Madam Speaker, Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier Mr. David Makhura, Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature, Honourable MMCs for Social Development
Heads of department, Officials and
Leaders of our Agencies, NGO, CBO and NPO
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
This year as we mark the 60th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, we look back and reflect on the aspirations of our Fore bearers and struggle Stalwarts on the Vision they had of a United, non-sexist South Africa and a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
The Freedom Charter demands us to set out the plans to deal with unemployment, in-equality and poverty. It also demands us to give meaning to service to the people, serve them with humility and dignity.
In the State of the Province address, our Premier of Gauteng , Hon David Makhura, emphasised that ‘ the radical second phase of our transition to a national democratic society needs bold thinking and decisive action to completely eradicate the social, economic and spatial legacy of apartheid and colonialism. It requires men and women with the capacity to think ahead and the capability to inspire actions that can turn dreams into a reality. It needs men and women driven by a sound vision as outlined in the Freedom Charter and the National Development Plan (NDP). It also needs public representatives, public servants and leaders of other sectors
In line with keeping with this statement, we will maintain our commitment to contribute innovatively and with bold and decisive action towards addressing the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality, including the eradication of social ills in our society, which continue to affect South Africans. In order to effectively deliver on our commitments we will continue to foster and nurture and broaden our relationship with civil society, particularly non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who remain an important stakeholder.
Our Vision as the department of Social Development is to “Have a Caring and Self–Reliant Society” and our Mission is “To Transform our society by building conscious and capable citizens through the provision of integrated social development services”
In line with the Accelerated Social Transformation which is Pillar 3 of the TMR and the Social Transformation Strategy as adopted by Cabinet. We as the Department of Social Development (DSD) we then identified 6 strategic priorities. Namely;
- Reforming the welfare sector
- Improve access to quality early childhood development
- Enhance the capabilities of identified groups and communities
- Establishing social protection systems and strengthening of our monitoring and evaluations of services.
- Combat substance abuse
- Expand the War on Poverty
We are very much pleased that we are going to share with you our roadmap in fighting poverty, unemployment and inequality during our tabling of the 2015/16 budget of R 3,9 billion, an increase of 16% from the previous financial year.
Social Development commitments
Honourable Speaker, our government commitments and interventions are implemented within the social development conceptual framework. Social development is a “people-centred” process of coordinated social change that promotes the well-being of the population as a whole, and of households and vulnerable individuals/ groups within it; aims to address inequalities which exist due to disadvantages resulting from lack of education, poor housing, poverty, social crime, preventable ill health, victimisation, and vulnerability; focuses on social exclusion, social inclusion, poverty alleviation and cultural outcomes to bring about change; and targets the most vulnerable - children, the elderly, people with disabilities, women, youth, people living in poverty; unemployed and people with HIV & AIDS.
The outcomes of a social development approach will include socially and economically self-reliant individuals and households; transition for poor, marginalised and vulnerable persons to social and economic empowerment; social and economic justice; social solidarity within and between communities; social citizenship that incorporates mutual care, relational reciprocity and interdependence; existence of sustainable families and communities; improvements in the standard of living of households. The key pillars of social development are social protection and social investment.
Commitment to social protection
Honourable Speaker, we are committed to a vision of a caring and self-reliant society. Furthermore, we will transform our society by building conscious and capable citizens through the provision of integrated development services. These services include integrated social welfare services for the care, support and protection of older persons, care and social inclusion and economic empowerment of people with disabilities, programmes aimed at mitigating the social impact of HIV and AIDS to infected and affected people; promotion of functional families; care and protection of children in child and youth care centres, early childhood development and partial care services, alternative care to vulnerable children; community based care support programmes for the care and protection of orphans and vulnerable children through Isibindi programme; Social crime prevention programmes, probation and aftercare services to children, youth and adults in conflict with the law; care and support of victims of violence and crime; substance abuse prevention, treatment and after care.
Commitment to social investment
Honourable Speaker, we continue to contribute in achieving the commitments of a developmental government towards service delivery. Therefore, we have put in place the interventions that will contribute towards building safe and sustainable communities through the creation of strong community networks, based on principles of trust and respect for local diversity, and nurturing a sense of belonging and confidence in local people; supporting NPO registration and compliance monitoring, NPO stakeholder liaison and communication, providing institutional capacity building, manage Non Profit Organisations (NPO) funding and monitoring and create a conducive environment for all NPOs to flourish; providing poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihood services and providing community-based research and planning.
