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Higher Education
CPUT shutdown
17 Mar 2020
Due to the pandemic travel restrictions announced by the President on 15 March, the agenda had to be adjusted as some stakeholders could not attend the meeting. The Minister wrote to the Committee requesting that the University of Zululand be excused due to sensitive negotiations taking place that were already ...
Higher Education
State of Affairs at TVET colleges: Tshwane North Technical; Gert Sibande & Central Johannesburg
11 Mar 2020
The Committee received briefings from Tshwane North College, Central Johannesburg and Gert Sibande TVET Colleges on their state of affairs. The colleges had similar challenges on enrolments and registration; student accommodation; governance; financial aid bursary disbursements; and student governance. However, the Central Johannesburg and Gert Sibande Student Representative Councils had ...
Higher Education
Technology Innovation Agency on challenges, innovation & SMME support: follow-up briefing
10 Mar 2020
The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology was briefed on the support provided by the Technology Innovation Agency to Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises, and grassroots innovators.
The Agency also addressed the geographic footprint of technology stations around the country, to delineate for the Committee the beneficiaries of ...
Higher Education
UKZN, UWC & UFH on their state of affairs; NSFAS on disbursement of funding and allowances to students at UKZN, UWC and UFH
3 Mar 2020
The Committee was briefed by the management and SRC of the UKZN, UFH and UWC on the challenges they encountered that resulted in protest situations. The Committee also met to be briefed by the NSFAS on the disbursement of funds to institutions.
The Committee heard that student unrest in the ...
Higher Education
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
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
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
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 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 ...