House Chairperson and hon members, on behalf of the Select Committee for Education and Recreation. May I take this opportunity to present before the House the National Qualification Framework, NQF Amendment Bill B20 of 2018.
The processing of the Bill at the level of the Select Committee was as follows on the 30th of January, the Select Committee received a briefing by the Department of Higher Education and Training. The inputs were invited from the members of the public to make comments on the intended amendments and only 5 submissions were received at the level of the Select Committee as they were processed by the Department of Higher Education and Training, and members were briefed as to how those inputs were crafted into the intended amendments of the Bill
The crux of the Bill if I may just explain briefly Chairperson is that powers are being conferred on to the South African Qualification Authority to be the official custodian of all database of all qualifications in the country. In other words, there could be other bodies that are actually dealing with the database on qualifications but South African Qualification Authority, SAQA is the official body that this Bill seeks to appoint as the authority to take care of all the database of qualifications.
This is also a body that can be used to verify the qualifications or part of the qualification of any individual in the country. Not to say that other bodies can not do the same but this is an official. Bodies that submitted inputs were USAF, University South Africa, Manage Integrity Evaluation (Pty) Ltd, Umalusi, Chartered Accountants and Independent Institute for Education.
On the 20th of February, the committee came together to relook at the inputs as they were crafted by the Department of Higher Education and Training which led to another meeting on the 6th March 2019, where members that were present at the committee actually agreed to vote on the Bill.
Members that were present are as follows hon Zwane, hon Ngwenya, hon TK Mampuru, hon Mpambosi-Bhukwane, Hon Hattingh, and hon Stock. The voting process took place and of the 7 members that were present, the DA decided to vote against the Bill.
I therefore present the Bill before the House for consideration. Thank you Chairperson.
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Bill be agreed to.