Hon House Chair, just for the sake of the interpreter I'm going to do this in English. The First Quarter Financial and Service- Delivery Performance Report of the Department of Higher Education and Training is a microversion of the state of the nation. Several planned outputs in this period were not achieved, amongst which the most glaring is maintenance, where 2,7% rather than the planned 40% of the annual budget was spent.
Just like with the nation as a whole, there are pockets of excellence. For instance, the planned output for lead time of 60 days for making an appointment for a trade test to the actual test was exceeded by 23 days. However, this was balanced by the goal of 5 000 new learners to pass a trade test being missed by 2 801, more than half. Maybe that is why it's not so difficult to get an appointment. The goal of 2 500 new fully-qualified artisans was missed by 1 408. So a goal of 2 500 missed by 1 400. I don't think it's negligible. The reason for underspending, which is also reported on in this report, recurs like a refrain - less collection of direct levies due to a contracting economy and unfilled funded vacancies.
Now, may I draw the attention of the House to the striking correlation between legal impediments to the appointment of qualifying individuals to vacancies due to their demographical features and the nonachievement of these outputs? The FF Plus supports but laments this report.