PanSALB Mandate The Pan South African Language Board was created by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 108 of 1996. In terms of section 6(5) of the said Constitution, it states that a Pan South African Language Board be established by national legislation which must: (a) Promote and create conditions for, the development and use of- (i) all official languages; (ii) the Khoi, Nama and San languages; and (iii) South African Sign language; and (b) Promote and ensure respect for- (i) all languages commonly used by communities in South Africa.

Prescribe functions of PanSALB PanSALB was established as an independent statutory body by an Act of Parliament (Act 59 of 1995) as amended with the following explicit aim (Section 8 of the Act): (a) make recommendations with regard to any proposed or existing legislation, practice or policy dealing directly or indirectly with language matters at any level of government, and with regard to any proposed amendments to or the repeal or replacement of such legislation, practice or policy;

(b) make recommendations to organs of state at all levels of government where it considers such action advisable for the adoption of measures aimed at the promotion of multilingualism within the framework of the Constitution; (c) actively promote an awareness of multilingualism as a national resource;

(d) actively promote the development of the previously marginalized languages; (e) initiate studies and research aimed at promoting and creating conditions for the development and use of (i) all the official languages of South Africa, (ii) the Khoe and San languages and (iii) South African Sign Language;

(f) promote and ensure respect for all other languages commonly used by communities in South Africa; (g) advise on the coordination of language planning in South Africa; (h) facilitate cooperation with language planning agencies outside South Africa;

(i) establish provincial language committees and national language bodies to advise it on any language matter affecting a province or a specific language; and (j) establish national lexicography units to operate as companies limited by guarantee under section 21 of the Companies Act (No. 61 of 1973), and to allocate funds to the units for the fulfilment of their functions.

State of the Organisation when the new Board took over Challenges identified at the last meeting: • Vacant executive leadership • Underperformance • Bloated and un-mandated organisational structure • Financially-compromised organisation

5. Irrelevant Strategic Plan 6. Litigation problems 7. Low staff morale and infighting

CHALLENGE 1 VACANT EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP • Vacant office of the CEO • Vacant office of the CFO

STEPS TAKEN BY THE BOARD • Vacant Executive Leadership: CEO & CFO • The Board appointed acting CEOs as there were no funds appoint a permanent CEO • The Board resolved at its meeting of 4-5 February 2015 to kick-start the process of the appointment of the CEO of the Board.

The position of the CEO was advertised in the beginning of April 2015 and the closing date was 5 May 2015. • On 14 May 2015, the Board met to do the grading and shortlisting of candidates. • Interviews are scheduled to take place on 29 may 2015 and the CEO is expected to start anytime thereafter. • After the appointment of the CEO, the process of identifying and appointing the CFO will begin.

CHALLENGE 2 Bloated organisation structure

Management Structure

Steps taken to deal with the bloated unmandated organisational structure • The Board sought a Legal opinion to address the problem of the bloated unmandated organisational structure • The Board took a resolution to disregard the contracts of individuals appointed by Mr Mxolisi Zwane as advised by the Legal opinion • The matter has been to court several times

The Board is currently engaged in a CCMA dispute regarding the individuals whose contracts have been disregarded. • The matter has reached arbitration stage and parties met on 20 may 2015 and the matter was postponed to Tuesday 27 May 2015 for a possible settlement. • The Board is doing everything it can to resolve the matter so that the organization can concentrate on the execution of its mandate and not litigation. • A meeting is also envisaged between the department of Arts and Culture to look at ways of resolving the matter.

CHALLENGE 3 Underperformance

Steps taken to deal with underperformance • The current Acting CEO has put several measures in place to develop staff critical capabilities and improve performativity • The Board has also established committees to assist the organisation with some expertise

CHALLENGE 4 Financial problems

Stopping financial bleeding • The ACEO has since his appoitnment adopted various measures to stop financial bleeding

Improvement in the finances of the organization • Ever since the new Board took over and dealt with the question of the bloated staff complement and irregular appointments, the organization began to stabilize. • The Board was able to meet some of its financial obligations and the cash flow problems are much improved • Contracts which did not add value were cancelled and the service providers who were paid in the past when there was no contractual obligations were reviewed • Processes were put in place to curb or eliminate irregular; fruitless and wasteful expenditure which amounted to about R28 million during the past three years.

