Department & Sports Commission on Legislation Hold-Up, Procurement, Personnel & Sport Academies

Meeting report

SPORT AND RECREATION PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
21 May 2002
DEPARTMENT & SPORTS COMMISSION ON LEGISLATION HOLD-UP, PROCUREMENT, PERSONNEL & SPORT ACADEMIES

Chairperson: Ms N Bhengu

Documents handed out:
Academies of Sport
SASC organogram
SRSA institutional arrangements (Appendix 1)
SRSA reprioritization (Appendix 2)
SRSA legal department presentation
SRSA organogram (e-mail [email protected] for document)

SUMMARY
This meeting was a follow-up to the 14 May meeting in order to provide information on the issues raised in that meeting. SASC's presentation covered sport academies and SASC personnel breakdown. SRSA's presentation dealt with its legislative programme; concerns about capacity within SRSA; prioritization of national federations; procurement policy and where sport facilities are located throughout the country.

The Director General emphasised that there was no capacity problem within SRSA regarding the processing of sport-related legislation. He attributed the delay to a lack of co-operation from stakeholders and the provinces.

MINUTES
SRSA presentation
Mr Boshoff from SRSA's legal services department briefed the committee on the Department's legislative programme for 2002 (see document).

Discussion
Mr P Swart (DP) asked if Mr Boshoff was the only person in the SRSA's legal department as the SRSA legal services budget did not reflect any administration costs or stationery expenses. He wondered how one person could do all the work that Mr Boshoff was expected to do. He commented that in order to expect improvement and quick processing of legislation, the SRSA's legal services department needed to be properly resourced.

Mr Boshoff replied that he was the only person in the legal services department. There was no provision for assistants because he could take charge of the workload.

Prof Hendricks added to Mr Boshoff's reply and said there was another legal person available at the South African Sports Commission.

Ms Cloete (SRSA) noted that there was secretarial support for Mr Boshoff catered for under Programme 1 in the budget statement of the SRSA.

The Chairperson lamented the fact that the Committee had only processed three Bills in the last three years. This was despite the fact that the Minister of Sport and Recreation had said that eight Bills were going to be processed in the course of last year. Of the eight Bills, only two were carried and six were dropped.

Mr Z Ncinane (ANC) placed the problem of delays in the processing of Bills squarely on the shoulders of Mr Boshoff. He said it showed that Mr Boshoff did not take matters seriously and this was creating problems for the Committee. He emphasized the fact that one of their duties was to make laws and warned Mr Boshoff to stop playing with the committee.

The Chairperson, reacting to the direct attack on Mr Boshoff, warned against the misdirected attack of an individual. She said the committee must look at its performance against the background of the programme it put in place to process bills. She said if there were any shortcomings identified in that regard, then the committee must ask itself what contributed to such shortcomings. She stressed that they should look at the performance of both the committee and the sport department as a whole and check if there was a need for a beef-up. After evaluating their progress in meeting deadlines in 2001, she had realised that there was a lack in the area of processing bills. She had raised this with the Minister and she had been promised that the Department would be beefed up.

Mr Swart added that Mr Boshoff was merely a line functionary in the SRSA department and therefore accusing him was unfair. The Committee was not there to fight people. He noted that Bills were initiated by the Minister.

Prof Hendricks agreed that there were eight pieces of legislation in 2001 and the problem was a difficult one. The problem was not that Mr Boshoff did not have the capacity. As a reason for the problem, he pointed to the delaying tactics of the stakeholders and the unhappiness in the provinces with the Bills. He made reference to the South African Boxing Act and said one of the problems with it was a lack of attendance by the stakeholders at arranged meetings. He stressed the fact that there was no capacity problem within SRSA regarding the processing of Bills. He, as the head of the SRSA, took responsibility for not communicating SRSA's frustration at the lack of co-operation by stakeholders and provinces.

Mr Fourie (UDM) said that one of the reasons why the stakeholders were doing as they wished was that the Minister came across as "a warm person" and that they were exploiting that. He believed the problem of the stakeholders was a serious one and that it was hampering progress.

Mr A Mlangeni (ANC) said that the fact that only three Bills were process in the last three years was a serious matter. It reflected on the Committee as not doing its work. Something had to be done about it but it was wrong to blame Mr Boshoff. The Committee should rather find a solution than point fingers at others.

Mr Swart said the issue of processing of Bills was a political problem. If the Minister was not doing anything about it, then SRSA could not be blamed. The Minister should use his influence to correct matters.

The Chairperson said the problem of slow processing of Bills had to be resolved as she could not allow a situation where members of other committees were working around the clock yet still earned the same as her committee which was not doing enough.

