Programme Director,
Honourable Premier, Mme Thandi Modise,
Minister of Public Works, Mr Thulas Nxesi,
Deputy Minister for Social Development, Mama Maria Ntuli,
MEC for Social Development, Ms Mosetsanagape Mokomele-Mothibi,
Acting MEC for Public Works, Mr Raymond Elisha,
Executive Mayor of Bojanala District, Cllr Louis Diremelo,
Director-General for Social Development, Mr Vusi Madonsela,
The CEO for Independent Development Trust, Ms Thembi Nwedamutswu,
Representatives of the National Planning Commission,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to address you today on the occasion of the eight Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) Social Sector conference.
This provides us a platform to reflect on the challenges and successes facing South Africa in the context of job creation and human development. The reality is that our democratic society is faced with many socio-economic problems many of which find their roots in the history of the country dating back to the era of apartheid and colonialism.
The triple challenge of inequality, poverty and unemployment, to which President Jacob Zuma referred in the State of the Nation Address, is a clear effect and manifestation of a past that was based on discrimination and segregation.
Today, we meet here with a resolute mandate given to our democratic government to turn the situation around in quest to ensure a better life for all. We all know that the lives of many South Africans continue to be characterised by hunger, destitution and vulnerability.
Government has since the dawn of democracy tried to mitigate the impact of inequality, poverty and unemployment. This has been done through the provision of a comprehensive safety net which includes social grants, free basic services such as water and electricity, no-fee schools and school nutrition programmes, as well as job creation initiatives such as the EPWP.
The EPWP is one of government’s flagship interventions and is crucial in the fight against the triple challenge of inequality, poverty and unemployment. As a country, we are encouraged that in a year that was themed “A Year of Job Creation”, unemployment recorded a decline during the fourth quarter of 2011 from 25% to 23,9%.
This was also highlighted by President Zuma in the State of the Nation Address this year when he said: “During 2011, a total of 365 000 people were employed. This is the country’s best performance since the recession of 2008.”
Ladies and gentlemen,
Government believes that the Social Sector can play a meaningful role in the creation of work opportunities in line with its priorities.
This can be done by extending the application of public works labour intensive approach in the area of delivering social services. This concept is a departure from the traditional view that initially associated labour intensive initiatives with the infrastructure sector. It is important that as we expand access to services such as education and health, we do so while creating work opportunities for people to be capacitated in delivering such services. These services include Home Community Based Care, Early Childhood Development (ECD), National School Nutrition Programme, Kha Ri Gude (Mass Literacy Programme) and the Mass Participation Programme.
It is our duty to ensure that these services and the work opportunities associated with them reach our people including those in the poorest wards in the country. We must ensure that the National School Nutrition Programme is strengthened both to extend provision of nutritious food to learners and to create work opportunities for women in communities where it is implemented.
I am raising the issue of school nutrition programme because we believe that education without acknowledging the effects of poverty on learners undermines our investments and diminishes the results we seek to achieve in education. Through the ECD initiative, we seek to provide education and care to children in the temporary absence of their parents or adult caregivers.
These services are to be holistic and demonstrate the appreciation of the importance of considering the child’s health, nutrition, education, psychosocial and other needs within the context of the family and the community.
The Home Community Based Care (HCBC) programme provides a comprehensive quality health and social care by primary health caregivers in the home and community in order to promote, restore and maintain a person’s maximal level of comfort, social functioning and health. The impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic and other terminal diseases in South Africa have had a negative impact on the country’s health facilities.
Whilst the number of people requiring hospitalisation was increasing rapidly, it was at the same time taking a toll on the ability of hospitals to provide quality care. This situation led to overcrowding in hospitals, increasing costs of public and private health care, and the increasing number of preventable deaths that contributed to the escalating number of orphans, vulnerable children and child headed households. Therefore the HCBC was a community based response to address this problem.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We believe that these initiatives and the others that we mentioned have the necessary potential to create work opportunities while responding to the needs of communities and individuals.
The National Development Plan (NDP) declares that it is possible to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. In support of this vision, the social sector is at the forefront of ensuring the successful implementation of EPWP as an anti-poverty mechanism. Various studies undertaken independently have attested to the positive impact that government investment has achieved in relation to reducing income poverty, lack of services and basic social infrastructure.
Over half of our national spending goes to social services. However, we remain the most unequal society regardless of these achievements. Where is the missing link? The social sector must take an interest in ensuring that spending in the sector on the delivery of services influences what is produced, supplied and consumed in communities, schools and clinics, among other public institutions.
We have an interest in the extent to which social spending serves to influence local economies. We must ensure that significant improvement in people’s lives would be done by the time we celebrate 20 years of freedom in the next two years.
The NDP has identified unemployment as one of the major challenges. The youth of our country constitute the majority of our population, and the fact that they bear the burden of unemployment remains a major challenge. The question we need to ask ourselves is how can we ensure that the large number of youth are mobilised into programmes that seek to bring development and create work opportunities? There must be a way to absorb women and young people in the EPWP Social Sector programmes that seek to expand access to services and create work opportunities.
We encourage people to take part in the development of their communities. It is important for people to organise themselves in response to the socio-economic challenges that afflict our society. We cannot continue to promote what some have called wheelbarrow mentality where communities expect development to be delivered on their doorsteps by government alone.
The Community Works Programme (CWP) is one such programme that promotes active citizenship. It aims to provide an employment safety net, by providing regular (rather than fulltime) employment to participants, with a predictable number of days of work provided per month. This programme has been endorsed as having the potential to scale up the delivery of services, most of which fall within the social sector.
The Department of Social Development will work with other departments such as Public Works as well as Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to strengthen the CWP.
As this Conference develops an EPWP Social Sector action plan for the next financial year, the relationship between the sector and CWP must be one of your priorities especially to identify and deal with overlaps and duplications. Programme Director,
According to the White Paper on Integrated National Disability, the majority of people with disabilities in South Africa have been excluded from the mainstream of society and do not fully enjoy the rights that are guaranteed to them by the Constitution. Most of them still struggle to access opportunities within the mainstream economy. The 2% target of EPWP has the potential to open doors for people with disabilities while upholding their dignity.
We need to strengthen our efforts to protect the weak and vulnerable whilst at the same time promoting social solidarity and family preservation. The success of EPWP will rely on the Social Sector’s ability to reach out to the communities and change people’s lives for the better. It will also rely on its ability to contribute towards the broader government targets including our commitments on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
On this note, I would like to confer my sincere gratitude to all officials from Social Sector departments, our provincial counterparts, the SETAs and Independent Development Trust (IDT) for the success of this conference.
Thank you.
