Committee Report on Department of Health Annual Report; Oversight Visit Reports

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed everyone present at the meeting. She indicated the purpose of the meeting was to consider and adopt Committee reports and documents. She reminded everyone of the expected protocol for online meetings and then asked members to introduce themselves for record purposes. Ms N Bakubaku-Vos (ANC) sent apologies for her absence.

Committee report on the 2020/21 Annual Report of the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health
The Chairperson asked Members to go through the report, which was in the document pack and was emailed to Members before the meeting. Members were welcome to make amendments and thereafter the report would be adopted with or without amendments.

The Committee went through the document page-by-page to make corrections and amendments.

On page two, under the introduction, Ms L Botha (DA) requested that the last statement just before the overview, where the wording read, “members of the public were also given opportunity to pose questions and make comments during the discussions,” needed to be revised to read: “this meeting gave an opportunity for members of the public to participate.  However no members of the public were present in order to”.

On page three, under point 3.5, Ms Botha said there should be a double colon after “The department collected a revenue surplus of 14.655million”, followed by inserting a new point 3.5.1 which should read read: “patient fees were the main source of revenue during the 2020/2021 financial year”.

On page four, point 5, the Chairperson requested that clear timelines be attached to resolutions in future. She asked about progress in procuring a gift that the committee had agreed to give to Dr Cloete (HOD) and the Department to show its gratitude.  She also proposed that a formal and framed letter should be presented with the gift and that that motion be tendered in the next sitting.

Ms Botha said she agreed with the Chairperson and proposed that the Chairperson be the one to present the letter and gift to Dr Cloete in the appropriation meeting. 

Ms Nomonde Jamce, the Procedural Officer, mentioned that the gift had already been procured but she needed clarity on how it would be delivered since the appropriation meeting would be a virtual one.

Ms Botha proposed that the gift be delivered at the Department before the meeting on the same day.

The Chairperson said the gift should be hand-delivered on Tuesday 7 December at the Department and she would make mention of it during the appropriation meeting.

Confirming that Members were happy with the amendments, the Chairperson then put the Report forward for adoption with amendments.

Ms Botha and Mr R Allen (DA) moved to adopt the Report with amendments.

Minutes of Proceedings of the Standing Committee on 17 November 2021
The Chairperson asked Members to give input on the document up for discussion in the same manner as with the adopted Report.

Members noted it was wrongly titled “June” and not “November”, so that was corrected.

On page two, Ms Botha suggested that the text, “to the public hearing…” be replaced with “proceeded to deliberate”.

Confirming that Members were happy with the amendments, the Chairperson then put the minutes forward for adoption with amendments.

Ms Botha and Mr Allen moved to adopt the minutes with amendments.

Ms R Windvogel (ANC) asked the Chairperson for clarity about when she could use her right to a minority vote according to rule 19, since they were dealing with the annual report.

The Chairperson reminded Ms Windvogel that they were deliberating on the minutes and not the report and asked Ms Jamce to provide guidance to Ms Windvogel.

Ms Jamce said that the Committee did not vote for annual reports but for budget appropriations or budget adjustments.  She however said that Members of Parliament with different views to what was presented or tabled before the Committee were allowed to voice their concerns during debates over reports.

The Chairperson clarified that the report that had been adopted earlier reflected the proceedings during the annual report discussions.

Mr Ben Daza, senior procedural officer, said that the rules provided for the Committee to compile the report and that nothing stopped a minority party from requesting opportunities to raise any concerns about the reports. However, that normally happened in the budget adjustment and appropriation meetings.

The Chairperson thanked the procedural offers for the guidance and asked members if they wanted the report revisited to accommodate Ms Windvogel’s request or if they should move forward.

Ms Botha said that she did not mind if Ms Windvogel would like to voice a minority view and have it reported as a minority view that had been drafted after the report had already been adopted, or if Ms Windvogel would prefer to voice her view at another meeting instead.

Confirming that there were no further comments from Members, the Chairperson then re-announced the adoption of the minutes and report with amendments and said any minority views could be recorded at the next engagement of the committee.

Report on the oversight visit to the CTICC and the Wellness Bus of the Faircape Dairies Farm on 4 August 2021

The Chairperson said that the report would also be dealt with page-by-page.

On page three, point 2.13, Ms Botha asked for the omission of the letter “s” from the word “years” so that it read “100-year old”.  On point 3.7, to ensure that everyone present was accounted for, she asked that it read, “there were 8 nursing staff, namely: one sister, one community liaison officer and others”, in that order.

Ms Windvogel supported Ms Botha’s proposed edit on the list to ensure that no one was excluded.

The Chairperson said that the heading “Visiting to the Vaccination Site” should be point 3 and not point 2.

The Chairperson then asked Members if the Report could be adopted with the amendments proposed.

Ms Botha and Mr Allen moved for adoption of the Report with amendments.

Report on the oversight visit to health facilities in Swellendam on 11 August 2021

The Chairperson asked Members to give input on the report in the same manner as with the others.

