THE Budgetary Review and Recommendation
Report (BRRR) of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs, DATED 21 October
2014
The Portfolio
Committee on Environmental Affairs (the Portfolio Committee), having considered
the performance and submission to the National Treasury for the medium-term
period of the Department of Environmental Affairs (the Department), and it
entities, namely, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, South African
National Biodiversity Institute, South African National Parks and the South
African Weather Service, reports as follows:
1.
Introduction
The Portfolio
Committee fully appreciates the wisdom that underlies the President’s decision
to excise the Environmental Affairs from the Water Affairs in the Fifth Parliament, considering the
significant roles that these two sectors play in the wellbeing of South
Africans at any given moment. The separation between the two has allowed for a
focused approach to the management of the respective sectors to ensure that they
fulfil their constitutional imperatives in a sustainably equitable manner, consistent
with the expectations of South Africans of all walks of life. Indeed, the
President’s decision reflected the constitutional reasoning for ensuring a
rights-based access to clean and safe water as well as a rights-based access to
a clean and healthy environment. It might certainly have poised a huge
challenge for a single parliamentary Portfolio Committee to oversee these
strategic sectors, each of which requires a dedicated
and focused oversight function.
1.1 Mandate of Committee
The mandate of the
Portfolio Committee is to enhance the principles of a developmental state
through passing legislation and to facilitate public participation, monitoring
and oversight functions over the legislative processes relating to the
environment; confer with relevant governmental and civil society organs on the
impact of environmental legislation and related matters, enhance and develop
the capacity of committee members in the exercise of effective oversight over
the Executive Authority. Thus, the core mandate of
the Committee is to:
·
Consider legislation
referred to it;
·
Conduct oversight of any
organ of State and constitutional institutions falling within its portfolio;
·
Consider international
agreements; and
·
Consider the budgets,
strategic plans, annual performance plans and related performance reports of
the Department and entities falling within its portfolio.
2.
Purpose of the Budgetary Review and
Recommendation Report
The Money Bills
Procedures and Related Matters Amendment Act No 9 of 2009 (the Money Bills Act)
sets out the process that allows Parliament to make recommendations to the
Minister of Finance to amend the budget of a national Department. In October of
each year, portfolio committees must compile the Budgetary Review and
Recommendation Reports (BRRR) that assess service delivery performance given the
available resources; evaluate the effective and efficient use and forward
allocation of resources; and may make recommendations on forward use of
resources. The BRRR also sources documents for the Standing/Select Committees
on Appropriations/Finance when they make recommendations to the Houses of
Parliament on the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTPBS). The comprehensive
review and analysis of the previous financial year’s performance, as well as
performance to date, form part of this process.
The Budgetary Review and
Recommendations Report of the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs is
based on the information that it accessed through various engagements with the
Department on its annual planning processes and with relevant stakeholders on
legislation as indicated below:
·
The 2013 State of the Nation Address;
·
Department of Environmental Affairs Strategic
Plan and Annual Performance Plan for 2013/14;
·
Department of Environmental Affairs Annual
Report and Financial Statements for
2013/14;
·
Quarterly Reports of the Department;
·
Report of the Auditor-General to Parliament
on the Financial Statements of Vote Number 30;
·
National Development Plan (NDP);
·
New Growth Path (NGP);
·
National Treasury Section 32 Reports; and
·
The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs
BRR Report for 2013/14.
The Committee further engaged
with the following entities that report to the Minister of Environmental
Affairs, namely:
·
The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority
(IWPA);
·
South African National Biodiversity Institute
(SANBI);
·
South African National Parks (SANParks); and
·
The South African Weather Service (SAWS).
3.
Core functions of the Department and its
Entities
The Department is
mandated to ensure the protection of the environment and conservation of
natural resources, balanced with sustainable and climate change-resilient
development and the equitable distribution of the benefits derived from natural
resources. In its quest for better use and engagement of the natural
environment, the Department is guided by its constitutional mandate, as
contained in section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of
1996.
The Department
fulfils its mandate through formulating, coordinating and monitoring the
implementation of national environmental policies, programmes and legislation
with the additional support from entities such as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Authority, SANBI, SANParks and the SAWS. As the national partner in a
concurrent function, the Department leads the environmental sector by setting
the policy and legislative framework and the norms and standards required for
environmentally sustainable development. This role is evident through the large
numbers of policy and legislative instruments initiated and processed by the
Department.
