ATC171018: Report of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation on a joint oversight visit with the Select Committee on Social Services to the KwaZulu-Natal Province, dated 18 October 2017

NCOP Education and Technology, Sports, Arts and Culture

Report of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation on a joint oversight visit with the Select Committee on Social Services to the KwaZulu-Natal Province, dated 18 October 2017
 

The Select Committee on Education and Recreation, having undertaken a joint oversight visit with the Select Committee on Social Services to the KwaZulu-Natal Province from 04-08 September 2017, reports as follows:

 

1.         Background and introduction

 

The Select Committee on Education and Recreation (hereinafter, the Committee) conducted an oversight visit to the KwaZulu-Natal Province from 04-08 September 2017. The oversight visit was in line with the Committee’s 2014-2019 Strategic Plan and the 2017/18 Annual Performance Plan. This oversight was guided by the priorities as set in the major government plans such as the National Development Plan 2030 and the Medium Term Strategic Framework, 2014 – 2019. 

 

With regard to Higher Education, the Committee visited the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Howard Campus (College) in order to look at transformation, throughput rate across the faculties, NSFAS applications as well as the infrastructure rollout. The Committee also felt it relevant to visit the Thekwini TVET College, Melbourne Campus to look at certification backlogs, Mathematics pass rate and throughput rate in TVET College. In as far as Arts and Culture is concerned, the Committee visited the Durban Playhouse Company to look at the role played by the Theatre in enhancing arts and culture activities in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. In terms of Sport and Recreation, the Committee visited the Moses Mabhida Stadium to establish the impact the stadium has on the people in the Municipality as well as the Province at large.  

 

This report, therefore, contains an account of the journey of the Committee to the above-mentioned institutions in the KwaZulu Natal Province. Furthermore, it provides a summary of the key issues that emerged from the interactions between the Committee and Stakeholders of the different sites visited as well as the Committee’s deliberations, observations and recommendations.

 

2.         Delegation

 

The delegation comprised of the following:

 

 

 

Committee Members:

Hon LL Zwane (Chairperson: KwaZulu-Natal), Hon P Samka (Eastern Cape), Hon ML Moshodi (Free State), Hon DB Ngwenya (Gauteng), Hon M Khawula (KwaZulu-Natal), Hon TK Mampuru (Limpopo), Hon LC Dlamini (Mpumalanga) and Hon C Hattingh (North West).

 

 

Support staff:

Ms N Skaka (Committee Secretary), Mr L Komle (Committee Content Advisor), Ms L Stofile (Committee Researcher) and Ms Z France (Committee Assistant).

 

3.         Oversight and Monitoring Visit in the University of KwaZulu-Natal

 

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a multi-campus, residential, teaching and research-led university located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The University has a proud and rich heritage of academic excellence. This vast wealth of knowledge production lies at the heart of the University’s success as one of the top institutions on the African continent. UKZN is one of three universities in South Africa and indeed in Africa rated amongst the top 500 universities of the world according to the Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU). The UKZN is structured on a College model, each comprising academic Schools within which Disciplines offer a comprehensive range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across five campuses. The Colleges are Westville, Edgewood, Howard College, Medical School and Pietermaritzburg. The in-loco site visit took place at the Howard College.

 

The visit began with a meeting on Tuesday, 05 September 2017, with the Executive and Senior Management of the University where the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Prof Deresh Ramjugernath led the team and presented to the Committee. On Wednesday, 06 September 2017, the Committee conducted an in-loco inspection at Howard College. The delegation visited the Civil Engineering Building Laboratory which is funded by the Durban Municipality and the Residence Construction site.

 

Prof Ramjugernath presented as follows:

 

Enrolments:

For the year 2017, the UKZN had an actual subsidized enrolment of 48925 against the 45206 planned enrolment. The  university had over enrolled by 8% as the enrolment stood at 108%. These enrolments were for Agriculture, Engineering and Sciences (AES); Health Sciences (HS); Humanities (HUM); and Law and Management Studies (L&MS). Females make 57% of the enrolments and males is at 43%. Of these, 75.2% is black, 19.2% is Indian, 3.2% is white, 1.9% is colored and 0.4% is made up of other races.

 

Tuition:

In 2011 the Council on Higher Education (CHE) launched an exercise to align all programmes with the Higher Education Qualification Sub-Framework (HEQSF). The UKZN Quality Promotion and Assurance unit oversaw the HEQSF alignment process. The UKZN Programme Qualification Mix (PQM) includes a total of 426 programmes, 419 HEQSF accredited and 7 new programmes.

 

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) approved new programmes,  HEQC accredited them and SAQA registered them after 2011. The new programmes are:

• Postgraduate Diploma in Child Protection in Emergencies;
• Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning; 
• Postgraduate Diploma in Local Economic Development;
• Postgraduate Diploma in Family Medicine;
• Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership;
• Bachelor of Science Honours in Forensic Genetics; and
• Master of Business Administration.

 

The Qualification mix is as follows:

Qualification	HEQSF Accredited programmes on PQM	New programmes on PQM
Diplomas	2	-
Advanced Diplomas	1	-
Bachelors	80	-
Honours	116	1
Postgraduate Diplomas	22	5
Masters	163	1
Doctorates	35	-
Total	419	7

 

Colleges and schools:

UKZN has four Colleges and these are the following:

• Agriculture, Engineering and Science;
• Health Sciences;
• Humanities; and
• Law and Management Studies.

