Western Cape Economic Recovery Plan: Department of Premier briefing

Meeting report

Our Covid World: Towards a Western Cape Recovery Plan

Mr Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape, said his Office had a Cabinet meeting to discuss the recovery plan. The recovery plan which will be presented will include an Economic Recovery Plan, Safety Plan, and a Dignity and Wellbeing Plan. The whole reason his Office was busy with recovery plans is because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In every cabinet meeting there is a report, and the first report was a report about Covid-19. Infection numbers increased in the Garden Route, as well as in the Eastern Cape. To put it into context, from last week’s presentation by Dr Keith Cloete, Head of the Western Cape Health Department, to this week’s presentation, there was an increase in infections throughout the City of Cape Town. In the Garden Route, the infections in Knysna and George are higher now than at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This puts into context what the Department has to deal with in recovery, and at the same time ensuring it is continually managing the virus.

When Dr Cloete prepared his presentation the previous night, he confirmed there were 850 patients in hospitals. On the current morning, the number went up to 902. The pressure is starting to grow on the health system. Citizens are no longer wearing masks and observing social distancing protocol and need to ensure this is managed.

In recovery, the Department needs to ensure it recovers the jobs lost. There was an initial decrease in crime rates, but currently there are patterns of extortion and gender-based violence. The murder rate is also climbing back up again.

Mr Harry Malila, Director-General (DG), Western Cape Government (WCG), said all the Department’s initiatives started around the middle of March. The Department moved from daily meetings to meeting three times a week, and now meets every Tuesday at cabinet, and sometimes over weekends. Around June/July, the Department realised it cannot only focus on Covid-19, and had to focus on the recovery plan. It started to put a recovery plan together. This plan supports the Provincial Strategic Plan (PSP) the Premier tabled at the opening of Parliament earlier this year. The recovery plan focuses on three key areas; jobs, safety, and wellbeing.

The presentation will also highlight the number of jobs lost in the process. There are many businesses which decided not to open again because of the cost to entry and barriers to entry. The future of the economy is just not where it is supposed to be. Government is working extremely hard to turn things around. It allocated this duty to the highest level of leadership. In the job space, Western Cape Head of Department (HOD) Transport, Ms Jacqueline Gooch and Western Cape Economic Development and Tourism, Mr Solly Fourie, are driving the initiative called Jobs Now. The Department is in a recovery phase and wants to get back those jobs lost.

The safety side is driven by the Department of Community Safety and Cultural Affairs and the Department of Health. The issue of safety is also a public health issue. The issue around dignity is driven by the HOD of the Western Cape Department of Social Development, Dr Robert Macdonald and HOD Walters, Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport. The recovery plan is not just based on economic recovery but looks at the holistic society in turning things around.

Dr Hildegarde Fast, Head of Policy and Strategy, Western Cape Provincial Government, said the Recovery Plan is being developed in the midst of constantly changing circumstances. There is preparation for a second wave, budget cutbacks, and an on-going economic crisis. Three priorities were identified, but the specific interventions supporting it can only be confirmed once the implications of the budget constraints are clear.

This presentation provides the following: impact of COVID on the people and economy of the province; overall approach of each Priority Focus area within each priority; and current interventions (2020/21 Financial Year). This should not be looked at as the final recovery but rather an ongoing process. The final Recovery Plan, together with targets and budgets, will be tabled in February. The World Bank forecast a 5.2% contraction in 2020 globally, and in South After it would be much higher at 7.1%.

The OECD said if there was a single Covid-19 peak, the economy would contract at 6% and if there were two waves, there would be a 7.6% contraction. In South Africa, from February to June, employment went from 54% to 40%, and then bounced back to 45%. It went up since then, but definitely not up to previous levels. The people who are most affected by the lockdown are the poor, rural, female, unskilled, and less educated.

The poorest 50% had a 31% loss in employment. The richest 25% only suffered a 3% loss in employment.

The Department estimates well over 150 000 job losses in the Western Cape. Each job loss represents a family and a livelihood and is thus extraordinarily serious. There was a steep decline in job confidence, with a slight recovery in the third quarter of 2020. If something is not done drastically, the Province will only return to 2019 employment rates in 2024. Many women are unable to go back to work as the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector has not reopened. The lockdown increased educational inequality. Wealthy children in South Africa were twice as likely to attend school compared to children in no-fee schools. Food insecurity slightly improved since the total lockdown, but it is still much higher than before. Food insecurity overlaps with other forms of vulnerability. Those reporting extreme hunger are twice as likely to screen positive for depressive symptoms. TB testing, screening, and treatment, were down due to Covid-19 and has yet not recovered. The same holds true for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing and treatment.