3.1 Departmental Strategic Goals over the
Medium Term
The Department’s strategic goals over the
medium term are to:
·
Ensure that the Department has optimal
capacity to deliver services efficiently and effectively;
·
Ensure that South Africa’s environmental
assets are conserved, valued, sustainably used, protected and continually
enhanced for the benefit of both current and future generations;
·
Enhance socio-economic benefits and
employment creation in a safe, clean and healthy environment for both present
and future generations;
·
Provide leadership in environmental
management, conservation and protection towards sustainability for the benefit
of both current and future generations of South Africans;
·
Manage the interface between the environment
and development to encourage the transformation of the development trajectory
to an environmentally sustainable, inclusive, low-carbon and green economic
growth path;
·
Promote compliance with environmental
legislation and act decisively against transgressors;
·
Develop and facilitate the implementation of
a climate change adaptation and mitigation regulatory framework;
·
Work and participate in international United
Nations (UN) platforms to ensure that -international climate change or global
warming is fully mitigated by the international communities;
·
Facilitate the transition to environmentally
sustainable, job-creating and low-carbon, green development pathway through the
national Green Fund and environmental projects in the expanded public works
programme;
·
Improve the provision of quality waste
management services across the country with clear environmental health benefits
for communities, particularly those without previous access to waste management
services; and
·
Participate and contribute meaningfully to the
international effort, within the ambit of the United Nations, to craft new
sustainable development goals (SDGs), which will replace and enhance the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015.
4.
Consideration and assessment of service
delivery performance in relation to available resources of the Department and
its entities
4.1 Policy Thrust
The priority policy
areas for the Department over the medium term included providing support to Local
Government in the areas of air quality management, waste management,
biodiversity management, coastal planning and open space planning;
strengthening compliance and enforcement activities; drawing linkages between
climate change, the green economy and sustainable development; aligning
governance systems with the new outcomes-based approach, paying particular
attention to ensuring that environmental assets and natural resources are
valued, protected and continually enhanced (Outcome
10); and focusing on key national and international engagements.
The
Department’s constitutional imperative to have the environment that is not
harmful to the health or well-being of South Africans; and to have the
environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations,
through reasonable legislative and other measures, is fundamentally reflected
in the Department’s strategic goals. These strategic goals have further been
strengthened by the vision of the National Development Plan (NDP) for an
environmentally sustainable, climate change-resilient and low-carbon economy
for South Africa. This means that the challenges of deteriorating environmental
quality due to pollution, waste management and natural resource degradation,
destruction and depletion must be effectively addressed. Thus, the NDP
underscores the need to sustain ecosystems, mitigate climate change and manage
the transition towards a low-carbon economy well. Consequently, this requires
the Department to effectively manage the interface between the environment and
development in a manner that facilitates and maximises the potential for South
Africa to transform its current and future development trajectory to an
environmentally sustainable, inclusive, low-carbon and green economic growth
path.
It
is noteworthy that the Department’s strategic policy priorities are aligned
primarily with the Government’s Outcome
10 that requires the Department to ensure that “Environmental Assets and Natural Resources are
valued, protected and continually enhanced.” Outcome 10 is one of the 12 Outcomes adopted at the Cabinet
Lekgotla held from 20th to 22nd January 2010. Outcome 10 has the following four
outputs:[1] Enhanced quality and quantity of water
resources (Output 1); Reduced greenhouse gas emissions, climate change
impacts and improved air/atmospheric quality (Output 2); Sustainable
environmental management (Output 3); and Protected biodiversity (Output
4). To achieve these strategic outputs, the Department is
appropriately structured into seven programmes to meet its constitutional
mandate, vision and mission as well as the expectation on it in the NDP. In addition,
the Department is expected to facilitate and lead cooperative environmental
governance to support the transition to environmentally sustainable development
across the three spheres of Government.
4.2 Service
Delivery and Performance of the Department
The Department and the respective entities mainly provide public goods
and services and hence in many instances are difficult to calculate quantitatively.
For example, the mandate of SANBI is to play a leading role in South
Africa’s national commitment to biodiversity management. It is tasked to lead
the biodiversity research agenda; provide knowledge and information; give
policy support and advice; manage gardens as windows to our biodiversity for
leisure, enjoyment, spiritual upliftment and education; and engage in ecosystem
restoration and rehabilitation programmes and best-practice models to manage
biodiversity better. Current economic appraisals do not account fully for most
of the work done by SANBI, iSimangaliso Wetland
Park Authority, SANParks and SAWS. The role of SAWS in averting natural
disasters by providing timely information on imminent weather threats can only
be imperfectly captured by existing economic appraisal systems, considering the
diverse and world-wide nature of beneficiaries. Indeed, this is the nature of
the work of the Department and its respective entities.
Notwithstanding, in executing its mandate, the Department spent
R5 200 307 000 of the total allocation of R5 206 842 000, which represents
99.9 per cent of total spending. The 0.1 per cent that was not spent during the
2013/14 financial year was mainly due to the compensation of employees funds,
which were not spent on time, as the vacant posts were filled later than
anticipated; projects progressed slower than anticipated; and the National
Regulator for Compulsory Services claimed R280 000 less than allocated.
