The Department of Social Development was supposed to appear before the Select Committee of Social Services for the consideration of its Budget Vote and to present its annual Performance Plan today. The grant payment debacle that played itself out in public recently was bound to surface. It did. It did in an unpalatable manner caused by the absence of the Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini.
The no-show of the minister miffed the members of this Select Committee. They berated what they considered to be an unbecoming trend on her part of snubbing this Committee whenever she is required to appear before it. The Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Landulile Dlamini, said: “Unlike Portfolio Committees, we normally call the department at the most four times per year and still she does not avail herself to us. We find that disturbing and unacceptable as a Committee.
We are insisting on the minister’s presence because we are taking the work of this Committee very seriously because it is responsible for the vulnerable groups in our society. And most of all, we are representing provinces, we wanted to raise issues to the minister which should be considered in your Budget Vote and Performance Plan. We are afraid that when the minister is not present here, those concerns may not be considered.
“When there was much said about the grant payment debacle we kept quiet,” said the chairperson, “because we did not want to be part of that noise. We knew that our time will come to deal constructively with this matter. As such, part of this meeting was to ascertain why the new grant payment plan that was presented to us was not executed.”
Referring to a sizeable entourage of officials from the department, she stated: “We respect you as officials. But there are issues and responsibilities that require political heads’ commitments that you cannot commit to. Thus far we have been tolerant of the minister who has not appeared before this Committee. If the minister has issues with it, she must explain to us what those issues and how they can be resolved.”
There is no official that can speak on behalf of the political head, reiterated the Whip of the Committee, Ms Tsapane Mampuru. “What if you come here and commit on certain issues only to find out that the minister has changed her mind on those very isues. The Chairperson is right, we did not want to part of the noise that was out there during the grant payment debacle. I am of the view that we should call this meeting off until the minister appears before us in person.”
“Indeed, are you in a position to explain what happened to the new grant payment plan you presented to us?” asked the Chairperson of the Committee. “How did we get to what we got into if there was such a plan? Why must we trust your word that your entity will meet the deadlines as planned? Last time you presented a plan and it was not honoured. Why must we trust your word as officials now?”
“Sadly there is a growing trends of a minister who does not account to either this Committee or the House questions and that is uncalled for – and is a matter that has to be attended to as a matter of urgency,” said another Committee member, Mr Mntomuhle Khawula.
So disturbed were the members of the Committee that at one point the officials of the department and the media were asked to vacate the room while the members of the Committee were trying to find common ground among themselves, whether to send the officials of the department packing back to Pretoria or to continue with the meeting in the minister’s absence. After a while they were called in and the Chairperson stated: “We must be careful not to be seen to be taking a decision that will ultimately punish the beneficiaries of our social services. Because if this meeting does not sit, the department won’t have money to fund its programmes and one of which is its disbursement of grants.
“It has become clear that the minister does not take us seriously, and this meeting will not proceed,” said the Chairperson. “We have nonetheless agreed that we will compromise one day of our schedule to consider the Budget Vote and the Performance Plan of the department because we care about our people. We have agreed we are not going to proceed with this meeting. In three years we have not met the minister once and her deputy. That cannot be acceptable. We are not going to allow you to present to us in the absence of the minister. This is to show that we are serious about service delivery.”
She went on to add: “We have to compromise because the department needs a budget and if we don’t approve it we will be punishing its noble cause. And we don’t want to be seen to be doing that. We have, therefore, resolved that the department must pay for a venue in Gauteng and we as the Committee will fund our travelling expenses for the said meeting.”
The Chairperson asked the department’s delegation: “How are you going to account for the expenditure of coming here? What benefit you derived from it? The minister’s no-show has landed you in a dilemma of a fruitless expenditure. How are you going to account for it?”
By Abel Mputing
2 May 2017
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