing tough decisions to be compliant in the future. As at 1 April 2016, the DEA had a 6.8% vacancy rate and this would help the Department to build in a buffer. Cuts from NT will be a challenge to all departments.

The DEA has recruited 104 interns that have just been appointed and started on April 1 2016. The target was 100 interns, so this had been achieved already.  DEA had also already issued 73 bursaries. The targets for the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) had been achieved to 83% as of end of financial year. With regard to employment equity targets, specifically related to women, DEA is at at 56%, while the national target is 50%. However, it had fallen short, at 43.5%, of reaching the 50% target for women in senior management service level. Even if all current vacancies on senior management level are filled by women, the DEA will not reach that target of 50%.However, at the feeder levels 11 and 12, there were 53% women so that was a positive indicator with grooming for long term targets. The DEA was employing 2.8% people with disabilities, as against the national targets of 2%. The breakdown for this was : 
- Entry level into civil service: 43%
- Middle level management: 48%
- Senior management level: 8%.

Ms Ngcaba pointed out that the figures indicated were how DEA stood at the end of the first quarter.

Discussion
The Deputy Minister asked if the number of women employed at senior management level was enough. 

Mr S Mabilo (ANC) agreed with the Deputy Minister that this was too low and suggested that the DEA would have to push the boundaries.

Mr Aucamp pointed out that the disability figures were higher than the national targets.

Mr Alf Wills, Deputy Director General (DDG): Environmental Advisory Services, DEA, said that the targets set for next year on resource mobilisation, environmental practitioner training, and environmental evidence base and research projects, and information and knowledge management issues related to spatial tools and international negotiating positions are relatively clear.

Mr Mabilo asked about the 6.8% vacancy rate (which translates to 120 staff members) and said that he was interested in the spread and category so that the Committee has a clear understanding of the strategic nature of vacancies, as well as the urgency to fill them through normal recruitment and selection process.
He said that he understood how, even if all the vacancies were filled by women, the targets would still not be met, but he wanted to know more  about the limitations and challenges in this regard.

Mr Mabilo asked about the figures on page 8 regarding financial value of resources by international donors, wanting to get the broader picture.

Mr T Hadebe (DA) said that he was hoping that the DEA would be able to present the final report giving overall performance (fourth quarter report) to see base targets and exactly what and how the DEA have performed. He said that the fourth quarter was never presented. He wanted  clarity on how new targets are set and how the DEA will move forward.

The Deputy Minister asked how the DEA would manage not to downscale while operating on limited budget.

The Chairperson asked about the description of both “blacks” and “Africans”page 6 of the APP. He asked why there was a declining trajectory on page 16, for  the percentage of Affirmative Procurement. He noted that on page 19, the number of publications produced and distributed had failed to directly talk about distribution. The issue was not production, but distribution, which will allow completion. On page 20, he wanted to know what has caused the decline in the number of environmental awareness activities conducted.

Ms Ngcaba replied on the question of the the contextual factors that Mr Mabilo raised on disability employment. DEA believed that it was important to try to go beyond the target. It was difficult to attract people with disabilities and in the previous year the DEA did not meet the 2% requirement. It now had a focused plan for recruitment of people with disabilities, had met the target and this should be celebrated. The process of registration was not easy. The DEA are now working with new organisations to aid in the recruitment of people with disabilities. Many disabled people were concerned with the loss of grants because they cannot ‘double dip’ and get a salary from the Department and their grant. This posed a challenge to the DEA. However, she thought that it had achieved well and hoped that the DEA would be able to grow this development still further. 

Ms Ngcaba noted that the end of quarter figures cannot be factored in yet as they have not been finalised and thus the figures are for the end of December 2015.

Ms Ngcaba said that the concern of the Deputy Minister with regards to cuts in the budget are relevant and the DEA is dealing with managing itself and  meeting goals even with limited resources. It was showing good innovation. DEA tended to use one person to do the work of three, and the staff were pushing themselves to do the work; its staff were driven and ambitious. However, there was some degree of mediocrity creeping in because of the penalisations and performance management scores. She appealed to the Deputy Minister to lower these performance requirements.

