Department of Economic Development & Tourism, Wesgro, Saldanha Bay IDZ 2019/20 Annual Reports

Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism (WCPP)

10 December 2020
Chairperson: Ms D Baartman (DA)
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Meeting Summary

Video: Committee Meeting

Western Cape Annual Reports 2019/20 

The Standing Committee on Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism (WCPP) met to deliberate on the 2019 Annual Report for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Wesgro and the Saldanha Bay IDZ Licencing Company (SOC) Ltd (SBIDZ-LC).

The Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency (Wesgro) stated that the year began with a crippling drought only to end with the pandemic and the domestic and international lockdown. Wesgro which had an excellent financial year had to change almost every aspect of its mode of operation and it did so with some agility, from getting onto a fully online platform to various support mechanisms to counter the pandemic. It also had to propagate virtual missions for trade and investment for films and for tourism. It adapted well and has done excellent work in supporting the platform for a resurgence in the economy.

Members noted the figures for new investments and asked if it reported on businesses disinvested from the Western Cape; what happened to the one-stop shop Wesgro had in Cape Town’s Golden Acre; the role of Wesgro in promoting the Garden Route and other communities in the Western Cape when it comes to investment in those particular areas.

The Saldanha Bay IDZ board chairperson commended its CEO. Despite the pandemic it actually pulled workers a lot closer together. Their relationship with Transnet has strengthened which would make a big difference in capitalizing on the ports, which was currently one-way traffic in terms of exports with no real beneficiation to the local economy.

Members asked about performance awards and what the maximum award a manager could receive; about concerns raised about Special Economic Zones and potential amendments; and the funding model and how collection of revenue would be done to make it self-sustainable.

The Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism needed to support opportunities for economic growth and job creation for a vast area that spanned a wide range of activities.

Members asked for a sectoral breakdown of job numbers between 2014 and 2020 from investment facilitation and trade deals; financial value of the trade deals; about the implementation of the SMME Booster Fund; and how many municipalities had the legal framework in place for small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) which meant that net consumers could sell excess electricity back into the grid.

Meeting report

Mr David Maynier, MEC: Finance, Economic Opportunities and Tourism, in his opening remarks stated that the 2019/20 Annual Reports for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Wesgro and the Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone covered some of the excellent work done despite many obstacles such as Covid-19.

Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency (Wesgro) 2019/20 Annual Report
Mr Michael Spicer, Wesgro Acting Chairperson, stated that the year began with the crippling drought only to end with the pandemic and the domestic and international lockdown. Wesgro which had an excellent financial year had to change almost every aspect of its mode of operation and it did so with some agility, from getting onto a fully online platform to various support mechanisms to counter the pandemic. It also had to propagate virtual missions for trade and investment for films and for tourism. It adapted well and has done excellent work in supporting the platform for a resurgence in the economy.

Discussion
The Chairperson tabled Parts A, B, D of the Wesgro Annual Report for discussion. The rest would be dealt with by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) at the beginning of 2021.

Mr A Van der Westhuizen (DA) wanted to know the latest news about the vacant Wesgro Board Chairperson position. To what extent did they find double or multiple reporting of investments attracted to the Western Cape because Wesgro was not the only entity trying to attract investment? Figures reported on new investments but he asked if they had figures for when entities disinvested from the Western Cape.

Ms N Nkondlo (ANC) asked what happened to the Wesgro One Stop Shop in the Golden Acre. For some time now there had been discussion on the relationship between Wesgro and municipalities in improving their investment promotion capacity - have there been improvements? She asked if the workshops between Wesgro and the Municipal Managers were gaining traction. Wesgro needed to contribute to the Vision Inspired Priority (VIP) 2: Economy and Jobs. She asked about the low job numbers compared to the billions of rands being brought into the Western Cape by Wesgro.

