Committee Programme 4th term proposals, Department Environmental Affairs and SANParks on their Second and Third Term Quarterly Reports 2015/16, Minister in attendance

Meeting report

Chairperson's opening remarks and introduction to Committee Programme
The Chairperson hoped that the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA or the Department) and the Committee would continue to work well together as they did in the past. The Committee would be examining the Annual Performance Plans (APP) thoroughly, as this is the only way in which the Committee can hold the Department accountable. The APP is also used as tool to show the areas in which the Department has been struggling.

The Chairperson noted that the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa, was currently attending an internal Ministerial Committee and would only be joining the meeting at a later stage. He noted that the Committee would be going through its programmes and thinking of strategic ways to implement, including meetings with the different entities and thinking how the Committee can integrate the statements made by the President, during his State of the Nation Address ,into the work of the DEA.

A South African delegation was part of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change in Paris, where an agreement was reached among all the countries who were present. He also suggested that there will be a need to see how to localise the agreements that were brought about in Paris.

The Chairperson ran over some of the items that the Committee would engage with, mentioning the APPs, a meeting with the Police, Defence and Intelligence Services to make sure that they work together to fight wildlife crime in particular, and to increase the synergy between the committees dealing with combating crime and this Committee.

He also noted that it would be necessary to work with Portfolio Committees on Energy, Transport, Mineral Resources, Agriculture and Water and Sanitation, in relation to carbon emissions, mine dumps and acid mine drainage, particularly in the area of Mpumalanga. A similar problem existed in Gauteng with the gold mine dumps. He added that the Department of Water and Sanitation plans on using the acid mine drainage in a manner which can help improve the economy.

He added that during one of the visits to sites there were challenges found with municipalities on the implementation and monitoring of air quality in its own areas and the same problem applied also to the provinces. It had been agreed that a Summit would be called where the Committee and Department could engage municipalities and provinces on the air quality management to see whether the main issue was to do with budgetary constraints or lack of political will, saying that not everything could be laid at the door of the national Department. The Committee should indicate what outcomes it was hoping would be achieved from the Summit. He was concerned about the possible  duplication of work between the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), and it was important that both these Committees meet and discuss which Committee should be responsible for what. He said that the NCOP’s responsibility is towards the provinces.

Mr S Makhubele (ANC) said that perhaps Members should be allowed the opportunity to go through the Committee Programme in their own time and then make submissions for changes at a later stage.

Mr T Hadebe (DA) and Ms H Nyambi (ANC) both agreed with the suggestion made by Mr Makhubele.

Ms Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, said she also agreed with the suggestion made by Mr Makhubele. She added that the Department would be conducting site visits, and it was important that the Committee also familiarize itself with the programme of the Department. The Department will also be meeting with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and the Department of Water and Sanitation. (DWS) The Climate Change Response Policy can be used as a base for meeting with other departments to discuss the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), as well as the Climate Change Policy. In relation to the meetings with the Defence committees, perhaps the correct term which could be used is “environmental crimes”, instead of wildlife crimes because plant species are also being targeted.

The Chairperson said the Committee would add the Department’s programme into the Committee’s programme as well. One issue which the Committee was not happy with at the last meeting was the Annual Report and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) instruments. These two issues will  be flagged for further discussions. Hopefully the Department has implemented new governance structures for the management of the ICT instruments.

Department of Environmental Affairs on its 2nd and 3rd quarter performance.
Ms Nosipho Ngcaba, Director General,  DEA, announced that Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi was appointed in January 2016 as the new Deputy Director General (DDG) for Biodiversity and Conservation.

She presented the progress in the different programmes of the Department as follows:

Programme One
The Department has achieved all targets and  also received an unqualified financial audit for the 2014/2015 financial year. For the last financial year the Department had only spent 77% of its budget, which is not the target which the Department was hoping for. Its Broad Black Based Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) deals for procurements were above its initial target of 61%; and DEA managed to spend 83% on the BBBEE procurements. All the other targets concerning financial resources from the donors had been met. The financial resources were used to facilitate its conservation initiatives. In relation to biodiversity, the Department had spoken about developing and implementing a financing model – there had been delays in the process but during the third quarter the Department managed to appoint a service provider to undertake policy and institutional review appointed and a service level agreement was signed.