Mr H Chauke (ANC) suggested that the committee should have a discussion with the Minister on the issue of legislation. He also responded to Mr Swart's input on the Minister and said it was not correct.

Mr Swart and Mr Fourie seconded the idea of having a meeting with the Minister and said that such a meeting could even give the Minister a forum to raise his own frustrations with regard to the problem of Bills. Mr Fourie cautioned against the impression being created that the committee was summoning the Minister.

Mr Ncinane agreed with Mr Fourie's latter input. He said communication must be established with the Minister particularly around the agenda of that planned meeting.

SRSA personnel organogram
Prof D Hendricks (SRSA Director General) took the Committee through the organogram (see document).

Discussion
Mr T Lee (DP) made reference to Programme 2 on the organogram where there are four vacancies amongst the 15 personnel. He wanted to know why this was the case and for how long it had been so.

Prof Hendricks explained that these posts had been advertised, interviews were underway and they were expecting to make appointments soon.

Mr Swart asked if there were no line functions between the SRSA and SASC.

Prof Hendricks replied that the Public Finance Management Act was clear about that. There were two reporting lines to the Minister between the two entities.

Mr Swart noted that under Programme 3 on the organogram, there was an administration budget of R6 million with a staff of only 3 people. He wanted to know if consultants were being used. If yes, how much of the R6 million amount went to them.

Mr Phango replied that they indeed used consultants and that their cost amounted to R4.5million of the overall R90 million budget.

Mr Swart said that parliamentarians were concerned about consultants as they were considered very expensive.

In reply to Mr R Pieterse (ANC) asking if there was a record of all available facilities built in the country, Mr Phango said that there was.

SASC personnel organogram
Dr Joe Pahla took the Committee through the organogram (see document).

Discussion
Mr Mlangeni referred to the mention of education and training under specialist services and asked what this education was and if it was for people inside or outside the SASC.

Dr Pahla replied that nowadays sport was more than just a hobby, it was a career. Because of that, they were training sport officials and athletes to be able to adapt to the challenge of sport as a career.

Mr Louw wanted to know the names of the three federations housed in the Sport House and whether they were paying rent.

Mr Swart asked why the federations were housed in the Sport House in the first place. Regarding the awarding of national colours, he asked if this included hiring of clothes for the national teams and what the cost of this was.

Dr Pahla said he was unable to provide the names of the federations housed in the Sport House as he could not remember them. Further, the federations were not paying rent because they did not have funds of their own to foot the bill.

With regard to national colours, Dr Pahla said the responsibility of SASC was to regulate and monitor the process of who qualified for national colours. SASC did not buy or hire clothes and because of that this task was not a costly one. Their task was purely regulatory without any major financial impact.

Mr Chauke enquired if the SASC was going to need more money based on its current programs.

Dr Pahla replied that the SASC indeed needed more money for its programs, particularly with the upcoming Commonwealth games later this year.

Mr Mlangeni asked how much money was allocated to the SASC.

Dr Pahla replied that it was about R26 million. Of that, R24 million came from the SRSA, R1million from Public Works and the other R1 million came through other sources.

Mr Pieterse asked about the number of people with disabilities within the SASC personnel.

Dr Pahla confessed that the SASC was battling with equity particularly with regard to people with disabilities.

Mrs N Lamani (ANC) asked for Dr Pahla's comment on SASC's plan of action for mass participation.

Dr Pahla replied that SASC's emphasis was on encouraging participation in sport across ages from junior to senior citizens. There was also emphasis on training facilitators. With regard to indigenous games, Dr Pahla said SASC had purchased equipment as a form of marketing and given them to provinces. There was also research underway on the correct equipment to use to avoid harmful consequences.

Academies of Sport
Mr Bernardus van der Spuy (SASC) dealt with the background, objectives and services of the provincial sport academies and their regional satellite academies. Information was also provided on the national policy on sport academies and their governance, lines of communication, their legal status and their location in the country (see document).

Discussion
No discussion took place as questions were reserved for a future engagement. The chairperson felt that there were too many questions that needed answering on the sport academies and that allowing discussion now would do no justice.

SRSA's Reprioritization of federations
Mr Fredericks (Director: Policy & Financial Support) dealt with the issue of the SRSA's prioritization of federations as was requested in the preceding meeting (see document).

Discussion
No comments

SRSA's Institutional Arrangements and its procurement system
Mr Phango presented on this issue for which more information had been requested by the Committee in the previous meeting (see document).

Discussion
Mr Chauke noted his appreciation for the report and emphasized the need for monitoring that the procurement policy was being implemented by local governments.

Mr Swart said that he now understood the procurement policy. He said the important issue now was the use of the child labour in building facilities and the monitoring of facilities.