The Chairperson asked if there had been progress on the review of the remuneration of the Wesgro CEO. He asked about the role of Wesgro in assisting and promoting the Garden Route and other communities in the Western Cape when it came to investment and tourism in those particular areas. She congratulated Wesgro on the amount of investment that it had brought into the Western Cape.

Wesgro response
Mr David Maynier responded that the former Wesgro board chairperson’s term had lapsed and that he would be appointing a new chairperson in due course. It had been agreed that there would be three reviews, a legal review, a governance review and a remuneration review. He was pleased to report that good progress has been made and that they were in the process of wrapping that up, after which a report would be provided to the Committee.

Mr Van der Westhuizen sought clarity on the confusion around the title of Mr Spicer in the Annual Report as different pages referred to him as the Acting Chairperson or the Chairperson, along with a statement that the previous Chairperson had resigned instead of his term lapsing.

Mr Spicer responded that his title is Vice-Chairperson, however, in the absence of a full-time Chairperson, he has been Acting Chairperson since the middle of the year when in fact the previous Chairperson resigned just before his term of office lapsed in July.

Mr Tim Harris, Wesgro CEO, agreed that Wesgro was not the entity attracting investment to the province and the City. There was a very consistent approach to measuring investments which specifically avoided double counting. The best example was Wesgro worked alongside GreenCape. An agreement was signed between the two entities that any green economy capital investment deals worked on jointly by the same manager who worked half time at GreenCape and the other half at Wesgro, would be split 50/50.

They did not have a target to track disinvestment from the province, however, they had a team which worked on business retention and expansion, which was recently rebranded into a team they call business growth services. The team worked with companies already in the province to expand their footprint and investments as well as help to retain the companies in the market. The work with the One Stop Shop located in St. Georges Street was going very well. Within the last few months, they had introduced a virtual service so that people did not actually need to physically visit the shop, given the lockdown restrictions.

The Western Cape was the dominant player in the province for business tourism and conferencing. Stellenbosch was definitely number two and showed up in the top rankings for business tourism. On capital intensity and jobs, page 28 gave a summary of the jobs created. There was certainly a much bigger stimulatory effect on the labor market from each of those investments, however they took a very conservative view on the direct jobs created. The 5200 jobs reported in the current financial year were a very high-quality contribution to the labour market.

Ms Labeeqah Schuurman, Acting Head of Tourism: Wesgro, replied that for destination marketing, due to recent trade engagements in November along the Garden Route, Wesgro would be having individual trade engagements with Knysna at the beginning of next year and would be doing the same for Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay. It would work across those regions to ensure their involvement in trade participation. They encouraged domestic campaigns be launched to showcase the City of Cape Town and each of its regions equally.

Mr Cornelis Van der Waal, Wesgro Chief Research Officer, replied that Wesgro was using service providers to collect information on investment tracking, specifically foreign direct investment. Unfortunately, disinvestment was not something which was captured by the media or international or local service providers making it difficult to track that or to find out that companies were considering moving their business elsewhere. Red tape challenges or hassles were removed to ensure companies remained in the province.

Mr Van der Westhuizen said one project which Wesgro had worked on very hard for a number of years was flights from North America to the Cape Town International Airport, with the first done over the 2019 festive season. He asked if Wesgro had an update on where the province stood on international air travel specifically, given the limitations on international air travel. He asked if Wesgro still saw a bright future for conferencing given that online platforms were being used more frequently now and the effect which online platforms had on conferencing revenue coming into the province.

Ms Corne Koch, Head: Cape Town & Western Cape Convention Bureau for Wesgro, replied that the business events industry was one of the first to be affected by the pandemic and it would be one of the last to recover. However, the industry was morphing into hybrid events. They have been testing and hosting a model where there is an international conference hub with regional hub destinations and they have been using the City as a hub to do those online events. The Bureau has secured bids during the lockdown which showed that the long-term focus is still relevant. The forecast for the moment continued to look bleak but she believed that they would see a bit of a recovery from Second Quarter 2020/21.

