Deputy Speaker, hon members and guests, with this Bill the head of department and member of the executive council are replaced respectively by the director-general and Minister, among other things.
The change is more than technical because it effectively transfers FET colleges from provincial education departments to the Department of Higher Education and Training. Azapo supports this move, as we consider it a waste of resources to have a provincial chief directorate that is responsible for two or six FET colleges, depending on how many FET colleges each province has.
The Bill also reverses what was done by the FET Colleges Act of 2006, where college lecturers and other employees were transferred and made employees of college councils. We opposed the move then, arguing that that effectively privatised FET colleges and went against the idea of a single, seamless Public Service.
While the Bill has caused unease among teacher trade unions, with fears that the Bill might result in the FET sector disappearing into the forest that is the existing collective bargaining arrangement, Azapo is convinced that parties could use the existing Labour Relations Act and, through the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council, PSCBC, designate a new sector for the FET colleges. Azapo therefore supports the Further Education and Training Colleges Amendment Bill. [Applause.]