The Department’s target for vacancy rate for third quarter was 9.6% and the actual achievement was 7.7%. The target for the third quarter was 6% and its actual achievement was 3.5%. Out of the 1652 employees  about 58  left the Department. With regard to the Department's implementation of the policy frameworks; the Department’s target was a 95% compliance target, but it achieved 97% compliance to its policies. The Department recruited 100 interns, issued 70 bursaries; of which 30 bursaries went to full time students and the other 40 went to part time students. This initiative was one of the Human Resource Development strategy initiatives.  The Department had targeted to have at least 48% of the senior management positions to be filled by women; and 90% of these women ought to be black and 2% should be people with disabilities. The Department managed to only achieve two of its targets. She added that its Department is serious about empowering people with disabilities. The Department had also improved on solving cases of misconduct and grievances; but  grievances took longer to solve. The DEA had targeted to solve cases of misconduct within 90 days and grievances within 30 days, but the grievance cases took more than 30 days to solve and cases of misconduct often took less than 90 days.

The Department aimed to have Rhino campaigns per quarter, Waste Management per quarter and Climate Change Campaigns per quarter. The Department managed to have three Environmental awareness campaigns, one anti rhino poaching awareness campaign which was held at the Bela Mall, Bela-Bela, Limpopo Province. A waste Management Campaign in Ekurhuleni launched Clean City, a waste management awareness campaign at the Tsakane Stadium which also involved a clean-up.

The annual target for the training of municipal officials had already been achieved as a total of 284 municipal officials have been trained from quarter 2 to quarter 3; the training will only be conducted on request in quarter 4. A framework to enable effective data-sharing for the CC Monitoring and Evaluation system presented and discussed at IGCCC and Mintech was targeted to have been implemented by the third quarter; however a draft framework was presented at IGCCC meeting on the 8th October 2015. An update on the status of the M&E system was presented in the Working Group 10 Report at the Mintech of 12 November 2015.

Ms Limpho Makotoko, Chief Director: Business Performance and Risk Management, DEA, said the Department wanted to maintain and update GIS internal and external platforms. All internal and external platforms were maintained as scheduled. Redevelopment from original Digimaker software onto Drupal software was to be completed by quarter 4. Operation Phakisa, Renewable Energy, Off road vehicle, Coastal viewer, 3 EMFs, Translocation of mammals, Mapa and SAPAD online services had all been created, maintained and updated. By the third quarter, all the Department’s data sources had to be audited for the protected areas database stewardship sites.  All the auditing is still on-going through a review of information available from provinces. Only the  Western Cape needed amending and the contributions were incorporated. The protected areas database was maintained and is available for download. Also, two climate change positions for formal international engagements for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been developed and approved. In addition, four Biodiversity positions have been developed for United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification Conference of Parties 12 (UNCCD COP 12), Agreement on the Conservation of Africa-Eurosian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), RAMSAR COP 12 and the World Heritage Committee (WHC 39th session).

She concluded that in these quarters DEA achieved 74% of its targets, 24% targets are still a work in progress and 2% of the targets were not achieved.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked, with regards to the service provider whose contract was terminated, why service providers, in general, still failed to deliver what they had promised.

Ms Ngcaba replied that the Department assesses the quality of the work done by the service providers to establish how they should be paid. However, in this case, the service provider met all the technical requirements of the procurement process.  She added that there are many service providers who under-perform, and the problem seems to lie in the system of monitoring and evaluation of the service provider. Also, the Supply Chain Management (SCM) also considers areas of pricing primarily, when electing a service provider, and this can have an effect on the service if the service provider does not deliver what was promised.

Mr P Mabilo (ANC) asked whether neighbouring countries were fulfilling their obligations when it came to climate change, and if South Africa was contributing more money than it should. In terms of the vacancies which were filled, he said he did not understand how the Department had managed to fill the posts. The employment equity for females is still a problem as there needs to be an increase of women being empowered in the Department. He said he understands that there are constraints surrounding this issue.