Mr Harris replied that air access had been one of their projects for the past six years to connect the Western Cape, specifically Cape Town International Airport, to the rest of Africa and the world through nonstop flights. Six corporates from around the Cape have been doing some serious heavy lifting in funding the project, leading to its success. In the first five years, it doubled the number of nonstop flights to Cape Town which was one of the most successful route development achievements in the world. Unfortunately, like many other things, it stopped during lockdown due to the international travel ban. However, the team members were working hard to keep relationships strong with the airlines so they could prepare for the opening of air travel which was bound to happen. He gave an update on the major carriers to and from Cape Town:
- British Airways stopped during the lockdown but was now back to daily service to Heathrow Airport.
- KLM flies to Amsterdam six times a week.
- Ethiopian Airlines flies to Addis Ababa five times a week.
- Qatar Airways flies to Doha three times a week with daily flights during Christmas and New Year
- Emirates flies four times a week to Dubai but would increase frequency during the festive season
- Turkish Airlines flies twice a week to Istanbul
- TAAG Angola Airlines flies thrice a week direct to Nairobi and twice a week to Nairobi via Victoria Falls.
- Airlink was flying daily to Windhoek

Two big announcements were Virgin Atlantic would be coming back to service Heathrow Airport out of Cape Town and United Airline intended to come back next summer to service the Cape Town-New York route. They have been working with Delta Airlines to launch a service route to Atlanta in March 2021.

Saldanha Bay IDZ Licencing Company (SOC) Ltd 2019/20 Annual Report
Ms Kaashifah Beukes, Saldanha Bay IDZ-LC CEO, asked the Board Chairperson to make introductory remarks.

Mr Johann Stegmann, SBIDZ-LC Board Chairperson, stated that it was an absolute pleasure to have a CEO such as Ms Beukes as it allowed the rest of them to become invisible and focus on their work. Despite the pandemic, they found it actually pulled workers a lot closer together. Their relationship with Transnet has strengthened and they believed that it would only strengthen going forward into the new year. This would make a big difference to the way in which they could capitalize on the ports, which was currently one-way traffic in terms of exports with no real beneficiation to the local economy.

They had now reached an agreement with the Western Cape Government and were pulling strings together to reach a stage of self-sufficiency by 1 April 2023. As such, from a budget perspective, they would be receiving working capital only for the next two financial years, after which the entity would have to stand on its own two feet. They were working very hard to achieve that over the next 15 months.

Discussion
The Chairperson tabled Part A, Part B and Part D of the Saldanha IDZ Annual Report. Members were reminded that Parts C and E would be dealt with by SCOPA in 2021.

Mr van der Westhuizen stated that the Annual Report referred to the 90 000 ships at sea, with a third of those rounding the southern tip of Africa. He asked if the Western Cape should be servicing those 30 000 ships and the economic potential attached to bringing those ships into the harbour. Secondly, what infrastructure and efficiency improvements would be needed to tap into that potential market?

With quite a number of the SBIDZ-LC employment contracts being five-year contracts, it could be daunting when people started looking for other employment in the third or fourth year of their contract. He asked what motivation would be used to combat that considering the skills which could be lost.

Referring to page 67 on performance awards, there has often been references to municipal managers receiving high performance bonus while the work did not equate to the bonus. As such, he asked what the average performance award was and what the maximum award was which a manager could receive. He asked a question about their indicators and targets.

Ms Nkondlo asked about amendments to the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) legislation. She asked what the some of the concerns had been given that made them want to amend the legislation.

Page 14 dealt with the discontinued activities in the five-year strategic plan. What was the level of achievement as far as standing on their own two feet was concerned? On supply chain, it indicated that long-term contracts had been finalized and asked for these bids to be shared with the Committee.

On page 35, what was their level of comfort in going back to those tenants? Page 39 dealt with the funding model and she asked for more information on how collection of revenue would be done in a sustainable manner to ensure their self-sustainability. One of the biggest targets to be achieved in the five-year strategic plan would be for Saldanha Bay IDZ-LC to be self-sustaining, which meant finding a model which was completely different to the one presented.

