Relevant key policy focus areas

During the year under review, the work of the two SETAs was informed by the NSDS III which is the overarching strategic guide for skills development and provides direction to sector skills planning and implementation in the SETAs. It provides a framework for the skills development levy resource utilisation of these institutions as well as the National Skills Fund and sets out linkages with, and responsibilities of, other education and training stakeholders. The NSDS III has eight goals for implementation by the SETAs which are:

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  Establishing a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning;
  
• 
  Increase access to occupationally-directed programmes;
  
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  Promoting the growth of a public FET college system that is responsive to sector, local, regional and national skills needs and priorities;
  
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  Addressing the low-level of youth and adult language and numeracy skills to enable additional training;
  
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  Encouraging better use of workplace-based skills development;
  
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  Encouraging and support cooperatives, small enterprises, worker-initiated, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community training initiatives;
  
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  Increasing public sector capacity for improved service delivery and supporting the building of a developmental state; and
  
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  Building career and vocational guidance.
  

Attached to these goals are outcomes and outputs that are the basis for monitoring and evaluation of the NSDS III implementation and impact. SETAs are expected to play a prominent role in contributing towards these goals, especially through its discretionary and mandatory grants. Through these goals, the SETAs contribute to the achievement of the Ministerial Delivery Outcome 5: A skilled and capable workforce to support inclusive growth path and the Human Resource Development Strategy of South Africa (HRDSSA), the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP), the New Growth Path (NGP) and the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP).

Mr D Kekana (ANC) Whip, Ms J Kilian (ANC), Ms S Mchunu (ANC), Ms M Nkadimeng (ANC), Ms Y Phosa (ANC) Chairperson, Mr E Siwela (ANC), Prof B Bozzoli (DA), Mr Y Cassim (DA), Mr S Mbatha (EFF).

Mr A Kabingesi: Committee Secretary, Ms M Modiba: Content Advisor, Ms T Majone: Committee Assistant, Mr L Komle: Researcher and Ms N Magazi: Executive Secretary.

Mr N Nqandela: Administrator, Ms N Lesela: Acting Chief Operations Officer, Mr O Shelembe: Chief Financial Officer, Ms Z Pikashe and Mr J Rametsi.

Mr T Mhambi: Chairperson, Ms P Snyman: Board Member, Ms S Brown: Board Member, Ms D Letseli: Board Member, Ms Koslitch: Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr A Nongogo: Chief Financial Officer, Mr P Dhlamini: Acting Senior Manager Learning Interventions, Ms A Buzo-Gqoboka: Head of Legal Services and Ms Y Mfebe: Senior Manager Organisational Compliance.

Mr T Tredoux: Chief Financial Officer, Mr M Lumka: Chief Director SETA Coordination, Ms N Rasmeni: Parliamentary Liaison Officer Office (PLO) of the Minister, Ms P Sekgobela: PLO Office of the DG, Mr S Mlangeni: PLO Office of the Deputy Minister and Ms B November: Intern Office of the Deputy Minister.

Mr D Phungula: Manager Office of the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA), Mr I Diale: Senior Manager AGSA, Ms A Mkosi: Junior Photographer Livity Africa, Ms I Heermink: Economist United States (US) Consulate

The presentation from LGSETSA was led by the Administrator, Mr N Nqandela. In relation to the stakeholder engagements, the LGSETA continued to increase its visibility in the provinces through the establishment of offices in each province and each district. One of the main challenges that led to the LGSETA being placed under administration was its poor relation with stakeholders in the local government sector. Strengthening of relationships with stakeholders and other role players in the sector continued to be an important function of the LGSETA.

In relation to human resource management, the Administrator noted that the new LGSETA organisational structure was approved on 23 September 2013 after extensive consultation. The total number of personnel for the year under review was 66 employees. However, the new organisational structure would be phased in to increase the headcount to 130 with the majority of resources allocated to the operations spread across the 6 provincial offices. In relation to Information Communication Technology (ICT), LGSETA would modernise its systems to improve performance which was affected by the absence of adequate ITC systems.

