Committee Report: Finalisation

Meeting report

The Chairperson welcomed Members to the meeting. The apologies were tabled, and the rules of engagement explained – all mics and videos must be muted and turned off at the beginning of the meeting to improve the quality of the online connection. Points of orders were to be raised using the chat function in MS Teams.

Draft Committee Activities Report September 2020

The Draft Committee Activities Report was adopted.

Draft Committee Activities Report October 2020

The Draft Committee Activities Report was adopted.

Draft Committee Minutes 14 October 2020

The Draft Committee Minutes were adopted

The Draft Final Committee Report

The Chairperson said the document was a substantial document and as such believed that it should be split into pages first before adopting the entire document as a whole.

Pages 1 – 4 were adopted.

Page 5 was adopted.

Mr A Van der Westhuizen (DA) said the report was an impressive one and as such was sure it would one day be used for academic purposes or research. As such, he proposed that the report only deal with specific figures and specific dates/times.

The Chairperson proposed, based off of Mr Van der Westhuizen’s proposal, that wherever time appeared in the document, it be changed to include today’s amended date.

The Committee supported the amendment.

Mr R Mackenzie (DA) proposed that the document be checked for spelling and grammatical mistakes. The document would become a sort of academic research study guide for some and it would be a horror to find any sort of grammatical and spelling mistakes in a brilliant report by the Ad-Hoc Committee on Covid-19.

The Chairperson responded that the document would obviously and had already been checked for spelling and grammatical errors; however, there would always be room for the document to be double and triple checked. The document would be double, and triple checked, page breaks would be inserted, and the time of writing would be amended to today’s date.

Pages 6 – 94 were adopted.

The Chairperson alerted the Committee that pages 95 and 96 dealt with the recommendations. The inclusion of additional recommendations was welcomed.

The Chairperson proposed that recommendation 5 be amended to state: The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) should open its offices in order for stakeholders to access their funds.

It was proposed that recommendation 16, followed after recommendation 5 and as such becoming recommendation 6.

Mr C Dugmore (ANC) proposed that recommendation 8 be amended, as there were absolutely no race allocations. He had not been aware of any allegations being made on the basis of race.

Mr D Mitchell (DA) disagreed with Mr Dugmore. The recommendations made were part of previously adopted recommendations and as such, ought to form part of the final report as one could not just disregard the realities people found themselves facing.

Ms D Baartman (DA) explained that the particular resolution in question came as a result of the public participation process. She had an objection to the changing of the content of the resolution because changing content and changing to make something clearer were two very different things.

Mr Van der Westhuizen stated that the resolution stemmed from the Tourism Aid Fund.

The Committee agreed for recommendation 8 to be amended.

The Chairperson proposed that recommendation 20 be amended, allowing for the wording to change, however, still keeping in line with the substance of the recommendation.

The wording of the following recommendations were to be amended

• Recommendation 21
• Recommendation 23
• Recommendation 28
• Recommendation 30
• Annexure F was to be added to include: A list of Disaster Management Regulations relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Recommendations and annexures were adopted

Pages 1 – 130 (the entire report) was adopted.

The Chairperson thanked the Committee Procedural Officer for the diligent and efficient work which had just been adopted in the report. She was thanked for her very hard work throughout the nine months of the ad-Hoc Committee being active. The entire Committee thanked her for the hard work.

The Committee Members were thanked for their inputs and efforts which enabled the Committee in to do its work throughout the year.

Mr K Sayed (ANC) proposed that when the Report was tabled, the Committee support staff be thanked in the House and receive the recognition they truly deserved.

Mr Mitchell thanked the Chairperson for her contribution throughout the nine months and for creating a space where the people of the Western Cape could have their voices heard.

The Chairperson thanked everyone. The report would be debated in the House. The Committee would not adjourn but rather be in recess until after the recess period, which would allow for the Committee to pick up where it had left off in the event that the Committee was needed again within the next few weeks or months.

The meeting was adjourned.