(1)What is the estimated total cost to be incurred by (a) his department and (b) institutions of higher education and training to prepare for the reopening of their facilities after the easing of the hard lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19;
(2) whether (a) his department and/or (b) institutions of higher education and training will be employing additional staff to ensure that (i) social distancing and (ii) other essential health protections have been put in place; if not, in each case, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details in each case?
1. (a) The Department has allocated R1.1 million and reprioritised R1.5 million for the management of COVID-19 within its offices, i.e. four buildings at head office and six regional offices. The budget is meant to cover the supply of masks to 3 800 employees, procurement of sanitisers, scanners, personal protective equipment for the cleaning staff, decontamination and deep cleaning of offices. In view of ...
With reference to the proposed establishment of a university for crime detection in Hammanskraal, (a) what are the relevant details of what is meant by a university for crime detection, (b) on what statutory and other grounds would an institution with such a narrow mandate qualify as a university, (c) what disciplines would be taught and assessed by such an institution, (d) what degrees and other qualifications would such an institution offer and (e) what are the details of the (i) timelines or time frames and (ii) budget for the establishment of such an institution?
(a) In the 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President announced that “to improve the quality of general and specialised SAPS investigations, we are establishing a Crime Detection University in Hammanskraal”. This was understood as a directive to work towards the establishment of a specialised public higher education institution that would offer qualifications on the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework in fields linked to ...
(a) What are the reasons that none of the 27 students who enrolled for a three year National Certificate Hairdressing programme, conducted by Delcom Training Institute in Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape that commenced in April 2019, have not been paid their stipend for November 2019, (b) what is the name of each learner who has not been paid any stipend from 1 April 2019 to date, (c) what enforcement mechanism will his department utilise to ensure that payments are effected where owing, (d) what are the time frames stipulated by his department between (i) completion of a level by a learner; (ii) moderation of the work by the service provider and (iii) commencement of the next level, (e) has the service provider been paid for the period of the lockdown and (f) where the programme has been stalled by the service provider, (i) will the duration of the programme be extended by the same time frame and (ii) will the students be paid stipends for the additional time?
(a) Based on the Services SETA records, the stipend for the month of November 2019 was paid to all learners whose attendance could be confirmed through attendance registers. Ten out of the forty learners were not paid due to non-attendance.
(b) The names of ten learners who were not paid stipends for November 2019 and December 2019 due to non-attendance are:
- Jonathan Mahosi
- Winstar Mdlalose
- Zanele Kubheka
- Millecent Tsotetsi
- Veronica Maseko
- Nokuthula Muriel Ndaba ...
(1)Whether the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has entered into an agreement with the SA Revenue Service to obtain data on the tax status of students and/or their families; if not,
(2) whether NSFAS is planning on entering into such an agreement; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, at what stage are the plans;
(3) on what legal provisions will NSFAS rely when seeking to obtain knowledge of the tax status of a third party
(1) The National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the SA Revenue Service (SARS) concluded an agreement on 5 December 2019. The agreement did not seek to govern the provision of personal tax status information by SARS to NSFAS. The primary purpose of the agreement was to permit NSFAS to obtain additional information from SARS relating to the gross annual income of NSFAS applicants, ...
(a) For how long did his department engage with a certain company (name furnished) regarding the introduction of a comprehensive innovation plan in the townships of the Republic, (b) on what grounds was this engagement pursued, (c) on what date did the engagement come to an end and (d) what were the specific reasons for ending the engagement, given that significant European Union and British potential investment was at stake?
(a) South Africa has a bilateral science and innovation partnership with the United Kingdom as part of the Newton Fund initiative, which is operational in 17 other countries. The UK-South Africa Newton Fund is administered by the South Africa’s Department for Science and Technology and the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Newton Fund is part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance ...
(1)(a) What number of times, (b) on what dates and (c) why was the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) sector education and training authority placed under administration in each year since its inception;
(2) (a) what number of clean audits has CETA had since its inception and (b) by what amount has it underspent its income in each case;
(3) what number of artisans has it trained to the point of qualification;
(4) what number of instances of corruption have been uncovered?
(1) (a) The Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA) was placed twice under administration.
(b) 25 March 2011 and 3 February 2020.
(c) In 2011, CETA was placed under administration due to allegations of financial mismanagement and in 2020, due to allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.
(2) (a) CETA received four clean audits in the 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years.
(b) ...
(1)With reference to his reply to question 927 on 2 June 2020, what (a) is the name of each company from which the specified goods and/or services were purchased, (b) is the amount of each transaction and (c) was the service and/or product that each company rendered;
(2) whether there was any deviation from the standard supply chain management procedures in the specified transactions; if so, (a) why and (b) what are the relevant details in each case;
(3) what were the reasons that the goods and/or services were purchased from the specified companies;
(4) whether he will make a statement on the matter?
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Attached is the response in respect of PQ 1144.
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION:
|
1.
|
(a) the name of the company from which the specified goods and/or service were purchased
|
(b) the amount of each transaction
|
(c) the service and/or product that each company rendered
|
| |
1
|
XL Nexus Travel
|
R42 500,00
|
Shuttle Services
|
| |
2
|
Dischem ... |
(1)What is the total expected reduction in his departments’ budget by Treasury in light of Covid-19;
(2) whether the reduction will be spread evenly throughout his department; if not, (a) why not and (b)(i) how will it be distributed between programmes and entities and (ii) on what principles?
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
(1) The Department did not receive official communication from National Treasury on the budget reductions. The Department is waiting for the announcement to be made by Parliament.
(2) Not applicable
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
(1) R1 759 479 000. This amount is made up of R1 435 304 000 budget cuts and R324 175 000 for COVID-19 ...
What (a)(i) assistance and/or (ii) funding will his department provide to technical and vocational education and training centres (TVETs) to ensure that they are able to implement Covid-19 national health protocols as they apply to tertiary institutions and (b) oversight will his department perform over TVETs to ensure that Covid-19 national health protocols as they apply to campuses are implemented across campuses?
(a) Assistance is provided to TVET colleges through Higher Health, which conducts daily screening and provides health care volunteers on every campus. Capacity development webinars on the COVID-19 Post-School Education and Training (PSET) guidelines and protocols have been conducted for TVET management in all the regions. Higher Health facilitated these sessions and over 1 000 management staff at TVET colleges have been trained. Colleges ...
(1)Whether his department has been informed that the Springfield Campus of Ethekwini College, although offering courses with practical components, has not been offering any practicals for students enrolled in engineering courses, despite these being advertised as part of the curriculum; if not, what is the position in this regard;
(2) whether students are paying for the practical course from (a) their own funding and/or (b) the National Students Financial Aid Scheme;
(3) whether his department has been informed that the Springfield Campus of Ethekwini College, is in a complete state of disrepair with collapsed perimeter fencing and/or walls, no access control and that entry to the campus is obscured by a dumpsite; if not, what steps will he take to investigate the matter; if so, how does his department plan to intervene?
(1) The campus offers Engineering and Related Design (E&RD) NCV programmes where students are doing practical activities as part of the Internal Continuous Assessments (ICASS). For the students to qualify for entry into the examinations the ISAT (practical exam component) needs to be administered. The Campus yearly is conducting relevant practical tasks. We are not aware of any programme offered at Springfield Campus where ...