The Chairperson referred to page 43 of the Annual Report and requested that the Committee receive copies of the documents mentioned. The Chairperson stated that Mr Mbiko had forwarded questions which should be replied to in writing by Saldanha Bay IDZ, Wesgro, and DEDAT.

Saldanha Bay IDZ response
Mr Stegmann replied about the 30 000 ships, saying the Saldanha Port was one of eight ports and as such, was an entire ecosystem that needed to be thought through. A process was instituted under the leadership of the Minister to improve the Cape Town port functioning for turnaround time and reduced waiting time for ships coming into the port as well as modernization of grain facilities and other equipment in the port.

There were a series of factors which to some extent have been allowed to deteriorate, specifically marketing their ports both in servicing and manufacturing to the rest of the world – except for the leisure markets for which they were doing quite well. Saldanha was essentially a one-way port and exports yielded no local beneficiation. The CEO was looking at addressing and redeveloping that as it was a longstanding concern. While it was about addressing the degree of interest, the efficiency of the entire port's operations and targeting vessels that passed for maintenance and servicing was a particular market which they found challenging to tap into.

Ms Beukes replied that they would certainly share the documents requested. The study done was a situational analysis and gave the opportunities and weaknesses that need strengthening for them to shift in going green and formed part of their five-year strategic plan. On infrastructure, the port would need additional quaysides to attract the market. That is why they had taken an active role in the infrastructure of the Port. They have commissioned a cost-benefit analysis and the first draft report will be available by the end of January 2021. The report was essentially asking this question about the marine infrastructure which had been previously promised to them under Operation Phakisa but had never come about.

The five-year employment contracts was decided on for the early stages of the Industrial Development Zone (IDZ) considering their funding environment. Initially they had three-year contracts, however, last year the Board reviewed that through the HR Board Committee and resolved to extend it to five years to mitigate the risk of staff turnover, whilst keeping and attracting the talent they need in the company as they were still at a starter phase. Currently, they were reviewing the Human Resource Management Policy along with all the other frameworks, forming part of a holistic governance review. She referred to page 66 and said that this formed part of their philosophy and the motivation behind their 50th percentile benchmark.

Mr Herman Boneschans, SBIDZ-LC CFO, stated that they were in the process of reviewing their HR performance structures. Due to current budget constraints, the Board looked at the performance awards for 2019/20 and decided that it would not be paying any performance awards. Thus the number indicated was just an accounting entry, however, this would be corrected to indicate the decision of the Board not to give performance awards.

The funding model would definitely be changed going forward to get to a self-sustaining funding model.

Mr Dale Paulse, Supply Chain Manager: SBIDZ-LC, replied that initially they started with three-year contracts, with the possibility of extending by an additional year. The first contract was a framework agreement on a panel appointment for a number of consultants ranging from engineers, architects and quantity surveyors. The second framework agreement was for contractors. The third framework agreement was for occupational health and safety officers. In essence, those framework agreements did not include only one contractor or consultant but rather a group of companies from within the Western Cape.

Ms Beukes replied that on the amendments to the SEZ’s, it had been coming for a long time. At the last Quarterly CEO Forum meeting with the DTI, they were informed that they would now be able to take up that work on implementing the 10-year strategic plan framework for the SEZ’s. It was about looking at the spatially based industrial policy approach, along with the usage of the District Development Model, in order to implement some of those spatially industrial policy approaches and principles. The DTI was very committed to aligning with other units in other departments across government in order to get that sorted. National Treasury has undertaken expanding the review on the ACA Program, hence now they await the report from National Treasury.

