DTIC Budget: Committee Report; Remitted Bills: Committee Report

Meeting report

Opening remarks
The Chairperson welcomed Members and everyone on the platform.

The Secretary confirmed the attendance of Members.

The Chairperson noted that the meeting would be fairly brief as the Committee would be considering the Bills remitted by the President, the report on the Budget Vote for the dtic and several sets of minutes.

The Secretary informed the Committee that he had circulated the reports as agreed in the previous meeting. He had received no further input.


Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the President’s reservations regarding the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill
The Secretary read the Report. The report began with the specific wording as per the letter from the Presidency that had listed the reservations of the President in respect of the remitted Bills. The proposed response to each of the reservations remained exactly the same as agreed to by the Committee on 12 May 2021.

The Secretary concluded by presenting the draft recommendations to the National Assembly for formal consideration by the Committee:

It was recommended that the National Assembly:
- rescind its decision, on 5 December 2018, to pass the Copyright Amendment Bill [B13B-2017] and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill [B24B-2016] as section 75 Bills.
- referred the Bills to the Joint Tagging Mechanism to consider whether it agrees with the President’s reservation that the Bills should have been tagged as section 76 Bills;
- referred the Bills to the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry to correct the procedural and substantive concerns
- agreed to the Committee incorporating in its work of addressing the reservations the proceedings and all the previous work of the Committee up to the Second Reading of the Bill.

Without further discussion, Mr D Macpherson (DA) proposed the adoption of the report. Ms (J) Hermans (ANC) seconded the adoption of the report as tabled. There were no objections or abstentions.

Resolution: The Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on the President’s reservations regarding the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill was unanimously adopted.

Report of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry on Budget Vote 39: Trade, Industry and Competition  
The Secretary informed the Chairperson that the draft report had been circulated. No feedback had been received from any parties.

Ms Hermans stated that she had read through conclusions and there was no need to read the entire report again as the only additional input had been from Mr Thring and his input had been had been accepted at the previous meeting. That input had been captured in the circulated report.

The Secretary read out the recommendation.

Mr S Mbuyane (ANC) stated that he needed to know what additional input had been submitted by the other parties. It was therefore advisable for the Secretary to read out each of the conclusions.

The Chairperson explained that the only input submitted had come from the ANC and the only change to that input had been the inclusion of the word “beneficiation” in the point referring to localisation, as suggested by Mr Thring. That addition had been agreed to at the previous meeting. Ms Hermans had, moments before, acknowledged that additional input. The Chairperson added that there were no further additions and enquired whether Mr Mbuyane wanted to go through all of the conclusions.

Mr Mbuyane responded that he still requested that the Committee read through each conclusion and the recommendation as the meeting had to approve each conclusion individually and the recommendation.

The Secretary read out the 12 conclusions as per the previous meeting.

He read the recommendation:
The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry, having considered the 2021 proposed Budget Vote 39: Trade, Industry and Competition, recommends that the House adopts Budget Vote 39: Trade, Industry and Competition.

The Chairperson commented that Mr Mbuyane should be satisfied.

Mr Mbuyane moved for the adoption of the report. Ms Motaung (ANC) seconded the adoption.

Mr Macpherson noted the DA’s abstention.

The Chairperson noted that the Report was adopted as presented.

Consideration of Minutes
The minutes of 12 March 2021 had not had been approved by the Committee previously. Amendments had been proposed to the discussion regarding the nomination of Dr Muthuhandini Madzivhandila. In the meeting, the DA had expressed its concern about the allegations by Corruption Watch whereas the ANC and EFF had stated that the allegations had not been proven and that Corruption Watch had not advised that Dr Madzivhandila should not be nominated for the position. The Secretary had made the amendments and circulated the revised copy of the minutes.

The minutes of 12 March 2021 were unanimously adopted with no objections.

The minutes of 16 March and 17 March 2021 were adopted with no amendments or objections.

Concluding remarks
The Chairperson stated that the next meeting would be with the National Credit Regulator on Wednesday 26 May 2021. No meetings had been scheduled for the following week as many plenaries were scheduled in the National Assembly.

There being no further business, the Chairperson closed the meeting following some frivolity about the by-elections in the Chairperson’s constituency by the DA.

The meeting was adjourned.