Politician Profile Page
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Science and Innovation for Energy Security
26 Feb 2020
The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) within the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology briefed the Committee on energy security and touched on a number of projects that it has partnered on with various stakeholders locally and internationally. It reported that energy security has been on a downward ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Community Education and Training (CET) colleges update
25 Feb 2020
The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) spoke to its mitigating strategies for the infrastructure, governance and management challenges at Community Education and Training colleges which were established in 2015. DHET had established five-year term councils and appointed managers as permanent employees of the Department. Student Representative Council (SRC) ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Indigenous Knowledge Systems & IKS legislation overview
19 Feb 2020
Documents handed out: Key Aspects of the Indigenous Knowledge Legislation and Implementation Readiness
The Department of Science and Innovation told the Committee that the Indigenous Knowledge Act was essentially about redress, and bringing indigenous knowledge into the main stream. It was also a transformative Act, because it addressed how indigenous communities ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Certificate backlog: SITA, DHET, Umalusi; with Deputy Minister
18 Feb 2020
DHET explained that certification backlog is defined as all eligible candidates who met the certification requirements but were not yet issued with certificates within three months from results approved by Umalusi. It reported to the Committee on:
• Progress and status of the certification backlog statistics
• Key obstacles to ...
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
VBS Bank investment impact on Merafong City Local Municipality
4 Dec 2019
The Portfolio Committee did not get the logic behind the officials implicated in the R50m investment made to VBS Mutual Bank by the Merafong City Local Municipality only getting written warnings. They had failed in their fiduciary duties as required by the Municipal Financial Management Act to act in the ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill: adoption; Committee Reports
3 Dec 2019
The Science and Technology Laws Amendment Bill [B42B-2018] was adopted as revived from the Fifth Parliament without amendment. The Committee considered and adopted its Committee Reports on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme; SETA Annual Reports; Post-School Education and Training Sector; 4IR Colloquium; ICGEB Convention; and the Science and Technology ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Tshwane University of Technology corruption allegations; with Minister
27 Nov 2019
The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology engaged with the Tshwane University of Technology on the allegations of corruption, maladministration, nepotism and abuse of power levelled by various university stakeholders at the university.
It received a detailed response from the university on all the allegations raised, and an ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
Services SETA & CETA governance and management: follow-up meeting; with Minister
26 Nov 2019
Two Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), the Services SETA and the Construction SETA, appeared before the Committee to respond to allegations of corruption and mismanagement within their entities.
The Services SETA provided explanations dealing with several issues raised by the Auditor-General (AG) arising from the audit of its 2018/19 ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
R&D investment requirement; ICGEB Agreement; Science & Technology Laws Amendment Bill
20 Nov 2019
After the September briefing on the R&D tax incentive programme, the Committee requested a briefing on specific strategies to achieve the 1.5% of GDP government-set target from the current level of 0.83%. The Department said that it had only put together preliminary ideas on how to pursue the target. It ...
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
University of Fort Hare progress report on challenges; Tshwane University of Technology corruption allegations
19 Nov 2019
The Portfolio Committee met to conduct preliminary investigations into allegations of corruption and maladministration at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and the University of Fort Hare (UFH). The Committee frowned on the failure of the TUT to attend the meeting. The university had pleaded for additional time in order ...