Violent crime drastically decreased during lockdown. Although the rate of sexual offences and rape decreased, the Department of Community Safety is sceptical of this figure as it feels many women did not report these crimes during lockdown, in fear of being arrested for contravening lockdown rules. Trauma admissions decreased during both alcohol bans. The average number of trauma patients in emergency centres per day during the different alert levels shows from pre Covid-19 to Level Five, there was a decrease from 89 to 44. This number went up to 79 during Level Three a, when alcohol was allowed again. It then went down to 54 during Level Three b, when alcohol was once again banned and has gone up to 70 during Level Two.

There were more firearms used during lockdown than sharp objects, and this could be due to less social interactions and less aggravating social interactions. This is often where sharp objects and knives are used. The world is approaching Covid-19 recovery using Fairer, Greener, and Smarter. Mexico City spent one billion dollars on infrastructure investment, which includes social housing and public infrastructure urban regeneration. It targets areas with existing transport hubs and includes private-public partnerships. Nantes, in France, has a Nourishing Landscapes Project, which includes fruit and vegetable gardens in public areas, and provides for 1000 vulnerable households. Brazil is stimulating tourism and economic growth by decentralising the tourism industry, supporting the informal sector (particularly street commerce), investing in refurbishing public spaces and underserviced areas, and incentives for public-private partnerships. There are no doubt partnerships between the private and public sector, as well as partnerships between the public sector and civil society got stronger during the Covid-19 era. In Lille Metropole, France, there is a rebound fund of 20 million euros to aid small businesses for post-Covid recovery. This includes shopkeepers, craftspeople, and farmers. It is conditional on commitment to ecological/energy transition. Special loans to micro businesses of less than ten employees are also given.

There is a cycling initiative in Paris which aims to prevent the return of pre-Covid carbon emission levels. Seoul in South Korea is digitising all services. It is rolling out five G connectivity and remote working spaces for all. Germany has a package for future technologies which includes hydrogen energy, electric cars, buses, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, and railways. The petrol and diesel automotive industry gets no relief funding. While these initiatives might have begun pre-Covid, the pandemic accelerated the roll-out of these initiatives. While car sales declined throughout the world, electric vehicle sales are up. There is acceleration toward a green future which South Africa needs to be a part of. The national government is approaching the recovery by focusing on areas such as job creation, sectoral approach, prioritising infrastructure, strengthening energy security, and reducing bottlenecks to economic growth.

Both gross domestic product (GDP) and revenue significantly decreased. Fiscal space is severely depleted. Debt service costs are rising faster than all other spending, and this will reach 33% of revenue by 2025. This means for every three rand collected as tax revenue in 2025, one rand is going to go towards paying debt. There needs to be some consensus on how to act and who bears the consequences. National Treasury set out a plan to stabilise debt in three years, but it was revised to five years. There is an approved plan to reduce public sector wage costs. The budget revisions will fall heavily on provinces with the 2021/2022 baseline being 11% lower than 2020/21 after reductions. This will impact provincial budgets, the inflationary costs of providing services, growth of the general population, and school-going age population will not be accounted for. The provinces have three priorities: jobs, wellbeing, and safety. The focus areas of these priorities are drawn from the Provincial Strategic Plan and its five vision inspired priorities (VIPs). The Priorities do not replace the VIPs, but rather extract the most important elements which will drive our recovery.

Mr Solly Fourie, HOD: Department of Economic Development and Tourism, said on the jobs priority aspect, the Department has two approaches; a bounce back approach, and a bounce up approach. The bounce back aspect is largely about jobs now to help inject capital and jobs into the economy, and boost business and consumer confidence. In the short to medium term, it will seek to fast-track private and public sector infrastructure projects. In the longer term, it is looking at a complete bounce back which resolves most critical binding constraints and sorts out the core fundamentals of the economy.  The short-term initiative is led by Mr Fourie, and the Head of the Department of Transport and Public Works. The Department of Agriculture, Western Cape Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Environment Affairs and Human Planning, and the Department of Community Safety is supporting this. The short-term initiatives are aimed at areas where the Department enables the private sector to stimulate sustained private sector investment for medium to long term systemic growth. The public sector job stimulation is to stimulate short term relief to households and firms. It is not sustainable over the medium to long term. The third leg is a continued communication to boost confidence in consumers and businesses. In the medium term it aims to accelerate ease of doing business by attacking significant constraints on economic growth, boosts private sector investments and exports, boosts infrastructure, scales up work opportunities and skills for people without jobs, and enables energy and water resilience.