The Chairperson of the board, Mr T Mhambi led the presentation. In relation to the previous audit outcomes, SSETA received a qualified audit opinion in the 2012/13 financial year with matters of emphasis. However, for the period under review, SSETA received an unqualified audit with no material findings on financial statements though the AG raised matters of emphasis on performance information. The board developed an action plan that would improve the financial management of SSETA to receive a clean audit for the current financial year. In relation to human resource management, a new organisational structure was adopted in June 2014 which is aligned to the revised operational model. At the end of October 2014, the number of posts at SSETA were 343, the headcount was 248 and the vacancy rate was at 28 percent.

The following formed part of the key observations:

• 
  The Portfolio Committee noted with concern that the local government sector was in dire shortage of qualified personnel with scarce and critical artisan skills. However, the LGSETA was unable to execute its mandate specifically in the training and development of personnel in this sector.
  
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  The increase in discretionary and mandatory grants reserves was noted as a serious concern since the demand for training and skilling of the employed and unemployed people remained extremely high.
  
• 
  The serious under-achievement of targets in all the programmes of this SETA was highlighted as major concern. It was noted that the appointment of the Administrator was to ensure that the performance of the SETA is improved. However, the SETA did not manage to achieve much under the leadership of the Administrator.
  
• 
  Members commended the SETA for assisting NSFAS with R15 million for bursaries in the year under review.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee was concerned with the matters of emphasis raised by the AG particularly on; poor leadership, internal control deficiencies and financial misstatements. Furthermore, the action plan developed by the SETA in response to the AG’s findings was considered inadequate.
  
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  The high vacancy rate especially at senior management level was noted as a serious concern that needs to be addressed accordingly.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee noted with concern the inadequate capacity of the people employed in the LGSETA, the SETA was encourage to develop these employees through targeted training.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee was concerned with a huge amount of money spent by the LGSETA on travelling and subsistence.
  
• 
  It was noted with concern that municipalities were unable to claim discretionary grants owing to inadequate capacity within the municipalities. The Portfolio Committee encouraged the SETA to support these municipalities to ensure training and skilling of employees.
  
• 
  It emerged that about 700 contracts for projects in the year under review were manually captured into the SETA’s commitment schedule records. The Portfolio Committee urged the SETA to improve its ITC systems to keep proper records of all projects.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee commended the fact that all the 278 municipalities contributed their skills levies to SARS. However, it was noted that the SETA should make follow-up to the municipal entities that were not contributing skills levies as this was against the law.
  
• 
  The Administrator was encouraged to aim for a clean audit in the current financial year.
  

• 
  It emerged that a number of employees that were charged with financial misconduct resigned before they attended disciplinary hearings. Of serious concern is that some of these employees unduly benefitted from contravening supply chain management policies which often contributed to irregular expenditure. An example was given of a former Chief Operations Officer (COO) who was paid a COO salary on the decision by the Administrator before being appointed into the position. In addition, the COO was also paid a performance bonus of R109 000. The Portfolio Committee was of the view that the SETA should pursue civil cases against these employees to ensure that they pay back the money owed to the SETA.
  
• 
  The under-achievement of targets especially in key delivery programmes was noted as a serious concern which the Portfolio Committee categorically stressed that this kind of under-achievement should be met with real consequences.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee commended the SETA for allocating R148 million to NSFAS bursaries. However, it was noted with concerned that an amount R66 million was not yet utilised by NSFAS for bursaries. In addition, it was noted that with reserves of R1.7 billion, the SETA could make a huge difference in covering the NSFAS budget shortfall if it can contribute more towards bursaries.
  
• 
  The SETA was commended for funding only PIVOTAL programmes for the unemployed and short courses only for the employed to enhance their capacity.
  
• 
  The backlog of outstanding certificates especially for artisans was noted as a serious concern since money was paid to service providers to train these people. Furthermore, some of these people were unable to obtain employment owing to lack of certificates. The Portfolio Committee was also concerned that the SETA performed badly in the training of artisan although 2013 was declared a year of artisans and 2014 – 2024 was declared as a decade of artisans.
  