On page three, point 2.15, Ms Botha asked that the wording, “a parking space”, be replaced with “a designated parking area”. She also asked for a date to be added to point 2.3.1.

Ms Jamce said that deadlines were normally not supposed to be stated for Committee resolutions since they were rarely complied with and were unrealistic. The dates when committees carried out various resolved actions were dependent on varying factors such as availability of Committee Members, approval by programming authorities and other parliamentary priorities.

The Chairperson asked Ms Botha to further elaborate her expectations for point 2.3.1

Ms Botha said point 2.3.1 was a very specific actionable point and therefore needed a specific date for when it should be done by and not left open. She said the programming authority took its directive from the committee and therefore the committee had the upper hand in deciding when committee resolutions could be executed. She insisted on a date being added.

The Chairperson asked that a sentence be added to point 2.3.1 stating that “the Committee will make room in the programme and subsequently engage with the programming authority on available dates”.

Ms Jamce stated that Committee resolutions automatically formulated the Committee programme. However, scheduling and prioritising the execution of the resolutions rarely went according to plan and it was therefore unrealistic to include this in the minutes. She recommended that scheduling of activities must be done in the parliamentary programme once it was adopted.

The Chairperson asked if Members were content with Ms Jamce’s comment. Once Ms Botha confirmed, they proceeded with the rest of the report.

On page four, point 3.5, Ms Botha said that an amendment should be made so that it read “at the hospital” on point 3.5.

Ms Botha asked that a timeline should be attached to point 2.4.on page four.

The Chairperson asked if Members were in agreement with Ms Botha’s suggestion and asked for a proposed timeline from Members.

Ms Winvogel said the Department had already responded to point 2.4 and the resolutions had already been forwarded to the Committee.

The Chairperson said she had missed it and would follow up and check on the distribution.

Ms Botha asked that the second line of the second paragraph under point 4 on page five be amended to read “upon engaging with Sister Van Wyk…”

On page five, in the fourth paragraph under point 4, Ms Windvogel said the Committee needed to follow up on the response from the Department about the Swellendam clinic.

The Chairperson said time would be set aside for the Committee to go over and discuss the responses from the Department.

On point 6.54, Ms Botha asked for it to read “for COVID” and not “of COVID”

The Chairperson asked if Members were satisfied with the proposed amendments and if the report could be adopted.

Ms Botha and Mr Allen moved for the adoption of the Report with amendments.

Report on the oversight visit to the Klapmuts Clinic in Stellenbosch on 18 August 2021
The Chairperson said that the report would  also be dealt with page-by-page.

On page three, point 1.2.15 in the third line, Ms Botha requested that the word “report” be changed to “reported”.
The Chairperson then asked Members if the Report could be adopted with the amendments proposed.
Ms Botha and Ms Windvogel moved for the adoption of the report with amendments.

Report on the oversight visit to the health facilities in Worcester on 25 August 2021

The Committee went through the document page-by-page to make corrections and amendments.
No amendments were put forward by the Committee.

The Chairperson then asked Members to propose the adoption of the report.

Ms Botha and Mr Allen moved for adoption of the Report.

Committee Programme

The draft programme was presented and the Chairperson asked for input from Members.

Ms Botha asked if the Swellendam visit could be scheduled for late January since there were no Western Cape Provincial Parliament (WCPP) meetings scheduled for January.

The Chairperson agreed with Ms Botha and asked that the Swellendam visit be scheduled for the latest possible date in January.

Ms Botha asked if the Committee had an appetite for holding public hearings on the uptake of vaccines. She recommended slotting some hearings in the draft programme for the West Coast area where the vaccine uptake was slow, subject to agreement from the other Committee members and COVID travel regulations permitting.  She also proposed that the Committee collaborate with the Standing Committees on Social Development and Education to embark on a study tour.

Mr Allen and Ms Windvogel supported Ms Botha’s proposal

Ms Windvogel asked how the Committee could follow up on the implementation of resolutions made in the Committee discussions.
The Chairperson agreed with Ms Windvogel and said the Committee should create a process flow that shows the progress of the implementation of resolutions beginning the following year.  She also asked for Members’ input on requesting the Programming Authority to incorporate a visit to Saldanha Bay from 8 to 11 February, and the holding of public hearings on the slow uptake of vaccines in communities in the province.
Ms Winvogel and Mr Allen were in support.

The Chairperson said the discussed program amendments  and resolutions would be incorporated and circulated among Members. She then gave Members a final opportunity to raise any further comments.

No further amendments were put forward by the Committee.

Ms Jamce suggested that the Committee merge the public hearings in Swellendam with the Cluster visits in February instead of also going separately in January; stating that it would be a more effective way to engage with all the stakeholders if planned well.

Ms Windvogel supported Ms Jamce’s suggestion.

The Chairperson said the discussed program amendments and resolutions would be incorporated and circulated among Members. She then gave Members a final opportunity to raise any further comments. She then thanked Members for their participation and input on all the documents discussed and asked them to encourage people around them to get vaccinated.

The meeting was adjourned.