 

Governance:

The Students Representative Council (the SRC) Elections will be held in October 2017. The institution is currently looking at the first or second week of October as possible dates. The preparations and the arrangements are at an advanced stage. The institution finalised their plans for Elections on Monday, 4 September 2017 and proposed an election schedule to the SRC with a proposed date/s for the elections. Thereafter the Electoral commission will announce the date(s) hopefully by the end of the week (the week that the Committee visited the university). The announcement will pave the way for the implementation of the first phase of their plan. In terms of participation of the SRC in the University statutory meeting, the SRC is participating on all of them. However, in certain instances, some SRC members are more active and involved than others. Nonetheless, all the structures are fully functional.

 

The Institution has 4 recognised labour unions. In the past, there were five unions but one has been de-registered. The Institution corresponds with and submits information to the Department of Labour, Statistics South Africa and Sector Education and Training Authority. Currently, there are employee relations matters being dealt with by the University through its Legal Services Division both externally (CCMA & Labour Court) and by means of internal disciplinary processes. Negotiations on a single set of Conditions of Service are currently underway through the University’s internal Joint Bargaining Forum. The unions do meet with management as and when required and there are standing lateral meetings in between.

 

Campus Master Plan

UKZN is currently developing a 20-year spatial Master Plan and the timeline is 31 December 2017. There are policy parameters for the following areas:

• Academic facilities;
• Research facilities;
• Student facilities & campus circulation;
• Sports and leisure facilities;
• Commercialization;
• Sustainability and systems modelling, including waste management; and
• Technology development, energy and green initiatives.

 

 

Lecture Halls:

The university has total capacity of 36,271 seats in lecture venues and has an additional 1,000 seaters under construction at Edgewood campus at a total cost of R57million. These seats are to be available for the 2018 enrollment. There is a need to reconfigure the lecture venues to smaller venues to accommodate postgraduate students whilst there is a growing need for 400-seater venues for undergraduates. Current projects are:

• Awarded R8million Reconfiguration Lecture Venues at the Edgewood Campus which is at a design stage; and
• Awarded R8million Refurbishment to L & G Block at the Westville Campus which is at a construction stage.

 

Student accommodation:

UKZN has a total capacity of 6,190 beds on Campus and over 11,000 beds off campus, 48% of it is leased residences. There is a joint UKZN effort with both eThekwini and Msunduzi Municipalities for effective and efficient measures to address compliant leased Student Housing requirements. The university is rolling out 976 beds to be completed by 2019 as per progress status breakdown below:

• Westville Campus with 318 beds and planned start date in September 2017;
• Howard College Campus with 260 beds at 10% progress completion;
• Edgewood Campus with 200 beds and planned start date in December 2017; and
• Pietermaritzburg Campus with 200 beds and planned start date in December 2017.

 

Laboratories:

The university has a total capacity of 1 271 laboratory stations. An additional 150 seater was completed in 2016 at a combined total construction cost of R37million. There is a need to rehabilitate and remodel the laboratory facilities to include modern technologies. All facilities are managed in compliance with legislative requirements and all relevant certificates of competence (CoC’s) are observed. UKZN’s provision of laboratory space is above the norm.

 

Transformation:

For the year 2017, the University had a total number of 4151 academic and support staff compared to the 4159 in 2016. 56% of the 4151 is Black, 24% Indian, 12% White, 3% Coloured and 5% belong to other races. 55% of the staff is made up of females and 45% are males. Looking at the academic staff only, the total number of staff in 2017 is 1322 compared to the 1315 in the year 2016. Of this number, 52% are males and 48% are females. 33% are Black, 29% Indian, 24% White, 2% Colored and 14% belong to other races.

 

 

Student environment:

For the year 2017, 82% of UKZN undergraduate students passed their semester 1 modules with 12% failing and 6% dully performed (dped). There was an 80% pass rate for AES, 91% for HS, 84% for HUM and 78%for L&MS.

 

1. Challenges

The following are the challenges encountered by the UKZN:

 

1. Institutional Forum:

• There’s always poor attendance (inquorate).
• There are few submissions to the agenda.
• Limited response to decisions solicited by round-robin
• Perception -  no real influence  
• Workshop convened in May 2014 had insufficient attendance.

 

1. NSFAS:
2. The majority of UKZN students are funded by NSFAS but students who have applied have not received outcomes of their applications to date.
3. NSFAS seems not to be ready for the centralised model, hence the students were calling for its decentralization.
4. The NSFAS online system is problematic in that most students are coming from rural backgrounds and this makes it difficult for them to access online applications. The best way is for them to come to the university and apply at the offices.
5. There were 13 000 students who had qualified for NSFAS but the funding received was only for 11 000 and 2000 did not receive. This led to the University deciding to use its institutional funds to give the other students advance. The University is currently standing in the gap and assisting students with the leaving expenses with the hope that NSFAS will come in and assist with funding.

 

1. Accommodation:
2. The University has had more than double enrolments over the past 10 years and therefore struggling very much in finding adequate accommodation for its students.
3. The planning done was not adequate to fund for extra accommodation.
4. Accommodation out there is not fit for purpose and not conducive for student life.
5. There are University residences and also private accommodation.
6. The University is developing a campus masterplan for accommodation and also looking at private partnerships.

 

1. Corruption:

• Students are not happy with the level of openness at the University.
• The University is guided by Council but there are different stakeholders around.
• There is a matter of students who uses other means to get in the university other than the academic requirements. This matter is currently being investigated by KPMG.

 

1. Sport and Recreation:
2. The SRC felt that more focus is being on rugby where you mostly find white students whilst other sporting codes are being left out in terms of support (less funding and less attention). The University, however, felt that they are one of the fortunate universities in terms of sport. They have many sport facilities but students are not using them. They feel that there’s more than adequate programmes happening in support of sport at the University. Services are there and well marketed but students are not using them.