Dr Robert MacDonald, HOD: Department of Social Development, discusses the recovery plan with regards to the wellbeing priority. The approach looks at four key areas, namely; strong foundations, increasing wellbeing, meeting basic needs and protecting human rights, and building social cohesion and service. Under strong foundations, it is assisting ECDs to re-open, with only 45% of pre-Covid capacity re-opened. In the first 1000 days, it must ensure full immunisation for children under the age of five, and measure and reduce the number of children experiencing stunting or malnutrition. Under increased wellbeing, it is focusing on after school and youth, continuing with After School programmes and identifying youth at risk, as well as diverting these children to After School programmes. The Department will also train schools in the Growth Mindset Programmes and make provision for literacy programmes at public library service points. Under the meeting of Basic Services and Protection of Human Rights, there will be an increase of bed spaces in shelters for homeless persons. There will be dedicated transport for patients and healthcare workers. Meals will be provided by state funded community kitchens. There will also be school feeding schemes and a food voucher programme. There will be basic services provided to informal settlements. Under building social cohesion and services, there will be youth in service training, participation in sport, arts and culture, and neighbourhood watches. In the short term (first 100 days), there will be a drive to reopen ECD with support for personal protective equipment (PPE), improve wellness in ECDs with partner non government organisations (NGOs), expand book sharing initiative with the City of Cape Town (CoCT), and develop baseline to determine drives of stunting.

Ms Yashina Pillay, the acting HOD: Department of Community Safety, made the presentation on the safety priority areas. For the safety approach, there are two thematic areas, namely; violence prevention and law enforcement. These are underpinned by evidence-based interventions, surveillance/data-led approach, and area-based implementation. Evidence synthesised by the World Health Organisation includes developing safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and their parents and caregivers. It also includes strengthening education and life skills through ECDs, social development programmes, reduction in the availability and harmful use of alcohol, reduced access to firearms, knives and pesticides, and creating safe spaces. To empower women socially and economically, it must change social and cultural norms which support violence and gender norms, and identify and ensure victim support services are effective.

Regarding the process going forward, the Department will adopt a theory of change approach where it maps and considers what the evidence says to identify key entry points across Western Cape government departments. It will have evidence informed interventions, and area based teams implementing at a local level. It looked at the Cardiff Model and will take some of the leanings from this and replicate some of this to be relevant to the Western Cape. Regarding this model, intervention was over a 51-month period in Cardiff, Wales, and anonymised health data on interpersonal violence, which relates to type, time, and location. It was shared with police and local government with the aim of violence prevention. The main outcome measures were hospital admissions due to violence and police records of injuries due to interpersonal violence. According to the Safety Priority entry-points, there is a Joint Safety Priority implementation with the City of Cape Town. For the 100 day deliverables there will be a Safety Ambassador Programme roll-out; placement of 1000 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) youth; Youth Service Museum Safety officers; training and placement for 120 Peace Officers at six municipalities; Risk and Vulnerability Assessments to determine communities and risk reduction strategies will be conducted; and gender based violence (GBV) services will be upscaled.

Mr Malila tabled the conclusions of the presentation. Given the severe financial constraints the WCG faces, it is absolutely imperative it ensures there is global / national / local evidence which shows an existing or proposed programme will have an impact, it must ensure it builds an evidence base for the implementation methods/mechanisms it will use, and monitor its impact regularly. It will explore new service delivery models which can assist to deliver the required services and do it more cheaply and efficiently. There will be a roll-out of an area-based approach to implementation, building on the success of the Covid hotspot approach.

Discussion

Mr C Dugmore (ANC) said the presentation is not a plan. One of the slides said when the plan would be ready, which indicated a date next year. He asked when the 100 day begins for the 100-day deliverables. He said there is no specific mention of provincial and local government’s response to the issue of public employment initiatives, and asked if the Province considers Municipal Public Employment Programmes as part of the provincial economic recovery, given the ability to absorb labour, particularly youth. He asked when infrastructure spending will take place physically, and if there is a plan in place.

