Department of Traditional Affairs 2019/20 Annual Report; with Deputy Minister

Meeting report

Opening Remarks

The Chairperson said that the purpose of the meeting was to deal with the Department of Traditional Affairs’ Annual Report. The main issues of the Department had already been addressed by the Committee in the preliminary Budget Review And Recommendations Report (BRRR) on 18 October, when the quarterly performance of the Department was discussed.

One of the issues that had been discussed was the unhappiness at the lack of clarity on the place of traditional leadership in the District Development Model (DDM). The concept of the DDM was not clearly understood, especially during oversight in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal by the traditional community. The Chairperson highlighted that the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) had said that traditional leadership was a key partner in the DDM, but this was not a true reflection of what was happening, because many traditional leaders felt excluded from the model.

On 18 October, the Committee had also noted that the process of enabling effective participation of traditional leadership in government processes was an issue, especially when meetings were held virtually, which also affected the annual Indaba from taking place effectively.

The Chairperson said that the Department’s performance information was not different from the information that was presented in the meeting held on 18 October; the only difference being that the information had been audited. The Department of Traditional Affairs must be commended for consistently presenting an unqualified financial report, with no emphasis on matters for the past three years.

In previous engagements with the Department, the Committee had raised the need for it to have more discussions on the work of the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL). The NHTL had also been invited to the meeting to ensure that oversight was conducted by the Committee. The Chairperson thanked the NHTL leadership for assisting the Committee during oversight visits, and asked the Deputy Minister to introduce the Department’s report.

Deputy Minister’s overview

Mr Obed Bapela, Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, said that the Department had presented its annual report on the 2019/2020 financial year, and it had already been tabled in Parliament. A clean audit had been received by the Department for this particular financial year. The budgetary constraints remained a concern, despite the clean audit as well as the milestones of the Department with the anticipated commencement and enactment of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act of 2019.

Engagements with Khoisan representatives had taken place to address issues on the Leadership Act that had been raised by the representatives, and to determine whether the Leadership Act helped to address the issues. A need to mobilise financial resources to implement the Leadership Act had been identified by the Department so that it enhanced its mandate.

On the resumption of initiations, he said letters had been written and sent to the various Premiers, COGTA Members of Executive Councils (MECs), the NHTL and the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa), informing them that the government was still in the process of approving Initiation. The process was still under way, and many provinces had stated that they would not participate in the process of approving Initiation and would continue to suspend the decision. The only province that had shown an interest in the lifting of the initiation ban under Section 38 of the regulation was the Eastern Cape. Once the necessary consultations had been concluded, the Minister of COGTA would gazette and announce the finalisation. Contralesa had issued media statements that initiation would continue, regardless of the regulation or the ban, considering that the Eastern Cape had a high number of deaths. He also said that nothing could be done by the Department to regulate the Eastern Cape until the legislation had been finalised.

The issues that have been raised would guide upcoming and future engagements, and the Department was ready to present on the progress of the Land Summit, the District Development Model and other issues that had been raised by Members of the Committee. 

Department of Traditional Affairs’ 2019/20 Annual Report  

Mr Mashwahle Diphofa, Director-General, Department of Traditional Affairs (DTA), said that the performance information had not changed from what had been presented to the Committee on 18 October.

He presented on the strategic objectives of the Department and the performance against its targets. Only two targets were not achieved, and 86% had been achieved. He also highlighted the summary of the overall performance, and provided detailed information on the performance of the strategic objectives, focusing on those that were not achieved. All of the Department’s programmes had achieved 100% of their targets.

He also presented the appropriation statement for each programme and economic classification, as well as the reasons for the under-spending. The audit outcomes from 2015/2016 to 2019/2020 were outlined, and the recommendations. The DTA achieved a clean audit opinion in 2019/20 on both the annual financial statements and performance information.

Regarding underspending, there was an overall under expenditure of R7.6 million for the year under review and the bulk of this was under Compensation of Employees.  The under expenditure is attributed to the delayed recruitment process as a result of moratorium placed across government to allow the reconfiguration of the state to take place.  Further, the under expenditure was aggravated by delays in implementation of the TLKA which seeks to recognise Khoi-San communities and leaders. The Department planned to establish a commission to investigate Khoi-San matters and this could not be realised because the TKLA is yet to be proclaimed

The Committee and other stakeholders agreed that the issues relating to the NHTL would be discussed at the upcoming meeting at 19h00 on 17 November, when all the provincial NHTL representatives would be available.