 

1. Student support:
2. The SRC felt that there’s lack of student support at the University. The majority of students are black and are coming from disadvantaged backgrounds and therefore need support.

 

1. Protests:
2. The university experienced protests as students were not happy with the leased (private) accommodation.

 

1. Observations

The Committee made the following observations:

• Teaching and Learning: The University has had a very good reputation in terms of its tuition, research and community engagement programmes.
• Accomodation: There is inadequate accommodation, however, the University received a grant in the year 2016 and is currently busy building a new residence. In the meantime, they use leased accommodation which students are quiring as not conducive to student life. The average cost of accommodation is R26 000 per annum and the big cost comes with the leased accommodation. Students pay the same ampunt for the leased accommodation as well.
• Institutional Forum: the IF does not take its role seriously such that they do not submit enough agenda items and few of them attend meetings which make them not to quorate.
• NSFAS: The central model is a challenge to students as some students who come from rural areas are not techno savvy. Fewer students got NSFAS than applied.
• Corruption: There seems to be an element of concealing information from students, such that some students use other means to access the university.
• Sport and Recreation: Although students’ views is that, other sporting codes are not given due attention, students themselves are not taking opportunities created by the university in other sporting codes.
• Student Support: Students, especially first year, black students who come from far-flung rural areas, need to be academically assisted by the university.

 

1. Recommendations

The following were the recommendations made:

• Teaching and Learning: The University should keep up its reputation as the best university in the Continent and also improve its rating especially when it comes to research.
• Accomodation: The new residence that is being built should be finished within the time frame for students to have proper accommodation.
• Institutional Forum: The university management has to devise means and ways of reviving and motivating the IF to participate fully in the institution.
• NSFAS: The university with NSFAS have to come to an agreement on how to assist students who do not know how to apply online.
• Corruption: The results of the matter that is currently being investigated by KPMG should be availed to students.
• Sport and Recreation: The university sport leaders and students should work together to make students aware of the opportunities available to them in all sporting codes.
• Student Support: Students should engage with the Dean of Students to be made aware of the programmes that are offered to students for academic purposes. These programmes should also be on the university website and also on the university social platforms.

 

1. Oversight and Monitoring in the Thekwini TVET College

 

The Committee visited the Melbourne campus, which is almost at 8 kilometre radius from eThekwini Municipality in the outskirts of the Thekwini central business district.  The visit to the Thekwini TVET College (the College) began with the presentation which was given by its Principal, Mr NE Mchunu on Tuesday, 05 September 2017 at the Garden Court Marine Parade Hotel. It ended with an in-loco site visit of the College’s Melbourne Campus on Wednesday, 06 September 2017.

 

Mr Mchunu informed the Committee as follows:

 

The Thekwini TVET College, like the rest of the TVET College’s around the country, was established as the result of merger of three former technical colleges and a teacher training college. It has six campuses namely; Asherville, Cato Manor, Centec, Melbourne, Springfield and Umbilo that are situated almost at 10 kilometres away from the Administration office. The College’s vision is to become a Vocational Educational Centre of Excellence as the preferred Public FET College. The Mission is to provide accessible, responsive, inclusive and high quality vocational Education for customers and stakeholders in the FET sector. Its values include transparency, accountability, respect, integrity, fairness, responsiveness and teamwork.

 

Governance and Management:

The College is made up of the:

• College Council, which is fully functional and has the following subcommittees:

• Council Executive Committee
• Human Resource Committee
• Audit and Finance Committee
• Academic Board Committee;
• Student Support Services Committee
• College Management; and
• SRC which is made up of the following:

• SRC Executive Committee
• Campus SRC Executive Committee.

 

College management is made up of the:

• College Principal;
• 3 Deputy Principals;
• 3 Campus Managers;
• 3 Acting Campus Managers;
• 6 Assistant Directors; and 
• 1 Assistant Director vacant post.

 

Projected headcounts:

As at 04 September 2017, the College had a total of 1682 actual headcounts against the 2008 projected headcounts in its NCV programmes. The actual total number for the Report 191 programmes is 8911 compared to the 9527 projected headcounts. For other programmes, the actual total number is 279 compared to the 697 projected headcounts. This makes a total number of 10872 actual headcounts against the 12232 projected number. The college is under-enrolled.

 

Pass rate:

The average pass rate of the College for Report 191 was 72% for the year 2016 compared to the 63% for the year 2015 and for the Melbourne Campus, the pass rate was 66%. In terms of the NCV, the total average pass rate for all the Campuses was 57% for the year 2016, a decrease from the 72% for the year 2015. The Melbourne Campus received an average pass rate of 43% for 2016 compared to the 47% of the year 2015.

 

Staff compliment:

Of the 265 employees of the College  228 are permanent and  37 are on contract.  134 are females and 131 are males. 143 are Blacks, 92 Indian/Asian, 25 Coloured and 5 White. There are 183 lecturing staff and 82 are Support Staff. 227 staff members are persal paid and 38 are college paid. The disntictionbetween persal paid and council paid employees came about after the migration of the colleges from Provincial Departments of Education to the DHET.

 

Outstanding results and certificates:

Campus	No. of results	No. of certificates	Programme/s
Asherville	4	20	NCV Safety in Society 2015
Cato Manor	54	54	Public Management
Centec	8	208	3 finance 3Tourisim & 2 Public Management
Melbourne	0	0	0
Springfield	178	178	Educare, PR, HR, Marketing; Mechanical Engineering
Umbilo	27	27	HR and Public Management

 

Budget Allocation:

The budget allocated for the 2017/18 financial year is as follows:

• Compensation of employees (PERSAL Allocation) is R82 086 000;
• Direct Transfer is R7 122 000;
• NSFAS Allocation is R40 039 000;
• Total Budget Allocation is R129 247 000; and
• SNE Allocation is R 136 000.

