The parliamentary portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture is unable to perform critical oversight as important briefings from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture and the Auditor-General (AG) of South Africa had to be postponed due to annual performance plans not being tabled in time by various entities of the Department.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Arts and Culture, Beauty Dlulane, requested on 30 November that the Secretariat forward an urgent letter to the House Chairperson of the National Assembly, Cedric Frolick, regarding the non-tabling of 2019/2020 Annual reports.
According to the letter the portfolio committee on sport, arts and culture, as part of its oversight function, has received the annual performance plans of the Department and some entities as tabled in the Announcements, Tablings and Committee Reports (ATC). The South Africa Institute for Drug Free Sport, Boxing SA, National Library of South Africa, National Museum Bloemfontein, Freedom Park Trust, Performing Arts Centre of the Free State, Pan South African Languages Board and Luthuli House have however not yet tabled their 2019/2020 Annual Performance Plans or their reports have not been ATC’ed as per the Office of the AG requirement prior to briefings. (Attached here is the list of 8 out of 30 entities the Clerk of Papers has sent through that he hasn’t received for tabling.)
The Committee was able to only meet once in six attempts for scheduled meetings. On 3 November 2020 the briefing by the Department on challenges facing Chess South Africa did not take place. On the 10 November the consideration and adoption of the Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR) was postponed, as was a briefing by the office of the AG on the outcomes of the Department and its entities’ annual reports, as well as the briefing by the Department on its annual report. The briefing by the Department on its structure and board membership vacancies in different entities also did not take place. Blind SA has further requested that they be allowed to retable their Annual Performance Plan due to mistakes that have since been amended on the previously tabled report.
All of this is impacting on the performance of the committee, as the Members are unable to perform proper oversight. This further indicates that the Department and entities in general, show regression.
The AG further indicated that they would prefer to brief the committee once all the entities have been ATC’ed in order to give a holistic and detailed briefing. The Chairperson requested that the committee be allowed to receive the briefing by the AG and the Department in the new year.
This lack of planning, programming and poor performance of entities to adhere to timelines under the watch of the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, is unacceptable and must not be allowed.
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