Significant services that the Department performed in the year under review are
as follows:
·
The target to issue 66 TOPS permits to
traders; exporters or importers of TOPS listed species; scientific
Institutions; and government Departments and Parastatals was fully met;
·
Target to process 125 applications from
relevant stakeholders for issuing of CITES permits was fully met;
·
Target to assess and issue 45 GMO
applications within timeframe (21 days) was met 100 per cent;
·
Target to assess 22 BABS applications for
permits within prescribed timeframes was fully achieved;
·
Target to respond to 90 per cent of
complaints and incidents from the members of the public within prescribed
timeframe, was substantially met, as 89 per cent (89/100) of the complaints
were attended to within timeframe;
·
Target to assess 68 per cent of EIA
applications received within timeframe was exceeded, with 76 per cent
(1057/1393) of the applications having been assessed and decisions issued;
·
Target to finalise 96 per
cent of applications received and issue
Waste Management Licences was substantially achieved at 63 per cent (79/125);
·
Target to process 80 per cent of contaminated
land reports within the timeframe of 45 days, was exceeded as 100 per cent
(50/50) of the reports were reviewed within the timeframe;
·
Target to finalise 100 per cent of
applications for Marine Research Permits within the timeframe of 50 days, was
substantially achieved as 85 per cent (58/68) of the permits were issued within
the timeframes;
·
The 100 per cent target to finalise
applications for off-road vehicle permits within the timeframe of 40 days, was
significantly achieved, as 83 per cent (34/41) of the permits were issued;
·
Target of 100 per cent issuing of permits for
activities within marine protected areas (i.e. filming and transport of marine
protected species) within the
timeframe of 10 working days, was substantially achieved, with 80 per cent
(48/60) of permits issued on time;
·
Target of 100 per cent issuing of dumping
permits within the timeframe of 45 days was significantly met (75 per cent
[6/8] permits issued on time);
·
Responding to 95 per cent of the Promotion of Access to Information Act [PAIA] (Act No 2 of 2000) requests on time was
exceeded, as 96 per cent (25/26) of the requests were dealt with in terms of
the PAIA requirements;
·
Target of 100 per cent response to
parliamentary questions and requirements within the timeframe, was
significantly achieved, as 95 per cent (75/79) of parliamentary questions were responded
to within timeframes; and
·
The target of responding 100 per cent to
Presidential Hotline queries on time, within three working days, was successfully
met at 100 per cent (9/9).
4.2.1 Administration
The
purpose of the Administration Programme is to provide leadership, strategic
centralised administration and executive support, corporate services and
facilitate effective cooperative governance, international relations and
environmental education and awareness. The
Department achieved the following in the Administration Programme:
·
Received an unqualified Audit Report and spent 99.9
per cent of its allocated budget;
·
Managed to attain its 100
per cent compliance target with key governance requirements within the set
timeframes;
·
Implemented the
Transformation Strategy and met the target of 56 per cent target in the appointment
of women (891/1588), 90 per cent (1437/1588) blacks and 2.2 per cent people
with disabilities;
·
Finalised the construction
of the new Head-Office Building;
·
Skills Development Strategy
was also implemented, resulting in the awarding of 38 bursaries, 100 interns
recruited, 145 teachers trained in Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statements
and 172 officials completed NEMA Training; and
·
US$40.50 million of donor
funds were mobilised, against the target of US$25 million, to support environmental and sustainable
development programmes.
However, the Department was unable to fill vacancies as per the approved
structure and there were delays in some of the programmes that relied on donor
funding such as Climate Change, resulting in non-achievement of planned
targets. Furthermore, the polarised stakeholder perspectives on regulatory
aspects, delayed the gazetting of the Vredefort Dome World Heritage Regulations
in the case of Biodiversity and Conservation Programme.
4.2.2 Legal, Authorisations, Compliance and
Enforcement
The
purpose of the Legal, Authorisations, Compliance and Enforcement Programme is
to promote the development and implementation of an enabling legal regime and
licensing/authorisation system to ensure enforcement and compliance with
environmental law. In this programme, the Department achieved the following targets:
·
Inspected 135
environmental authorisations for compliance;
·
26 criminal investigations were finalised and dockets handed over to the National Prosecuting
Authority;
·
Trained 1 003 wildlife
monitors and deployed them with host employers across the country;
·
Implemented the interventions
for safety and security of wildlife, including Rhinoceros
populations in South Africa. This comprised the agreement on areas of cooperation with Safety and Security Agencies such as
South African Police Service (HAWKS),
Intelligence and Defence and other countries such as Mozambique, China and Hong Kong, Rhino funding mechanism, construction of border fence between South Africa and Mozambique, verification of Rhino horn stockpiles as
well as the recognition of Rhino as a national security
threat and the establishment of a Priority Committee on Wildlife Crime, which
has developed the joint action plan on Rhino.