Mr T Hadebe (DA) said he is concerned about the policy review services which are provided by independent contractors, and he asked whether the Department was not able to provide these policy review services for itself. There seem to be problems with the local government support strategy and he added that local government is an important aspect for determining the Department's goals. The local government seems to be struggling to carry out its mandate with regards to environmental sustainability.

Mr S Makhubele (ANC) said he understands that the time in which grievances are solved also depends on the type of grievance, but he wondered if the benchmarks did not take this into account. He asked that the Department should explain all the abbreviations in future.

A Member of the Committee commended the Department for issuing 30 bursaries to part-time students.

The Chairperson said that the Department was not able to achieve all its targets for Programme one, and hopefully would be able to achieve all its targets in the fourth quarter. He said that the government is expected to pay its service providers within 30 days of completion; however, most departments were not doing so, and asked if this Department had been struggling to pay its service providers within the prescribed 30 days. The Chairperson said government has been accused of contributing to the failure of many small, and medium Enterprises because the government fails to pay them on time. He added that if the DG is not able to answer the question the Department can send the Committee a report on the matter.

Mr Mabilo said the Department had commented that a report for the possible trade of rhinos has been tabled to Parliament, but he was not aware of it, and asked for clarification.

Ms Ngcaba replied that information regarding the payment of service providers has been provided  in one of the documents which were circulated; the Department takes 16 days to pay service providers. In April, the Department did not reach its target with regard to payments as invoices were incorrect and the suppliers had supplied the goods late.

Ms Molewa said the Department prioritised the payment of service providers, even though at times there might be challenges which do not allow for payment of service providers on time.

Ms Ngcaba noted the concerns around the abbreviations and promised the Members a document with a list of abbreviations. R

She clarified that it is not the Department’s responsibility to monitor how protected areas are funded; hence the Department hires a service provider to collect the data. The Department only develops the financial models under which these protected areas are funded.

The Department's vacancy target is 6%, but she stressed that the Department will always have vacancies. Its vacancy rate is currently at 7%, which was below an acceptable norm of 10%. She said she would be misleading the Committee if she could indicate which posts are currently available and whether these posts are critical.

She noted in regard to the Trans Frontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) that the Department has not been spending money on other countries’ national parks – the funds are only spent on the South African parks. The Department is concerned about how investments are facilitated and how other countries can take initiatives to invest in the national parks. There are ministerial structures for the countries which allow the ministers of each country to meet every year to discuss issues of tourism and investments.

The Minister said that the Department was aware that women representation is important and transformation has taken place in the Department as it was previously male dominated. Women in senior positions make up 56% in the Department and it was trying very hard to get people with disabilities into senior positions. The Department is serious about supporting local government, but the latter must also play its role. The number of days to solve grievances is given to the Department by the Public Service Act, and although it had been a problem, it was notable that some departments took 90 days to deal with grievances.

Mr Riaan Aucamp, Acting Chief Operations Officer: DEA, said the Department was confident that its grievance process would be improved by the end of the fourth quarter. The December holiday had also hindered the processes of grievances as legal representatives and employees were not readily available.

The Chairperson asked that the Department must indicate the posts into which people with disabilities were hired.

Ms Barbara Thompson, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs said that the report does show that reasonable targets have been met. If the minimum target was not met this was beyond the Department’s control and relevant measures have been in place. Unfortunately, one could not put all the information into the report and a lot of the information has been left out. Progress has been made on the issue of rhino poaching and there have been a number of arrests made regarding the poaching of rhinos.

Ms Molewa said the Department reported two years ago that Cabinet had adopted the Integrated Strategic Management Approach to fight Rhino Poaching and all the elements of the strategy were implemented. The Department still continues to get proposals from people on how the Department can prevent rhino poaching from happening. The Cabinet also said that the possibility of selling the rhinos should be considered, including the legalisation of trading in rhinos. 

