Postponed: Consideration of Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR) 2023: Home Affairs Portfolio

Meeting report

In his opening remarks, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Mr M Chabane (ANC), welcomed all to the meeting. He highlighted that in the last Committee meeting, the 2022/23 annual reports of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa, and the Government Printing Works (GPW) were considered. There were a few outstanding written responses which were to be submitted by the Department for the purpose of consolidating the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR).

The Chairperson indicated that the Committee is conscious that some questions asked by the Committee have not been responded to by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), while some responses might have been sent later. This thus contributes to the delay in the consolidation of the reports.

Notably, the Committee’s secretary has been requested by the Committee to correspond with the DHA Minister regarding the update of the consequential amendments including some of the outstanding issues. This is expected to be a written response from the Minister including a presentation.  

Apologies were acknowledged.

Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report

Mr Adam Salmon, Committee Content Advisor, informed the Committee that he sent the first draft of the report on Sunday (15 Oct 2023) and then on Monday (16 Oct 2023), further inputs were submitted. Mr Salmon indicated that subsequent information was received from the GPW which was included in the second draft, together with the responses from the DHA that were received in last year’s BRRR.

A second draft was sent to the Committee in the evening of Monday (16 Oct 2023). However, a subsequent written response was received from the IEC. This response has not been included yet.

The submission deadline for the report is on Friday (20 Oct). So far, the DHA has not submitted its responses to the written questions. Mr Salmon indicated that a 52-page document was received from the DHA late Monday. The document is DHA’s response to the budget vote recommendations adopted in April/May 2023. The Committee should provide guidance on whether this will be adopted into the BRRR.

The Chairperson indicated that it is concerning that those requested to respond to the Committee took almost a week, with some responses still outstanding. He then asked the Committee to provide their input on the issue.

Discussion

Mr K Pillay (ANC) indicated that the BRRR was submitted to the Committee late. This therefore limits the amount of engagement the Committee will be able to provide feedback. He proposed a special meeting on Friday (20 Oct), just to give the Committee more time to look at the report before adopting it.

Mr A Roos (DA) supported the proposal by Mr Pillay, indicating that the Committee must have the time to review the report.

Ms T Legwase (ANC) also supported the proposal for the special meeting on Friday.

Ms A Khanyile (DA) echoed and supported the proposal for a Friday meeting.

Ms L van de Merwe (IFP) said that on the Tuesday meeting (last week), the Committee's questions were not properly answered. It is disappointing that despite the Committee’s support of the DHA, the Department was still not able to fully respond to the issues that were raised, especially on issues of migration.

She supported the proposal for the Committee to go through the BRRR and meet on Friday for further engagement.

Ms M Modise (ANC) also supported the proposal to have the meeting on Friday.

The Chairperson said that these concerns raised by the Committee should be raised with the Minister to affirm the Committee’s authority as an oversight body of the DHA. Since the Friday meeting will potentially be a longer meeting, he proposed that the meeting start at 08:30 am.

This was supported by the Committee.

The Committee adopted the minutes of 19 Sept 2023 and 10 Oct 2023 with amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.