question no - AWS

QUESTION NO 504

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 20 MARCH 2008
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 10/2008)

Date reply submitted: 29 May 2008

Mr PJ Groenewald (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Safety and Security:

(1) (a) How many claims were instituted against the SA Police Service in
(i) 2005, (ii) 2006 and (iii) 2007 and (b) what was (i) the amount of
the claim and (ii) the claim about in each year;

(2) whether each claim has been paid; if not, why not; if so, what are
the relevant details?
NW1143E
REPLY:

|FINANCIAL YEAR |1(a) |1(b)(i) |
|1(a) (i) - 2005/2006 |4 234 |R 1 563 567 370|
|1(a) (ii) - 2006/2007 |4 177 |R 1 091 969 491|
|1 (a) (iii) - 2007/2008 |4 467 |R 1 234 483 368|


Note: The particulars supplied for the 2007/2008 cover the period
until 29 February 2008.

(1)(b) (ii) In view of the total number of claims involved, it is not
feasible to provide details on each claim. In general, claims
for compensation were received following alleged unlawful
arrests and detentions, shooting incidents, assaults, motor
vehicle collisions, etc.

(2) No. Payments are not made only upon receipt of letters of demand. A
letter of demand only reflects the amounts claimed. Due process is
followed prior to considering to settle or the court deciding on the
matter.




QUESTION 512
FOR WRITTEN REPLY

Date of publication on internal question paper: 20 March 2008
Internal question paper no:10
Mrs J A Semple (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
(1) Whether there is a performance appraisal system in place for
employees of the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA); if not, why not;
if so, what are the relevant details;
(2) Whether there are targets set for processing social grant
applications; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the targets and (b)
what percentage of SASSA employees are meeting those targets?
NW1154E
REPLY:
(1) At the establishment phase of the Agency there was no Agency specific
performance appraisal system in place, however Head Office utilized
the appraisal system of DPSA and in Regions the appraisal policies of
the Provincial Departments of Social Development applied. These were
in line with the Incentive Policy Framework of the Public Service. In
terms of the Determination on SASSA Remuneration, Grading and
Performance Management Framework by the Minister for Public Service
and Administration, SASSA has developed a performance management and
appraisal system for employees on salary levels 1-12, whereas the PMDS
(Chapter 4 of the SMS Handbook) applicable in the Public Service apply
for members of Senior Management Service. The performance management
and appraisal system for salary levels 1-12 will be implemented with
effect from 1 April 2008 and does not deviate from the Policy
Incentive Framework of the Public Service.

(2) There are targets set for the processing of grants. The norm is 20
applications per attesting officer per day. However, in those regions
where there is no computerised management information system
available, the monitoring of performance is done through manual
registers and daily templates. It is therefore difficult to confirm
the percentage of staff who do not meet this norm.

(a) and(b)
At a national level, the norm which is monitored is the turn around
time of 21 days for applications for grants. This means that a grant
application should not take longer than 21 days from application to
approval. Statistics from the SOCPEN system for the period December
2007 to February 2008 indicate the following percentages and time
frames for the finalisation of grant applications per region:

|Region |30 days |60 days |90 days |
|Eastern Cape |92% |7% |1% |
|Free State |53% |41% |6% |
|Gauteng |97% |2% |1% |
|KwaZulu-Natal |99% |0,6% |0,4% |
|Limpopo |89% |10% |1% |
|Mpumalanga |97% |2% |1% |
|Northern Cape |87% |12% |1% |
|North West |92% |6% |2% |
|Western Cape |93% |6% |1% |


QUESTION 513
FOR WRITTEN REPLY

Date of publication on internal question paper: 20 March 2008
Internal question paper no:
Mrs J A Semple (DA) to ask the Minister of Social Development:
(1) Whether any investigation has been conducted into why there are more
than 3 000 summonses being served on the SA Social Security Agency in
order to obtain social grants; if not, (a) why not and (b) when will
it be done; if so, (i) what are the results of the investigation and
(ii) who is responsible for the delays;
(2) Whether any action will be taken against the people responsible for
the delays; if not, why not; if so, what action?
NW1155E
REPLY:


1) (i) A random investigation had been conducted by SASSA regarding
the current litigation status particularly in Kwa Zulu Natal, as well as
the summonses that are issued daily. It was discovered that the attorneys
for the beneficiaries lodged court applications against SASSA
prematurely, without having provided SASSA with reasonable time to
respond to a claim. A substantial number of summonses were issued prior
to the establishment of SASSA and in most instances SASSA is not in a
position to investigate or refute the allegations or claims because even
the applicants' attorneys do not have supporting evidence to substantiate
their clients' allegations.


SASSA is dealing with almost 11 million beneficiaries. It was recently
pointed out in the Durban and Coast Local Division (High Court) in the
matter between PN Cele vs The South African Social Security Agency and 22
related cases, case No.7940/2007, Page 22, that "...if there are 50 000
or 100 000 problematic cases, whilst that is 50 000 or 100 000 too many,
it nonetheless represents only between 0.5% and 1% of the total number of
recipients of such grants."

Most of the litigation against SASSA has been instituted without the
beneficiary first exhausting all internal remedies. The procedure
directive that was set out in, in the PN Cele matter, will ensure that
all the internal SASSA remedies get exhausted before applicants resort to
litigation. Attorneys for the grant applicants cannot therefore enrol a
matter until the internal remedies have been exhausted and the State
Attorney's office at that Region and this will drastically reduce the
volume of litigation related to social grants.


(ii) The delays are due to a number of factors, the main reason being that
SASSA had inherited the files from the Provincial Department of Social
Development, and most files cannot be traced. To enable SASSA to verify
the applications for grants would involve locating the beneficiary's
application, which in many instances cannot be located because it was
never lodged in the first place.


2) There is no need for action to be taken against anyone. However, the
Legal Services of SASSA and the Department of Social Development are
intending to develop a joint litigation strategy, which would be informed
by the Cele judgment that was handed down on March 19th 2008, and meet
with the State Attorneys in other regions to request them to consult with
the courts in their respective regions about the setting of procedure
directives similar to those at KZN ( and the Eastern Cape), as this will
un - clutter the courts with unnecessary grant related matters.

Furthermore SASSA is working closely with German Technical Co-operation
(GTZ) regarding the roll-out of the Promotion of Administrative Justice
Act (PAJA) training to ensure that all the relevant officials at SASSA,
particularly those officials in Regions know and understand the
implications of PAJA.


QUESTION NO 517


DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 20 MARCH 2008
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 10)

517. Mr M M Swathe (DA) to ask the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry:

(1) What (a) was the backlog in respect of the eradication of the bucket
system in each province (i) in 2006 and (ii) as at 15 March 2008, (b)
amount was allocated by the Government in this regard in each of the
past three financial years and (c) was the actual estimated cost to
eradicate this backlog;
(2) whether her department has conducted any audit of the (a) percentage
of the budgets spent by municipalities to eliminate this backlog and
(b) actual percentage of buckets that were eradicated; if not, why
not; if so,
(3) whether any discrepancies were found regarding these figures at any
municipality; if so, what are the relevant details?
NW1159E
---00O00---
REPLY:

The programme of replacing the bucket system of sanitation was started in
2005. It is focusing on replacing all bucket toilets