Programme Two
Of the 52 administrative actions targeted for the third quarter, the Department managed to achieve 72 environmental administrative enforcement actions which were issued during the quarter. A total of 165 environmental administrative enforcement actions were issued between April and December 2015. From a target of eight for the quarter, three criminal investigations were finalised and dockets have been handed to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) during the third quarter. A total of 15 criminal investigations have been finalised and dockets handed over to NPA between April and December 2015. A study on the impacts of rhino poaching and opportunities for development of wildlife economies conducted were targeted and so a private rhino owners survey was concluded, a impact of poaching on tourism study was initiated but the community related studies were delayed due to re-advertisement of Terms of Reference.

The Department had achieved its target by preparing a document for interventions for streamlining environmental authorisation. Site specific protocols for the Strategic Infrastructure Project (SIP) 8, and specific studies in the draft corridors for SIP 10 were prepared. The final constraints map for the extension of SIP 8 (b) was identified, draft of a sensitivity map for the extension of SIP 8(b) was identified and the Department was establishing a funding mechanism for SIP 19 Part 1 SEA with Environmental Programmes (EP) in the quarter. The Department managed to prepare protocols but these were still going through the Cabinet process. Specialist studies were completed and a draft report had been prepared and a mid-term review for SIP 19 part 1 was requested to amend this output and this was approved and financial arrangements were now being made. n updated Draft Sustainable Development Policy Action Plan has been put in place and was re-circulated to the Working Group 3 members on 12 November 2015 and written engagements were held with the Western Cape Province Environmental Department on 30 October 2015.

Programme Three
Ms Makotoko said a draft Situational Analysis was developed internally as a parallel process to service provider appointment in order to ensure that projects were kept on track. The Department had targeted to have a draft on National Norms and Standards for Coastal Management Setback Lines developed by the third quarter. The Coastal Management Lines work was presented to Department’s MinTech Working Group 8 on the 13 October 2015 and inputs were collated and were currently being incorporated into the Norms & Standards document. The Department had only 10 peer-reviewed scientific articles, against the target of 20, which were published in the third quarter and cumulatively 26 peer-reviewed scientific articles were published. A draft of Plankton Monitoring document was distributed for comment and was discussed on 12 October and 2 November 2015 and inputs were received that are currently being incorporated into the document.

Four re-surveys were undertaken and one survey of a priority habitat was done in respect of the following; De Hoop MPA was re-surveyed twice for line fish (October and November 2015) and Robberg MPA, Plettenberg Bay (November 2015) and finally for Bettys Bay (October 2015). The South African Science Plan for IIOE2 was to be finalized after the official launch that took place in GOA-India on the 4 December 2015. An ocean and coast research, survey and monitoring projects were to be undertaken during the third quarter. The research was received and discussed at the DEA Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and a Coastal Vulnerability Phase 3 Estuaries report on progress made. There were meetings with the CSIR to discuss the progress on the estuaries report, LiDAR and Oil spill progress in refining coastal vulnerability study outputs. 21 Operation Phakisa MPA draft regulations were finalised and vetted by Legal Services. The draft regulations had been submitted to the Minister to approve for gazetting for public comments. Provincial meetings for updating provincial departments have been planned and a  meeting with the Northern Cape Province organs of state was held on the 12 October 2015.

Discussion
The Chairperson said that Programme 3 is mainly on the scientific work, and it would be best that the Committee analyse the programme on its own. He said that the Committee Members should visit the sites so that they can have a sense of what the Department has reported on.

The Committee agreed with the suggestion made by the Chairperson.

The Chairperson asked when the Department thought that the issue of rhino poaching could finally be solved. He said that he understood that the Department does not have all the answers regarding this matter as there are many other stakeholders involved.

Mr Ishaam Abader, Deputy Director General: Legal Authorisations and Compliance Inspectorate, DEA, said the last report indicated a slight decrease in rhino poaching, but the Department cannot be certain that this will continue to go down. There have been a number of techniques to try and reduce the numbers of poaching incidents. The advancement of technology has also been helpful, to try and reduce the number of rhinos that are poached. Also, the Department has also been in constant consultation with international organisations as to seek advice on how best to reduce the number of rhinos that are poached.

