Question no

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 30 May 2008

838. Mr P J Groenewald (FF Plus) to ask the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs:

(1) Whether a certain person (name and details furnished) in Pietersburg (Polokwane) has been criminally charged; if so, on what charges;
(2) whether this person is still in the employ of her department; if so, why was this person not suspended after his arrest;
(3) whether her department will launch an internal investigation into the functioning of the office of the Land Claims Commission at Pietersburg (Polokwane); if not, why not; if so,
(4) whether such investigation has already commenced and been finalised; if so, what were the findings of this investigation? NW1526E

MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND LAND AFFAIRS:
(1) Yes. Fraud, alternatively theft, and obstructing or defeating the administration of justice.
(2) Yes. The employee was suspended on 18 March 2008.
(3) and (4) Yes. An investigation was launched and is at an advanced stage but has not been finalised as yet.

QUESTION NO 839
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 30 MAY 2008

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 15/2008)
Date reply submitted: 18 June 2008
Mr P J Groenewald (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Safety and Security:
(1) How many applications for new firearms in terms of the Firearms Control Act, Act 60 of 2000, in (a) 2004, (b) 2005, (c) 2006 and (d) 2007 were (i) received, (ii) granted, (iii) rejected, (iv) taken on appeal and (v) fully processed;
(2) whether he will make a statement on the matter?
NW1527E

REPLY:
(1) The South African Police Service received the following approximate number of firearm licence applications in terms of the Firearms Control Act, 2000 (Act No. 60 of 2000) for the respective years:
(a) 2004:   449
The implementation of the Firearms Control legislation commenced on 1 July 2004. The majority of firearm licence applications were received towards the latter part of 2004.
(b) 2005:   6 906
The number of applications began increasing after the first period of the renewal process. This resulted in a situation where the majority of firearm applications were received in the latter part of 2005.
(c) 2006:   18 718
The number of applications for firearm licences increased during the year 2006. This is attributed to the completion of competency testing by applicants who applied for both the competency certificate and the firearm licence.
(d) 2007:   30 275
The majority of the applications for firearm licences were lodged in the latter part of 2007.
The firearm licence applications have been processed as follows:

Year	(i) Granted	(ii) Refused	(iii) Taken on Appeal	(iv)^1Fully Processed
2004	135	7	No appeal was registered for this period	142
2005	4 083	1 367	No appeal was registered for this period	5 454
2006	8 659	3 457	102	12 218
2007	7 691	1 799	802	10 292

(2) No.

QUESTION NO 840
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 6 JUNE 2008

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 16)
Mr L W Greyling (ID) to ask the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry: (Interdepartmental

transfer on 06/06)
Whether her department took any action in the past year with regard to the rivers and streams flowing through the Cape Peninsula; if not, why not; if so, (a) what action, (b) in respect of which (i) rivers and (ii) streams and (c) with what result?

NW1528E

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REPLY:
(a) Yes, the DWAF has taken action with regard to rivers and streams flowing through the Cape Peninsula. This action was focused on raising awareness and collaborative efforts with the Provincial Department of Local Government and Housing (PDLGH) and the City of Cape Town (CCT) to find solutions within the constraints that exist. However, in future the focus will be more strongly on regulation and enforcement, in line with zero tolerance of pollution.
(b) (i), (ii) and (c) The actions taken are stated below and linked to specific rivers and streams where appropriate and also indicate what results were achieved.

• 
  DWAF has engaged with the City of Cape Town (CCT) over the past number of years regarding the need for upgrading and expansion of the Waste-Water Treatment Works (WWTW) within the Cape Peninsula. This has led to the CCT embarking on a programme to upgrade and extend the Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTWs) to improve the quality of the final treated waste-water and also to accommodate the additional sewage inflow from new developments. This will improve the water quality of most rivers throughout the Cape Peninsula. Looking at the average compliance with effluent water quality for 18 of the CCT WWTWs since the beginning of 2006, excluding marine outfalls, gives us a compliance rate of 88% (According to DWAF’s monitoring).
  

• 
  DWAF’s Water Services has also been engaging with the CCT and making money available through the Masibambane programme to assist with the eradication of bucket sanitation systems in formal areas and to provide basic services to all people within the Cape Peninsula. The eradication of bucket systems was achieved before the end of last year, 2007, within the target set by our National Government. The eradication of bucket toilets results in a reduction of serious health and environmental risks. In the Western Cape 4 600 bucket toilets were eradicated at the cost of R57 million. This has resulted in improved living conditions for the recipients as well as some improvement in the river water quality.
  