We will be creating an environment to help young people to develop constructive, affirmative and sustainable relationships while concurrently providing opportunities for them to build their competencies and needed skills to engage as partners in their own development and that of their communities; creating an environment to help women to develop constructive, affirmative and sustainable relationships while concurrently providing opportunities for them to build their competencies and needed skills to engage as partners in their own development and that of their communities, promoting the implementation of the Population Policy within all spheres of government and civil society through population research, advocacy, capacity building and by monitoring and evaluating the implementation of that policy.
Commitments to accelerated social transformation
Honourable Speaker, Social transformation has been one of the priorities of the African National Congress since the dawn of the new democracy. This informed the government’s intervention in addressing the plight of the poor and the vulnerable people. The targeted programmes included social security, integrated services to women, children, People with disabilities, youth, older persons, poverty alleviation, and community development.
Within the dictates of the situation on the ground, we are ready to accelerate social transformation informed by the guidelines provided in the transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation to the Ten Pillar Programme. We have positioned our programmes to be responsive to the people’s expressed needs in their localities, in line with the Gauteng Service Delivery War Room. We are inspired by the provisions of the Freedom Charter, informed by the democratic principles of people centred and people driven state and value system based on human solidarity.
Recently, we have travelled the breadth and depth of Gauteng, interacting with various stakeholders in the schools, hostels, coloured and Indian townships and communities in the poorest wards. We have sensitised them about the services rendered by government, our new TMR vision, and interventions lined up in each pillar of the TMR. We noted their concerns, provided an environment for follow ups in a form of service blitz, where in cooperation with South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA), the Departments of Home Affairs and Labour, we provided various services.
We have responded to the government’s plea to take services closer to the people. The people have spoken – They told us that there are no sufficient social services where they stay- they told us that they are unemployed, they told us that they are hungry, they told us that there is no sufficient infrastructure for them to provide social services. They told us about the effect of alcohol and drug abuse. In each area, we noted that most of the people go to bed hungry. This has provided us with the firm basis for the acceleration of social transformation.
Honourable Speaker, let me share with you our commitments for the 2015/16 financial year, in our bid to accelerate social transformation
Integrated substance abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation
Drug and alcohol abuse remains a major problem in our communities. As parents in Gauteng, we are deeply worried about whether our children will become victims of drug abuse. Nyaope in particular is ravaging our townships and tearing families apart. As part of taking services to the communities, we have launched a campaign of removing Nyaope smokers from the street in Mamelodi, which was notoriously named “Nyaope” street. They were admitted in our rehabilitation centres and thereafter placed in our skills development centres.
We also removed the youth that was camping in the community hall in Nkangala near Bronkhortspruit. The living conditions there were not conducive for human habitation. We admitted them in our rehabilitation centres and thereafter placed them in our skills development centres. And we are working with Youth Alive Organisation in establishing an after care centre so that they continue on their programme of remaining clean. Our regional office continues to monitor their progress.
In combating the high prevalence of substance abuse in the province, the department has provided funding to 41 substance abuse treatment centres (32 out-patient and 9 in-patient treatment centres for both government and NPOs). However, the escalating problem of substance abuse in communities has increased the demand for such services in communities. As the department intensifies its prevention and awareness campaigns of Ke Moja – I’m Fine without Drugs, to make communities aware of the dangers of substance abuse, there is an increased demand for treatment services, especially in-patient treatment due to the types of drugs used. At times, there are waiting lists at treatment centres due to the high demand for their service. This demand is also placing a huge strain on the current resources.
In addition, we have learnt valuable lessons from the Presidential Visit to Eldorado Park in May 2013. These lessons included rolling out of the integrated substance abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation model that is being implemented in Eldorado Park to all the regions in Gauteng; providing continuous training and capacity building to service providers to ensure that they are well equipped to intervene appropriately; redirecting additional human capacity to render prevention, awareness and treatment services at regional level and improving accessibility of services; and embarking on vigorous media campaigns to make communities aware of the effects of substance abuse and services available.
We have designed a prototype treatment centre which will service as a one stop centre to provide integrated and comprehensive treatment of substance abuse and improve access. In addition to in-patient and out-patient treatment, the centre will also provide skills development, and serve as a half-way house to ease integration back into society. Building of the first centre will commence in 2016 and we will complete centres in each of the province’s five regions.