Ms Ngcaba said that the DEA had obtained information from the Auditor-General but would look for this information as questioned on slide 19. It did try to ensure that information is published and distributed by placing it in different centres and offices, knowing that it did not have the resources to distribute to small villages. DEA would need to evaluate the impact of this current method and see what can be done. The shortcoming was accepted.

The environmental awareness figures have dropped because the DEA does not have a specific body to deal with environmental awareness. The DEA previously had an entity called Indala Yethu but this was phased out because of lack of resources. Despite the drop, it was still in line with targets.

The strategy in respect to local government support had involved DEA developing a strategy of working with a number of networks. Through these networks, it had outlined key pillars for focus.

Ms Esther Makau, Chief Financial Officer, DEA, responded to the change in target with expenditure in BEE. There was a change in National Treasury regulations that companies needed to meet in order to be considered BEE compliant, and where the DEA was using companies that  did not meet targets if had to adjust figures and could not meet the 85%.

Mr Aucamp responded to the question on race and levels used in the APP. According to legal and reporting requirement, Africans, Coloureds and Indians all fall under the categories ‘Blacks’. Africans was used as a separate delimitator. This was in line with legal requirements.

Mr Hadebe said that the baseline of risk assessments is 61% but the target has been changed to 100%. He asked how this will be achieved.

Mr Mabilo reiterated his concerns about women in the sector. Only 43% of senior management is covered by women and they mentioned that even if the DEA fill available spaces, they will not reach target. He asked about the contextual factors that contribute to this. 

The Chairperson asked why, on page 20, the target for the number of Sector Education and Training Authority  plans with environmental focus had come from 12 to 6,  and is now sitting at 3, with no future projections.

Ms Ngcaba answered Mr Mabilo by saying that the Department was previously dominated by white males. Over time the DEA had put in plans to facilitate transformation, but the achievements on black and women staff was taking longer than hoped. The budget cuts means that DEA will not reach the target, and so realistically it is not achievable. DEA is transparent about it and it is a real and practical problem. However, DEA is now focusing on middle level management so that in time they will redress the problem as they move up to top level.

She commented that the DEA did not feel that strategy targets of 100% were good targets, but it did recognised that the security risks targets had to be high.

The Deputy Minister said that not having a dedicated entity that takes care of environmental awareness hurts the Department as some of these resources will have to be rehabilitated; this was a historical problem.

Programme 2: Legal, Authorisations and Compliance Enforcement:

Mr Ishaam Abader, Deputy Director General: Legal, Authorisations and Compliance Enforcement took the Members through the outline for this programme as set out in the APP slides (see presentation for details).

Discussion
Mr Hadebe wanted clarity on the number of interventions to curb the ongoing rhino poaching problem. He wanted to know what is really happening, given the ongoing press publicity.

The Chairperson pointed out that there was only one intervention to be approved on page 32, and asked if that was really all that the DEA was going to do. He questioned the number of sustainability policies reviewed in both 2015/16 and 16/17, which are more about developing and improving the action plan with no actual implementation. He said that too much time is allocated to do these things.

Mr Abader said that Programme 2 had overlapping functions with other branches. In respect of the strategy on rhino poaching, the DEA will review the old strategy, but that was made up of of a series of interventions:
- Compulsory interventions
- International and national cooperation and collaboration
- Management of rhino population
- Long term sustainability

Each of these had sub programmes and there was work throughout the year to achieve results, also running into the work of other departments. Strategic interventions continue irrespective of challenges that face the DEA. The review, which is listed as one interventions, is a review process.

Mr Abader said that the DEA was thankful that the numbers had gone down, and this must be due to the DEA work. The Minister has requested  new briefing next week, and it was hoped that she will present statistics showing an even further decrease in numbers.

The Deputy Minister said that she had hoped that there would also be a mention of the involvement of other departments as well and stressed the importance of this fusion.

Mr Abader said that one major development is that South African Police Services (SAPS ) has created a wildlife tracking strategy that they will begin shortly. This is testament that policy has been developed to work with other departments.

Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi, Deputy Director General: Biodiversity and Conservation, DEA, reiterated the point that the wildlife tracking strategy with SAPS will further put emphasis on poaching as a crime and this is a significant breakthrough.

Mr Wills answered the question in relation to the environmental sustainability action plan on page 34. In 2011, the DEA had the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSSD) and Climate Change Response Policy in 2011, which was implemented in 2012. The DEA also had the Green Economy Strategy, the Green Economy Accord, the Environmental Sustainable Development Research and the Sustainable Consumption and Production Strategy. These all provided inputs to NDP that was published in 2012. In 2013 and 2014 there was a review of all these policies in context of what the NDP targeted, and a conceptual approach was developed. The draft stage of the Environmental Sustainable Policy Action Plan is the conversion of all this policy into an action plan. Its an ongoing implementation. The big challenge for DEA with sustainable development is that the environment sector is only one of a number of sectors in society, and it has to achieve sustainability whilst bearing all other sectors in mind.

Mr Hadebe welcomed the inclusion of SAPS in the process but he urged the DEA to take charge of the issue of rhino poaching. The public have expressed deep concern about the problem, and there is a feeling that both the Department and this Committee are not doing enough.

Programme 3: Oceans and Coast:
Dr Monde Mayekiso, Deputy Director General: Oceans and Coasts, DEA, outlined the SP and APP indicators. He explained the decrease in the number of peer reviewed scientific publications, saying that  two of the top scientists had retired recently and it was hard to keep up the number of publications. It is much easier for senior scientists to publish papers due to their networks, and that there were not many younger people coming up.

He also explained the numbers of relief voyages. A vessel is scheduled to return on 12 May 2016, would lay over in Port Elizabeth and have an open day for learners on 13 May and an open day for the public on 14 May. All Committee Members will be invited to attend, as also to continue on the voyage to Cape Town if they wished. DEA will present their findings and further practical evidence.

Discussion
Mr Hadebe said that previously the DEA had told the Committee is was applying to extend the economic exclusion zone (EEZ) and he asked for an update on that.

Ms H Nyambi (ANC) asked about the two senior scientific researchers who had have resigned, and whether they had transferred skills to junior researchers.

Mr Mabilo asked when Dr Mayekiso will brief the Committee on developments in Antarctica.

The Chairperson said that on page 37 the performance indicator talks about interventions implemented in the entire year, but what was described seemed to relate to  development and approval but no implementation. He also questioned the figures for surveys of new habitat, where the figure was one for 2015/16 but there was now seemingly discussion on three.

Dr Mayekiso said the EEZ issues was a query of the United Nations and more information was needed, so that the DEA had modified what was done on the Marion Island trip to provide this. The UN is now happy with the information, and the area from Port St Johns down was being considered. The approval will not happen until the vessel returns in May. The question about South Africa’s EEZ is a tough one and answers are not known. There is still a great deal to be explored. Each year DEA choose an area to get a better understanding, and these are the “priority habitats”. Reports in the past have been done on an annual basis and the DEA will move to producing a full report every five years, with annual report cards feeding into a general trend.

He was confident that the departed scientists had have transferred skills. The new researchers are juniors and can obviously not run as fast.

Dr Mayekiso said that in regard to strategic planning DEA had finished the economic study and during the course of 2016, would engage a service provider who will interview departments and people in the international community to get more answers. DEA needs to talk to different people and arrive at a common strategy for South Africa regarding Antarctica.

Ms Ngcaba commented that on National Coastal Management there is a draft of norms and standards and what they call ‘set-back lines’. The Coastal Integration Act is new legislation so that no baselines have been set yet, but there would facilitation once the provisions were put into effect.

Mr Mabilo said that the Committee should be properly briefed with regards to Antarctica because there are a number of important political global dynamics, and Members should not have to rely on media reports. He wanted to know the developments and implications for the country. He also wanted to know of developments with global ocean governance.

Dr Mayekiso said that during the trip from  sailing from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, he will present the findings and strategy on Antarctica. There are developments that need to be discussed. He emphasised that whenever decisions are taken in these forums, there needs to be consensus from the Committee and these issues can be discussed in detail at that stage.