Debt of the organization • The Board inherited an organization with a debt burden of more than R16 million occasioned by the appointment of contractors for services which were not budgeted for and some of the debts were not serviced. • As a result even those service providers which were contracted before the arrival of Mr. Zwane were not serviced resulting in the withdrawal of vital services which they were rendering to the Board. • The organization was blacklisted and some of the companies severed ties with the organization cutting services they were providing to the Board to the extent that for some time the organization did not even have emails and internet which made it difficult to function. • The debt has been serviced and now stands at less than R8 million and attempts are being made to reduce it further.

Contracts with service providers • A company called Sithole-Mzumbo Consulting was contracted to provide internet solutions to the value of R11 million which was not budgeted for. Over and above this, the company was paid more than R730 000 for its employees who were brought to do no more than what employees of the organization were employed to do and according to them about R600 000 is still owing for these and other services. • Both companies had no contracts entered into with the organization while Sithole-Mzumbo was billing the organization monthly for services which were not covered in any contractual agreement. • Communication was sent to the company of our intention not to proceed further with their services and whatever they claim to be owed will not be paid until they prove a legal obligation by the Board to pay. This has not happened

A figure of R190 000 per month in respect of internet and e-mail services has since been reduced to about R65 000 per month for services which are currently rendered by Telkom and all other contracts were cancelled.

Forensic Audit • After the Board appointed the Acting CEO, it mandated him to establish the extent of financial mismanagement in the organization. • The report that was presented was not a rosy one as it became clear that PanSALB was an organization which was bankrupt due to over indebtedness caused by contracts which were entered into and which did not add any value to the organization. • The Acting CEO reviewed all the contracts and payments and resolved not to make any payment where the Board is not legally obliged to make. • The Board recommended the appointment of a Forensic Audit to address the financial mismanagement that has occurred in the organisation and we are awaiting the report.

Challenge 5 Litigations

The Acting CEO’s can add on the steps taken to deal with litigation and other related issues.

Challenge 6 Irrelevant Strategic Plan

The Pan South African Language Board never had an approved Strategic plan document. • Upon the current board’s appointment, a Strategic plan dubbed “the Turnaround strategy” was presented to the Board and the Board rejected it and referred it back to management.

As there were problems in the organization at the time relating to the absence of the Strategic plan and the issue of irregular appointments, an understanding was reached between the Board and the Department of Arts and Culture that a Task team would be established to deal with both matters. • In this regard, DAC “the Turnaround strategy” draft document which I hope was even tabled here in Parliament and it was also aimed at dealing with the issues alluded to above.

It is worth mentioning that at PanSALB it was not possible to develop the Strategic plan purely because of lack of capacity inside the organization and that there were no funds to commission a service provider to develop it as substantial amount of the allocation went to staff compensation. • Around February 2015, as it became apparent that the idea of the Task team was not materialising as it failed to get off the ground, the Acting CEO was mandated to facilitate the process of developing the Strategic plan of the Board. • As the internal procurement processes had to be followed to source a suitable service provider, the process took longer that anticipated which resulted in the service provider starting towards the end of April 2015. The withholding of PanSALB grant by DAC also delayed the appointment of service providers

On 16 May 2015, management presented the Strategic plan to the Board in its meeting and after careful deliberations and consideration, amendments were suggested and management was requested to consider them for incorporation in the final draft. • We are happy to report now that management has come back with the revised document as deliberated and suggested and the Board will present the Strategic plan to the Portfolio Committee in due course. • While attempts are being made to ensure that the Board complies with the legislative prescripts including time frames within which to submit strategic documents to respective authorities, failure to do so with regards to the Strategic plan was cause by circumstances beyond our control and such failure is regrettable and every endeavour will be made in future to avoid non-compliance.

CONCLUSION • This is an organization which not long ago was facing an uncertain future and the tide was turned when bold decisions were taken by the Board and we are making steady progress in resuscitating the fortunes of the organization as the debt trap is also coming down. • On 15 October 2014, after a meeting of the Select Committee of Sport and Recreation, we were encouraged by the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture who encouraged us to stop the bleeding of the organization putting various cost- saving measures in place. • I can now confidently say that we are on course to resuscitating the organization.

I thank you Ndo livhuwa Enkosi!

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