Mr P Marais (FF+) said infrastructure is the first thing the Department wants to run to when it says it must create jobs, and this is an old move. The Department never specified if it will be a dam, a hospital, a school, a new airport or a new city. The Committee never hears what the actual plan is. He said the Department always had school feeding schemes and the Chrysalis Academy programme, it is not something new. The elephant in the room is the budget cut of 11%. He asked how the Department hopes to achieve all it aims to achieve with this budget cut. This is hardly a recovery plan. A recovery plan reflects how to fix the broken toy. The Department cannot go for massive infrastructure projects without national funds available for it. He said he is disappointed with the plan and this is not something he needed to sit two hours to listen to. This plan is second year economics and business economics. He asked what the Department is going to do, and not the theory. The Committee does not need theory, it needs answers. He asked how it will inject capital to create jobs and fast-track private-public infrastructure with this money.

Mr R Allen (DA) asked the Department to elaborate how it will support the most vulnerable sectors. He asked if it entails construction, tourism, or any further sectors. He asked the Department to elaborate more on the area-based approach and what the targeted interventions in this regard will be. Lastly, regarding food security, he asked what the Department is doing to alleviate the suffering of those in rural areas and townships.

The Chairperson said some slides do not have page numbers on it so it is difficult for him to reference his questions. He asked about the 100-day deliverables, particularly the ease of doing business, and asked if the Department means it will create 4939 job opportunities, or sustain this number of job opportunities. He also asked if this was funded or if the Committee will find out on Thursday if it was funded or not. He asked where these opportunities will be advertised. He asked if the Department is discussing policies for sport clubs which are not active at the moment, taking money from its budget and giving it to those which are active.

Premier Winde said the whole idea of good governance is a habit, and if it has to make tough choices or not, it needs to keep good habits going. He said whatever the Department does, the Department will endeavour to ensure good governance is still there. The real tough decisions will happen with respect to the budget and the Committee will hear on Thursday, some of those positions are still not clear. This is because there are some serious issues which the Department could face based on cost of employment.

Mr Malila said the recovery plan is a focus on an already focused Provincial Strategic Plan (PSP) document. As the Government, it will still focus on a safety plan, but it is going to pull the Department of Health much closer as it is a public health issue, and it needs to deal with issues of violence prevention. It needs to deal with issues of pulling things right within a societal aspect, getting people into proper education and getting people out of poverty, with a major focus on job creation. Even last year, pre-Covid, the Department committed to creating more jobs and growing the economy, but it is much deeper now. The Department needs to figure out how to get the jobs which were lost back and build an economy which can actually grow.

Ms Gooch said the Department is aware, and factored this into the work the Department does, specifically looking at the allocations which indicate the Roads Maintenance Grant, and specific allocations for the Department of Education. These were originally done with the understanding the province made a substantial submission to National Treasury, when Treasury called for it to put forward requests for funding public employment programmes. Its request totalled over R2 billion and it was informed National Treasury was redirecting funding elsewhere, and therefore they were not providing allocations they had originally declared. However, she does believe the Department is getting the Road Maintenance Grant and an allocation on the education side. Funding in the current financial year was reprioritised towards Public Employment Programmes. All of these are monitored and linked to the national Department of Public Works Expanded Public Works reporting system. As the Department responsible to coordinate in the Western Cape, it is now tracking work opportunities and full time equivalents delivered per municipality, per provincial department, and has even been able to map the projects to each Ward where it is able to provide weekly reports. Infrastructure spending and the budgets attached to it are under pressure. A lot of the work the Department is doing now is focused on alternate sources, pursuing other opportunities, analysing the asset base, looking at partnerships models, and different ways it can approach it.

Mr Fourie said the Department recognises tourism and hospitality has been the worst hit sectors in the number of job losses. Tourism is definitely one of its key areas. The Department has a campaign to boost domestic tourism throughout the province, and added initiatives to boost tourism within the rural areas. It is working with its international partners to have a small competent of international tourists coming back under the eased lockdown. Construction is another area the Department believes it can bring about a lot of change in within a short space of time. This will be through some of the EPWP programmes, the maintenance programmes, and infrastructure programmes. One of these is in the AMDEC Harbour Arch programme which will create jobs. Regarding if these are new jobs or sustained jobs, he said it is both, as the Department seeks to retain jobs, because job retention is a serious problem.

An official replied to Mr Marais comment on how some of the projects are projects which have been around for many years. He said this is a recovery plan and a lot of these projects suffered under Covid-19. The Western Cape is the only province in the country to go ahead with school feeding even though there was not a decision to do it. Children were not going to school every day. With the feeding scheme, children could go to the nearest school in their area for food on days children did not go to school.