Dr Mayekiso noted that 60% of the ocean is not regulated. This 60% is outside the of EEZ of each country. DEA is currently negotiating on a high water governance regime.

Ms Ngcaba agreed that a special presentation was needed, and said that the journey proposed will be the start of this. She also confirmed that there had been skills transfer by the retired senior officials, but new researchers needed to earn seniority in scientific fields before they can publish.

Programme 4: Climate Change and Air Quality:
Ms Judy Beaumont, Deputy Director General: Climate Change and Air Quality, DEA, presented the SP and APP for Programme 4. She specifically highlighted the toolkits developed by DEA to aid municipalities in ensuring that alongside their development and growth, they comply with climate change regulations. (see attached presentation for more details).

Discussion
Mr Hadebe highlighted the lack of financial resources in the DEA and asked then how it would continue to ensure compliance by industries. He said that this is especially important within local municipalities.

The Chairperson asked what informed the 40 municipalities to whom the toolkit would be rolled out, as mentioned on page 49. He also said he was worried that that with the pace of development and the time it takes to see industries being held accountable, companies will take advantage of the environment. He asked what could be done to speed up the process of accountability.
The Chairperson also said that DEA needed more government managed air quality stations. The stations that existed had issues. The discrepancy between numbers and actions is problematic n.

Ms Beaumont said NT does a review every five years against set of socially economic and vulnerability criteria across all municipalities, and the DEA had used the 2012 report to lift out the set of municipalities that have particular social and economic vulnerabilities. She said that it is impossible to do a detailed plan for every step but  the DEA is enabling these 40 municipalities to walk through a clear set of questions and respond to them in order to link them to their Integrated Development Plans. The reason for the DEA’s proactive approach to municipalities is that municipalities have a number of other priorities and often do not get to environmental issues.

With regard to emission standards, this it is an issue of pure compliance. The DEA checks legislation and regulatory instruments to deal with different sources of pollution. The DEA also seeks support from the compliance and enforcement teams.

Ms Beaumont confirmed that there were serious challenges with the 115 monitoring stations. 20 stations belong to the SA Weather Service and thus 20 are complying to national standards. Remaining stations that belong to provincial and local government are not always meeting the standards to ensure that DEA ca use the data. This problem had been escalated and DEA had plans for an asset management system in place to be running by the end of the year. This will link all stations to a central station. There would then be a better on-the-ground monitoring system.

Ms Ngcaba also said that question of financial resources has no short answer. It does pose a big challenge. There is enforcement capacity in local governments and they have met training and designation inspectors at the local government level. Thus, DEA did carry out  facilitation and local government support is informed by these gaps. There is, however, also a limited extent to how DEA would be able to intervene with financial and human resources.

The Chairperson said that big businesses are also putting measures in place to ensure that they are not caught. He thought that the legislation of the DEA needed to be quite aggressive, and reiterated that if monitoring takes too long, the issues will not be taken seriously. The instruments used to monitor need to be watertight and seamless. DEA also needs to work harder with local governments to prioritise this monitoring and regulation, otherwise legislation at a national level will not be taken seriously.

Programme 5: Biodiversity and Conservation:
Mr Munzhedzi presented Programme 6 and explained that the programme is based on 3 tenets: conservation, sustainable use and benefits and access sharing. The deliverables cut across these three areas.

There are four main tools that the DEA developed and implements to ensure that biodiversity is protected and that it will mitigate threats to such biodiversity.  Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS)  of top priority. There were also concerns for the Cape Mountain Zebra, whose numbers were down. The DEA will focus on this as outlined in the 2016/17 target. DEA wanted to see a 0.9% increase in conservation of protected areas, to 12,2%. Having a Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) will help implementation.

Ms Ngcaba highlighted in Programme 5 the focus that the DEA is taking on the Bushbuckridge initiative.

