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What are Cabinet
Memoranda? |
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Cabinet
Memoranda are classified documents intended for tabling in Cabinet
Meetings. These documents are regulated by strict rules issued by
the Presidency and National Intelligence, to ensure that they are
processed and stored in a secure environment. Cabinet Memoranda are
prepared by Government Departments for the purpose of obtaining the
Executive Authority's approval for policies and principles.
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Rules and regulations
governing Cabinet Memoranda? |
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The
policy relating to the drafting and distribution of Cabinet
Memoranda, is formulated and implemented by the Cabinet
Secretariat. This Secretariat is situated within the Presidency.
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA), is
responsible for ensuring that Departments conform to the strict
security standards. They have in their document Minimum
Information Security Standards (MISS), set-out the minimum requirements
which
must be fulfilled when dealing with Cabinet Memoranda.
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What is the
Directorate's role with regard to Cabinet Memoranda? |
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The
Directorate: Executive Services performs a monitoring role and is responsible for scrutinising all
Cabinet Memoranda distributed by other Departments. This is
done to determine whether the Department of Land Affairs has any
interest in such Cabinet Memoranda and if so, to provide the
Minister with comments on it. The
Directorate assists line functionaries with the drafting of their own
Cabinet Memoranda, if so requested and performs final quality
control on all Departmental Cabinet Memoranda. The Directorate also provides
advice on the process to be followed in submitting a draft Cabinet
Memorandum to the Minister, the relevant Cabinet Committee and the
Cabinet. A secure filing system is maintained by the Directorate,
whereby such Memoranda are indexed and filed according to directives
contained in MISS.
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How can you
access Cabinet Memoranda? |
Due to the strict
regulations pertaining to these documents, only persons with Top
Secret security clearance may access such documents. It is the
responsibility of each senior manager to ensure that the staff who
need access to such documents, are vetted. The moment we have
determined that the Department might have an interest in a specific
Cabinet Memorandum, the specific senior manager(s) who should take
note of it or comment on it, will be notified by E-mail.
These managers will then have to visit the Directorate's offices to
study the Cabinet Memorandum and prepare the necessary
comments. Under no circumstances are we allowed to make copies of a
Cabinet Memorandum or to send it to such a senior manager. It is
therefore unfortunate, but unavoidable, that senior managers will
have to visit our offices for this purpose. The Directorate is in
the process of setting up a Cabinet Room which will be equipped with
certain facilities to assist senior managers in this process. The
following applies when a senior manager wish to comment on a Cabinet
Memorandum:
(a) It must be done in the normal submission format, addressed to
the Minister.
(b) If the comments are provided before the date of discussion of
the relevant Cabinet Memorandum by the Cabinet Committee, or before
the meeting of the Cabinet itself, only a memorandum has to be
prepared. The Minister can then decide whether the comments should
be raised at the meeting or not
(c) If the comments are provided after the meeting of the Cabinet
Committee and the Cabinet, a draft reply for the Minister's
signature must be prepared in addition to the memorandum. Such a
draft reply must be addressed to the Minister of the relevant
Department on whose Cabinet Memorandum the comments have been given. |
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Who can you contact
for further information? |
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Ms M Chetty
is responsible for Cabinet Memoranda. In her absence, you are
welcome to contact Dr Dr R A Bester
Tel: (012) 312 8412
Fax: (012)323 6072
rabester@dla.gov.za
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