The biggest challenge in this Programme has been the relentless killing
of South African Rhinos despite the huge commitment of resources to monitor and
enforce law.
4.2.3 Oceans
and Coasts
The
purpose of the Oceans and Coasts Programme is to promote, manage and provide
strategic leadership on oceans and coastal conservation. For the period under review, the Department realised the following:
·
The Ocean Management
White Paper was approved by
Cabinet;
·
Developed and implemented the Plan for the Southern Oceans and Sub-Antarctic Islands Management Strategy;
·
Finalised the Wild Coast Oil Spill Contingency Plan and drafted the
National Oil Spill Contingency Plan;
·
Five estuarine management
plans for Mngazi, Mngazana,
Grootbrak, Ntafufu, Thukela and Nahoon were developed; and
·
Three
relief voyages were
undertaken to SANAE, Marion Islands and Gough Islands.
4.2.4 Climate Change and Air Quality
The
mandate of the Climate Change and Air Quality Programme is to improve air and
atmospheric quality, lead and support, inform, monitor and report efficient and
effective international, national and significant provincial and local
responses to climate change. It is in this respect that the Department achieved the following outcomes in this Programme in the
2013/14 financial year:
·
Finalised the recommendations on mainstreaming
of mitigation action into five
sectoral policies and plans;
·
Finalised Long Term Adaptation Scenarios Phase 1 reports on Climate
Scenarios, Impact Scenarios and Adaptation Options for five sectors, namely, Biodiversity, Human Health, Water,
Agriculture and Marine Fisheries;
·
Reviewed and finalised the climate change policy alignment and review
reports for the four planned sectors
(Water, Agriculture/Commercial Forestry, Biodiversity and Eco-systems, and
Health);
·
107 air quality monitoring
stations (including
84 Government-owned) reported data on South African Air Quality Information
System;
·
Promulgated the 2012 National Framework for Air Quality
Management; and
·
Draft Offset Policy was finalised and cabinet
memorandum submitted for approval.
4.2.5 Biodiversity and Conservation
The
mandate of the Biodiversity and Conservation Programme is to ensure the
regulation and management of all biodiversity, heritage and conservation
matters in a manner that facilitates sustainable economic growth and
development. In this Programme, the Department realised the following
achievements:
·
Legislative
tools for Threatened and Protected Species;
·
Norms and
standards for BMP ecosystems published for implementation;
·
Secured one
additional investment of R50 million from Boundless Southern Africa Catalogue;
·
Established
the very first Transboundary World Heritage Site — Maloti Drakensburg; and
·
Published the
Mining and Biodiversity Guidelines.
4.2.6 Environmental Programmes
The
purpose of the Environmental Programmes Programme is to facilitate
implementation of expanded public works and green economy projects in the
environmental sector. This is the largest departmental Programme, and plays a
critical role in job creation, consistent with the objectives of key Government
macroeconomic frameworks, notably the NGP and NDP. Consequently, the Department
made these significant strides in the year under review:
·
80 658 work opportunities were created, exceeding
the 65 494 target;
·
Attained 53 per cent women beneficiaries against the set target of 55 per cent;
·
Achieved 62 per cent youth
beneficiaries against the set target of 55
per cent;
·
Achieved 1.73 per cent recruitment of people with disabilities against the set target of 2 per cent;
·
900 young people benefitted from the Youth Environmental
Service;
·
137 overnight visitor and staff accommodation
units were established and renovated,
narrowly missing the target by a per cent;
·
122 wetlands rehabilitated, exceeding the 110-wetland
target;
·
945 276 hectares of invasive alien plants cleared, more than the 863 067-ha target;
·
46 181 ha of land restored and rehabilitated, more than the 28 428-ha target; and
·
2 174 km of accessible coastline cleaned, exceeding the 2 113-km
target.
4.2.7 Chemicals and Waste Management
The
purpose of the Chemicals and Waste
Management Programme is to manage and ensure that chemicals and waste
management policies and legislation are implemented and enforced in compliance
with chemicals and waste management authorisations, directives and agreements. In the past 2013/14 financial
year, the Department accomplished the following:
·
Promulgated the Waste Classification and Management
Regulations;
·
Published Waste Management Activity List for implementation;
·
Set the waste tyres recycling targets
as follows: 2014–59000, 2015–90000, 2016–120000
and 2017-175000;
·
84 Basic Assessment Reports for unlicensed waste
disposal sites were finalised and
submitted to the provinces of the Western Cape, Limpopo, Northern Cape and the Eastern
Cape for the issuing of decisions; and
·
The Methyl bromide was finalised and implemented through the processing of
permit applications.