• 
  The Portfolio Committee welcomed the commitment by the SETA to allocate unspent funds for needy student in the 2015 academic year. Furthermore, the SETA was commended for its new strategy of verifying learner records upfront before allocating funds to service providers.
  
• 
  It emerged that the SETA took up to six months to accredit service providers and there were only 13 people that were responsible for this function while millions of rands was spent to create such a backlog in accreditation. The Portfolio Committee welcomed the recruitment of 30 people in the ETQA unit to fast-track the accreditation process.
  

The meeting with the LGSETA and SSETA provided the Portfolio Committee with an insight in the mandate of these institutions and how they performed in the year under review. According to the Auditor-General’s report on the audit outcomes 2013/14 of the DHET and its public entities, the LGSETA and SSETA were ranked among the worst performing SETAs in the year under review. The Portfolio Committee was certainly not pleased with the under-achievement of targets while there were employees who earned good income and in certain instance paid performance bonuses.

The Portfolio Committee recommends that the Minister should consider the following:

• 
  The Accounting Authorities of the SETAs should be held accountable for dereliction of duty for not taking effective and appropriate steps for preventing irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as well as not implementing consequence management against employees who are not implementing action plans in their area of work as required by the PFMA;
  
• 
  The Minister should consider reprioritising part of the uncommitted discretionary funds from the SETAs to support other skills development priorities, especially where there is a greater need for funding to access post-school education and training; in particular the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to augment the budget shortfall for the 30 percent upfront payment to the universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to cover the meals, accommodation, transport and book allowances of students;
  
• 
  The Minister should ensure that both the SETAs develop, implement and monitor action plans to address all the AG’s findings and progress be reported to the Minister and the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training;
  
• 
  The Minister should ensure that SETAs do not pay out performance bonuses to their employees while the key strategic objectives and core targets are not achieved;
  

• 
  The Department should monitor and evaluate performance of the SETAs to ensure that they deliver as per the Service Level Agreement (SLA) entered into;
  
• 
  The filling of vacant funded posts in both the SETAs should be prioritised as a matter of urgency;
  

• 
  The SETAs should pursue civil claims against employees who unduly benefited from contravening the supply chain management policies;
  

• 
  Services SETA should address the backlog of outstanding certificates in the current financial year; and
  
• 
  SETA’s targets should be linked with SSPs of their relevant sectors and should be realistic.
  

Report to be considered.

1. 
   Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act Amendment Bill, 2014, submitted by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services.
   

Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and the Select Committee on Security and Justice.

1. 
   The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
   

1. 
   Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act Amendment Bill [B 18 – 2014] (National Assembly – proposed sec 75) [Explanatory summary of Bill and prior notice of its introduction published in Government Gazette No 38243 of 24 November 2014.]
   

Introduction and referral to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services of the National Assembly, as well as referral to the Joint Tagging Mechanism (JTM) for classification in terms of Joint Rule 160.

1. 
   Petition from residents of Tsakane, Sunnyridge, Symhurst, Bedfordview, Primrose and Gerdview calling for an investigation into the causes of the water crisis in Gauteng, submitted in terms of Rule 312 (Mr M Waters).
   

1. 
   Judicial Matters Amendment Bill, 2014, submitted by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services.
   

Referred to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services and the Select Committee on Security and Justice.

1. 
   The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
   

1. 
   Directives for officials with duties pertaining to the prevention and combating of trafficking in persons and the manner in which such cases must be dealt with, issued by the Director-General of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development in terms of section 44(1)(b) of the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2013 (No 7 of 2013) after consultation with the relevant entities and submitted to Parliament on 4 December 2014.
   

1. 
   Petition from 31 church and school representatives of Graaff-Reinet, calling for relief in respect of various matters pertaining to the provision of quality education, submitted in terms of Rule 312 (Ms A T Lovemore).
   

In terms of section 84(2) (d) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, read with Rule 7(1) (a) of the Joint Rules of Parliament, the President of the Republic of South Africa has called a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces on Thursday, 12 February 2015 at 19:00, in order to deliver his State-of-the-Nation Address to Parliament.