 

NSFAS information:

The number of students (bursary applicants) that have been provisionally approved by NSFAS is 3 657 and the number of schedules of particulars (SOPs) that have been generated (created) is 2 849. The number of SOPs already signed by students (bursary beneficiaries) is 2 609 with 1 234 manually signed and 1 375 signed online.

 

Regrettably, it is not possible to determine the number of students who have not applied for financial assistance (bursaries) as indicated above that students apply directly to NSFAS. The college can only be able to say how many students have not applied after the final list of students that applied has been received from NSFAS. To date, 243 bursary recipients (beneficiaries) have been paid their travel allowances to the value of R 693 908 and 220 bursary recipients (beneficiaries) have been paid accommodation allowances to the value of R3 229 380. The total of allowances paid to 463 students is R3 923 288.

 

The following information was highlighted:

• Not all students that have signed the SOPs applied for allowances;
• Not all students that have signed the SOPs qualified for allowances;
• Students (bursary applicants) residing within the 10 km radius did not qualify for travel allowances; and
• Some students, depending on the financial income/status of their parents/guardians qualify for a portion of what they have applied for (tuition and/or allowances).

 

Throughput and certification rate:

For the year 2015, the certification rate was 30% NCV and 17% Nated whereas it was 24% NCV and 26% Nated for the year 2016. The Throughput rate for NCV and Nated in the year 2015 stood at 72:62 consecutively whilst it stood at 57:72 in the year 2016.

 

1. Challenges

Challenges encountered by the College include:

 

 

1. NSFAS
2. A number of students have submitted their applications to NSFAS but they have not received any response from NSFAS.
3. To date, the college has not received a final list of funded students. As a result, the college does not know how many students have qualified for financial assistance during this academic year.
4. Not all generated (created) SOPs have been signed.
5. Lack of communication is a major challenge. DHET, NSFAS, Colleges and SRC members speak different languages.
6. Cascading of information, especially to the end-user which is the student is not adequately done. For example, each campus is represented by two people (Campus Manager & the SRC members) but more often than not, some staff members and students from certain campuses complain of not being updated.
7. Understanding of bursary rules and guidelines is still a big challenge. As a result, in some instances, these rules and guidelines are misinterpreted, in-spite of a number of these people (committee members) having been work-shopped on these rules and guidelines more than once.
8. Inadequate NSFAS funding, particularly for student allowance (travel and accommodation).

 

1. Governance:

It was clear from the in loco visit to the College that there were serious governance issues in that:

• On the Committee’s arrival in the College, the College Principal and Management arrived with body guards, which was a clear indication of the fact that he was being protected from something;
• The Committee, having requested an SRC representative to speak on behalf of the students, was presented with a young lady by the name of P Biyela who was said to be speaking on the SRC’s behalf. Before Ms Biyela could even finish talking, some Members of the SRC stopped her insisting that they did not know on whose behalf was she speaking because she was no longer an SRC representative. Ms Biyela was said to have been appointed in the beginning of the year as an EXCO secretary but due to the fact that she was not participating, she was suspended from the position. The Committee had to request the students to step outside for the purpose of trying to resolve the matter. Dr Nzimande from the regional office of the DHET was requested to go and assist the students and ensure that a legitimate SRC representative came to raise their issues before the Committee. The matter was indeed resolved and Mr S Luthuli represented the students as the SRC President. It was clear from the following issues raised by Mr Luthuli that there were indeed serious governance challenges in the College:

• The College having paid NSFAS funds to 167 students according to the Principal’s discretion without consulting the Financial Aid Committee. The Principal having said that he won’t account to kids when requested to account for College funds that were exhausted without any proper paper work disclosing the details with the College Management and Council failing to resolve the issue.
• Illegal evacuation of hostel dwellers on 21 August 2017 by heavily armed forces, breaking doors and damaging other properties in the process.
• The SRC members being threatened and facing intimidation. They got suspension letters ever since they have raised concerns, they were forcefully removed from the Hostel and College. There’s also a case scheduled for 18 September 2017 that the College opened accusing the SRC of perpetrating violence amongst the students, arson, damage to property, intimidation of staff members and barricading the gates.
• There haven’t been classes for 4 months now and the students are worried about the need for 80% attendance to be able to write exams. The fact that they were not getting travel allowance was hindering them to meet the criteria and NSFAS would not be able to fund them again since this would result in automatic failure.
• There’s no transparency in the College and a memorandum was served to the Mayor of Ethekwini and the Council about the student’s grief in this regard.

 

1. Other challenges:
2. Inadequate funding norms and standard.
3. Inadequate post provisioning norms and standard.
4. Lack of college organisational structures.
5. Dilapidating infrastructures.
6. Late release of examination results and certification.
7. Staff capacity building.
8. Student and staff placements in work places.
9. Curriculum transformation for responsiveness toward radical economic transformation (curriculum that seek to stimulate innovative, creative, entrepreneurship, self- reliance and inclusiveness) 

 

1. Observations

The Committee observed as follows:

• Learning and Teaching: The College is under enrolled. The pass rate has decreased and the certification rate is very low for both Nated and NCV.
• NSFAS: There is a lack of communication between NSFAS, DHET and the College, which leaves students not sure of their circumstances. This easily leads to students protests. The online application poses various challenges to both students and the college. NSFAS funding is inadequate to cover all legible students.
• Governance: The SRC and the college management do not see eye to eye, and the Council is not assisting to solve the situation. The management had a student whom they preferred who was SRC secretary who has been sacked by the SRC. They had come with her to the meeting and this evidenced the break of relationship between the SRC and the management and among the SRC. There is intimidation of students by the management.
• Norms and Standards: The College has inadequate post provision of norms and standards.
• Infrastructure: The infrastructure is in a bad state.
• Examinations: Examination results are released late.