It is noteworthy that
recycling
has important bearings on Job-creation. The sector has a huge potential in terms of financial
turnover, and is envisaged to inject 1 000 jobs in 2014/15 and 10 000 by
2018/19 in the economy. The Committee looks forward to 2016, when suitable and
innovative legislative mechanisms on waste take off, especially the separation
of waste from the source, and cumulatively change the way how South Africans
perceive waste.
4.3
Performance of the Departmental Entities
Performance by the Department’s four
entities are as follows:
4.3.1 iSimangaliso
Wetland Park
The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority in KwaZulu-Natal was established
in terms of the World Heritage Convention Act (Act No 49 of 1999), with the
mandate to ensure that effective and active measures were taken in the Park for
the protection and conservation of World Heritage Convention values; promote
empowerment of historically disadvantaged communities living adjacent to the
Park; promote, manage, oversee, market and facilitate optimal tourism and
related development in the Park; and encourage, sustain, invest and contribute
to job creation.
Since its inception, the Wetland Park Authority has established an
excellent record of clean (unqualified)
audit opinion from the Auditor General, with the past 2013/14 financial
year not being an exception. The key achievements for the 2013/14 financial
year are as follows:
·
Exceeded seven
KPIs and only four were not met due
to delays in grant funds;
·
Achieved 1 514 temporary jobs and 23
permanent jobs;
·
33 000 people were trained, including 57
young people in university;
·
Park revenue increased up to R12.4 million;
·
Visitor numbers also increased to 533 451;
·
Supported 174 small businesses;
·
Revenue shared with land claimants amounted
to R800 000 per annum;
·
R200 million invested in infrastructure
development and upgrade;
·
Cleared 14 000 ha of plantations;
·
R86.2 million revenue was generated;
·
Increased tourism establishments by 84 per
cent in the areas surrounding the Park; and
·
Was awarded the 2014 Greening for the Future
Award in Youth Leadership and Job Creation from the Mail and Guardian.
Despite these significant achievements, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Authority registered a non-cash deficit, amounting to R21.3 million due to the
liquidation of Sinyati (the contractor), obliging the Park Authority to write
off the balance.
4.3.2 South African National Biodiversity
Institute (SANBI)
SANBI was established in September 2004, in terms of the National
Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Act No 10 of 2004). The mandate of
the Institute is to monitor and report regularly on the status of South
Africa’s biodiversity, all listed threatened or protected species, ecosystems
and invasive species; and the impact of any genetically modified organism that
has been realised into the environment. The Institute is also mandated to act
as an advisory and consultative body on matters relating to organs of State and
other biodiversity stakeholders; coordinate and promote the taxonomy of South
Africa’s biodiversity; manage, control and maintain all national botanical
gardens, herbaria and collections of dead animals that may exist; and advise
the Minister of Environmental Affairs on any matter regulated in terms of the
Act, and any international agreements affecting biodiversity that are binding
on South Africa. It is in executing its legally conferred mandate that SANBI
achieved the following targets for the reporting period 2013/14:
·
818 Groen
Sebenza ‘Pioneers’ skilled and hosted by SANBI and 43 partners from public,
private and NGOs;
·
Established
agreements for two new national
botanical gardens in the Eastern Cape (Kwelera) and Limpopo Provinces
(Thohoyandou);
·
Ministerial
launch of the State of South
Africa’s Biodiversity;
·
The
production, ministerial approval and co-signing of the Mining and Biodiversity Guidelines.
·
Strengthened
relations with DEA and other departments/key stakeholders/partners;
·
Employment
equity targets achieved;
·
Career
path developed for scientists and horticulturalists;
·
Increased
generation and access to information and implementation of BRAHMS (Botanical
Research and Herbarium Management System);
·
Financial
stability and unqualified audit opinions,
at least in the past five consecutive years;
·
Improved
performance management and compliance; and
·
More
visitors to the Gardens, resulting in more income than in any other year, as Kirstenbosch
turns 100 years old and SANBI celebrates 10 years of existence.
Notwithstanding, SANBI faced some challenges in the provision of evidence-based
information for the Strategic Integrated Programme; financial and human
resource implications for SANBI of coordinating Strategic Integrated Programme
19; implementation of the new Invasive Species Regulations and financial and
human resources implications thereof; and the establishment of the two new Gardens in the Eastern Cape and
Limpopo provinces was met with certain challenges and thus required careful
planning and allocation of human and financial resources.