Regarding immunisation, during lockdown, the immunisation numbers were down and this could have a negative impact on the health of people further down the line. This is why immunisation is being emphasised. From the beginning of lockdown, the Department was involved with the district municipalities which focused specifically on the question of food security. It met twice a week during the hard lockdown and once a week when the lockdown was eased. The Department also brought together NGOs in a food forum which is assisting with feeding. In relation to the sport area, the Department said in the beginning, when sport could not operate, it assigned it to school feeding.

Dr Macdonald said the Department of Social Development secured an additional R51 million for food relief which will be used as part of the implementation of the recovery plan, and a large portion of it will be for the rural areas. What the Department is planning on doing is to provide organisations with funds to procure food in bulk, which it can distribute to communities. It will also secure some additional food parcels for the remote corners of the rural areas of the province, where people are not able to access community kitchens because of distance.

Ms Pillay says the Chrysalis Academy extended its operations to support the operations of the Western Cape safety plan. The Chrysalis Academy has always offered a three-month regiment training programme and thereafter the Department of community Safety would place graduates in a 12-24 month work placement. The Chrysalis Academy expanded its operations to accommodate the recovery plan. Some of the expansion initiatives include the establishment of Youth Hubs in high priority areas so there is transference of skills and support and leadership to other youth in communities. There is an outdoor Youth Programme which would allow the Academy to develop and train an additional 600 youth, and to work closely with educators and learners even at primary school level, which it sees as crucial towards youth development and dealing with youth at risk. The establishment of the area-based teams will take place by the 18th of December and will be established in the following areas: Khayelitsha, Delft, Nyanga, Hanover Park, Bishop Lavis, Mfuleni, Harare, Gugulethu, Mitchells Plain, and Kraaifontein. The Department will consider the data relevant for each area and confirm its evidence-based interventions for implementation in the specific area. It will measure the impact and refine its approach. Going forward, as part of Phase Two, the Department will also establish area-based teams with the same methodology of being data led and evidence based within the district municipal space as well.

Premier Winde said the 100 days will be up on 12 December 2020. The plan was started before the president even announced the national recovery plan. Within those 100 days, some of the products of the plan will be delivered already and some will continue. Some of it is existing programmes which it had to speed up. It also needs to figure out how to get back jobs which were lost. The Department estimated the loss of tourism jobs at 104 000, and as the economy started to open up, those job losses dropped. It is also marketing tourism within the country, by marketing to other provinces. The same would apply to investment. Premier Winde said he had to meet with a number of international investors. This is a plan. The tough stuff, some of it is surfacing and the real tough work will begin in the next financial year.

Mr Dugmore asked when the 100-day programme was announced, by whom it was announced, and in what form. He also asked if what the Committee received today was the provincial economic recovery plan or if the Committee will get the final plan later.

Mr Marais said the Department will not only be constrained by budget cuts. The Labour Equity Act constrains the Department by only allowing employment in certain racial parameters. This Act binds the Department to take into account race and prioritises some races over others in job creation. He asked if the Department is prepared to be bold enough to challenge national government on this issue, so it can give jobs to those who suffered and lost jobs, and not give jobs to people solely based on the colour of skin. He said the Department cannot have a recovery plan which makes race a criterion for employment.

Mr Dugmore said inequality related to digital learning was exposed. It was clear learners from quantile one, two, and three, could not benefit given the lack of access to digital capabilities in homes. He said he hoped a recovery plan focusing on education would look at some solutions in this regard, especially because it is unclear how long the pandemic will last and what form learning and education will be conducted in next year.

The Chairperson asked what would hamper the successful implementation of these plans and asked about any future plans.

Premier Winde said the 100-day plan was not announced. Government got together and decided what it would focus on. It was a process the Department went through. What was announced was the recovery, as announced by the President at national level. Where the Department needs to be bold right now is in the area of rural women, and this is why the Department is focusing heavily on ECDs. It is also looking at other sources of income and there was a donation of R100 million which came in. The Department is now in a discussion where ECDs will be a part of the distribution of these funds. When it looks at the compensation of employees and how short it is on funds, it will have to downsize.

Mr Marais said the Premier is ducking his question.

The Chairperson said shouting is not allowed in meetings. Members should raise a hand to raise a point of order.

The Chairperson asked if the Premier remembers Mr Marais question.

Premier Winde said the Member wants to know if the Department will break the law and he said the Department will not. To change the law, one must win an election. He agrees however the law in question is wrong, but the Department will not break the law.