Mr Phango replied that monitoring was done at provincial level. Auditors were visiting facilities and checking if they indeed complied with the set policies.

The Chairperson said the issue of facilities and procurement would be revisited in the future.

The meeting was adjourned.

Appendix 1:
SPORT AND RECREATION SOUTH AFRICA
Institutional Arrangements

Institutional Arrangements for SRSA
· SRSA is the Accounting Officer: and
- sets policy
-disburses funds to PIA's, SASC and PDS
- has overall co-ordination responsibility
- monitoring and reporting responsibility
· Prov Dept Sports
- provincial inter-governmental co-ordination
- obtain MEC approval of projects
- monitor performance of PIA's
- facilitate PIA agreement between SRSA & PIA
- certify payment certificates of PIA's
- establishment and empowerment of Project Steering Committee
- establishment and empowerment of Community Sports Organisation
- co-ordinate training of Community Sports Committee by SASC

¨ MEC - provincial approval of projects
¨ SA Sports Commission assist with community consultation and facilities management training, as requested by PDS

· District Municipality (or Local Authority if appropriate)
- Programme Implementing Agent on behalf of SRSA
- contracts with project manager & contractor
- take ownership and responsibility for the facility
- contract with CSO for usage of the facility
· Project Steering Committee
- endorsement of project
- define project scope
- identify workforce
- assist PDS with skills audit
- Composition: PDS (Chair), Community Reps, Local Authority, Traditional Authority, PM, contractor in attendance
· Project Manager - design and contract administration, & member of PSC
· Contractor - construction and employment and technical training of community workforce
· Community Sports Organisation
- receive training from PDS and SASC
- promote sports within the community and manage the facility, access funds (e.g. lottery, from federations etc)
- Contract with Prov Sports Fed for funding
- Constitution: Sports forums, sport federations, community representatives, other stakeholders

Institutional Responsibility for Procurement Policy Framework for Procurement
· The procurement is carried out in terms of the following framework of legislation and policy documents:
· 1. Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act 5 of 2000 which is required to be followed by all government stipulates how affirmative action should be given preference within the procurement process;
· 2. Public Finance Management Act 1 of 1999 - which stipulates the policy framework for procurement within government;
· 3. Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000- which is a mirror of the PFMA and requires municipalities to determine a procurement policy;
· 4. The BSRP Programme Management System 2002.1 - which describes the basis on which project managers should be appointed and contract awarded.

Appendix 2:
SPORT AND RECREATION SOUTH AFRICA

"Improving the quality of life of all South Africans through sport and recreation'

REPRIORITIZATION
- We established a joint committee consisting of SRSA, the SASC and NOCSA to look at the resourcing of sport
- Looked at reprioritization of national federations
- Decided that we needed to develop clear criteria
- Could not only focus on High Performance Sport
- Decided on two categories:
Those NFS that stand the best chance to deliver medals
Those NFs that stand the best chance to increase participants

MINISTERIAL TASK TEAM
- In November 2000 Minister appointed Task team
- Main objective: look at what needs to be done to improve the performance of South African teams at
international level.
- Poor performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MTT
- Final Report of the MTT not released yet
- Interim reports all pointed to insufficient funding
- Recommended that we adopt a more focused approach to funding
- Fund less national federations

REPRIORITIZATION
- We established a joint committee consisting of SRSA, the SASC and NOCSA to look at the resourcing of sport
- Looked at reprioritization of national federations
- Decided that we needed to develop clear criteria
- Could not only focus on High Performance Sport
- Decided on two categories: Those NFS that stand the best chance to deliver medals
: Those NFs that stand the best chance to increase participants

CATEGORY 1: MEDALS CRITERIA
- Placement at last World Championships
- Last year competed at the world championships
- Latest International ranking
- Placement at last Continental Championships
- Continental ranking
- Performance at Olympic Games
- Number of countries competing in the sport
- Number of women in the sport
- Number of Black people in the sport
- Funding received from own sources
- Funding received from sponsors

CATEGORY 2: PARTICIPATION CRITERIA
- Total membership - seniors
- Total membership - juniors
- Total Black membership
- Number of clubs
- Number of clubs in black areas
- Presence in provinces
- Annual affiliation fee per person
- Cost of equipment per person
- Development programmes

REPRIORITIZATION
- Currently fund 72 National Federations
- We envisage that we will fund approx 13 NFs in category I and 20 in category 2
- In total - less than 30 will be funded
- Will consult national federations

RATIFICATION PROCESS
- Heads: SRSA, NOOSA, SASC
- General Assembly of SASC
- NOCSA General meeting
- Minister
- Parliament
- Cabinet