4.3.3 South African National
Parks (SANParks)
SANParks was
established in terms of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas
Act (Act No 57 of 2003), with the mandate to conserve, protect, control and
manage national parks and other defined protected areas and biological
diversity.
It is in executing its legal mandate that SANParks achieved the following targets in the year under review:
·
Received
an unqualified audit opinion with
emphasis of matter;
·
Total
number of free access entrance increased to 215 232, more than the
previous financial year;
·
Tourism
revenue improved by 13.4 per cent to R970.8 million compared to the previous
financial year;
·
Visitor
numbers also increased to 5 235 095 compared to 467 018 in the
previous reporting year;
·
Created
241 permanent jobs and 114 temporary jobs;
·
Customer
satisfaction index increased to 79.1 per cent against the set target of 77.3 per
cent;
·
Received the best
People Project Award for the Alghulus Wetland Project;
·
Created and supported
624 SMMEs; and
·
Developed
infrastructure, entailing the construction of the Skukuza Airport and
restaurants in parks.
Despite these significant achievements,
particularly in creating employment, consistent with the Government’s
macroeconomic framework priorities, SANParks encountered certain crucial
challenges. For example, although SANParks
received an unqualified audit opinion,
there were material misstatements to the annual financial statements and the
rate at which South African Rhinos are killed continues to increase, with 868 animals
already lost to poachers, as of mid-October 2014.
4.3.4 South
African Weather Service (SAWS)
The South African Weather Services was established
in terms of the South African Weather Service Act (Act No 8 of 2001), with the mandate
to provide two distinct services, i.e., the public good service, which is
funded by the Government and commercial services where the user pays principle applies. This entails maintaining, extending
and improving the quality of meteorological services, providing risk
information, which is essential for minimising the impact of disasters,
collecting meteorological data over oceans and fulfilling Government’s
international obligations under the World Meteorological Organisation and the
International Civil Aviation Organisation.
For the period under review, SAWS achieved the
following outcomes:
·
Unqualified audit for
the seventh year in a row;
·
Met 80 per cent of its
set objectives;
·
Developed two hydro-
and agro-meteorological applications to assist the agricultural and water
sectors in the country;
·
Developed web portal
for disaster management to assist rural communities;
·
Supported the aviation
industry and complied 100 per cent with the International Civil Aviation Organisation
audit and also developed South African Civil
Aviation Authority Pilot Training curriculum;
·
Developed and
implemented a risk assessment pilot project with the Mopani Local Municipality
In Limpopo;
·
Finalised the National
Atmospheric Emissions Inventory System and rolled out the South African Air Quality
Information System phase II;
·
Hosted the National
Climate Services workshop dealing with Long Term Adaptation Scenarios and
developed the Education Plan for the National Framework for Climate Services;
and
·
The CEO, Dr Linda
Makuleni was appointed as the Co-Chair of the IBCS Management Committee in the
year under review.
5. CONTRIBUTION of
the Department and Entities to Key Government Macroeconomic frameworks
The prevailing
economic circumstance has resulted in a situation where Government in general
and the Department specifically, are required to deliver more with existing or
reduced resources. Consequently, the Department is not always able to fund the
approved structure, thereby impacting on its capacity and speed at which it
delivers on priorities. It was in this respect that the Department continued to
build strategic partnerships with donors and looked for innovative ways to
address existing financial constraints and enhance efficiency to improve
resourcing of departmental priorities. However, it is apparent that the global
economic environment has also led to a decrease in funds raised from donors.
The other complication with donor funds is seemingly the protracted processes to
be followed before funds could be made available. This compelled the Department
to introspect and emphasise resource efficiency and best value-for-money results
in the implementation of all its programmes. The same emphasis also followed
all the departmental transfers to its four entities, comprising the
iSimangaliso Wetlands Park, SANBI, SANParks and SAWS in the 2013/14 financial
year.
Notwithstanding,
the Department obtained a clean
(unqualified) audit opinion in the year under review, and is indeed a
high performance-driven organisation that serves with integrity, as the
custodian and ambassador for South Africa’s environment that should be
bequeathed to future generations in a manner that encourages its sustainability
indefinitely.[2]
In this regard, the Department has an established record of unqualified audit opinions ever since it
came into existence as a separate Department in the 2010/11 financial year. However,
the Auditor-General drew attention to a fruitless expenditure, amounting to R26
million, but underscored that this was not detected by the Auditor-General, but
rather by the Department in its quest to properly close some of its projects
from previous years. The Department further clarified this matter to the satisfaction
of the Committee.
5.1 Performance
against Key Macroeconomic Frameworks
New Growth Path (NGP):5
million jobs (2010-2020)
·
Increase
employment from 13 million in 2010 to 18 million in 2020.