1. 
   Government Notice No 687, published in Government Gazette No 37958, dated 5 September 2014: Amendment to the Compulsory Specification for Motor Vehicles of Category N1, in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
   

2. 
   Government Notice No 688, published in Government Gazette No 37958, dated 5 September 2014: Amendment to the Compulsory Specification for Motor Vehicles of Category M1, in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
   

3. 
   Government Notice No R. 668, published in Government Gazette No 37959, dated 5 September 2014: Regulations relating to the gazetting of levy periods, in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
   

4. 
   General Notice No 845, published in Government Gazette No 38043, dated 1 October 2014: Invitation for the public to comment on the Draft National Lotteries Amendment Regulations 2014 and Regulations relating to Allocation of Money in National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, in terms of the National Lotteries Act, 1997.
   

5. 
   General Notice No 849, published in Government Gazette No 38057, dated 3 October 2014: Application for exemption from provisions: For public comment, in terms of the Housing Development Schemes for Retired Persons Act, 1988 (Act No 65 of 1988).
   

6. 
   General Notice No 850, published in Government Gazette No 38058, dated 3 October 2014: Draft Consumer Goods and Services Sector Code of Conduct: For public comments, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (Act No 68 of 2008).
   

7. 
   General Notice No 876, published in Government Gazette No 38076, dated 10 October 2014: Amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice: For public comments, in terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act, 2013.
   

8. 
   Government Notice No 802, published in Government Gazette No 38088, dated 17 October 2014: Proposed amendment to the Compulsory Specifications for Replacement Brake Lining Assemblies for Road Vehicles (VC 8025), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
   

9. 
   Government Notice No 803, published in Government Gazette No 38088, dated 17 October 2014: Amendment of the Compulsory Specification for frozen shrimps (prawns), langoustines and crabs, and Products derived therefrom (VC 8031), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
   

10. 
    Government Notice No 804, published in Government Gazette No 38088, dated 17 October 2014: Proposed amendment to the compulsory specification for Motor Vehicles of Category N2/3 (VC 8025), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    

11. 
    Government Notice No 805, published in Government Gazette No 38088, dated 17 October 2014: Proposed amendment to compulsory specification for small arms shooting ranges (VC 9088), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    

12. 
    Government Notice No R. 791, published in Government Gazette No 38089, dated 17 October 2014: Regulations relating to the payment of levy and fees with regard to Compulsory Specifications: Amendments, in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    
13. 
    Government Notice No R. 807, published in Government Gazette No 38089, dated 17 October 2014: Regulations relating to the tariff of fees charged for services rendered in terms of the Trade Metrology Act, 1973 (Act No 77 of 2008) by the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications : Amendments.
    

14. 
    Government Notice No 817, published in Government Gazette No 38107, dated 17 October 2014: Prescription of the South African Automotive Industry Code and Accreditation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Scheme Administered by the Motor Industry Ombud of South Africa as an accredited Industry Ombud, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 (Act No 68 of 2008).
    

15. 
    Proclamation No 72, published in Government Gazette No 38126, dated 24 October 2014: Commencement in terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act, 2013 (Act No 46 of 2013).
    

16. 
    Government Notice No 834, published in Government Gazette No 38128, dated 31 October 2014: Compulsory specifications for electronic luminaires (VC 9012), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    

17. 
    Government Notice No 835, published in Government Gazette No 38128, dated 31 October 2014: Amendment to the Compulsory Specification for Electrical and Electronic Apparatus (VC 8055), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    

18. 
    Government Notice No 836, published in Government Gazette No 38128, dated 31 October 2014: Proposed amendment to the Compulsory Specification Motor Vehicles of Category M2/3 (VC 8023), in terms of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act, 2008 (Act No 5 of 2008).
    

19. 
    General Notice No 1001, published in Government Gazette No 38202, dated 12 November 2014: Amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice: For public comments, in terms of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Act , 2013.