Minutes and Draft Programme: adoptions

Meeting report

LABOUR AND PUBLIC ENTERPRISES SELECT COMMITTEE
30 June 2004
MINUTES AND DRAFT PROGRAMME: ADOPTIONS

Chairperson: Ms N Ntwanambi (ANC)[Western Cape]

Documents handed out:
Draft Programme of Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises
Draft Programme of Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs
Minutes of Proceedings: 28 May 2004
Minutes of Proceedings: 10 June 2004
Minutes of Proceedings: 18 June 2004

SUMMARY
The Committee unanimously adopted its previous minutes, with the exception of the 23 June 2004 minutes which would be considered when the Committee returned from recess. Members thereafter noted contradictions between the draft programme and that of the Select Committee on Economic Affairs, which shared many Members. The Committee gave the Chairs of the two Committees and their secretariat a mandate to manage these contradictions before handing over the programmes to Chair of Chairs, Mr J Doidge.

MINUTES

Official minutes

Mr D Gamede (ANC)[KwaZulu-Natal] asked the Committee Section to insert an apology section to all those minutes in which this was not reflected. Ms M Themba (ANC)[Mpumalanga] concurred and the Chair agreed to do so.

Ms Themba said minutes were only issued in the meeting and thus Members did not have ample opportunity to scrutinise them. She then asked the secretariat that in future Members be given more time. The Chair was of the view that they should always consider the Committee previous minutes in their next meeting, and Mr C Van Rooyen (ANC)[Free State] concurred.

Mr Gamede then proposed that the Committee adopt its minutes with the proviso that any Member would be allowed to raise any concerns with the Chair. The Committee unanimously adopted its minutes of proceedings with amendments.

Draft Committee Programme
In discussion of the 'mandate', Ms Themba proposed that "facilitate" be replace by "strengthen". Mr Van Rooyen proposed that the Committee's mandate of "overseeing and monitoring" also be reinserted. The Chair noted that the Committee would look at the wording accordingly.

In discussion of the 'mission', Mr Gamede asked that "and monitoring" to be inserted after "oversight".

Mr Van Rooyen asked clarity on what was meant by "harmonious labour relations". The Chair explained that their mission was to develop good relations with all labour movements regarding labour legislation.

In discussion of the 'vision', Mr Gamede proposed that the present vision statement be refined as it was too narrow. The Chair said this would be rewritten and the word "access" would be inserted.

In discussion of their 'core objectives', Mr Gamede proposed that all the enabling documents from which the Committee derived its powers, be included in this section.

Mr Van Rooyen proposed that the objective to scrutinise legislation, also be clearly indicated.

Mr D Mkono (ANC)[Eastern Cape] concurred and proposed that "pass" be inserted. The Chair agreed and proposed that the new statement read "To process, scrutinise and pass new legislation"

Mr Van Rooyen then suggested that the first and the second objectives be amalgamated and the new statement read "to process, scrutinise and pass new and amending legislation". He proposed that the statement be rewritten to indicate that their oversight function went beyond parastatals and also included government departments. He also suggested they combine the third and forth objectives.

Mr Mkono asked that reference to "two focus areas per year" be deleted as it seemed to restrict the Committee. Mr Van Rooyen agreed.

In discussing their customer, client and stakeholder analysis, Mr Z Kolweni (ANC)[North West] thought it not constitutionally proper to refer to provincial legislatures as the 'clientele' of the Committee.

The Chair differed because the Committee had a duty to consult the provincial legislatures occasionally so the latter formed part of its clientele. The Committee would have to conduct a research in this regard.

Mr Mkono noted that there might be some contradictions between this programme and that of the Select Committee on Economic Affairs, of which the Members were also part, and proposed the Committee look into this. The Chair undertook that Chairs of both Committees would definitely look into the matter.

Mr Van Rooyen expressed his concern that it might disadvantage their Committee objectives to accommodate another Committee programme. He thus proposed a working principle that favoured their Committee more. Ms Mkono concurred while acknowledging the small number of NCOP Members.

The Committee unanimously adopted the programme as amended, with the proviso that the two Committee Chairs and their secretariat try to reconcile any contradictions.

The Chair noted that the Committee had received an invitation from National and Africa Growth (NafGrowth) requesting it to attend its series of seminars which covered, among other things, mobilising investment and the budget for growth and development. She suggested that the Committee re-look at this invitation after recess.

The meeting was adjourned.