National Consumer Tribunal 2021/22 Quarters 1-3 Performance

Meeting report

Opening Remarks
The Chairperson informed Members that the National Consumer Tribunal (NCT) would present its financial and non-financial performance for the 2021/22 financial year to date (Quarters 1-3) in order for the Committee to undertake its oversight function in accordance with the Money Bills Act.

Presentation by NCT on its financial and non-financial performance for the 2021/22 financial year to date (Quarters 1-3)
Prof Joseph Maseko, Executive Chairperson, NCT, introduced the Acting COO and permanent Registrar, Mr (Lucky) Lehlohonolo Rabotapi, who would make the presentation. Mr Rabotapi was familiar with both operations and case management. The Acting CFO, Ms Neema Govan, and the CIO, Mr Bax Nomvete, were available online to respond to questions related to their fields of expertise. The ICT system was fully operational and being expanded as a key aspect of the NCT.

Prof Maseko explained that the NCT was an adjudicative body, not a Regulator, and therefore its reports were similar to those of the courts. The reports were about adjudications completed. The NCT did not investigate nor was it an activist about debt relief as it had to remain neutral in order to hear both sides of all cases that came before the Tribunal. The NCT did not deal with enquiries – those were referred directly to the National Consumer Commission (NCC) or the National Credit Regulator (NCR). The NCT had to be seen to be neutral in order to be able to make fair adjudications. It could not get involved with matters on the ground.

The NCT had 18 full-time and part-time members of the Tribunal. The Acting COO would report on the results of the actions, but the COO was not responsible for Tribunal members. He was responsible for all operational matters, including finance, ICT, case management and all miscellaneous matters. The expert executives would provide details relating to their portfolios. Prof Maseko reminded the Committee that the NCT also had several cooperate governance committees to deal with key issues, such as risk management, internal audit and ICT.

Mr Rabotapi presented the NCT’s measurable objectives which showed that 23 out of 29 objectives had been achieved (79,31%), of which 17 objectives had been exceeded. Six out of 29 objectives were not achieved (20,69%).

Key highlights were that 183 final judgments had been issued within 10.8 days of a hearing and 20,544 adjudicated orders had been issued with an average turnaround time of 31,7 days. Over 90% of hearings were held virtually with significant savings made for parties and Tribunal members in terms of travel and accommodation.

The NCT was allocated a grant of R 53 515 000 for the 2021/2022 financial year.  The grant was received in two tranches from the dtic, namely 60% (R32 109 000) in April 2021 and the remaining 40% (R 21 406 000) in October 2021. Other income includes filing and service fees of R 10 142 052, interest received of R 817 400 and recovery of costs of R 1 215 585 for the period ending 31 December 2021.

The NCT had received its ninth clean audit in 2020/21 and was very proud of the staff that ensured that the Tribunal had clean audits. The Tribunal was expecting a tenth clean audit at the end of the financial year.

The key challenge was identified as employee resignations. Based on assumptions and an analysis of the exit interviews, the key reason was that the Tribunal did not offer any employee benefits and lacked opportunities for promotion or career progression. The Tribunal was going through a process of benchmarking against the industry and obtaining quotations for medical aid and a pension or provident fund. Upon finalisation of the process, a motivation would be submitted to the Minister. In addition, the Human Resources Unit was reviewing and amending its overall ‘Talent and Retention’ strategy which formed part of the broader HR strategy.

The NCT continues to have a major involvement with the NCC in the ongoing design, development and implementation of the Opt-Out Register system. The NCT has actively participated in the Ministerial initiative of ICT Shared Services by among all 17 DTIC entities. There have been 8 IT themes identified, of which the NCT is actively taking the lead in 2 of them, namely, application development and data collaboration.

The judgements of the Tribunal were available on the NCT website: www.thenct.org.za

(See Presentation)

The Chairperson thanked the NCT and invited questions and comments from Members.

Discussion
Ms Y Yako (EFF) thanked the presenter and stated that she was very, very concerned about the level of debt in the country.

Mr C Malematja (ANC) was impressed with the work of the NCT. He was pleased to see that the public was being offered an excellent service that was speedy enough to assist people who were in difficulties and under stress. Their cases could be dealt with before they became vulnerable to depression. If other entities could receive the same level of service that the NCT offered, the country would be better off. What efforts were in place to extend consumer education because it was people in the poor and township areas who were most vulnerable to the scammers?

Ms N Motaung (ANC) asked what measures the NCT had engaged in with other stakeholders to address the debt relief scams.

Mr Z Burns-Ncamashe (ANC) noted that the NCT had had an issue around the B-BBEE policy. Slide 15 showed that the NCT had applied for exemption from the B-BBEE legislation as Management did not agree with the outcome of the B-BBEE verification conducted in 2020. The audit had resulted in the NCT being found to be non-compliant. He asked what the issue was as he wanted to emphasise the fundamental importance of B-BBEE as it related to transformation. It sought to ensure equitable redress and marked a break with the past exclusionary barriers into the economy. The ANC government considered the B-BBEE policy critical.

Mr S Mbuyane (ANC) asked about the target of filling 85% of positions in the organisation. The target had been exceeded so what was the logic in setting a low target? Surely, it was important to have a full complement of staff. He asked if the interns were spread all over SA or whether the NCT had offices in the provinces. He noted that the NCT was engaged in the 4th Industrial Revolution, so how did the ordinary masses of people in deep rural areas without connectivity or data manage? What programmes did the NCT have to educate the masses in the rural areas who needed the Tribunal intervention as it was the only ombudsman?

The Chairperson asked what happened to the interns that were not placed in the organisation. How long did it usually take to finalise the regulations for an Act? She was aware that the dtic had to finalise the regulations. It was 2022 and the National Credit Amendment Act could not yet be implemented.

