Membership to the Heritage Western Cape Council: Deliberation and Finalisation of Shortlist

Police Oversight, Community Safety and Cultural Affairs (WCPP)

26 October 2022
Chairperson: Mr G Bosman (DA)
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Meeting Summary

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In a virtual meeting, the Standing Committee on Community Safety, Cultural Affairs and Sport deliberated on finalising the shortlist for membership to the Heritage Western Cape Council.

The Chairperson indicated that only 14 nominees could be appointed, but there are instances where members terms have lapsed or they have resigned. Therefore, the Committee will shortlist more than 14 nominees for the Minister to consider. There might also be instances where appointment has been rejected or declined.

The Members adopted a resolution for the criteria it will use to rank the candidates. The Committee shortlisted 23 candidates for the membership to the Heritage Western Cape Council. The Committee also went through its Report for the said nominations.

The Committee also considered and adopted its programme.

Meeting report

Deliberation on and Finalisation of Shortlisted Candidates for the Heritage Western Cape Council

The Chairperson informed the Committee that this meeting is to deliberate and finalise a shortlist of candidates for the membership to the Heritage Western Cape Council. He stated that only 14 nominees can be appointed, but there are instances where members terms have lapsed or they have resigned. Therefore, the Committee will shortlist more than 14 nominees for the Minister to consider. There might also be instances where appointment has been rejected or declined. The Minister can, however, only appoint 14 members – regardless of the number of nominees from this Committee.

During the last meeting of the Committee, a process was agreed upon that the Committee would look at each candidate and score them based on the criteria set out in the presentation received from Heritage Western Cape. The categories include the following: must be a South African citizen; must be a permanent resident of the Western Cape; and must have knowledge of and qualification, experience or interest in the subject related to heritage resource management. The following key areas that are covered by the Heritage Western Cape allow the Committee to look at specific disciplines such as individuals who have experience, knowledge or qualification in archaeology, anthropology, architecture, town planning, urban design, geology, palaeontology, history, law, and intangible heritage.

This Committee also committed itself in previous terms to look at not just academic qualifications and work experience but to look specifically at the intangible heritage aspects for people with community experience, social and oral history experience, and also people who can see heritage in a holistic way that looks at all of the cultural groupings in the Western Cape. He said, for procedure, a resolution must be passed that the Committee agreed on this process.

Mr D Plato (DA) said he does not know the candidates. He does not know their faces and cannot give justice to the scoring of these candidates. He said he would like to go with the majority view.

Ms P Lekker (ANC) said that she believes that the candidates’ curriculum vitae documents (CV) talk to their capabilities and knowledge.

Mr P Marais (FF+) said that he agreed with Mr Plato and Ms Lekker that there are only names and qualifications. He does not know the candidates, and it would thus be difficult to score them. He said a one-on-one would be better to see the mind behind the qualification. The Committee knows nothing about the candidates.

Ms D Baartman (ANC) said that there are CVs from candidates that one can see really made an effort to show cast their experiences. She believed there was enough information to differentiate between a job seeker and someone with the necessary experience.

The Chairperson agreed. He said it is not just one person; it is a council, and it will choose its own leadership. He suggested that changes can be submitted for legislation that governs this Committee to play a bigger role. People should also be able to understand the work that this Committee does.

Ms Baartman moved for the adoption of the resolution.

Mr Plato seconded the motion.

The Committee scored 31 candidates between one and five on a spreadsheet.

It was decided that the Committee would nominate candidates with a score of 2.5 and higher.

A number of 23 candidates were nominated for membership of the Western Cape Heritage Council.

Consideration and Adoption of the Committee Report for the Western Cape Heritage Council

The Committee went through its report for the nominations for the membership of the Western Cape Heritage Council. The names were added to the end of the report.

Mr Marais said that the scoring spreadsheet should also be added. This will allow the Minister to see why these candidates were nominated and how the Committee has ranked them.

Ms Baartman said the spreadsheet could be attached to the Committee report if allowed.

Ms Lekker asked if the Minister has the prerogative of choosing anyone regardless of the scores received.

The Chairperson said that the Minister has a prerogative.

Ms Lekker reckoned that the scoring of candidates is useless if the Minister has prerogative.

The Chairperson did not agree. There is a keen interest in the types of qualifications that the Committee wants. A letter will be sent to the Minister explaining the process that the Committee has taken for scoring the candidates, along with the resolution adopted. The spreadsheet of the scoring will also be attached. The Committee can also suggest legislation to help the Committee to be part of the appointment process.

Ms Lekker asked how many terms a person can serve.

The Chairperson confirmed that a person could serve two terms.

Mr Marias said that a suggestion should be made that the Committee be able to see and meet the candidates, before it makes its final recommendations to the Minister. This should be added to the legislation. If the recommendations are made and the Minister does not go along with them, the Minister should provide reasons therefor.

He moved for the adoption of the report.

Ms Lekker seconded the motion.

Committee Programme

The Committee went through its programme.

The Chairperson said that, in terms of the advertising costs, a suggestion should be made that announcements for activities taking place in the same week should be advertised together, not individually. The cost of advertisement is R3 500, and it comes from the budget of the Committee.

No amendments were made to the programme itself but the Committee discussed other items that can be added to the programme at a later stage. The other items included a number of oversight visits. The Committee agreed on visits to the forensic science lab of the South African Police Services; focus on metro libraries and museums; visit the Philippi area, Netball World Cup site; follow-ups with the provincial forensic science labs; visit Artscape Theatre, and boxing clubs. There should be a consideration of media coverage of the oversight visits. These oversight visits areas have not been formally added to the programme. As such, no dates have been established.

The Chairperson said there was only an amount of R38 000 left for the budget.

Ms Lekker said if the Committee needs more, it should ask.

Ms Marais said that the more inactive a committee is, the less the budget will be.

The Chairperson thanked the Members for attending the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.

 

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