Recently, we opened the safe house in Eldorado Park and a drug rehabilitation centre in the Baragwanath Chris Hani Hospital premises. We intend to open more Half Way houses that will help all those who come from rehab centres not to relapse and be depended on drugs again.
The role of civil society is crucial in building a social movement against drugs. We are working closely with local drug action committees. In the next financial year, 45 Local drug action committees will be established in the targeted wards and other prioritised hotspots. We are targeting 611 277 beneficiaries with the budget allocation of R121,3 million, an increase of 10% from the previous financial year.
Early Childhood Development and Partial Care
Honourable Speaker, the department plays a significant role in promoting the development of children in the early stages of their lives. It will continue to champion the provision of the Early Childhood Development Programme (ECD) in its partial care sites prioritising children from ages of 0 to 5 years of age. We wish to call upon all the unregistered ECDs to please comply with the registration process because it helps us to make sure that the children are attending ECDs are safe and being taken care of.
In this financial year we will be building new ECDs in various townships. This will ensure that there’s universal access of children to ECDs and a number of children placed in funded ECD sites in historically disadvantaged areas. We are targeting 86 123 children in the Early Childhood Development Centres and Partial Care Centres with the budget allocation of R 431,3 million, an increase of 14% from the previous financial year.
Our Bana Pele programme has been regarded as a priority of the department which focused on the provision of school uniforms to children in disadvantaged schools as well as schools located in previously disadvantaged communities. And provision of 130 000 school uniform packs will be distributed.
The days of young girls being absent from school because of menstruation are over. We will be providing young girls with dignity packs. Boys are also not forgotten, they will also be provided with their own packs so that they will smell and be clean all the time. An allocation of R104,6 million will take care of that.
Integrated HIV and AIDS services
Honourable Speaker, we will continue with our interventions in mitigating the effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. In order to achieve this, the department has prioritised strengthening education, awareness, prevention and universal precaution of the disease, the expansion of community based care and provision of material and psychosocial support to people affected and infected by HIV and AIDS. We are targeting 208 861 HIV and Aids infected and affected people, with the budget allocation of R279,7 million, an increase of 27% from the previous financial year.
Integrated services to older persons
Honourable Speaker, the key areas that serve as the foundation of service delivery to older persons include maintaining and promoting the status, well-being, safety and security of older persons; protecting the rights of older persons; shifting emphasis from institutional care to community-based care to ensure older persons remain within their homes and communities; regulating the registration, establishment and management of services and the establishment and management of residential facilities for older persons; combating the abuse of older persons; dealing effectively with the plight of older persons through empowerment and protection, and promotion and maintenance of their status, rights, well-being, safety and security.
Older persons are vulnerable to various forms of abuse from the younger generation, and to opportunistic diseases associated with old age and they are therefore in need of dedicated care and protection. In accordance with the legislation for older persons which enjoins the state to provide community-based services to enable older persons to enjoy active, healthy, independent lives as part of their families and communities for as long as possible, we will continue to provide subsidies to NPOs which includes community-based care facilities (service centres, luncheon clubs and home-based care facilities).
We have experienced an increasing demand for services and resources to ensure implementation of the Older Persons Act, No 13 of 2006. Challenges include compliance with norms and standards such as occupational health and safety, poor infrastructure and equipment in NPOs, as well as NPOs operating illegally and without being registered with the department as required by the Older Persons Act. We are targeting 38 214 older persons with the budget allocation of R250 million, an increase of 83% from the previous financial year.
Integrated services to people with disabilities
Honourable Speaker, in ensuring safety for all South Africans, we recognise the need to provide services that facilitate greater access and opportunities to persons living with disabilities. Many persons with disabilities endure poverty and chronic levels of unemployment, and lack of opportunities means less chances of become economically empowered.
Services planned in this regard include the provision of residential care services, assisted living facilities, social work services, and referrals to specialised services and protective workshops for those in need. Services to persons living with disabilities are also mainstreamed in all other programmes and services provided by the department through the Gender, Youth, and Disability Mainstreaming Initiative.
Many other challenges include lack of legislation on disability in order to enforce implementation of programmes and compliance with norms and standards; limited research on disability to inform policy, programme implementation and evaluation; poor governance of some NPOs; and NPOs operating illegally and without being registered with the department.