Under legislative strengthening, they always welcomed amendments to the seashore Act in order to get clarity in certain areas of good corporate governance. She affirmed that standing on their own two feet was an integral focus of the company and central to what they were driving towards. Page 14 spoke to the capacity constraints and challenges they faced, however, what they required now was the financial and policy to get through things and make it a reality. Their priorities for the next few years were that they needed to invest in additional infrastructure, in land and facilities, hence why they were looking at equity partnerships and partnerships with the private sector as well as other parastatals.

Mr Stegmann replied that on the question of the Board, they were hoping to finalize some of those issues over the next two months. They would probably have to look at the change in the composition of the Board over the next year but that largely depended on how things progressed locally as well as internationally.

Ms Beukes replied that page 39 indicated the funding model details, with a large part of the majority of their capital funding coming from the DTI. There had been a budget cut in the first adjustment budget, followed be a second cut recently by the National Minister of Finance. What that meant was that it would be really tough for any of the SEZ’s to access funding from the SEZ Fund going forward. That was because, the SEZ’s were part of an incentive package from the government grant for the building of top infrastructures for emerging companies and companies coming into the IDZ, particular during the current economic environment. They have been working closely and relentlessly to ensure that the accountable and professional relationship with the DTI remained accountable on both ends, however, that remained a challenge.

Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) 2019/20 Annual Report
Mr Solly Fourie, Head of the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, stated that it was important to place into context the tabling of the 2019/20 DEDAT Annual Report. It was against the backdrop of the department needing to support economic services such as opportunities for economic growth and job creation for a vast area that spanned a wide range of activities. It was probably the one area where the department worked with small, medium enterprises (SMEs) and large corporates, stakeholders and business interest groups. Some of the work they did centered on:
- SME growth
- Individual skills development
- Energy security
- Investment attractions through partnerships with Wesgro, Saldanha Bay Industrial Development Zone and Atlantis Special Economic Zone
- Red tape reduction making it easier to do business
- Export promotion and the promotion of tradable sectors, including BPO, tourism as well as other sectors.

The 2020 year was tough as the country was already facing enormous economic challenges prior to the coronavirus pandemic making its way into South Africa. Those challenges included low business confidence, declining gross domestic product (GDP), outlook downgrades for sovereign debt repayments and pedestrian economic growth. With Covid-19 disrupting domestic and global trends and supply chains, what was going to happen in the future became even more concerning despite the Department being tasked with having an economic recovery plan for the Western Cape which would be to get a sustained bounce up because that was the only way to enable continued growth.

He explained that over the short, medium to longer term, the country and the region, would likely see an elongated U-shaped recovery curve which meant the recovery was going to take a little longer and slower but there would be green shoots, and that offered a glimmer of hope for the future.

Discussion
The Chairperson tabled the Annual Report for questioning.

Ms Nkondlo, in reference to page 13, asked if DEDAT could provide a sectoral breakdown of job numbers between 2014 and 2020 resultant from the investment facilitation and trade deals, including the financial value of the trade deals.

She asked for clarity on the SMME Booster Fund since its implementation. She asked which sectors were considered, what the selection criteria were for the participating SMMEs, their exact size, success factors, if they were already receiving funding from the department; and if there were job creation numbers from the support given to these SMMEs.

In terms of the Energy Security Game Changer, linked to small energy generators, she asked how many municipalities in good financial standing already had the small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) policies and their state of readiness to start rolling out generation, especially into the new financial year.

In terms of the provincial economic strategy, she asked for details on if Project Khulisa delivered on its priorities in creating jobs in the oil and gas, Agri-processing and tourism sectors, and the figures thereof.

Mr Van der Westhuizen, raised a question on page 18 of the Annual Report which specified an asset count date of 2019. He asked why it was 2019 since he expected the asset count would be done at the end of the 2019/20 financial year and not prior.

On page 33, he asked about the position of the Cape Town harbour following complaints of efficiency in handling of goods. On page 34, did DEDAT keep track of turnaround times for building plan approvals in the various municipalities and what this was since he had feedback that it was slow.

