Elder Care, Cakwebe, Ngqushwa Petitions: Committee Reports

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

The Chairperson welcomed all present in the meeting. He said the agenda of the meeting is as follows:

1. The consideration and adoption of the Elder Care Petition Report (Petition calling for the amendment of section 27 of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997).
2. Consideration and adoption of Cakwebe Petition Report (Petition requesting the intervention of the NCOP, in relation to the amendment of the policy for the small scale fisheries sector in South Africa).
3. Consideration and adoption of the Ngqushwa Petition Report (Petition requesting the intervention of the NCOP in ensuring Ministers honour the commitments made in 2012 during the visit of the NCOP to Ngqushwa Local Municipality).

The Committee adopted the agenda.

Consideration and adoption of the Elder Care Petition Report

The Chairperson said the Committee will go through the report page by page.

Mr G Michalakis (DA, Free State) referred to paragraph 7.3 and proposed taking out the word “continent” and replacing it with “globally”.

Mr M Mthethwa (KwaZulu-Natal, ANC) seconded the proposal.

Mr Mthethwa noted that his initials were spelt wrong in the report and should be corrected.

Ms G Oliphant (Northern Cape, ANC) moved for the adoption of the report with amendments.

Mr Mthethwa seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Consideration and adoption of the Cakwebe Petition Report

The Chairperson said the Committee will go through the report page by page.

Ms Oliphant noted that her apology is not registered in the report.

Ms B Engelbrecht (Gauteng, DA) also noted that her apology is also not registered in the report.

Ms Engelbrecht proposed that a timeline of 6 months should be imposed in all the recommendations forwarded to the department

Mr Mthethwa moved for the adoption of the report with amendments.

MsT Wana, (Eastern Cape, ANC) seconded the move.

The Committee adopted the report with amendments.

Consideration and adoption of the Ngqushwa Petition Report

The Chairperson said the Committee will go through the report page by page.

Mr Michalakis referred to paragraphs 9.1 and 9.3 and said the Committee cannot make recommendations to the national and provincial departments and exclude municipalities because the municipality should be the key role player. As a Committee they need to be more specific and very clear when they make recommendations.

They need to write a letter to the leader of government business (the Deputy President) because they need more information on this matter.

Ms Oliphant agreed that they need to look more into this issue.

Mr Mthethwa agreed that they need more information on this petition.

Ms. Engelbrecht said that they must hold Ministers to account because they make promises they cannot keep. They need to change their recommendations and send back this report to the province.

Mr Mthethwa said they must call back the Minister to come and account to the Committee.

Dr M Gondwe, Committee Content Adviser, said that in their first engagement they had called all the relevant Ministers but only the Minister of Water and Sanitation had come.

Ms Engelbrecht said that it will be important that they first look at all the open petitions and finalise them because it will be difficult for the Committee to deal with all the petitions that are before it looking at the programme for the next six weeks.

Dr Gondwe agreed that they need to finalise all the open petitions before a new Committee that will take over in the sixth Parliament.

The Chairperson ruled that the adoption of the Ngqushwa Petition Report will be deferred until the Minister comes and account to the Committee before the end of the fifth Parliament.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their inputs.

The meeting adjourned.