The Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, will meet and interact with the community of De Doorns, Western Cape, on Saturday October 12, as part of the Department's Social Development Month campaign.
Social Development Month takes place every year in October and aims to engage communities to identify their challenges and put together action plans to deal with these challenges. The campaign, held in conjunction with the National Development Agency (NDA) and the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), also aims to inform communities of the various social services available to them and how these can be accessed.
In order to address the prevailing social challenges in poor wards and improve its service delivery model, the department has launched a service delivery improvement strategy - Project Mikondzo. Through Project Mikondzo, the Department wants to increase its footprint and reach every corner of South Africa with its services.
The aim is to improve responsiveness to the needs of the people and break down the structural barriers created by apartheid that placed government far from people. Social Development Month activities for 2013 will take place on this theme.
The department has over the past few weeks conducted Community Dialogues in De Doorns. The dialogues reveal that malnutrition is amongst the biggest challenges facing the community of De Doorns. De Doorns is a farming area which employs about 3% of the population and during harvest the number of people working in the farms increase to 70%.
The Minister will use this opportunity to listen to the concerns and challenges of De Doorns community and, in consultation with the community, introduce interventions to tackle social challenges that prevail in the area.
The Imbizo in De Doorns also takes place during government's Imbizo Focus Week, which is hosted under the theme, "South Africa is much of a better place than it was in 1994", concluding on 13 October. As such, the Imbizo seeks to celebrate the 20 years of freedom and all the gains made since 1994.
Members of the media are invited to cover the Imbizo.
The details are as follows:
Venue: Hex Valley Senior Secondary Sports Ground (De Doorns, Western Cape)
Date: 12 October 2013
Time: 11h00
For media RSVPs please contact:
Jaconia Kobue
Cell: 073 026 1111
Media enquiries may be directed to:
Lumka Oliphant
Cell: 083 484 8067
E-mail: lumkao@dsd.gov.za