He asked for the status of Project Phakisa - a national initiative - for the province’s marine economy. He asked if Project Khulisa - a provincial initiative - launched in February 2015 for a five-year period had come to an end.

On export promotion, particularly wine export promotion, how were those wines selected. He saw they listed some wine producers, but those were relatively small producers. He asked how successful this initiative had been, and why these countries were selected export promotion?

Since Wesgro aimed to attract additional investment from the private sector, he asked to what extent DEDAT could work towards attracting "central" government upkeep of infrastructure such as dams and national roads in the Western Cape.

The Chairperson, pointing to pages 122 and 123 of the Annual Report, noted that the original budget planned to disburse money to Laingsburg, Cape Agulhas and Witzenberg for informal trading space and business development. She asked if that was going ahead amid concerns from informal traders that Covid-19 could affect that project. Given that the economic cluster would like to visit the Cape Agulhas area, she asked if they could visit the space allocated for an informal trading project. She referred to Page 123 which stated money was allocated to Pick n’ Pay to assist with infrastructure support to township spaza shops.

Ms Nkondlo highlighted a query not in the Annual Report. Pick n’ Pay in Delft was struggling to upgrade electricity to a commercial level and that had been forwarded to officials. However, government needed to find a way of unblocking that kind of red tape so that companies, like the one in Delft, did not need to struggle in the future. Did the electricity upgrade lie with the municipality? She asked what the Department could do to assist with those kinds of queries since there might be other companies going through similar problems. It was not fair for companies, municipalities, individuals, entrepreneurs and small businesses to smeek (beg) Eskom to do what it was supposed to fulfill.

Mr Fourie replied that the sectoral jobs breakdown for investment and trade deals fell largely within the ambit of Wesgro, but the Department Annual Report on page 85 outlined a breakdown of some of the activities and highlighted which sectors the jobs fell within. The aggregated figures for Project Khulisa under the targeted sectors of oil and gas, agri-processing and tourism were available, but had not been included in the Annual Report because they spanned a five-year period. A written response could be given on the results for the number of jobs and the gross value added for these three sectors.

Mr John Peters, Chief Director: Economic Enablement, DEDAT, replied that the SMME Booster Fund was a ring fenced allocation from Provincial Treasury aimed specifically at leveraging and expanding support to SMMEs. An open and transparent process was followed, asking SMMEs support organisations to pitch proposals under three categories: 1. SMMEs in a high growth phase, 2. SMMEs in distress following directly from the energy and water crises, 3. Infrastructure development support to SMMEs. Previously over 200 applications were received of which 18 were confirmed with 17 supported after one fell out. He described the project as a mixed bag of interventions that spanned the entire spectrum of SMMEs. Projects included:
- Labid – in Paarl for early-stage youth start-up businesses and entailed mentorship and incubation.
- Innovator Trust – looked at technology for business development.
- Launch Lab – offered early-stage women entrepreneurship support.
The infrastructure projects included the Witzenberg Municipality and the Cape Agulhas Municipality. Those were all container parks, except for the Laingsburg one which was had fully built infrastructure.
- Edge Growth – support to SMME development in micro-small enterprises to tech business in Atlantis SEZ.
- Asisa – offered support to township and peri-urban based businesses.
- The False Bay College project centred on the start-up tech type businesses of youth.
- Fix Forward – compiled a huge database of black artisans who were vetted and worked in private homes. The support was collating contacts for self-employed people / entrepreneurs to generate higher income.
- Tru North – one of their Early Childhood Development (ECD) umbrella organisations.
- South Africa Education Project – an ECD umbrella project with 15 beneficiaries supported
- Productivity SA – specially catered to businesses in distress.
- Khayelitsha Bandwidth Barn – provided support for township-based tech businesses.

Referring to Pick n Pay electricity, Mr Peters said in many cases because of the underdevelopment in the townships, infrastructure was not purpose built to accommodate bigger developments. In at least two Pick n Pay stores, the Department’s money had to cover a portion of the conversion of single phase to three phase electricity. In another two stores, City of Cape Town was convinced through the council to waive the these upgrade fees of approximately R250 000.