The Chairperson asked if the Committee agreed that the Committee should visit and spend a week in Kruger National Park this year. He added that this will enable the Committee to familiarize itself with the environment and the way in which the area is managed with regards to dealing with environmental crimes.

Mr Makhubele asked why the Department undertakes a lot of policy reviews and whether these reviews are related to or aligned with its development goals.

Ms Ngcaba replied that there was a time where the Department relied on demand and control. Now, the Department relies on its legislation, and wants to ensure that it is more effective so the reviews help the DEA to establish which areas need more attention with regards to renewable energy and which corridors, or areas, have the greatest potential for renewable energy.

Mr Alf Wills, Deputy Director General: Environmental Advisory Services, DEA, said that in the early 2000s the Department had a White Paper on National Framework for Sustainable Development which was converted into the National Strategy of Sustainable Development, and this was in terms of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation in 2002. The National Strategy of Sustainable Development led into the National Development Plan (NDP), so in essence the Department moved from policy to principles and the NDP integrated the principles and priorities of sustainable development. However, the Department now wants to move into the National Strategy for Policy Development Plan and the reviews are a step towards this move.

The Chairperson noted that it was doubtful that the Committee would complete the presentations today. Ms Ngcaba had proposed that the DEA should leave out other programmes and move straight to Programme 6, followed by the SANParks.

Programme Six
Dr Guy Preston, Deputy Director General: Environmental Programmes, DEA, said 42  889 of School Desk Equivalents (SDEs) have been produced between April and December 2015 out of a planned 140  000. 3 Centres for buyback and/or recycling facilities were created by end of December. The challenge is that one centre will be postponed to 2016/17, due to securing land and processes relating to waste licences. Stakeholder consultations were conducted for the Climate Change flagship programmes, with the objective of identifying scaling-up options’ and a flagship meeting was held on the 15 October 2015.

900 young people benefited from the Youth Environmental Service (YES), 643 SMEs were used as service providers, 87 wetlands are under rehabilitation, 14 community parks have been created or rehabilitated and 11 eradication interventions on emerging invasive alien species have been developed.

South African National Parks (SANParks) briefing
Mr Fundisile Mketeni, Chief Executive Officer: SANParks, said he would not follow the content of the presentation, but  talk about the performance dashboard. The presentation documents included the Auditor-General's Findings and Information Technology governance issues. There were some targeted amendments in October 2015, as suggested by the Committee. The purple blocks in slides 8-10 indicated the amendments. The Committee had suggested that SANParks should target to have 50% of its management positions filled by women, and people with disabilities should make up 2% of its management positions.

In terms of budget, SANParks were initially using a percentage increase but now was using budget variance.

The Chairperson said that SANParks should only present on its targets for the 2nd and 3rd quarter. The presentation regarding the audit matters and IT governance was not important for this meeting. The Committee will meet with SANParks later in the year where it would have the opportunity to present on the audit matters and IT governance.

Mr Mketeni continued that in terms of expenditure, SANParks had been performing well. However, for tourism it was not able to reach the target of 11% increase in tourists because the target may have been over ambitious given the economic climate. Declining visitor numbers to national parks resulted in a 0.63% (equivalent to R1.665 million) less income realised from conservation fees than budgeted, most of which is generated from international market. There were five, out of the planned seven revenue generating products implemented, 75% of its Fundraising Policy & Strategy has been developed and implemented and 4 207 320 out of the planned 5 million people visited the national parks.

SANParks has rehabilitated and restored a total of 35  301 hectares of land in KwaZulu Natal, and five interventions were all on target for the number for the protection of species, and 31 peer reviewed research publications were released.

133 453 participants, rather than the target of 139 200 were involved with the environmental educational programmes. The biggest challenge regarding this matter is that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) policy restricts extra-mural activities outside school grounds during schooling hours and this contributes to the reduction in learners' numbers. 4 422 full time Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) jobs were created rather than the 7900 planned jobs. The challenge relates to delays in the approval of business plans, budget cuts and management capacity in Garden Route EPWP. In addition, a number of SANParks interns left the programme due to full time employment opportunities. Also, 780 small businesses were supported and 44 temporary jobs were created through socio-economic initiatives. There were no community contractual agreements that were concluded, instead, a contractual Park Agreement with Richtersveld Community was agreed in principle, and ecological assessments were done in Bevhula/Gidjani and a Community Trust was developed. There were several conflict resolution interventions in the Mjejane community, and the community trust was established.

