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Friday, 3 March 2017]
No 3 - 2017] FOURTH SESSION, FIFTH LEGISLATURE
LEGISLATURE OF THE PROVINCE
OF THE EASTERN CAPE
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INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER
Note:
- Questions for oral reply will be printed in full in the Question Paper for the day for which they have been set down for reply.
- *Indicates a question for oral reply.
QUESTIONS FOR ORAL REPLY
FRIDAY, 3 MARCH 2017
Premier:
*1.Mr C Martin to ask the Premier:
(1) Whether he has been informed of a Bill in front of the President of the Republic of South Africa which provides for the recognition of the Khoi and San people and that leaders of the latter group are supposed to enjoy same status and traditional respect and treatment as per provisions of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act of 2003 (Act No 41 of 2003); if so,
(2) how far is this Bill with respect to it being signed to be an Act;
(3) whether he has received any representations regarding the forthcoming National Assembly / National Council of Provinces (NCOP) public hearings on the matter or any public hearing affecting Khoi / San people; if so,
(4) what plans have been or will be put in place through various departments with a view to assisting the Khoi and San people to rebuild themselves as this group, through greed of previous governments both English and Afrikaner, were made dormant to the level of almost none existence?
MEC’s:
*2.Mr S Magaqa to ask the MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
With reference to Farm 26 in the Great Kei Local Municipality which was bought by Amathole District Municipality (ADM) in 2001 with the aim of building houses for the disadvantaged in the area:
(1) Whether ADM has received the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) Funding from his Department; if so,
(2) how much has been received and when; if not, when will the funds be received;
(3) whether a contractor has been allocated to the project; if so, who is that contractor;
(4) whether the designs for the project have been finalised; if not, can he kindly provide reasons for the delay;
(5) (a) can he kindly provide an explanation of (i) the various phases and (ii) the time frames involved regarding the project and (b) on what date is it anticipated that construction of the houses will commence?
*3. Ms V Mvenya to ask the MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
(1) Whether he has been informed of the 3 km road in Vully Valley Extension 15 in Butterworth under Mnquma Local Municipality that was constructed just before the 2016 municipal elections and was abandoned after the elections in a worse state than it was before; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so,
(2) (a) how much was allocated for this project, (b) over which financial period and (c) how much has been paid towards this project up to the latest specified date for which information is available;
(3) what are the reasons for the project to be left incomplete;
(4) when will the road be in a suitable condition to be used by the community;
(5) what is the recourse for those who did not complete the project and if he can kindly provide relevant details in this regard?
*4. Mr L K Sharpley to ask the MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
(1) Whether he has been informed that Gomolo Administrative area in Port St Johns has been without water for the last two months as a result communities have to fetch water from the river; if so,
(2) when will water be provided to the said community?
*5. Ms P Mpushe to ask the MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
With respect to an agreement on a payment plan between Eskom and the newly formed Walter Sisulu Municipality, where Eskom halted the cutting of the electricity supply:
(1) (a) What does this plan entail and (b) how does his Department plan to support its successful implementation with a view to ensuring that residents do not face the threat of being cut off from electricity supply;
(2) Whether his Department has any plans in place with a view to supporting other municipalities that are in a similar situation within the province; if so, what plans?
*6. Mr C M Ndamase to ask the MEC responsible for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs:
In light of the reduction of the number of municipalities due to the new demarcation that came into effect prior the 2016 Local Government Elections:
(1) Whether the said demarcation has any impact on the financial and fiscal performance of municipalities; if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) what support has been set aside by his Department with a view to assisting these newly established municipalities?
*7. Mr T Mpulu to ask the MEC responsible for Education:
(1) Whether he has been informed that some schools started 2017 academic year without Mathematics and Science teachers; if so,
(2) what is the extent of the situation;
(3) whether there are any plans in place with a view to mitigating the abovementioned situation; if so, what plans;
(4) whether there has been a year that schools have started with 100% Learner Teacher Support Material (LTSM) delivery; if so, which year; if not, what caused the delay?
*8. Mr P E van Vuuren to ask the MEC responsible for Education:
(1) Whether he has received any representations regarding the current educator vacancies and excess teachers to the post provisioning norms of their schools in the province; if so,
(2) what is the current situation pertaining educator vacancies and excess teachers in Public Ordinary Schools as at the latest specific date for which information is available; (Kindly provide a table format with: District, Posts approved, Posts filled, Posts not filled, Percentage of posts not filled, Excess educators per Post Provisioning Norms (PPN) of their schools.)
