Committee minutes: adoption

Meeting report

Previous Committee meetings: Adoption of minutes

The Chairperson noted that the purpose of this meeting was to clear the backlog of approval of minutes of Committee meetings from 6 May 2015 to 24 June 2015.

Mr R Chance (DA) suggested that there should be fewer presentations during each Committee meeting, to allow enough time for the Committee to discuss what had been presented to it.

The Chairperson said that this request was fair. This would also result in the Committee being able to making concrete recommendations before the end of each meeting, as informed by each presentation.

Mr X Mabasa (ANC) agreed with these points, but also suggested that the Committee consider when, in the meetings when presentations were to be made, the minutes should be adopted .

Mr H Kruger (DA) suggested that minutes should be voted on between 09:30 and 10:00, before presentations were scheduled.

Mr T Mulaudzi (EFF) agreed.

The Chairperson clarified that this would be recorded as a resolution of the Committee.

Minutes 6 May 2015.

Mr Chance said that he had made several grammatical and language changes to the first six sets of minutes, which he could send to the Committee Secretary.

Mr Mabasa moved that this should be accepted, but that this would need to be collated with the other discussions on the minutes by the Committee.

The Chairperson suggested that once the suggestions had been incorporated, she would check to make sure there were no substantive alterations to the meaning of the minutes.

Mr T Ramokhoase (ANC) suggested that the Committee could discuss the minutes, and then the Chairperson could check these against Mr Chance’s editing, and decide on a final version.

The Chairperson suggested that, today the Committee should deal with the six sets of minutes edited by Mr Chance, editing grammar and content. Some editorial problems arose because the drafters did not have English as their mother-tongue, and Mr Chance was ideally placed to edit since it was his mother-tongue.

Mr Chance emailed the edited minutes to the Secretary.

Under the Observations section, the Committee fleshed out some of the bullet points, to clarify their meaning. These were on the subject of cash contributions and demarcations to franchisees in small businesses, and their effect on demographics of franchise owners. 

Mr Chance suggested that the Chairperson talk to the Competition Commission, which was conducting an inquiry into the competitiveness of the retail sector. He suggested that the franchisers concerned should be asked to address the Committee and Commission on these issues, including the requirements for unencumbered cash contributions.

Mr Mabasa said that he would like the issue of franchises to be dealt with in the term of the current Parliament. He proposed that the Committee should aim at reform in this area, possibly by legislative amendments or new legislation.

Mr Kruger suggested that this would need to be debated at a future meeting, and both Mr Mabasa and Mr Ramokhoase agreed.

The Chairperson noted that this would be noted as a matter arising. She also suggested that the Committee should follow up on the lack of research capacity for SEFA.

The minutes were adopted, with amendments.

Minutes 8 May 2015

The minutes were adopted with minor grammatical amendments.

Minutes 12 May 2015

Mr Chance noted that there had been discussion around the 20% fee paid to the Isivande Women’s Fund (IWF) managers, but that this was not reflected under the observations section.

The Chairperson agreed that this should be reflected.

The minutes were adopted with this amendment, and other minor grammatical amendments.

Minutes 13 May, 19 May, 27 May 2015

These minutes were all adopted with minor grammatical amendments.

Minutes 3 June 2015

Mr Mabasa moved that the report mentioned in Section 8 - the Budget Review and Recommendations Report of the Department - needed to be looked at again, and adopted as soon as possible. It was meant to return to the Committee after recommendations had been inserted to sections 6 and 7 of the Report. This had not yet been done.

The Chairperson clarified that this Report was not available in time for the Committee to decide on the Department’s Annual Performance Plan. This Report would need to have been adopted by the Committee and presented to the House by the time the budget review process for the next year began.

The minutes were adopted with minor grammatical amendments.

Minutes 10 June 2015

The Chairperson observed that the drafters of the minutes were very economical with their information. She noted that the Cooperative form was being abused by some corporate entities that did not adhere to the values of cooperatives.

The minutes were adopted with minor amendments.

The meeting was adjourned.