·
Employment needs
to increase at an average estimate of 3.4 per cent/annum (2010-2020).
National Development Plan (NDP): 11 million jobs 2010-2030
·
Increase
employment from 13 million in 2010 to 24 million in 2030.
Outcome
4: Decent Employment through Inclusive Economic Growth
·
Output
2: More labour-absorbing growth sub-output: Green Economy
5.1.1 Department
The Department’s constitutional
imperative to have the environment that is not harmful to the health or
well-being of South Africans; and to have the environment protected, for the
benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and
other measures, is further boosted by the vision of the National Development
Plan (NDP), which is that of an environmentally sustainable, climate
change-resilient and low-carbon economy for South Africa until 2030. The need
to ensure environmental sustainability and climate change-resilient and
low-carbon economy cannot occur in vacuum, without the requisite labour force.
It is precisely on this premise that the above key Government macroeconomic
frameworks emphasise job creation, with the expectation on the Department that
good environmental management
coupled with integrated development planning is fundamental in building a
low-carbon economy that supports resilient ecosystems and economies. The
Department believes that healthy and intact ecosystems offer more options for
the country to respond to climate change, thereby alleviating poverty and
building a green economy in the process.
The
Department’s ability to create 80 658 work opportunities in the year under review is attributed to the
significant allocation of a total amount of R 2.39 billion for the Expanded
Public Works Programme located in the Environmental Programmes. This gave
impetus to the attainment of the job-creation objective of Government by the
Department, and secured vital environmental benefits from the work done. Jobs
created in the 2013/14 financial year derived from the Working for Water,
Working on Fire and the Environmental Protection and Infrastructure programmes,
through their various sub-programmes that led to the rehabilitation of 122 wetlands;
over 2 100 kilometres of coastline cleaned; rehabilitation of estuaries and
dunes; construction of boardwalks to facilitate access; planting trees;
building of waste buy-back centres; and removing invasive alien plants, provision
of infrastructure to facilitate conservation and rehabilitation of thousands of
hectares of land in the 2013/14 financial year.
5.1.2 Entities
It is in fulfilling
the expectations on them to meaningfully contribute to Government’s key
macroeconomic frameworks that the departmental entities took significant steps in
providing employment. This is exemplified by the iSimangaliso Wetland Park
Authority that provided temporary employment to 1 514 and permanent jobs to 23
individuals in the year under, exceeding the respective targets earmarked.
This, of course, excludes the 82 ownership of BEE SMMEs in the same year.
Similarly, SANParks made huge strides towards Government’s macroeconomic
frameworks, resulting in increased total number of person days on temporary
jobs to 1 094 961; total number of temporary jobs created through
EPWP to 13 141; and total number of SMMEs supported to 624, as opposed to
the planned target of 444 SMMEs. Similarly, SANBI’s involvement in the Groen Sebenza initiative and SANParks ability
to create 241 permanent jobs and 114 temporary jobs in the year under
review indicate the commitment of these departmental entities to
a more balanced and equitable approach to the economic, social and
environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
6.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The Portfolio
Committee, in its conclusions, thanked the Department for its professional and
highly skilled workforce that has over the past few years, not only managed to
attain unqualified audits, but is continuously updating its knowledge base in
line with key government policies such as the National Development Plan, and
other international and regional agreements and conventions. The Portfolio
Committee expresses its appreciation of the performance of the Department and its
Entities in terms of Predetermined Objectives; Service Delivery and Governance,
but notes and recommends the following:
·
Overall, the
Portfolio Committee was pleased with the performance of the Department,
however, there was also a legitimate concern that the Department did not have
sufficient funding and that this impacted on the Department’s ability to
implement
its
constitutional mandate in terms of certain critical
programmes, and associated outputs. It is unlikely for the Department
to effectively deliver on desired economic, social and environmental targets in
light of the declining budget allocation to the Department and hence its entities. This is especially true
in the context of a recent study showing deterioration in the state of South
Africa’s environment[3]
due to mounting pressures on the country’s environmental assets in recent
years. Decreased budget allocations would also appear to be counter-intuitive
to the strategic role that the environment plays in the nation’s economy.
Indeed, South Africa’s natural
environment is the bedrock of its economic and
social development; it underpins our
economy, health and safety, which are the very elements that encourage us as
citizens to live and work in our country. This significance ought to be
reflected in our budgetary commitments to the environmental sector; and it is
in this context that the Portfolio Committee reaffirms that:
o The National
Treasury should progressively increase budget allocations to the Department in
real terms, considering the ever-growing pressure on South Africa’s
environmental sector. Increased funding focus on the environment in the context
of its multi-faceted role and contribution to our wellbeing and economy would
not only safeguard our future, but also that of future generations of South
Africans.
o On its part, the Department should ensure compliance with the
requirements of the National Treasury (e.g., Modified Cash Standard) to ensure
that financial resources allocated to it and hence its entities are optimally
used to achieve best results.