Discussion
Mr Hadebe asked for clarity on exclusive mining areas

The Chairperson noted that he threatened and respected species were explained but not the percentages. ,

Programme 6: Environmental Programmes
Dr Guy Preston, Deputy Director General: Environmental Programmes, DEA, said that the DEA had 14 different programmes and one of the key points was creation of full time equivalent jobs. The DEA will have challenges meeting the goals but he is confident that they will. At the moment, the programme employed 2.7% staff with disabilities, more than the national expectation. The number of overnight visitors is under review and it will be updated this year.

The targets for number of emerging invasive alien species is down from 82 to 70 but the DEA doing what can be done and this is particularity difficult to manage. The area to be covered and treated by the DEA has experienced recent challenges – one of drought, and another of fire, both of which restrict the areas that the DEA can monitor and treat. 

The Chairperson said that the Committee was happy with programme 6 and there were no questions.

Programme 7: Chemicals and Waste Management:
Mr Mark Gordon, Deputy Director General: Chemicals and Waste Management, DEA, presented the SP and the APP for Programme 7 (see presentation for more details). He said that this year the programme will be focusing on the export and import of waste, taking into consideration what was discussed in the Portfolio Committee meeting last year relating to illegal import and export of waste management. Last year, the DEA had concluded a draft Waste Management Bill, but this year it would be focusing on an integrated chemical management strategy. 

The DEA was focusing on the Minamata Convention, which deals with mercury levels, and it would be signed this year. South Africa had signed a treaty to phase out mercury over the next few years. He pointed out the training taking place in the programme. DEA had again started training municipal officials and local governments. There was a target of 200 municipal officials to train in this sector.

Ms Ngcaba also confirmed that there are quarterly targets set but DEA was not meeting some targets in respect to the Chemicals bill, because of the short Parliamentary time and also the nature of the programme cutting across a number of departments and Ministers, with discussions still needed before the Bill could come to Cabinet

Discussion
Ms J Edwards (DA) said that the mention of recycling on page 32 was not enough. She wanted to know how the DEA was dealing with recycling and what it was working towards. She also asked what the current situation on imports and exports of chemical products was. She wanted to know more on waste management incentives, since she felt that more needed to be done. She said that the Department should look into consulting with other departments and small businesses so that the process of recycling can be sped up. This will also alleviate the pressure on  DEA.

The Chairperson noted that there was nothing specifically said on page 70 about the management instruments developed and implemented, for 2017/18 and 2018/19. He asked whether, after having been finalised, that was the end of that target.

Dr Gordon said that the blank spaces on page 70 are related to one item and look import and exports. Implementation will be continuing into new years, and regulations and the Bill itself would cover this, but the DEA could amend this target to make it clearer.

He said that waste magnagement plans are related to the approach that waste must be linked to prices. DEA is therefore mainstreaming the “polluter pays” principle, by giving value to waste. It is in the process of finalizing a pricing strategy for the Minister.  In relation to imports and exports the DEA found itself in a similar situation to the previous year and it is tightening up on imports and exports. He noted that recycling is “a goldmine for the future” and it makes sound economic sense to recycle. The biggest plant in Africa will be launched on May 10 in Germiston. The strategy will be done through push-pull mechanisms, to control command with incentives.

The Chairperson thanked the DEA for its presentation and said that the Committee was impressed with the work done in all programmes.

South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Corporate Strategy Plan 2015- 2020:Briefing
Ms Nana Magomola, Chairperson, South African National Biodiversity Institute, outlined the role of this Institute (SANBI) in the DEA and highlighted the challenges that SANBI faces. The first of these is budget cuts, which will have an impact on operations and means that  SANBI will have to find a way of doing more with less. The other critical challenge will be with head count, as it will not be able to hire more staff. This  relates to human resources and SANBI may thus not be able to access the critical skills that it requires.

SANBI opened two gardens in 2015- Kwelera Gardens and Thohoyandou National Botanical Garden and is looking forward to engaging in these gardens. Once again, the human capital and financial capital constraints and cuts will be a challenge.

Last year SANBI made itself available to get funding from the Green Climate Fund. The proposal was submitted and it expected to hear the outcome in July. If successful, SANBI will receive R1 billion. One of the biggest challenges would be how to then manage that. Over the whole of last year, SANBI negotiated bringing into SANBI the national Zoological Gardens. In collaboration with other departments, it has worked very hard to do all the necessary work. SANBI should be getting the transfer of these Zoological Gardens soon and this will be a new task.