(3) what are the reasons for not filling these substantive vacant posts as per the post provisioning norms for the said districts;
(4) whether any steps have been or will be taken with a view to filling all substantive vacant posts; if so, (a) what steps and (b) when will it be guaranteed that all substantive vacant posts will be filled in order to have an educator in front of each and every class in the province;
(5) whether his Department is still confronted with excess educators at schools, as per (1) above; if so, (a) what are the reasons for these excess educators to be at schools when they have been identified to be redeployed, (b) where are the posts in excess of the post provisioning norms of the said schools, (c) in light of excess educators in our schools, how and when will the situation be normalised in our province and (d) what consequence management will be considered or applied should identified excess educators refuse to be assigned to other work stations?
*9. Mr P E van Vuuren to ask the MEC responsible for Education:
(1) What is the total number of educators still needed in subjects such as Mathematics, Physical Science, Accounting, Afrikaans Home Language and Additional Language and Sesotho in the General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET) bands of our schools in this province?
(2) what is the vacancy rate of educators in the abovementioned subjects within the indicated bands per district; (Kindly provide the answer in table format with current and shortage as indicators per identified subjects per district.)
(3) how his Department has planned to address these shortages in the bands within districts as a matter of urgency, (b) what are the time frames and (c) what then happens in the meantime in those classrooms where there are shortages;
(4) what plans has his Department put in place with a view to training educators in order to have the requisite skills in these mentioned subjects, as well as to have the proper pedagogical skills in order to transfer subject knowledge and adequately manage classroom situations professionally;
(5) whether his Department has any plans to reopen Teacher Training Colleges in order to train educators in fields where there are huge shortages of skills and expertise; if not, what is the position in this regard?
*10. Mr M Buchenroder to ask the MEC responsible for Education:
(1) Whether his Department has assessed the current state of Khumbulani High School located in Leyland Street, North End in Port Elizabeth; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) when did the assessment take place; if not, why not;
(2) whether his Department has a plan to clear the site or rebuild the said school; if so, (a) what are the relevant details in respect of the above, (b) how much has been budgeted to deal with the matter and (c) over which financial year?
*11. Ms P Mpushe to ask the MEC responsible for Education:
Noting that the recent Matric Examination results depict that the best performing districts are mainly found in the western part of the province, while the poorest performing districts are found in the eastern (and relatively poor) part:
(1) Whether his Department has planned any interventions in schools that have yielded poor Matric results; if so, what plans;
(2) what appropriate measures have been or will be instituted by his Department with a view to dealing with misappropriation of funds which has been prevalent and is also alleged to be one of the contributing factors towards poor performance of schools?
*12. Ms J Cowley to ask the MEC responsible for Finance, Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(1) Where did the province rank out of our nine provinces in terms of numbers of domestic tourists in the 2016 calendar year;
(2) how do these figures compare with the figures from the 2015 calendar year;
(3) where did the province rank out of our nine provinces in terms of international tourists in the 2016 calendar year;
(4) how do these figures compare with the figures from the 2015 calendar year?
*13. Ms J Cowley to ask the MEC responsible for Finance, Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(1) What was the province’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the (i) 2014/15, (ii) 2015/16 and (iii) 2016/17 financial year;
(2) what is the projected GDP growth rate for the province for the 2017/18 financial year;
(3) what pro-active steps will his Department take with a view to improving the GDP of this province going forward;
(4) whether his Department has introduced any innovative game changers that will revive the economic growth of this province in the next two to three years; if so, can he kindly provide a list of these game changers?
*14. Mr R S Stevenson to ask the MEC responsible for Finance, Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
(1) What will be the total amount spent on (a) salaries and (b) benefits for civil servants in the 2017/18 financial year;
(2) what is the percentage of the total budget for the cost of employees for the (i) 2016/17 and (ii) 2017/18 financial years;
(3) what is the total percentage increase in the provincial budget for civil servants for the 2017/18 year?
*15. Mr V Lwana to ask the MEC responsible for Finance, Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism:
With respect to Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA’s) 2016 community survey which is said to have indicated that the poverty headcount has decreased from 14.4% in 2011 to 12.7% in 2016:
(1) (a) What could have contributed to the reported decrease and (b) how will provincial government contribute resources with a view to ensuring that this positive picture is further enhanced;
(2) if he can kindly abreast the House with the latest information on attempts made by the government to diversify the energy provisions in the province?