Prof Maseko responded to the questions by Mr Malematja and Ms Motaung about educational programmes. As he had stated in his introduction, the NCT was an administrative court. It was not able to engage with people on the Credit Act regulations as it would possibly have to meet those people in court. The Tribunal had to be impartial and could not get involved in the work of advocacy or the details of scams. The public would be concerned with the Tribunal’s role if it did so. For example, the police had to catch scammers, but the police could not judge scammers. It was absolutely not in the mandate of the NCT. It was the job of the sister organisations to educate, although the NCT could join the team in order to explain how the Tribunal worked, but nothing further.

The National Credit Regulator received all cases and only the Regulator would determine whether the case should go to the NCT. The applicant received a certificate stating that it was not going to recommend the case, but the person could still approach the Tribunal directly and the Regulator could advise a person how to do that. Generally, the only cases that came directly were those where a person was refused a bank statement. Like the courts, the Tribunal functioned according to the rule of law and adjudicated. It was not the Tribunal’s job to go out and engage with the public. The Tribunal members were not permitted to speak out on issues in order to preserve the neutrality of the Tribunal and to avoid compromising their roles as adjudicators. That which he was currently explaining to the Members was what the NCT explained when it joined other entities during the outreach programmes.

Prof Maseko responded to Mr Burns-Ncamashe regarding his concern about B-BBEE. The NCT supported B-BBEE in its employment of staff and in the procurement policy of the NCT. Only two staff members out of 54 were white. However, when it came to board level, it was an issue because the NCT had only one person at board level. The B-BBEE Commission had not understood the structure of the NCT as it was unique. Most boards had a number of board members. It was not possible for one person to be representative, e.g. of both men and women. He had explained to the juniors at the Commission, who did not understand and so they had brought their seniors, who also did not understand how to apply the B-BBEE scorecard to the NCT with its single member at board level. They shook their heads and clicked their tongues. The NCT did not know how to resolve the problem. The issue was not with the B-BBEE policy but with how the Commission applied its rules.

Prof Maseko explained the stance of the NCT regarding the interns. The interns came from all over the country, depending on where they were based. The senior staff did not interfere in recruitment. The vacancies were advertised and everyone had to apply as per the advertisement. The NCT did not allow potential members to apply via the senior members in order to avoid any inference of corruption. That was a position that the NCT believed would maintain the honesty and respect of the people and the institution. The Tribunal was non-negotiable on that matter. Interns who were suitably qualified applied when positions were advertised. Some positions were for lawyers, others for accountants and yet others for IT specialists. All applicants had to be appropriately qualified. The NCT was very careful about keeping processes clean; no one would leave a scandal behind on leaving the Tribunal.

He explained that the first point of call for a person who was over-indebted was the debt counsellor. If the debtor was on the verge of over-indebtedness, the case came to the Tribunal, but if the person was already over-indebted, the debt counsellor took the matter directly to the magistrate’s court. The National Credit Amendment Act would assist indebted people even more effectively by allowing them to engage with the Debt Intervention Officers who would assist people free of charge if they fell within the special category of lower-income people. The NCR would publicise the service once the regulations and the gazette had been published.

Prof Maseko agreed that there was an urgent need to implement the Amendment Act but the process of developing regulations had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The NCT had been working on the regulations, assisted by the dtic staff. He believed that the process would now get underway again.

Mr Rabotapi stated that the target of 85% for vacancies was something he had raised in the presentation. When Covid-19 had struck, the budget had been significantly reduced and the organisation was not sure whether it would receive the full allocation of the budget for the 2021/22 financial year and so the target had been placed at 85% to be on the safe side. The target for 2022/23 was 95%, with the 5% allowing for the recruitment processes that would have to take place should a person resign.

He responded to the question regarding interns who could not be absorbed. As he had attempted to explain earlier, the interns were placed in a contingency pool of people who could fill in various gaps. When a staff member had to take maternity leave, or be absent, one of the unemployed former interns in the contingency pool would be employed. Eight interns had been permanently placed in the NCT in the past few years.

Mr Nomvete stated that the NCT was heavily automated, but one of the key initiatives was the implementation of the mobile case management system. Most people, even in rural areas, had smartphones and data costs were being reduced as data was becoming the lifeblood for people in the small to medium enterprise sector. People in rural areas would be able to participate in the process, perhaps even as debt counsellor. A debt counsellor could work via cell phone to assist people in rural areas.

Prof Maseko thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present and to interact with the Members. The NCT was trying to clean up SA. It was embarrassing to see sewerage in the streets and to hear SA called a failing state. The NCT was trying to think outside of the box and to do the best it could to change the situation. The NCT had published in research journals to share its management processes and its understanding of how to increase efficiency and production even in the face of budget cuts. The dtic had requested the Tribunal to share its insights with other entities, which it was happy to do because it wanted to see all organisations succeed.

Minutes
The minutes of 8, 9, 15 March 2022 were presented and adopted by the Committee with no amendments and no objections.
                                                       
Closing Remarks
The Chairperson stated that the Committee was supposed to meet with the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition on Tuesday 29 March 2022, but the Minister would be travelling with the President on that day. A new date would have to be set aside for the Minister to inform Members about SONA and the Budget as it related to the dtic. She proposed that the Committee meet on Tuesday 29 March 2022 to look at the Portfolio Committee Programme for the Second Quarter and the Portfolio Committee Oversight Programme. Correspondence received by the Chairperson would also be shared with the Committee. Members could discuss the latest developments in relation to the National Lottery Commission (NLC) as the Committee recommendations on the NLC Chairperson had been sent back to the Committee.

The meeting was adjourned.