 

1. Recommendations

The Committee made the following recommendations:

 

• Learning and Teaching: The College should draw up and improvement plan as it has shown a decrease on its pass ate in the last two years.  The improvement plan should be monitored by the management of the college, especially by the HODs and the Deputy Principal-Academic.
• NSFAS: The college should improve its communication strategy so that students are always kept in the loop about their applications. There college should assist students on the online application.
• Governance: The college should convene a meeting with SRC and iron out their differences. The Council Chairperson should chair the meeting and ensure that there is openness in the meeting for all to come out of the meeting with one voice.
• Norms and Standards: The College has inadequate post provision norm.
• Infrastructure: The College should ebngage the DHET for maintinance of its buildings.
• Examinations: The College and the DHET should come up with an approach that will expedite the release of examination results.

 

5.         Oversight and Monitoring in the Durban Playhouse Company

 

The Playhouse Company (The Playhouse) is a schedule 3A public entity, an entity of the Department of Arts and Culture established in terms of the Cultural Institutions Act (No. 119 of 1998) to develop and promote artistic works that represents diverse South African artistic and cultural heritage. Its role is crucial in terms of show casing performing arts, is committed in ensuring development of artist through nurturing local talent and skills, and provide cultural entertainment. The Playhouse is situated in Durban Central and was first conceived as cinemas, namely the glamorous Prince’s Theatre, which originated in 1926, and the grand, Tudor-styled Playhouse, which originally opened its doors to public fanfares and capacity house in 1935. It was in the early 1980s, that renovations and conversion took place but still preserving its originality. In the mid-80s, it was officially opened as the Natal Playhouse, subsequently to become known by its present-day title the Playhouse Company.

 

The visit to the Theatre also began by remarks and presentation that were made by the Head of Department of the KZN Department of Arts and Culture (KZNDAC), Mr B Mnguni and the Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director, Ms L Bukhosini on Tuesday, 05 September 2017. It ended with a site tour that took place on Wednesday, 06 September 2017 where the delegation was shown the following:

• The Opera Theatre;
• The Recording Studio Theatre;
• The Dance Studio Theatre; and
• The Acting Studio Theatre.

 

Mr Mnguni, in his remarks, indicated the following:

 

The Playhouse is a public entity reporting to the National Department of Arts and Culture and is, therefore, a national competence. KZNDAC supports the Playhouse because its objectives are in tandem with theirs. The Province deemed it necessary to work with them in pursuit of an agenda to support and nurture the arts. The relationship and partnership with the Playhouse is one of the ways of giving effect to the KZNDAC’S mission of providing integrated arts, culture and heritage services. The rules of engagement between the KZNDAC and the Playhouse are anchored on the provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

 

Funding provided to the Playhouse over the MTEF was R8 174 000 for the 2017/18, R8 657 000 for the 2018/19 an R9 141 000 for the 2019/20 financial years. The KZNDAC is underfunded and that hampers the kind of support that this Department is giving.

 

Funding is provided based on the Business Plan submitted. The KZNDAC and the Playhouse hold a meeting at the beginning of each financial year wherein they present and interrogate their business plan and sign an MOU. A business plan is submitted by the Playhouse and the KZNDAC monitors the funds in terms of the terms of reference (TOR’s) that are signed between them. There are increased reporting intervals to quarterly reporting including a close out report at the end of the financial year and two tranche payments are made after complying with reporting. Another layer of monitoring is on invitations to the programmes staged by the Playhouse to which the KZNDAC gets invited to attend. A special monitoring session is also executed by the region where the KZNDAC officials visit the Playhouse and conduct interviews on issues of governance.

 

The KZNDAC has a good working relationship with the Playhouse and considers them as their partner in executing its mandate of developing arts, culture and heritage in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The KZNDAC is happy with the manner in which the Playhouse runs its responsibilities and the level of work expected from them. Had funds been sufficient enough, the Playhouse should be doing more but with the little funding and limited resources that they get, they do as much as possible.

 

Ms Bukhosini informed the Committee as follows:

 

The Playhouse Company has achieved another clean audit report for the 2016/17 financial year. In line with the standard practice of good governance and responsible citizenship, the Playhouse continues to offer quality services to the artistic community and audiences like Durban, KZN. This is evidenced by its focus on:

• Quality productions that nourish the soulful artistic palette for both arts practitioners and audiences;
• Artistic programming that is relevant to nation building which celebrates diverse cultural and artistic heritage;
• Creating meaningful job opportunities for arts practitioners;
• Using the performing arts as a major contributor to positive lifestyle patterns; social cohesion and moral regeneration;
• Up-skilling younger arts-makers and traditional artists;
• Solid worker relationships with staff and the arts community; and
• Good corporate governance.

 

The Playhouse has since 2011 attained 7 clean audit reports which were preceded by 4 unqualified audit reports between the period 2007 and 2010. A good industrial culture is maintained in spite of various challenges which puts limitations on the number of jobs which can be created for arts practitioners.

The Playhouse has a Council made up of the CEO and Artistic Director, Chief Financial Officer and Support Services Manager. The Playhouse focuses primarily on the following:

• Promoting arts education and arts development initiatives;
• Presenting artistic works at the highest level of excellence in dance, drama and music;
• Collaborating with external productions/events, individual companies and institutions in promoting the performing arts; and
• Facilitating the access and optimal usage of all our theatres as venues for hire.

