(1)Given that the Vision of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) is to be a leading technology innovation agency that stimulates and supports technological innovation to improve the quality of life for all South Africans, what (a) are the details of five examples of technological innovation that have taken place in the small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) that have been funded to provide them with science, engineering and technology support and (b) was the cost of funding for each SMME in the 2018-19 financial year;
(2) which three products of developing indigenous knowledge into technologically innovative products does the TIA intend to develop;
(3) whether the aim of TIA to invest in the translation and commercialisation of innovations is based upon a concrete plan; if not, why not; if so, by what date will the plan be made available;
(4) whether the plan accords with international best practice; if not, why not; if so, what are the comparative examples that were used to develop the plan;
(5) whether he will provide Prof B Bozzoli with the plan; if not, why not; if so, on what date?
(1) Examples of five SMME projects that TIA funded in the 2018/19 financial year through its various funding instruments (including the Seed Fund, Technology Stations Programme and Technology Development Fund) are:
i. RIOT Network – RIOT has developed a wireless communications network technology that makes it easy for anyone to setup, operate and monetize public wireless broadband networks by agglomerating private network access devices ...
What (a) number of entities reporting to him as well as entities within his department paid consultants to write their (i) strategic and/or (ii) annual performance plans, (b) amount did each consultant charge, (c) was the total cost to his department for outsourcing the plans and (d) were the reasons for outsourcing?
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
|
Entity:
|
(a). Was there any paid consultants used to write the;
(i) Strategic Plan,
(ii) Annual Performance Plans?
|
(b) Amount that each consultant charge?
|
(c) What was the total cost to his department/entity for outsourcing the plans?
|
(d) What were the reasons for outsourcing?
|
|
CHE
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable
|
|
INSETA
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable
|
Not applicable ... |
(a) What number of cases of (i) employees and (ii) syndicates of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) suspected of fraud in each case have been handed to the Commercial Crime Unit of the SA Police Service, (b) on what dates were they handed to the unit, (c) what progress has the unit made in pursuing each case, (d) what was the total value of the suspected fraud in each case, (e) are there any outstanding cases which will still be handed over and (f) have all persons suspected of fraud been removed from the staff of NSFAS?
(a) (i) Five cases of fraud involving NSFAS employees were registered with the Wynberg South African Police Services.
(ii) Following the arrest of three NSFAS employees on or about 9 October 2019, the NSFAS Chief Governance, Risk and Compliance Executive initiated a reconciliation project, which entailed extracting a history of all SBux purchases and withdrawal transactions concluded with merchants in the Western Cape specifically. ...
(1)Given that Monday, 25 May 2020, is marked Africa day, and seeing that indigenous African languages are faced with the unique challenge of adapting to a fast-changing technological era, what steps has his department taken to promote the ideal of a multilingual society as espoused in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996;
(2) whether he has found that there are digitised efforts and carved-out spaces for indigenous languages within the digital space for them to not only survive, but also to thrive in the ever-changing technological era; if not, why not; if so, what are the full relevant details?
(1) The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), through the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR), established the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR). SADiLaR has an enabling function, with a focus on all official languages of South Africa, supporting research and development in the domains of language technologies and language-related studies in the humanities and social sciences. The Centre supports the ...
(1)What are the details of the differences in terms of performance of students who receive the National Student Financial Aid Scheme grant and those who do not;
(2) whether he will provide Prof B Bozzoli with statistical evidence of the students’ differential performance in the past three financial years; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
The Department started undertaking national cohort studies, including a specific study on NSFAS funded students in the 2016/17 financial year. The database of students who had received NSFAS funding in all previous years of study was mapped to the HEMIS dataset. The NSFAS cohort study considers any student who received NSFAS funding at any point in time during their studies. The NSFAS cohort study published on 13 ...
(1)Whether his department awarded any tenders connected to the Covid-19 pandemic; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what (a) are the names of the businesses to whom these tenders were awarded, (b) are the amounts of each tender awarded and (c) was the service and/or product to be supplied by each business;
(2) whether there was any deviation from the standard supply chain management procedures in the awarding of the tenders; if so, (a) why and (b) what are the relevant details in each case;
(3) what was the reason for which each specified business was awarded the specified tender;
(4) whether he will make a statement on the matter?
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION:
- The Department of Science and Innovation has not awarded any goods or services exceeding R500 000 (tenders) at this stage. All the Covid-19 related purchases have been below R500 000, procurement was done through quotations;
- Not applicable;
- Not applicable;
- Not applicable.
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING
- Procurement in excess of R500 000 per case is considered as a ...
(1)What (a) amount of the R7,8 billion of irregular expenditure uncovered at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) when the administrator took charge of the organisation (i) has been cleared and (ii) remains to be cleared and (b) is the timeline for clearing the irregular expenditure;
(2) what are the key performance areas (KPAs) of the administrator of NSFAS for the current year;
(3) whether he intends to extend the administrator’s term of office in order to make sure that the administrator fulfils the KPAs and the tasks that were set; if not, why not; if so, for how long?
|
1.
|
1 (a) (i)
|
1 (a) (ii)
|
1 (b)
|
|
Shifting of earmarked funds (historic debt)
|
R1.963 billion
|
|
In the process of being written off.
|
|
Disbursements with respect to NOCLAR
|
|
R4.359 billion
|
This should be closed out during the 2020/21 financial year, including recoveries.
|
|
Disbursements in excess of contract amounts
|
|
|
NSFAS has applied to the Credit Regulator for a ... |
(a) By what date will the Council on Higher Education’s institutional audit of the University of South Africa begin, given the delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and (b) what measures have been put in place to conduct such an audit using remote and other Covid-19-compatible methods?
The Draft Framework for Institutional Audits 2020 and Draft Manual for Institutional Audits 2020 were approved for consultation with the higher education sector by the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) at its meeting of 7 April 2020. It is envisaged that once the feedback from the sector has been considered by the HEQC, the Framework and Manual would be ready for final approval by ...
(1)Whether his department will offer any form of Covid-19 financial or other relief to small businesses; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) whether the Covid-19 financial or other relief will only be allocated to qualifying small businesses according to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, Act 53 of 2003, as amended; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) on what statutory grounds and/or provisions does he or his department rely to allocate Covid-19 financial or other relief only to small businesses according to the specified Act and (b) what form of Covid-19 financial or other relief, if any, will be made available to other small businesses?
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
(1) Currently, the DSI has not planned on providing specific Covid-19 financial or other relief to small businesses. The focus of the DSI is to continue strengthening existing interventions that provide technology and other support to small and medium enterprises including the technology stations programmes, industry development centres, technology localisation programme. These support programmes continue to prioritise critical priority ...
What (a) number of students were enrolled at each institution of higher learning (i) for each qualification and (ii) in terms of the Classification of Educational Subject Materials for the 2019 academic year and (b) was the success rate in each case?
The data for the 2019 academic year is currently not available. Preliminary (unaudited) student enrolment data and data required for calculating success rates is due from universities on 30 April 2020. Some universities have indicated that they may require an extension due to the lockdown period. The final submission date for data is 31 July 2020. A process of verifying this data will thereafter commence and ...
More »