Discussion

Mr H Hoosen (DA) commended the Department for the number of targets that had been achieved. Referring to the funding for the NHTL, he said the role of traditional leaders was important and was part of the South African heritage. Government had to do more in relation to the role of the traditional leaders, and credit should be given to the Khoisan leadership. Funding should be available to ensure that the traditional leaders played a larger role. The elders of the communities should be respected for guidance to political leaders. He asked if there was a willingness from government to invest more in the traditional houses.

He said that on the study tour to Uganda and Botswana, there had been many examples of African countries that had conduct the Land Summit successfully and asked if their successes could be emulated locally. 

Ms H Mkhaliphi (EFF) asked about the plans of the Department to ensure that all targets were achieved, especially since the reason for the non-achievement had mainly been the Land Summit. She also asked on the way forward, since the study tours had not taken place. On the alleged fraud related to travel management services in the 2015/2016 financial year, she requested details of the fraudulent amount involved, and noted that the report on the investigations had not been submitted to the Committee.

Mr G Mpumza (ANC) commended the Department for the continuous clean audits, and said that there were reservations about the unachieved targets. The Department should prioritise the Land Summit issue, which could be handled through virtual meetings.

He said that the ploughing season was approaching, and that the economy of traditional communities had been crippled. He highlighted that the Department had a programme, through the NHTL, on the re-evolution of traditional communities, and asked when it would be rolling out resources for the programme so that the land was utilized in order to achieve social cohesion and nation building at the local level. The ‘Farm in a Box’ programme should be rolled out in all areas to ensure that the socio-economic conditions in traditional communities were changed for the better. He added that the programme had not been considered important in the Department’s presentation, and he wanted to know why.  

Ms M Tlou (ANC) asked for the specific interventions that the Department foresaw on landless traditional leadership, and what factors were delaying the proclamation of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act.

The Chairperson told the Deputy Minister that in some areas, traditional leaders were beneficiaries of the Community Work Programme (CWP), and asked if the programme had been shared broadly or only for selected traditional leaders. She also asked about the criteria for the CWP.

On the proclamation of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, she said that when the issue was raised, the response had been that the Bill was being tabled by the President and Deputy Minister, and she wanted to know what the delays with the proclamation were.

Regarding the resumption of initiations, the Chairperson asked about the collaborative mechanisms that the Department had with law enforcement agencies to ensure that more lives were not lost.  

Department’s response

Deputy Minister Bapela said that the comments expressed by Members on the issues were important. The role of traditional leaders in South Africa’s heritage and the allocated funding for traditional leadership were significant issues, and a response would be compiled and presented at the 19h00 meeting. The progress of the memorandums of understanding MOUs would be detailed by the Director-General.

The Deputy Minister said that other programmes had been initiated by various departments, such as the rural safety strategy which would assist in determining the roles, functions and responsibilities of traditional leaders.

To address social cohesion and nation building, there was a programme to revive heritage that was funded by the Department of Arts and Culture. Budgets were available, and the mandate depended on the respective departments. Even though the Department of Traditional Affairs had a small budget allocation, there were functions in place to address the issues.

Deputy Minister Bapela said that the progress, challenges and status of the CWPs would be discussed by the Director-General.

Some departments, such as Agriculture, had programmes dealing with subsidy farming and supporting co-operatives. There were partnerships in the private sector to support traditional leaders.

On the matter of leased land after restitution, the land had been used productively and there were proceeds that were shared, and dividends were shared every year end.

On the proclamation of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, he explained that the matter had been queried at various law firms that represented various non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and after long consultations it had been decided that the issues that they had raised did not affect the proclamation of the legislation. The Presidency had since been informed on the law firms’ decisions for the proclamation to commence, and the Deputy Minister explained that the lockdown was the main reason for the delays in signing of the proclamation.

On the land summit taking place, the Deputy Minister said that it was impossible for the summit to take place in the current year, even if it was on a virtual platform, because there were 882 traditional leaders that could not be gathered in one venue. Community representatives were also supposed to participate in the summit, as well as NGOs, land experts and various Department officials. The land summit had been postponed to 2021, as COVID-19 regulations eased and the rate of infections decreased.