Because SANBI is a science organisation it is involved in the Climate Agreement and is preparing for that, and it is also involved in Operation Phakisa.

SANBI is looking to consolidate the National Collecting Facility and working with Department of Science and Technology (DST) in this regard.

SANBI had some areas of high strategic risk and the Board was looking into those. They included:
- Insufficient MTEF funding due to budget cuts.
- Inadequate critical ICT infrastructure and services. Once again this is due to budget cuts.
- Shortage of skills capacity. This also related to funding but more importantly deals with legacy issues where SANBI had not been able to get the right people in right place.
- Climate Change. Water shortage is a risk to SANBI and its work and would have a  negative impact on horticultural collections in the gardens. Fire hazards are also a risk associated with climate change and this can inhibit the work done by SANBI.
- Power outages will also be a challenge facing the services delivered by SANBI

Dr Tanya Abrahamse, Chief Executive Officer, SANBI, presented the SP. She noted that SANBI wants to continue to be a champion of biodiversity for all people. SANBI has a legal mandate, which correlates to the National Biodiversity Strategic Framework, DEA Minister’s delivery agreement and the Climate Change White Paper. SANBI delivers its mandate and services in six programmes:

Programme 1: Efficient and effective corporate services.
Programme 2: The National Botanical Gardens System.
Programme 3: The foundational biodiversity science and the species and ecosystem and information.
Programme 4: Assess, monitoring and reporting on state of biodiversity.
Programme 5: Access to biodiversity information.
Programme 6: Human Capital Development.

Programme 1: Render Effective and Efficient Corporate Services:
Dr Abrahamse said that when the Committee visited the National Gardens in 2015, the Committee wanted SANBI to be doing more and thus it had now set new targets and new performance indicators. SANBI wanted to have a transformed organization that represents the demography of the population. It has an employment equity plan but also wanted targets to be reflective of transformation. Last year the achievement was 48% male and 42% female staff, with 2,7% disabled employees. This year, SANBI wants to stretch the target for disabled to 3% and the new targets are 47% for males, 43% female and 3% disabled.

Dr Abrahamse highlighted a number of performance indicators:
- Financial compliance and sustainability: The SANBI Board is stretching SANBI to think of ways of having financial sustainability of the institute so that it can deliver effectively, even in a time of a harsh financial climate and in a time of budget cuts. Thus, it had added a financial sustainability target based on the broader institution and not just sales.
- ICT, Risks and Compliance: As SANBI is in the field of knowledge and information it cannot survive without good ICT. Thus, it will invest in ICT to make SANBI a world class organization. Targets have been set high for this reason.
- Corporate Services: SANBI aimed to comply with all relevant acts through a compliance framework and will submit quarterly reports on this against the proposed APP.

Programme 1 also focuses on marketing and it is important that people not only know about what SANBI does but also are aware of the importance of the environment for their future. It has scheduled a number of shows, concerts, events and campaigns that will be an indicator that it is getting its marketing, awareness raising and branding initiatives out to the broader public. Given that SANBI is based in a number of areas across different provinces, the issue of internal communication is important. SANBI thus wants at least four internal communication platforms: science, general staff communication, leadership to staff and translation of languages (still under development).  

Programme 2: Manage and unlock the benefits of network of National Botanical Gardens as windows into South Africa’s biodiversity:
The performance indicators emphasise that SANBI wants to increase the display of indigenous plants in its living collection and SANBI works very closely with the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. It has used the baseline to begin developing a new gardens records database, using the baseline indicated. The target for 2016/17 is to continue to build the living collections in national botanical gardens. In a Climate Change environment, botanical gardens may be the only areas in the future where people will be able to see threatened species. It would like to have at least identified 20 new species in the coming year.