Its objective seeks to:

• Promote South Africa’s Arts and Culture to local and international tourists;
• Offer underprivileged communities an opportunity to visit the theatre as they invite charity organisations, children homes and old age homes;
• Create job opportunities for participating artists;
• Promote theatre as a place of wonder that also educates and provokes critical thinking; and
• Promote a sense of inter-cultural awareness, tolerance and unity through the arts.

 

The Playhouse runs numerous festivals throughout the year, such as the South African Women’s Arts Festival; the Shakespeare Schools Festival aimed at improving language and social skills through the performing arts and some dance annual events.

 

The Playhouse Company receives annual transfers from the DAC. In the 2016/17 financial year, R49.8 million was transferred marking an increase of R8.6 million when inflation is not considered. This represents a growth at the average rate of 10.6% over the medium term. Additional to that, the allocation for the capital works projects has grew by 19.8% over the medium term. For the 2017/18 financial year, the entity received an allocation of R4.7 million from the DAC. In addition to this transfer, the Playhouse also receives grants from the KZNDAC and the eThekwini Municipality. In the 2017/18 financial year, R8.1 million was received from the KZN Province. Over the medium term, the allocation will grow up to an inflation related figure equating to R9.1 million.

 

The Playhouse’s revenue (actual vs budgeted) is as follows:

	2017	2017	2017	2017
	ACTUAL	REVISED BUDGET	VARIANCE R	VARIANCE %	EXPLANATION OF SIGNIFICANT VARIANCE
Grants	75 055 947	66 141 206	8 914 740	13%	Capital grant recognised in terms of GRAP 23 - Revenue from Non-Exchange Transactions Taxes and Transfers.
Production income	5 948 878	2 071 725	3 877 153	187%	The Playhouse had a phenomenal year-end production and ticket sales far exceeded the budget.
Donations and sponsorships	2 499 103	2 499 000	103	0%	Sponsorship income received from DAC for 3 Incubator projects.
Rent received	569 075	427 350	141 725	33%	New tenants contracts entered into that were not originally budgeted for.
Hire of performance venues, costumes and sets	2 575 280	1 577 625	997 655	63%	Outside hirers income exceeded budget. 78 outside hirers production were presented against a budget of 35.
Box office commission - external productions	475 754	157 500	318 254	202%	Box office income increased in line with the increased outside hirers productions presented.
Bar and other sales	609 573	400 000	209 573	52%	The liquor bar benefited from the increased attendance at the phenomenal year end production.
Services in kind	7 697 389	0	7 697 389	0	Services in kind relates to the rates and taxes paid by the Department of Public Works on behalf of The Playhouse Company.
Sundry income	472 996	393 775	79 221	20%	After opening the functions venue hire the income exceeded the budget.
REVENUE	95 903 994	73 668 181	22 235 813	30%

 

The production statistics of the Playhouse are as follows:

YEAR	ARTISTS	PRODUCTIONS	PERFORMANCES	AUDIENCES
2014 - 2015	11 010	138	497	319 943
2015 - 2016	14 055	143	428	174 066
2016– 2017	15 932	167	514	251 502
TOTAL	40 997	448	1 439	745 511

 

1. Challenges

The following are the challenges:

 

• Funding for artistic programming:

• The Playhouse’s artistic programming contributes to South Africa’s redress of historical imbalances of racial and gender discrimination. It fosters greater understanding and promotes the cause of unity in diversity, social cohesion, moral regeneration, job creation, skills development etc. 
• The current scenario is such that the arts is seen as an unfunded mandate, where the grant is motivated on a yearly basis to the provincial government. For the year 2017, senior officials from eThekwini Municipality have indicated that there had been serious challenges regarding the funding of the artistic programme. To date, all efforts with relevant officials have not yielded any success in granting funding.
• Interventions from higher authorities are required to ensure mandatory funding by provincial and local governments for artistic programming for the 3 year MTEF for proper planning to take place.
• The Playhouse’s reaching out to rural areas has not been satisfactorily due to funding, making it difficult for them to reach all corners of the Province.

 

• Rates and taxes on buildings:

• Legislation requires building owners to pay rates and taxes.  This cost is about R8 000 000 (incremental) and has been paid directly by the KZN Department of Public Works (KZNDPW). They however no longer want to fulfill this role and this would leave the Playhouse in dire need of R8 000 000 which is not part of the grant from the DAC. 
• Interventions from higher authorities are required in this regard.

 

• Ownership of buildings:

• The ownership of the buildings rest with the KZNDPW who now want to transfer the ownership to either the DAC or the National Department of Public Works. The DAC is in favour of the transfer of buildings to the National Department of Public Works. This, however, is not a feasible option for the Playhouse as the National Department of Public Works has not been providing funding for maintenance related costs. The DAC has been providing CAPEX funding for Playhouse needs and it is imperative that they should not pass on the responsibility of ownership of buildings to the National Department of Public Works.

 

• Tax incentives:

• Legislation that promotes funding of the arts by the private sector needs to be introduced as a matter of urgency. This, for the purpose of allowing corporates and private individuals to get tax benefits in support of the arts. The tax exemptions offered by SARS needs to be reviewed to include Arts and Cultural organisations.

 

1. Observations

The following were the observations made by the Committee:

 

• Funding:

The arts is viewed as an unfunded mandate, such that they need to motivate to the provincial department on a yearly basis. The Ethekwini Municipality has not been able to fund the arts as well because of unavailability of funds.

 

• Operations:

The Company is the state of the art theate which also records well known artists like Mthunzi Namba. The incubation programme for up and coming artists is a good initiative (there were dancers and actors in house during the visit). The theatre is able to record a CD and a video at the same time, which is the only one that does that in South Africa.

