Committee Programme; Establishment of Sub-committees: discussion

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Meeting report

JOINT MONITORING COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITY
02 February 2000
ACTION PLAN AND ESTABLISHMENT OF SUB-COMMITTEES

Chairperson: Ms H Bogopane (ANC)

MINUTES
The committee discussed the following items:

Action Plan
The parliamentary programme determines the committee's action plan. The Committee must develop its monitoring role with regard to legislation, organise national and international tours as well as receive appropriate training for its role.

Training
The Chairperson suggested that members should be trained in disabled, children and youth rights. Mr M Masutha (ANC) proposed that sensitivity training must be undertaken. Mr C Morkel (NNP) said in addition to the UN issues, members should be trained on SADC and OAU issues that are within the Committee's scope. The Committee agreed that training will kick-start before the end of March 2000.

Legislation input
The Chairperson declared that the Committee has a responsibility to ensure that legislation that goes through parliament is disabled, youth and child- friendly. Mr V Gore (DP) advised that members who sit on other Committees must be watchdogs and monitor the attitude of such Committees towards youth, children and people with disabilities. Mr M Masutha (ANC) said it may be very difficult to make an impact on these other Committees depending on the attitude of the particular Chairperson and the Committees. He proposed that the parliamentary rules must be referred to in order to ascertain how far they allow this Committee to make its presence felt in the other Committees.

Mr M Gigaba (ANC) reminded the Committee that they have a precedent in the form of the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women. He said that Committee must be looked at to see how it had monitored legislation in the past years. The Chairperson welcomed the idea but noted that that Committee had only recently gained the status of a full permanent Committee as it had been an ad hoc committee for most of the past five years. She said that that Committee is therefore going through the same process as this committee. She nonetheless noted that the Joint Monitoring Committee on the Improvement of the Quality of Life and Status of Women can be looked at for direction.

Presentations by Government Departments
The Chairperson reminded the members that in their previous meeting, the Committee had agreed that sectors and government departments will brief the committee on how is it implementing existing policy in these areas. The first presentations will be organised for the next meeting of the Committee.

Mr M Masutha (ANC) said briefings from the departments should not be allowed to be general but instead be asked how is it implementing existing policy. The Chairperson promised that the first presentations will be organised for the next sitting of the Committee.

Strategic Workshop
The Chairperson noted that the information received from the presentations given to this committee needed to be inputted into a working document. The Committee agreed on the 1 and 2 April 2000 as suitable dates for a workshop to be held outside parliament to develop this document.

Oversight
The Committee needs to be in touch by visiting children's homes, schools and the like. Tours will be organised in line with the formula used by the Parliamentary Committees. A guide document on why and how tours should be undertaken will be circulated for input.

Sub-Committees
The members agreed to the formation of sub-committees . Sub-committees dealing with youth, children and disabled people will be formed. Members will indicate their particular interest and be allocated to a subcommittee accordingly.

Committee meeting clashes
The Committee agreed to hold its meetings on Fridays from 8:30 11:30. Should this arrangement not work, it will be changed.

Additional Items
Mr C Morkel (NNP) raised the issue of 'taxi queens' prevalent in the Western Cape. He described 'taxi queens' as schoolgirls who use taxis as a means of commuting to and from school. They are being sexually molested by taxi drivers. The Committee noted the concern and thanked Mr C Morkel for bringing it to the fore. The Committee promised to deal with the matter.




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