In order to address the challenges, and while noting that the process of developing the legislation is in progress at National Department of Social Development (DSD) level, we will implement research surveys within available resources; strengthen monitoring and support to NPOs; and provide education, awareness and capacity building of service partners to assist with monitoring. We have targeted 17 169 persons with disabilities, with the budget allocation of R114 million, an increase of 11% from the previous financial year.
Child care and protection
Honourable speaker, the work of the department in relation to child care and protection is informed by the Objects of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, which gives effect to the constitutional rights of children, that includes family care or parental care or appropriate alternative care when removed from the family environment; social services; making provision for structures, services and means for promoting and monitoring the sound physical, psychological, intellectual, emotional and social development of children; protection from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation; strengthening and developing community structures which can assist in providing care and protection for children; protecting children from discrimination, exploitation and any other physical, emotional or moral harm or hazards; and providing care and protection to children who are in need of care and protection, including children with disabilities.
There is an increasing demand for services in relation to the available resources to implement child protection services. The transformation of Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs) is slow. To mitigate the above-mentioned challenges, the department will implement the Children’s Act progressively and bid for additional budget annually and develop a plan for the transformation of Government and NGO run facilities and allocate the required resources.
We have targeted 101 905 vulnerable children, with a budget allocation of R 559,4 million, an increase of 27% from the previous financial year. Furthermore, we have targeted 4 991 children in the CYCCs with the budget allocation of R484,2 million, an increase of 45% from the previous financial year.
Integrated crime prevention and support services
Honourable Speaker, crime remains a serious problem facing South Africa, with the Gauteng Province being one of the major contributors to the nation’s crime burden. A high number of those involved in crime are children and youth. As a result, Government has prioritised services to target this group in an attempt to decrease their involvement in crime. As a result, the department will continue to increase its services with regards to children in conflict with the law.
The Child Justice Act, Act 75 of 2008, which was promulgated in 2009 and implemented in April 2010, created a new procedural framework for dealing with children who are in conflict with the law, and promotes a right-based approach to children accused of crimes. In order to comply with the expected implications of the new legislative mandate we will further increase the targets for the number of children to be assessed; children referred to diversion programmes; children who complete diversion programmes; children who await trial in secure care facilities managed by Government; and children who await trial in secure care facilities managed by NPOs.
The department relies on the performance of other stakeholders, and in the 2015/16 financial year will further strengthen its partnership, in particular with the South African Police Services (SAPS) and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, to refer arrested children for assessments and inclusion in diversion programmes and secure care facilities. We have targeted 142 574 children, youth and adult in conflict with the law with a budget allocation of R219,5 million, an increase of 76% from the previous financial year.
Integrated victim empowerment services
Honourable Speaker, the implementation of victim empowerment programmes (VEP) is a core mandate which aims to prevent gender-based violence, to empower victims of violence and to work with perpetrators of violence. In strengthening prevention programs we commit to reduce the risk of sexual and physical violence against women and children by ensuring participation of men and boys through education on gender-based violence. Access to shelters is demand-driven which impacts on the number of victims at any given stage at the shelters.
The availability of second-stage housing for victims of gender-based violence is planned for the 2015/16 financial year.
We will strengthen the linkages to economic empowerment opportunities offered by the Sustainable Livelihoods programmes as well as the Department of Economic Development (DED) and the Gauteng Economic Propeller (GEP). This will empower the victims economically and will prevent them from returning to an abusive environment.
The department will also maintain and strengthen partnerships with other departments within the Criminal Justice Cluster to ensure heightened promotion and awareness of no violence against the most vulnerable groups of society. There will be an on-going promotion of 365 days of activities by service providers to promote no violence against women and children.
The implementation of the Violence against Women and Children Strategy in an integrated manner as well as the DSD Victim Empowerment Strategy will enhance and strengthen existing efforts. The implementation of the National Strategy and Action Plan – with three pillars, namely prevention, response, support and care (flowing from the establishment of the Inter-ministerial Committee focusing on violence in the country that was established by the Technical Committee and chaired by the Minister of Social Development) – will be rolled out in the Province. The rolling out of the distribution and capacity building on the Everyday Heroes initiative will continue. Training and capacity building will also be offered to organisations to ensure that they are equipped to offer and roll out the perpetrator program. We have targeted 39 604 victims of gender based violence and crime with the budget allocation of R 81 million, an increase of 48% from the previous financial year.