 

• Risks:

The theatre has an area that is below sea level, and they have to pump water away all the time. If the pumps can break, the building would be filed by sea water.

 

• Rural footprint:

The Theatre has not been successful to reach to the rural areas, and funding impeded them to do so.

 

 

 

 

• Rates and Taxes:

If the KZNDPW does not pay the taxes which amount to R8 million, this will leave the theatre in a financial bind. The KZNDPW wants to transfer the ownership of the building to either DAC or DPW, and in this way, they will not have to pay the taxes themselves.

 

1. Recommendations

The Committee recommended as follows:

 

• Funding: 

The DAC should fund the theatre fully so that it can achieve its madate. The Provincial Department of Arts and the Ethekini Municpiality should also fund the theatre.

• Operations:

To increase if revenue streams, the theatre should attract more well know artist to come and record there. They shuld have a marketing dirve in KZN and other provinces as well.

• Risks:

The theatre should ensure that there is always a backup for the pumps so that water is always pumped back to the sea.

• Rural footprint:

The DAC, KZNDAC and Ethekwini Municipality should fund the Theatre for it to increase its rural footprint.

• Rates and Taxes:

KZNDPW should engage the DPW so that the Theatre is not negatively affected by the rates and taxes if KZNDPW no longer wants to own the building.

 

1. Oversight and Monitoring in the Moses Mabhida Stadium

 

The Moses Mabhida Stadium (the Stadium) is a stadium in Durban, South Africa, named after Moses Mabhida, a former General Secretary of the South African Communist Party. It is a multi-functional stadium located in the heart of the Kings Park Sporting Precinct. The stadium was designed to host a variety of activities and several events, like bungee jumping, concerts, cricket, football, golf practice, motorsports and rugby union.

 

The visit to the Stadium also began by a presentation and ended with a site tour that took place on Wednesday, 06 September 2017. The presentation was done by Mr V Mazibuko, the General Manager of the Stadium.

 

Mr Mazibuko informed the Committee as follows:

 

The Stadium is a state-of-the-art sports facility that was initially built to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is in the heart of the Kings Park Sports Precinct and provides Durban with a defining landmark. It is a lifestyle destination that is open for all to enjoy any day of the week with a variety of activities and facilities on offer. In March 2005, formalisation of the SPU to oversee and manage the 2010 and Beyond Program, which included building of stadium, upgrade of training venues and City upgrades (Airport, beachfront and various urban rejuvenation projects). The Caretaker operator to manage stadium (BKS–MMS Pty Ltd) was appointed in May 2009. The stadium was completed in October 2009 and the first event and stadium attractions opened in November 2009. In June 2013, the Caretaker Operator Agreement was terminated and the eThekwini Municipality took over management. July 2013 to June 2015 was the Transitional Period for EMM team to understand the stadium business and propose a long term business model.

 

Initial purpose for the building of the stadium was for The City of Durban to become a Host City and be part of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. The long-term vision was not just to create a football stadium to host this global event but for it to become a “landmark multi-purpose entertainment facility & precinct” that is open 7-days a week for all to enjoy. The strategic objective was for the stadium to create an enabling environment to attract investment that generated economic growth, created jobs and was an iconic landmark for the City. The key elements and decisions made that talks to the vision were:

• The strategic positioning in the Heart of the Kings Park Sports Precinct;
• The design and building of world class sports facilities, as well as retail space, various attractions and general public amenities and open spaces;
• The investment in state-of-the-art kitchen and catering equipment; and
• The investment in events equipment, i.e. ground cover, banqueting equipment, technical equipment etc.

 

The Stadium is a 56 329 total seating capacity stadium, capable of expanding to 80 000. It has a Premier Playing field that meets the requirements of major sporting bodies such as FIFA, International Rugby board (IRB) and International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is designed to accommodate an athletics track for track & field events and has the required competition areas and facilities to host world class sports events. It has 128 Suites capable of hosting 4 555 hospitality guests, as well as Business Club Lounges to host additional hospitality guests or to be used for a variety of functions. It has a State-of-the-art VOC facility and technical equipment. Its attractions include a Sky Car, Adventure Walk, Stadium Tours, Big Rush Swing, Segway Tours, Kiddies Play Area, Run/Walk/Ride Track, Bike Hire and Craft Market.

 

The Stadium has an Imbizo Place Retail Centre with a total retail space of 7 200 square meters. Current tenants include Virgin Active Classic Gym, Prime Human Performance Institute, Cuba Lounge, Ninos, STS Sports, Subway, Big Rush, Segway Tours as well as Nedbank, FNB, Standard Bank ATM’s. Its capabilities include major tournaments, local football, other events such music concerts, non-bowl functions and people’s park.

 

The following are the number of events hosted by the Stadium:

STATISTICS: STADIUM OPENING TO DATE:
Category	NO. OF EVENTS		TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl	1 939		315 526
Bowl	185		3 815 138
People’s Park	420		1 169 283
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2011 – 30 JUNE 2012 ):
Category	NO. OF EVENTS		TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl	229		44812
Bowl	22		364550
People’s Park	21		100390
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2012 – 30 JUNE 2013 ):
Category	NO. OF EVENTS		TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl	259		45667
Bowl	26		530879
People’s Park	31		109184
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2013 – 30 JUNE 2014 ):
Category	NO. OF EVENTS		TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl	293		45184
Bowl	24		458766
People’s Park	58		124346
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2014 – JUNE 2015 ):
Category	NO. OF EVENTS		TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl	279		37 325
Bowl	24		374 201
People’s Park	74		222 838
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2015 – 30 JUNE 2016):
CATEGORY		NO. OF EVENTS	TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl		236	39026
Bowl		20	458264
People’s Park		80	178233
STATISTICS: FINANCIAL YEAR TO DATE (1 JULY 2016 – 30 JUNE 2017):
CATEGORY		NO. OF EVENTS	TOTAL PAX ENTERTAINED
Non-bowl		189	37750
Bowl		20	547013
People’s Park		67	190759