• 
  DWAF, together with the Scientific Services branch of the City of Cape Town has been monitoring the Rivers in the Cape Peninsula on an ongoing basis as part of the River Health Programme. This entails monitoring of the ecosystem health as well as water quality. Results of the monitoring are reported in a colourful and accessible format, prepared through the CSIR, for the Diep, Hout Bay, Lourens and Palmiet River Systems and published in 2003. A further Report for the Berg River System was published in 2005 and for the Greater Cape Town’s Rivers in 2004. The latter report covers the Sand, Zeekoe, Silvermine, Else, Krom, Schusters and Bokramspruit in the Southern Peninsula area. The Central area around Cape Town centre included the Hout Bay, Liesbeek, Black, Kromboom, Vygekraal, Elsieskraal and Salt River systems.
  

• 
  These reports will be updated in due course as part of the Berg Water Management Area Report. These reports are extended to providing a Status Report on the State of Health of the River, indicating areas needing attention and amelioration. The reports reflect on what action have been taken and are very useful in raising awareness of the need to clean up the river systems and improve catchment management.
  

• 
  DWAF together with CCT and other stakeholders including civil society organisations, schools and the broader public have participated in river clean-up campaigns in the Liesbeeck River. There are excellent examples of organisations such as the Friends of the Liesbeeck River actively encouraging the protection and enjoyment of “the water environment” and the aesthetic service it provides.
  

QUESTION NO 841

DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 30 MAY 2008

(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 15)
Mr L W Greyling (ID) to ask the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry:

(1) Whether the water of the rivers running through the City of Tshwane were tested by her department for bilharzia or any other kind of pollution in the past year; if not, why not; if so;

(2) whether any traces of bilharzia or other harmful pollutants were found; if so, (a) in which rivers and (b) what traces of pollutants were found;

(3) whether any action has been taken in this regard; if not, why not; if so, what action? NW1529E

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REPLY:
(1) No. There is no bilharzia testing for rivers running through the City of Tshwane. Due to the complexity of the test it is uneconomical to do this frequently unless there is suspicion of Schistosoma eggs in the water, which might cause bilharzia if these infect a person.
Fresh water becomes contaminated by Schistosoma eggs when infected people urinate or defecate in the water. The eggs hatch, and if certain types of snails are present in the water, the parasites grow and develop inside the snails. The parasites leave the snails and enter the water where these can survive for about 48-60 hours. Schistosoma parasite can penetrate the skin of persons who are swimming, bathing, or washing in contaminated water. The Department does routine monthly water analyses for chemical and microbiological testing.
(2) Yes. There are traces of sewage related pollution (a) in the following rivers Kaalspruit, Hennops and Apies/Pienaars. (b) Traces of pollutants that were seen by indicators such as E coli, Ammonia and Phosphate.

(3) The Department discourages swimming in, or drinking water directly from, rivers in City of Tshwane due to the risk of contamination. This is to prevent / reduce the chances of being in contact with parasites such as Schistosoma which might cause bilharzia or other kinds of infection as a result of pollutants in the water.

To deal with pollution related problems and to speed up the response time, the Department engages with the municipalities through forums to identify the sources of pollution and by integrating monitoring programmes to pick up pollution quickly.
QUESTION NO 842
DATE REPLY SUBMITTED: MONDAY, 07 JULY 2008
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: FRIDAY, 30 MAY 2008 (INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 15 – 2008)
Mr M H Hoosen (ID) asked the Minister of Transport:
(1) What is the total (a) number of driving licences renewed annually and (b) revenue received from such renewals;
(2) whether he has been informed that many licensing centers cannot cope with the high volume of applicants; if so, what steps are being taken to address this problem?
NW1530E

REPLY:
The Minister of Transport:
(1) (a)
The total number of driving licence cards renewed in the period June 2007 to May 2008 is 1 543 million.
(b)
The public paid R204 million, of which the driving licence testing centres (DLTCs) paid a fee of R64.7 million to the card production facility (CPF) for the manufacture of these cards. The balance is retained by the Provinces and Local Authorities to defray cost with the administration associated with the process.
(2) The Department of Transport (DoT) continuously monitor application volumes for the renewal of driving licence cards and is aware of the fact that some DLTCs experience higher volumes of applications. The DoT has implemented an electronic licence booking module on the National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS). It has been fully deployed in two Provinces, and another three Provinces are currently engaged in piloting the module. The full integration of the booking module with the driver module on the eNaTIS prevents fraudulent activities such as block-bookings by driving schools and the practice of applicants making bookings at multiple DLTCs, which will eventually be dishonoured.
In addition, the DoT is currently investigating the introduction of online transactions. The online transactions will free up resources at current service centres, allowing the staff to serve the public better and faster for transactions that require a physical visit to the service centre.