Chairperson, in response to the first question, at the time of my request for the KPMG report, I was informed that there was no report, as the audit firm had failed to submit the report within the agreed stipulated timeframe. This led to the termination of their contract and the appointment of Adv Jannie Lubbe. The Audit Committee of Council gave an undertaking to furnish me with the report once it had been submitted.
Secondly, KPMG was contacted by my department, but they indicated that they were not at liberty to disclose their report, as they were acting on behalf of the Central University of Technology, CUT, Council in this matter. Their agreement with the CUT council was to submit their draft report to Adv Lubbe. I'm informed that KPMG's draft report dated 16 September 2011 was subsequently submitted to Adv Lubbe.
Lastly, I was not informed. I am, however, aware that Adv Lubbe was appointed to finalise the investigation and I will therefore be requesting that the university council furnishes me with both the draft KPMG report and the Lubbe report, as well. Thank you.
Minister, regarding your answer, when will you request that a copy of the version of the KPMG report, that was ready on 2 September this year, be made available to the members of the portfolio committee via Education and Training in order for them to fulfil their oversight role in this regard? When will you see to it that it gets published by the university?
If the evidence and findings contained in the report are of such a nature that it is clear that the conduct of the current council and vice- chancellor compromises the integrity of the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein, are you prepared to appoint an administrator to take over the responsibilities and functions of the council or the vice- chancellor in order to rescue this institution? Thank you. [Applause.]
Chairperson, as a matter of fact, by the end of today I will have written to the chair of the university council to ask for both reports to be forwarded to my department. If any wrongdoing is found in the information contained in these reports, I will definitely not hesitate to act.
As to what kind of action will be taken, of course, one cannot say now because it will depend on the nature of the transgression. A transgression may sometimes require more than just dissolving the university; it may require taking legal action or handing people over to the police or whatever the case may be. If there is any wrongdoing that actually requires that we take action along the lines we are suggesting, we will definitely not hesitate to do that as a department. Thank you.
Chairperson, hon Minister, given the apparent lack of clarity or certainty on the state of the report and the process in order to conclude the matter, can Parliament and the public be assured that you will do everything in your power to ensure its logical conclusion as a matter of urgency?
Chairperson, I just wish to underline the fact, and also to assure the House, that I will do everything in my power to get the reports and also to act on this, because at the end of the day we are talking here about public universities who are supported by the public. It is taxpayers' money. It is our responsibility as the department to at least ensure that these monies and funds are handled properly and that these institutions are able to act in a manner that is beyond reproach.
So, I assure you that I will stop at nothing, and I will not delay if there is any information that points to the fact that I need to act. Thank you.
Suspension and harassment as well as protection of whistle-blowers
245. Mr D A Kganare (Cope) asked the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:
Whether she has been informed of any whistle-blowers in her departments or the entities reporting to her who had been (a) suspended and (b) harassed as a result of whistle-blowing; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what (i) is her department's position with regard to the protection of whistle-blowers and (ii) steps has her department taken to protect each specified person? NO3936E
Hon House Chair, I appreciate the question from the hon member Kganare. Under normal circumstances I would answer his question by saying, no, I am not aware, or I have not been informed, of any whistle-blowers. That is because otherwise I would have to go and search all over for this information, as the hon member's question was not clear. However, because I have done some homework, I hope that my answer will satisfy the hon member.
Yes, I am aware of a particular case in the Free State where two people employed by Bloem Water were dismissed from work after they had informed us of certain anomalies in the running of the affairs of Bloem Water. We then instituted an investigation to determine what had happened and what had led to that, and to follow the case very closely in order for us to be able to determine what should happen to these employees.
It should also be noted that this is not the normal procedure to be followed, given our labour laws in this country. However, we detected that this was a case where there was the potential for these people to be fired because of their being whistle-blowers, and for this reason we are following it up. Thank you.
Hon Chairperson, I thank the Minister. On 7 April 2011 a letter from the South African Municipal Workers Union was sent to the Minister, raising concerns about the activities of the members of the board in collaboration with the chief executive officer, CEO, of the board. On 20 June 2011 another letter was sent to the Minister's office via her special advisor, referring to serious activities of tenderpreneurs on this particular board, where the chairperson of the board, some members of the board and the CEO were quoted. It is also very clear that a lot of thieving has been taking place at this particular board.
The question is this: Instead of allowing these whistle-blowers to be expelled, is the Minister willing to take drastic steps to get rid of this particular board and the CEO; to ensure that these workers are reinstated; and to ensure that a proper investigation is finalised as a matter of urgency?
House Chair, I should also bring it to your attention that this question about the activities of the board, the anomalies, the alleged misappropriation and so on, was asked by the hon member as a written question, and we duly responded to it. We indicated at the time that investigations were going on. For now I was responding in regard to the allegations that people who are employees have been dismissed. In both instances there are ongoing investigations. Thank you.
House Chair, thank you for the answer, Madam Minister. I don't know the exact details of the case, but let me thank you for being so frank about it and doing an investigation.
It's important to note that it has been exactly a year since you took over the portfolio of Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs and you have committed yourself to good governance, which I thank you for. Indeed, I have seen some very positive changes in the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs over the past year. You took over a department with serious governance problems, which you are well aware of, and since then many senior officials have been disciplined and some have been fired. I have no doubt there are many problems that you don't know about, and as the Minister you want to know about them.
Therefore, with your having taken over this department and your commitment to good governance, I ask whether you have personally reaffirmed in your department a whistle-blower policy to the effect that if there are problems a person knows about, he or she should speak out about them. If so, what are the relevant details; if not, why not?
Secondly, do you as Minister have an open-door policy where staff members can come and raise issues with you about fruitless, wasteful expenditure or corruption? I ask this because, of course, I know there are lots of problems in your department and sometimes staff members may fear retribution inside the department from senior staff members above them. Thank you, Madam Minister.
Hon House Chair, may I remind the hon member that the whistle-blower policy is actually a policy of government as a whole, and it is being implemented.
In fact, we would probably not have known about the case under discussion if somebody had not written a letter to alert us of this. That is why we are investigating it. The same applies to the activities at the board level. We were informed by people, and we were able to follow it up because they wrote to us.
The open-door policy is what is applied throughout - in my office, in the director-general's office and the Deputy Minister's office, and all over. We also continuously hold meetings with employee representatives, and they also meet with our special advisors, where it is necessary to do so, and they have done so previously. These are just some of the incidents I am referring to in order to illustrate the open-door policy that we have in action, not just in theory. Thank you.
Chairperson, Minister, we thank you for being procedural and not risking a situation where you have to reinstate employees, a situation that has financial implications. Thank you for that.
I suppose it is a welcome comment. Thank you, hon members, all of you.
Challenges regarding water source protection policies
218. Ms P Bhengu (ANC) asked the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs:
What (a) are the most common challenges that are encountered by her department in respect of compliance with water source protection policies, (b) plans are in place to overcome these challenges, (c) impact does noncompliance with these policies have on (i) industrial and (ii) municipal operations and (d) enforcement measures or restrictions are used against landowners and businesses who fail to comply with water source protection policies?