Gardens expansion is also crucial and the performance indicator is to a have a new national botanical garden. Last year the Kwelera National Botanical Garden was launched and it the first in the Eastern Cape. In 2016/17, SANBI wants to finalise the hand over of a new botanical garden in Limpopo. The name is under consideration and it has asked the provincial department to help with the name. South Africa previously had a National Botanical Gardens in six provinces and now had extended this to eight provinces – almost a total national footprint for gardens.

Maintenance is core to the successful running of the gardens being successful, and SANBI was expecting at least two capital financial projects for 2016/17 in their network.

The issue of visitor numbers is challenging because they are hard to monitor. Every time SANBI set targets, they have been exceeded, and whilst this is not good for SANBI's plans it does show that visitor numbers are increasing over time.

Programme 3: Build the Foundational Biodiversity Science
This programme overlaps with Programmes 4 and 5, in the sense that it forms the foundation, that Programme 4 takes progress and assesses standards and levels, and Programme 5 develops tools to make better biodiversity decisions.

Programme 3 is the backbone to decisions, and the performance indicators remain the same. The annual target is to have information on 4 200 plant species and 1 000 animal species complied. Another performance indicator is at an ecosystem classification level and SANBI wants to finalise systems and maps, as approved by the national committees for terrestrial, fresh water, estuarine and marine realms. SANBI works closely with Dr Mayekiso in developing South Africa’s ability and capacity to understand its estuarine and coastal systems.

The next performance indicator is about records. SANBI keeps no animal specimens but has relationships with institutes, such as museums, and they harness their specimens and put them into the system. This year SANBI has agreed with DST to go ahead with the idea of a national facilities collection. It had found that  biodiversity specimens were live across the country in 45 to 50 different places. As botanical institute, SANBI wants the animal specimens in  National Specimens Facility and in this regard it wants to add 12 000 to plant records and 35 to animal records. The development of the new centre will allow it to do this.

Programme 4: Assess, monitor and report on the state of biodiversity and increase knowledge for decision making:
Programme 4 is linked to programme 3. SANBI uses a number of papers in Scientific Indexing Services (SIS) journals. The baseline was 80 and the target for 2016/17 is 75. The numbers have dropped because SANBI genuinely thought that it would not make the baseline of 80. It had, however, exceeded this target and in the mid-term it would revise the target upwards. SANBI had also lost retired researchers. To deal with this problem, SANBI had developed publishing guidelines and this aids the mentoring process. This year SANBI has been seeing scientists coming through and they are growing in confidence to publish papers, as seen by the last quarter figures.

Programme 5: Provide biodiversity policy advice and access to biodiversity information: and, support for climate change adaptation:
Programme 5 fits in neatly with 3 and 4,  and is about developing tools and knowledge resources to support decision making. It particularly focuses on different production sectors. Last year SANBI  developed the Mining and Biodiversity Guidelines and this is an example for a tool for a different sector.

The Grasslands Biodiversity Guideline and the Mining Biodiversity guideline is the baseline and this year SANBI wants to produce two tools: Ecosystem Restoration Support Tool and also an online tool for access to biodiversity information. When the younger generation are becoming internet savvy, it is important for SANBI to keep up with the times and ensure that they can have access to necessary biodiversity information.

Another baseline in this area is knowledge resources developed and disseminated. The work done so far is the issue of making the case for biodiversity, showing how biodiversity is linked with development. SANBI wants to develop three knowledge resources in this space.

SANBI also wants to continue to have learning mechanisms and share lessons, particularity with municipal colleagues and it has a number of forums. It aims to carry out  at least four coordination and learning events.
Programme 5 also deals with the number of biodiversity records published. SANBI will continue with the target to publish 50 000 records this year.

It also needs to comply with the Department's rules on climate change and SANBI wants to have at least two national and two international forums on climate change policy in the next year. This is a direct collaboration with the DEA.

Although not included in the SP document , she noted that the DEA has also asked SANBI to become the national implementing agent to the Green Climate Fund. This is the successor to the Global Adaptation Fund and they will run together until one subsumes the other. It will have an impact on what SANBI’s mandate is but the final decision will only be made in June at a global meeting. Dr Abrahamse is confident that SANBI will get this through.