On the land tours, the Deputy Minister responded that the land tour to Botswana and Uganda took place before the lockdown, and the only tour that did not take place was the tour to Ghana, which had been scheduled for the end of March 2020. Zoom meetings would be held alternatively with the respective delegations in Ghana, and a final report would be forwarded to all those involved – the task team, the Deputy Ministers of COGTA and Rural Development and Land Reform, as well as Justice and Correctional Services. Consultations with communities would happen once the report had been finalised.

Mr Diphofa responded that the funding for traditional leaders was a shared concern, and was raised in the annual budget requests. There had been no success in securing the budget allocation, but assistance had been provided through the Department’s internal virements to the NHTL, which was not a long tern solution to the issue. He assured the Committee that the Department would continue engaging with National Treasury for the budget allocation.

The landlessness of traditional leaders was a challenge that the Department was aware of, and that part of the work was being conducted through consultations. Provinces had assisted in securing land for traditional leaders through the consultative processes.

Referring to the delays with the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, he said that one of the issues that was raised by the lawyers was that there were weaknesses and faults in the participation process conducted by Parliament. The Department had held engagements with legal representatives in Parliament on the participation process before the legislation could be adopted and referred to the President.

On the CWP issue, he explained that a collaborative partnership had been formed between the institutes of traditional leaders and the CWP, where funding was going to be made available but there was limited time. The process of engaging with traditional communities had started with identifying land that could be used for agricultural purposes and production. The next step was to look at the possibility of developing business plans, in addition to other processes of soil testing, but because of time constraints, only a few traditional leaders had been identified and benefited from the pilot programme. The re-evolution model did not work effectively because it did not benefit a lot of traditional leaders and communities, and it was not sustainable. One of the targets for the Department was to remodel the re-evolution programme so that it benefited many, and to ensure sustainability. The CWP was also being re-modelled because of its poor effectiveness.

On the alleged fraud report, he explained that the matter was a result of shared facilities with the same travel agency contactor. The matter had been forwarded to the police, but it did not involve any of the Department’s employees. The Department had been following up on the investigation and the feedback from the police was that the investigation had not been concluded. 

Follow up questions

The Chairperson said that the proclamation of the Traditional and Koi-San Leadership Act was long overdue, and the delays were not good enough reason – it was almost as if the Act would not be signed, especially since there were no timelines for the matter.

Mr Mpumza said that the Deputy Minister had responded in an expansive manner to the land summit question. He emphasised that they lived in a traditional society, so it made sense why there were 882 traditional leaders. On the re-evolution programme, he asked about the extent of resourcing the programme through institutes of traditional leadership by the Department, to ensure that the socio-economic wellbeing of the traditional communities was addressed. He said that spiritual and cultural heritage had been overlooked historically, and asked about the extent of preserving the culture of traditional communities so that it was revived. 

Department’s response

Mr Diphofa said that the issue of the green revolution programme had been responded to by the Deputy Minister, and added that the Department had a target on a research agenda. The resourcing of the programme was not available, which was why the research agenda was limited. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) had recommended that research should be conducted by the Department on the Khoi-San culture, to ensure a better understanding of the culture.

Deputy Minister Bapela said that there would always be challenges raised by the society on laws that were compiled from government processes, and the challenges needed to be addressed by the government. Issues had been forwarded to the Department. The timeline on when the President would sign the proclamation could not be provided by the Department. The Department shared the frustrations of the Committee on the delay of the proclamation of the bill, because there were Khoi-San communities that were waiting for sites and recognition.

Dealing with Section 81 of the Structures Act would allow for the role and participation of traditional leaders at a council level.

On the green revolution programme, the Deputy Minister said that the challenge in the Department was the administration entity that ensured governance of the NHTL and the provincial NHTL, as well as support for traditional leaders. Various departments were expected to support the programmes brought forward by the provincial traditional houses. There were budget constraints for social cohesion, and partnerships with various departments needed to happen to secure funding. Most of the budgets from the departments enforced implementation in traditional communities without having consultations with the traditional leaders, which was concerning.

The Chairperson thanked the representatives from the NHTL, the officials from the Department of Traditional Affairs, the Deputy Minister and Members for attending the meeting, and said that other issues would be discussed in the upcoming meeting at 19h00.

The meeting was adjourned.