A Department official replied about the informal structure projects and turnaround times for the approval of building plans. The three informal trader infrastructure booster projects were in Laingsburg, Bredasdorp and Witzenberg. Bredasdorp and Witzenberg were containerized trading facilities, while Laingsburg was a built structure currently being erected, with the launch set for 17 December. Bredasdorp was set to launch on 9 February. Witzenberg’s completion was still underway.

The Department kept track of the turnaround times for building plans approval through the installation of a digitised system for some municipalities. The system was introduced after municipalities, with proper resources, adopted recommendations following assessments to identify where improvements could be implemented. Those municipalities tracked and recorded pre- and post-data. Overstrand, Witzenberg, Beaufort West and Kannaland are amongst those which improved efficiency for application approvals.

Mr Peters said that there was still some confusion about the application process, but Eskom and Pick n Pay were in talks to resolve the matter ahead of the stores’ opening launch.

Mr Fourie said that the 2019 asset count date on page 18 was the date utilised for the audit. A new date could not be used due to Covid-19.

The Cape Town port was doing very well compared to where it was at the height of the lockdown. At some stage it had a turnaround time of 22 days for vessels to dock and offload but that all now took place within one day, although the wind was an ongoing challenge which often inhibited the cranes from working. On who to contact about struggling to upgrade electricity to commercial level. the first port of call should be the Red Tape Reduction Unit.

Mr Rashid Toefy, Deputy Director-General: Economic Operations, DEDAT, replied that the Western Cape has continued with the work of Project Phakisa which is still underway with the new administration after Jacob Zuma left office. Western Cape had formed its own cluster for all oceans economy projects which was housed under a structure that met every quarter. It handled all aspects that the national government has focused on. While Project Khulisa came to an end, the three focus areas of tourism, agri-processing and oil and gas were still being prioritised.

Ms Helen Davies, Chief Director: Green Economy and Innovation, DEDAT, replied about energy security and small-scale embedded generation (SSEG). She said that 24 of the 25 local municipalities and the Metro already had the necessary legal framework in place for SSEG, but it did not necessarily mean that they had the processes in place to register the system or for people to be paid for excess electricity fed into the system. She said 19 municipalities in the Western Cape had a National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) approved tariff. That meant that businesses and households which were net consumers over the year could sell excess electricity back into the grid.

Resolutions
The Committee agreed to the following resolutions:

Provincial Treasury
Provincial Treasury submission on Procurement Bill be provided to the Committee.
Overview of Provincial and Municipal Infrastructure Investment booklet be provided to the Committee.
Kannaland documentation, letter sent to Kannaland and Council Resolutions be provided to the Committee.
A special briefing be held on the Kannaland matter and InovaSure Energy Project - to include Provincial Treasury and Standing Committee on Local Government.
An oversight visit, to Kannaland where the briefing could possibly occur.
Monthly report be submitted to the Committee on the three vulnerable municipalities and their Quarterly Reports should be submitted not only to Cabinet but to the Committee as well.
Recommendation that Auditor-General assist in moving towards submitting documents digitally.

Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board
A briefing be done on the industry compliance and regulations.
Ask both Ministers of Provincial Treasury and Economic Development on to whom the Board should report to, given its mandate.

Wesgro
Providing communique once the two Wesgro appointments are finalized

Saldanha Bay IDZ
The IDZ provide booklets which spoke to the SARS and Home Affairs matters.
They submit new HR Policy, once they have completed their review
They submit reasoning for either keeping or amending their fixed-term contracts, after they have reviewed it.

Department of Economic Development and Tourism
A joint meeting be requested with the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Department of the Premier and Local Government on the Kannaland matter.

The Chairperson thanked Members and staff for their continual hard work.

The meeting was adjourned.


 

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