Programme 6: Provide human capital development, education and awareness in response to SANBI’s mandate.
This programme has grown bigger over the years. The performance indicators relating to BEE and black professionals have been moved from corporate services into core business. Last year there was a major thrust in this and SANBI saw a major increase in the development of black professionals. 930 black professionals were developed and 650 had found jobs in the sector. SANBI is very pleased about this.

SANBI do feel that although Groensa Bensa deals with taking unemployed graduates who had hope of becoming scientists, the real problem starts earlier on, and it has been involved with the biodiversity programme that wants to reach at least 1000 beneficiaries this year. 

The National Botanical Gardens have a lot to offer with education and recreation. SANBI are optimistic here because it is building new education facilities in gardens so the new target, from a baseline of 40 000 is to get 50 000 school children with access to education training and awareness.

Ms Abrahamse said that SANBI is a small organisation that is trying to achieve improvements in biodiversity and the real way forward is to engage with civil society. The bird data programme, for instance,  is based on citizen data, and it had tree programmes which it hoped  to strengthen with public input.. 

Discussion
Mr Hadebe asked how much, in figures, was the 2% of payroll allocated for staff development, and how many it reached. He was concerned, taking into consideration the huge unemployment in the country, how SANBI would move from a baseline of 930 black professionals developed through human capital development, to a new target at 92. SANBI also wanted to move from 3 337 beneficiaries participating in biodiversity career programmes to a mere 1 000. Lastly, he wanted to discuss the budget cuts. The Minister of Finance had said that critical posts will not be frozen. He understands the issues facing SANBI and the constraints from the DEA, but he wanted more clarity how it would ensure that non-essential posts only might be frozen.

Mr Mabilo said that the biodiversity footprint is extensive and it seemed that SANBI has made progress. He noted that there were eight gardens, but actually only one of these had been developing in the post-apartheid years, and he asked what plans there were to ensure that there would be gardens throughout the country. 

The Chairperson noted that on page 7 the second performance indicator deals with the demographics of SA population. This breakdown includes male, female and disabled, but not race. He asked for clarity on this issue. On page 9, SANBI indicated that there will be 20 new indigenous plant species and he asked how SANBI gets to know of the new species . Noting that SANBI is recruiting, he asked who the recruits were, and from where they were sourced – this related back to point 4.1 of the report. Again, he  questioned the transformation aspect and asked if there was a change in recruitment and how many staff were younger.

Mr Maano Netshiombo, Human Resources Division, SANBI, said that SANBI had a budget of R247 million in 2016/17 for payroll. The 2% training figure amounts to R4.9 million and this year it had already spent R4.7 million. Speaking to the  demographics, SANBI has 29 staff members, of whom, African males constitute 25%, African females constitute 14%, white males constitute 17%, white females constitute 20%, coloured males 10%, coloured females 7% and Indian females 7%. 

Ms Carmel Mbizvo, Head of Branch: Biodiversity Science and Policy Advice, SANBI, commented on the biodiversity careers programme. It looked like SANBI was narrowing down the programme but actually it was making it more strategic. Anything done around careers and awareness raising was included and it will thus have a greater impact.

On the question of grooming young black scientists, SANBI has developed a research development path and a horticulturalist development path in the last few years and it has been a useful development tool. If SANBI finds that young black professionals are stuck at a certain level, it will be able to step in and help to make them progress. SANBI also has very structured mentorship programmes.

Ms Mbizvo said that on the 20 new indigenous plants, SANBI is a member of a global seed bank project and this allows South Africa to keep samples of many seeds. When it collects a seed that is not in that global seed bank, SANBI is able to track this.

Dr Abrahamse said that a number of new professionals are climbing the science ladder and SANBI keeps track on which SANBI staff are publishing papers and which of these staff are black. She said that SANBI faced a challenge in the black professional development programme through the Jobs Fund. The programme was at 900 but it was no longer receiving the Jobs Fund money and was instead using its own money to grow young people. That explained why is target dropped from 930 to 92.

Dr Abrahamse said SANBI was talking with DEA to initiate the development of the last garden for the last province. The garden must incorporate the plants of the biome in which it sits.

The meeting was adjourned.