*16.Ms C Barker to ask the MEC responsible for Health:
With reference to the closure of the Rosedale Clinic in Uitenhage by residents on 27 February 2017 due to staff and medicine shortages:
(1) Can she kindly provide the current (2017) organogram for the Rosedale Clinic in Uitenhage;
(2) how many vacancies (include staff on study, sick and maternity leave) were there at the Rosedale Clinic on 27 February 2017;
(3) how (a) long has each vacant position been unoccupied and (b) many vacant positions will be filled during the 2017/18 financial year;
(4) can she kindly provide a comprehensive dated list of all vacancies at the Rosedale Clinic with interview schedules and timelines for the appointment of staff to fill every single vacancy at the said clinic;
(5) whether she has received any letter sent by the Rosedale Clinic Committee; if so, when exactly will she reply to the letter?
*17.Ms C Barker to ask the MEC responsible for Health:
With reference to a motor car accident on 28 January 2017 at Magusheni where two sons and a nephew (father’s name furnished for the purpose of the reply) got injured and were taken to St Patrick’s Hospital in Bizana where they waited with wounds, broken bones, not x-rayed, no pain or medication for 18 hours without attention.
Noting that the father’s brother was asked to look after them while waiting for their transfer to Bedford Hospital at Mthatha 36 after the accident, further noting that the father had to transport the injured to Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Durban where it has been reported that they received decent medical care:
(1) Whether she can kindly provide detailed copies of the staff establishment at the St Patrick's Hospital in Bizana from 01 January 2014 up to the latest specified date for which information is available;
(2) whether it is standard practice for patients to wait for 36 hours to receive medical treatment at our state hospitals; if so,
(3) can she kindly provide a detailed copy of the relevant policy document; if not, what are the reasons for allowing three patients to wait unattended for 36 hours at St Patrick's Hospital;
(4) what steps will her Department take with a view to ensuring that patients with head injuries, broken bones and severe lacerations receive medical attention within one hour of arrival at casualty departments in hospitals, (b) whether it is standard practice to ask relatives of injured patients to sit and observe them in casualty departments for up to 36 hours; if so, can she kindly provide the relevant policy document; if not, what steps will her Department take with a view to ensuring that similar service delivery failures are not repeated;
(5) whether she has been informed that some patients had to be driven out of the province to KwaZulu Natal to receive reliable medical service?
*18.Ms N Ponco to ask the MEC responsible for Health:
Noting that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has plagued communities across the country, with the Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) recording the estimated overall HIV prevalence rate at approximately 12.7% of the total South African population, further noting that by August 2016, an estimated 18.9% of the country’s population aged between 15–49 years was reported to be HIV positive but despite these figures, it has been reported that the province has managed to reduce the rate of prevalence of HIV/Aids for people between 15 and 49 years of age from 10.4% in 2014 to 7.7% by 2016:
(1) What can be attributed to be the contributing factors to this reduction in the infection rate and HIV prevalence in the province;
(2) whether her Department has conducted any awareness campaigns with a view to enlightening the entire population in our province regarding HIV scourge and other harmful diseases; if so, what are relevant details?
*19.Mr M Saziwa to ask the MEC responsible for Health:
With respect to the vision of transforming healthcare and ensuring access to universal healthcare facilities, the provincial government has announced Alfred Nzo District as its pilot site for the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI):
(1) Whether there is any progress on the provincial government’s pilot project of providing healthcare services in the abovementioned district up to the latest specific date of which information is available; if so, what progress;
(2) how did the introduction of the healthcare services enhance the functioning and efficiency of hospitals and clinics in that region;
(3) whether her Department has any plans of rolling out these services to others centres where such services are needed with a view to providing better life of some disadvantaged communities; if so, what are the relevant details?
*20.Mr K Fihlani - Magwaxaza to ask the MEC responsible for Health:
In light of the reports that commended the sterling work of Frere Hospital medical staff in East London by managing to reverse the stroke that was experienced by a patient in late February, what can this reversal be attributed to?
*21.Mr I N Quvile to ask the MEC responsible for Human Settlements:
(1) Whether she has been informed that people who got temporal shelters in 2012 after the disaster in Nyandeni Municipality are still living in those temporal structures; if so, what are the plans of her Department with regard to providing permanent structures for the affected communities; if not,
(2) for how long are they going to be subjected to these hazardous conditions;