Mr Aucamp said SANParks received an unqualified audit with matters of emphasis and SANParks had managed to comply with all government requirements. There had been an increase in the resignation of black managers so the percentage of black managers has decreased and it could not meet its target of 57%. With regards to the number of women in management positions, the original target of 34% was met and exceeded; the target was then increased so that it is aligned with the national targets. The nature of the type of work limits employment of certain categories of disabilities and its target of 2% could not be achieved. There were delays in rollouts of new performance systems; hence the performance appraisal targets could not be achieved.

Discussion
The Chairperson said the SANParks should present its finances during the fourth term because there had already been an overview with the Auditor-General. He noted that the targets presented related to the third quarter only.

Mr Makhubele said environmental matters are difficult to deal with. The nature of the environment is such that its changes were caused by a number of other factors such as climate change and the economy, which are often out of the hands of the Department. He wondered if the Department should accept things as they were, and say that there was not much that the government could do, or whether there were measures that could be put in place to ensure a sustainable environment. The community contracts were a concern because this issue had been on-going for a long time now and it was high time that the contracts are finalised. If the Department is really serious about skills development then it will have to develop a policy that will govern a skills development programme.

Mr Makhubele commented that besides the changes as recommended by the Committee, there were a number of other amendments to the APP, which made it seem that there was an entirely new APP. He asked the Department to follow the same structure when presenting its targets because the Committee will be depending on the information in the presentation s.

Ms J Edwards (DA) asked if the presentation which was not part of the package could be emailed to the Committee members.

Ms Ngcaba said that the presentation was the same but it had merely been rewritten for the CEO so that he would be able to present it better.

The Chairperson said the presentation should have made it clear whether the targets for quarter three were the same as for quarter one. If so this was not a problem but the fourth quarter results should be presented differently to make it clear what the performance was against each target in each quarter.

He too commented that the SANParks' and the Department’s presentations were different, and at this moment the Committee was not able to ask questions from the report. There was not a suggestion of poor performance but the information was not clearly presented.

Ms Thompson said there has been a 10% increase in rhino poaching, but without the interventions from the Department and SANParks the increase could have been much higher.

Mr Makhubele said it was difficult for the Committee to follow the presentation because Members were expected to look for the right document while listening to the presentation. He said the Committee cannot play its oversight role if it was not given the correct information during presentations.

The Chairperson agreed with Mr Makhubele and said the Department should send the Committee the documents before the presentations. The Committee understood that new management may have created problems at SANParks.

Mr Aucamp said SANParks does measure the environmental changes and was aware of the different species which are affected by the changes. The assessment done by the CSIR concluded that the Department would have spend R400 billion rand if it had not done these measurements. SANParks had put in another set of interventions to try and capture what type of species come into the country, but was still not aware of what may happen in future. Early detection of emerging species are a priority for SANParks and the Department, on the other hand there are other species who are taking full advantage of the drought.

Ms Ngcaba said SANParks and the Department will come back and the Committee will be given the correct documents to enable Members to ask questions.

Mr Mketeni said all the Committee's concerns are noted. The targets of SANParks are not all the same for all the quarters, as some are influenced by trends and some are cumulative. SANParks agrees that some contracts should be maintained, but some also included the private sector and these negotiations were difficult.

Ms Veronica Steny, Chief Director: Budget and Financial Management, DEA, said SANParks will revert back to the old format of the presentation. The CEO had been presenting from an updated version and the Committee had requested that the presentation be shortened, hence there were new documents handed out this morning. The third quarter targets were cumulative targets from the first quarter with the baseline being the actual target of the previous financial year. Eight of the targets which were changed related to the Expanded Works Programme.

The Chairperson concluded saying that these presentations were important not only for compliance matters, but for the overall development of the country. The Department seemed to be doing well in certain areas, and was working hard.

The meeting was adjourned.