·
The
Department should ensure that existing and future projects are appropriately
closed off to avoid any future incidents of fruitless expenditure.
·
The
Department should clarify the impact of its inability to meet its own recruitment target in the year under
review (2013/14) on its performance.
·
There
needs to be a clear multi-pronged strategy for sustainably bringing down the
growing number of Rhino killings in our national parks, clearly outlining those
‘low-hanging fruit’ interventions, with immediate results; medium-term
solutions; and long-term solutions, not only to stabilise poaching, but to stem
it out completely. Some of these interventions could be of an institutional
nature, for example:
o The
Department could engage the National Prosecuting Authority or other competent
authority in Government to effect amendments in relevant criminal legislation
(e.g., the Trespass Act, 1959 [Act 6 of
1959]) in order to enable the prosecution of armed poachers and their
accomplices caught in protected areas for more serious offences, rather than
merely for trespass and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition to deter
illegal entry into protected areas. This is actually a request made by the
Police Special Taskforce (one of the key members of the Rhino protection
alliance) currently based inside the Kruger National Park.
·
The Department should
provide a written response to Parliament on the number of convictions in the
case of Rhino killing, clearly identifying linkages between arrests and
convictions. Reasons should be provided, in case of big disparities between the
two.
·
The Department should
demystify ‘consultancy’ to clearly see which other categories of service
providers were inappropriately categorised as such, in the year under review.
Recruitment for provision of cyclical services could occur smartly under
seasonal or contract employment, where payment for services occurs on DEA’s
terms rather than on the terms of ‘consultants’.
·
The Department should
brief the Committee or provide a detailed written information in respect to
compliance with the Air Quality Standards Regulation by major
polluters in the light of the findings by the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) that air quality across South Africa often exceeded
the country’s and the World Health Organisation’s limits for aerosols. The
Department should state the extent to which companies are complying with the
Regulation and name those compliant and non-compliant emitters, as well as what
the Department is doing, in case of non-compliance
·
SANParks should
provide a written response on how its People
and Parks Programme benefits communities that inhabit the margins of
national parks, clearly stating where co-management and/or community-based
natural resources management (CBNRM) initiatives are taking place. Who are
those communities, what do they do and which parks are they involved in or
derive benefits from besides the existing one
percent gate fee that goes to communities?
o
There is a need to
deepen the ownership of national parks in the neighbouring communities;
otherwise, we are fighting a losing war in the fight against poaching and other
illicit practices in our national areas.
o
There is a need to
fully assess the existing inventions to fully transform the wildlife economy to
make the black majority population benefit from this economy that currently
appears to be hidden from them, although they disproportionately bear the costs
of wildlife conservation in the Republic.
·
SANParks should
provide the Committee with a clear recruitment strategy for the currently
vacant leadership positions, specifying timeframes for these senior
recruitments in this premier conservation organisation. It should also (via the
SANParks Board) explicitly indicate the steps to be taken, if the incoming CEO
fails to secure unqualified audit opinions
for two consecutive financial years, as it makes no sense to retain individuals
who are non-compliant with Government policies, legislation and procedures for
effectiveness in the public sector in such senior positions during the
prevailing financial constraints in the public sector that demands a better-value-for-every-Rand
spent on delivering public services.
·
The Department should
coordinate (efforts of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, SANBI &
SANParks) and compile information on the current and potential magnitude of the
‘wildlife economy’ on the whole South African economy (e.g., on tourism and
hospitality industry as well as the transportation sector) to fully understand
the scope of the beneficial effects of the Department on the economy, and have
it appropriately profiled in Government for increased budgetary support.
·
The iSimangaliso
Wetland Park Authority should have clear targets on Rhino protection, such as zero killing or 90 per cent arrest of individuals who breach the boundaries of the
Wetland Park in the 2014/15 reporting year, considering that 400 Rhinos had
been killed in the Park in the past few years.
The Portfolio
Committee on Environmental Affairs recommends the adoption of this Budgetary Review and
Recommendation Report (BRRR) for the Environmental Affairs.
[1] Presidency (2010) Outcome
10: Environment. Delivery Agreement – Outcome 10.
The South African Presidency, Pretoria.
[2] Ibid
[3]
Emerson, J.W., Hsu, A., M.A., Levy, de Sherbinin, A., Mara, V., Esty D.C. and
Jaiteh. M. (2012) Environmental Performance Index and Pilot
Trend Environmental Performance Index. [Internet] Available from <http://epi.yale.edu>
(Accessed on 16 February 2012).