Telkom Towers oversight report

Meeting report

Opening remarks

The Chairperson welcomed the Members and the Committee support staff to the meeting. The meeting was convened for the Committee to consider the report on its recent oversight visit to the Telkom Towers in Pretoria. The visit was a follow-up on reports and the first oversight visit that the Committee undertook to the Telkom Towers in 2019. The Committee had requested a report of what was happening at the Telkom Towers several times because this was a project that commenced about eight years ago but only one Tower was reported as functional.

The Telkom Towers were supposed to be the headquarters of the South African Police Services (SAPS), and the Committee felt that SAPS needed to occupy the building so that they would stop renting out accommodation. The report that the Committee received, which made the Committee visit the Towers, was to see how much accommodation was rented out by SAPS to use as their headquarters. This was the Committee’s way of playing oversight over the SAPS and National Treasury. The Committee was also concerned about the Facilities Management branch of the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE) on the way it was doing its work.

The President addressed many women’s NGOs at the [recent] Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF), which remained a thorn and a real challenge and pandemic to every woman in South Africa. “Every three minutes, a woman is raped in South Africa, and it is very scary, and we are afraid because we feel that we are not safe in our own country, in our own homes. Women cannot walk on the street feeling safe and must live behind closed doors and high fences because we are afraid”. She hoped the summit would come up with resolutions to make life easier and safe for the women and children in South Africa.

Portfolio Committee on Public Works: Report on an Oversight visit to the Telkom Towers
The Committee Content Advisor went through the report.

The Chairperson asked Members to share any comments or additions to the report.

Ms M Siwisa (EFF) said the way the Committee was undermined by both the Department [of Public Works and Infastructure] and SAPS officials during the oversight needed to be emphasised in the report because they knew well on time that the Committee would go on an oversight visit, but they looked unprepared. In the briefing meeting, she had requested that the Independent Development Trust (IDT) must be given the same amount of work as the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) and the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) because the IDT was the only body that the Committee could perform oversight over, and DBSA had failed dismally in doing the work required of them. She also recommended that the DBSA must be put aside and another entity should do the coordination because the DBSA was given ample opportunity and they failed. She also wondered how safe the building was, as it was reported that cables were stolen and said the question of security needed to be looked into.

Ms S Graham (DA) suggested grammatical amendments. She was overall happy with the report and commended the committee support staff on doing an amazing job of encapsulating exactly what happened, what the issues were, and what needed to be done, noting that this was an excellent report.

Ms M Hicklin (DA) said they had the most amazing support staff than any portfolio committee because they had never disappointed the Committee after an oversight visit. She commended them on their good work. She suggested that in future, oversight visits done by the Committee, the inspection of buildings, must happen before the presentations because, during the oversight of the Telkom Towers, the Committee was lulled into a sense of security about how well the project was progressing only to find out that the buildings were in shambles. One of the recommendations should be that a site visit should happen before the presentations.

She said the Committee should not have anywhere in the report that the DPWI or any other implementing agents ‘noted’ things; there must be action plans because when they just ‘noted’ things, they were only taken as read and there were no actions plans so no one could be held accountable for lack of implementation.

Ms L Mjobo (ANC) also admired the well-written report from the Committee support staff and had no additional comments.

Mr T Mashele (ANC) said the report made it easier for even some of the Members who were not on the oversight visit. He was disturbed to hear that the Committee was undermined during the oversight because it showed that the Department and the implementing agents did not take the Committee seriously. There were a lot of discrepancies relating to the Telkom Towers project and the Committee ought to apply its mind, even if it meant going back on oversight and demanding the presence of the Minister, SAPS, and the Executive Authorities so that the Committee could make an informed decision.

The Chairperson also appreciated the report from the Committee support staff, noting that it was well-crafted and profound. She said the Portfolio Committee had discussed that it would need to go back to the precinct because they were undermined on the second day and the report they received on Friday was not reflected in what they saw on Saturday. The Committee would not sugar-coat the undermining it received from the Department and the SAPS officials to the public. The Committee was correct in visiting the precinct because the taxpayer’s money was being wasted by the delay in concluding the Telkom Towers project as R31 million was being paid to rent premises per year.

She asked for a mover and a seconder for the adoption of the report.

Ms Mjobo moved for the adoption of the report and was seconded by Ms Graham.

The report was adopted.

Committee Minutes

The Committee adopted its minutes dated 26 October 2022 and 19 October 2022 with minor grammatical amendments.

The Chairperson thanked the Members for the work done on the report and shared the concerns they had regarding their experience during the oversight visit. The Committee would go on another oversight to the precinct and invite the Minister, the Department and SAPS officials, noting the suggestions made by Ms Hicklin.

She asked the Members to keep following the GBVF Summit led by the President on social media and national television, as it was important. She noted that this issue was close to her heart, considering what was happening to women and children, how that affected the entire society, and how it crossed all political, social, racial, and religious borders and needed the entire country to stand up and fight against it.  

The meeting was adjourned.