Mr Malila said on the Department’s e-portal, it created resources for teachers and learners. It loaded all the curricula in relation to the various grades onto the portal. There are some online courses which people can do, and the Department capacitates and provides resources to teachers. A lot of the stuff happening within the education environment is ground-breaking for the entire country. It is not only quintile one, two, and three, schools which are suffering. There are many poor kids who attend quintile five schools. Regarding the COE matter, the reductions Dr Fast referred to, relate to reductions in COE and in non-COE. The biggest threat to this country, which may hinder the successful implementation of these plans, is further downgrades and the economy slipping into a further recession. This is why the recovery plan is built on the creation of jobs. The current wage agreements are unsustainable. There is not enough tax revenue being collected.

The Chairperson excused the Premier and his team to continue. The Committee attended to some inhouse matters. The Chairperson said the Committee will deal with resolutions first before it deals with the letter from Mr Dugmore.

Mr Dugmore said he received a copy of the implementation plan. He would like the Department to consider his question was not answered regarding if what was presented today was the actual plan, because to him, a plan must be an implementation plan with details on who is responsible for what and when each thing must be done. He asked if the Committee cannot pass a resolution requesting the provincial government to give it an implementation plan for what is referred to as a provincial recovery plan.

The Chairperson said he saw the plan Mr Dugmore is referring to, and what the Premier presented here is what the Department did to date. He will ask for a status update and how far some of those targets are. He asked if this is the sort of detail Mr Dugmore is looking for.

Mr Dugmore said his enquiry is if there is a provincial implementation plan which underpins the provincial recovery plan, as per the national implementation plan, and if there is, if the Committee can get a copy of it.  This is the resolution he is proposing.

The Chairperson said a copy of the email was emailed to the Committee, and if he is looking for an updated one, it can be sent to him, but he does not understand his resolution.

Mr Dugmore said what was emailed to the Committee members is not an implementation plan of the provincial recovery plan. He said the 100-day deliverables plan is not an implementation plan.

The Chairperson asked Mr Dugmore to reword his resolution as he is a bit confused.

Mr Dugmore asked if he can move for a resolution of this Committee, to resolve to request from the Department of the Premier, if an implementation plan exists for the provincial recovery plan, and if so, if the Department can provide the Committee with a  copy of the implementation plan.

Mr Allen said this would rather be a question and not necessarily a resolution.

Mr Dugmore said the Committee can ask if the Department of the Premier can provide the Committee with an implementation plan for the recovery plan.

Mr D Mitchell (DA) said he does not understand the resolution by Mr Dugmore. If one looks at the presentation, there is a 100-day deliverable and to him this is an implementation plan. He said if this is not what Mr Dugmore wants, he must use other parliamentary processes and not a resolution.

Mr Dugmore said he feels there is a deliberate suppression of a very legitimate question. The slides cannot be an implementation plan.

The Chairperson said it is not a suppression and the Committee wants to be clear on what it sends to the Department.

Mr Marais said the Committee needs to give Mr Dugmore’s question the necessary importance. The Department said the plan will come next year in February, and asked if this is the plan or if it is not the plan.

Ms W Philander (DA) said she was covered by Mr Allen and the Committee needs to draw this matter to a conclusion now.

The Chairperson suggested the Committee receive the updated plan and any monitoring tools the Department uses for this plan, from the Department.

Mr Dugmore said he still believes his resolution is being suppressed, and he is going to leave. He believes what he is asking for is a legitimate resolution, and it is not controversial.

The Chairperson said this is not true. When the Committee asks officials for information, it must be clear on what it wants, and as a Committee it needs to know what it is asking for.

Mr Marais said he has a problem with the Premier’s response as he was not asking him to break the law. Many people have lost their jobs and under the Labour Equity Act would not qualify for any jobs created, and other people who did not lose their jobs will be put in those positions just because the person belongs to a different ethnic group. Laws are made and can be changed. This will hurt the DA terribly.

Mr Dugmore said when you look at the presentation, it says ‘towards a recovery plan’, which is a clear indication there is not a finalised recovery plan. His request is for the Committee to receive a current implementation plan in regard to the presentation.

The Chairperson said a request should be sent to the Department asking for an implementation plan for Mr Dugmore. The second matter is the letter sent by Mr Dugmore. It is with regards to matters relating to the Superintendent General of Education. He said he contacted the Chairperson of the Education Committee, and she will call a meeting with her Committee and this Committee.

Mr Dugmore asked the Chairperson to put in writing his response to the letter, and is he happy the national department of Public Administration is also invited.

The Chairperson said yes, he is. All stakeholders are invited.

The minutes from the previous meeting were adopted.

The minutes were adopted, and the meeting was adjourned.