 

Over the past 2 years, the Stadium has hosted 5 Big Concerts International events, namely Nitro Circus Live and the John Legend, Michael Buble, Lionel Richie & Mariah Carey Concerts. All the events have been resounding successes and have been very beneficial to the Stadium as well as the eThekwini Municipality. The Total Direct Impact these 5 events had on the City/ Province is R60 million. The impact each event had on generating income for Low Income Households through job creation was over R4 799 000. Over 64% of the attendees that came to the Mariah Carey concert stayed in Durban for 2 or more nights so this had an impact on accommodation. Based on the Total Impact and the costs to the City for hosting the 5 events, there has been a return ratio of 1:46. Over and above the Economic Impact for the City, there are a number of other benefits and these are:

• Job Creation (also contributing to income within the Low Income Households);
• Generating revenue for the Stadium (City asset);
• Brand Identity and Exposure for the Stadium as one of the Top stadia hosting international superstars (Putting Durban on the map); and
• Social Cohesion: Events have attracted a wide spectrum of people from all walks of life and race groups coming to enjoy a coming interest.

The Stadium has a staff compliment of 189. This number is made of 7 employees from the Office of the General Manager, 49 from Commercial Services, 83 from Operations, 26 from Facilities Management and 24 from the Administration Department. For the 2016/17 financial year, the total operating revenue of the Stadium was R67 558 000 which was a 13% decrease from the R76 367 000 for the 2015/16 financial year. Its expenditure stood at R100 916 000 for the 2016/17 financial year, a 9% increase from the R91 549 000 of the 2015/16 financial year. A deficit for the 2016/17 financial year was –R33 358 000 which was 54% more than the 2015/16 financial year. Most revenue came from rentals from fixed assets whilst the most expenditure was on general expenses. 84% of the income came from events, 7% from shops, 4% from suites and business clubs, 3% from sky car, 1% from parking and another1% from stadium tours.

 

1. Challenges

The following are the challenges:

 

• Content:

• There is a need to increase bowl content.
• The Stadium is competing with stadia around the country for content.
• Many events are reliant on the financial support of the City.
• Commercial partnerships are not viable without regular and desirable content (SAB, ABI, INL) including suite holders.

 

• Suite sales:

• Struggle to sell long-term leases based on lack of current confirmed content and all venues are struggling with the same
• Current Suite holders are not interested in activating suites during small PSL fixtures, hence a request for more Category A games.
• Suite holders want a variety of top events – sporting and music

 

• Infrastructure:
  • Maintenance budget provision is not aligned to stadium capital expenditure investment.
  • Accelerated maintenance requirements due to coastal climate.
  • Increased cost of imported parts and technical skill due to worsening exchange rates (e.g. Sky Car, arch, façade).
  • Technical equipment due for replacement given end of life cycle.
  • Some structural adjustment required to meet operational requirements.
  • Vandalism and damage to bollards.

 

1. Observations

The following were the observations made by the Committee:

 

• Design of the stadium:

It is magnificent world standard stadium with a 56 329 seating capacity. It has 128 Suites capable of hosting 4 555 hospitality guests, as well as Business Club Lounges to host additional hospitality guests or to be used for a variety of functions.

• Marketing:

There is Sky Car, Adventure Walk, Stadium Tours, Big Rush Swing, Segway Tours, kiddies play Area, Run/Walk/Ride Track, Bike Hire and Craft Market. All these are attractions in the stadium.

• Tenants:

Virgin Active Classic Gym, Prime Human Performance Institute, Cuba Lounge, Ninos, STS Sports, Subway, Big Rush, Segway Tours as well as Nedbank, FNB, Standard Bank ATM’s.

• Revenue Collection:

There is a challenge of people not coming to the stadium in multitudes. This is caused mainly by the content that is not attractive to the fans. The stadium break even point is when they sell 22 000 tickets for matches. 

• Matches to be played in the stadium over three years:

Currently, the stadium is negotiating with Golden Arrows and Amazulu football clubs to play 3 of their main matched at the stadium. The stadium has secured a three year relationship with Kaizer Chiefs Footbal Club to play some of its home games there. The stadium has also signed a three year contract with South African Football Association for Bafana Bafana to play some of its matched there.

• Infrastructure:

It is expensive to repair Sky Car as the maker of the car has only two projects in South Africa, which is the sky car and the Table Mountain cable car.

 

 

• Entrance for VIP:

The entrance for VIP is not separate from the normal entrance area, which means that VIPs will queue with other people on the way to the VIP area.

 

1. Recommendations

The Committee recommended as follows:

• The stadium management should ensure that people are trained locally to be able to do maintenance of the Sky Car.
• The stadium should have more marketing for the stadium so as to attract more spectators to the stadium.
• The stadium should clinch other deals with other PSL clubs to play at the stadium to boost its revenue collection.

 

1. Appreciation

 

The delegation, led by Hon LL Zwane MP (Chairperson: Select Committee on Education and Recreation), would like to thank all Stakeholders for the support given during the oversight visit.

 

Having undertaken the oversight visit to the KwaZulu-Natal Province as an accountability and oversight mechanism, the Select Committee recommends that the House endorse the oversight report of the Select Committee on Education and Recreation. 

 

 

Report to be considered.