Integrated care and services to families
Honourable Speaker, the ability of families to provide for its dependents is adversely affected by socio-economic challenges such as unemployment and poverty resulting in social ills plaguing communities. It is social challenges such as substance abuse, crime, absent fathers and mothers, child and elder abuse, domestic violence and other factors that weaken and undermine the stability of families, which in return impact negatively on the social fabric of society as a whole.
The impact of absent fathers and financial hardships puts a strain to most single mothers. Therefore there is a growing need for support and parenting programmes targeting single mothers in need of such a service.
Although much progress has been registered in developing several strategies to deal with the above, there has been a growing concern over the disintegrated approach of the cluster in managing common interventions for common clientele, and therefore a need for a consolidated GCR Accelerated Social Transformation Strategy. We are targeting 72 978 families/service recipients with the budget allocation of R 121,2 million. This is an increase of 12% from the previous financial year
Tackling urban poverty
Honourable Speaker, poverty and inequality remain a challenge for all of us. We are determined to strengthen the fight against poverty including urban poverty. In this regard we have employed a comprehensive strategy that combines short-term relief to food challenges, community development, and sustainable livelihoods. The pillars of the department’s interventions have included the war room on poverty, household profiling, a range of food relief interventions and drawing the people of Gauteng Province into productive work in a manner that will enable them to gain skills and increase their capacity to earn income.
Expanding the war on poverty
Honourable Speaker, the Anti–Poverty Strategy spells out 5 key pillars in fighting urban poverty. Every day all of us pass women sitting with children at the robots begging for money; in the suburbs it's worse. Grayston Drive, Woodmead, Kliprivier interchange, Rifle Range, etc. etc. Blind people also begging at the robots. Beggars are in large numbers.
All of us we respond to our religious consciousness of “cela uzophiwa” and “Kubusiswe isandla esiphayo” but we never pause and think what contributes to seeing so many beggars at our 4-way stops. Well of course some negligent parents use their children to run in between the cars begging. Syndicates also thrive on these vulnerable people. Indlala/Tlala is the cause of these problems.
As part of the TMR, our Anti-Poverty strategy tries to mitigate. And our goal is to ensure that no household in this Province goes to bed hungry. Working with municipality comprehensive Profiling of all households especially in the poorest wards here in our province will be the main focus. Upscaling Our Welfare to Work programme which targets young women, to encourage them not to depend on social grants, but through skills development they can learn skills that will help them to participate in the economy and be self reliant.
The extensive use of Cooperatives in the supply of school uniforms and other services will help many households to put food on their tables. Working together with the Department of Infrastructure and the EPWP opportunities will help in the drive of “one household, one work opportunity”
The Food banks will help the department to continue to make steady progress in the battle to end hunger among households in Gauteng. In order to ensure that families who benefit from the food bank become self-sustaining and less dependent on food parcels, the department will work together with civil society to intensify efforts towards programmes that help people improve their own lives and those of their children and the communities they live in.
We have established community nutrition centers within prioritised townships and the poorest wards. We will continue to facilitate the provision of a basket of services to profiled households and support to communities through change agents, and linkage of food bank services to communal food banks or small scale farming. It will continue to tackle child poverty through the Bana Pele One-Stop Programme and facilitate linkages with school gardens in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD).
We have lined up various interventions to respond to the urban poverty strategy. In response to the observations I made during my visit to the communities, I distributed food parcels from our Food Banks and Community Nutrition Centres to the households which were profiled in the various poorest wards, hostels, schools, ECDs and other vulnerable groups. In this financial year we are targeting 49 000 households to accessing food through Department of Social Development (DSD) food security programmes. We are encouraging households to have food gardens. We will continue to work with GDARD.
We will increase nutrition centres to 15 targeting 113 770 beneficiaries of food parcels & cooked meals in our Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs) and Home and Community Based Centres (HCBCs). 29 881 HHs were profiled, referred and provided with appropriate support and services from various departments and Agencies mainly SASSA. Municipalities profiled 18 694 households (Indigent service). Small farmers are providing goods to food banks. 21 small scale farmers have benefited from this procurement process injecting R5.7 million into their revenue.
The household food security programme in support of the TMR will increase support to small scale farmers. A budget of R191,4 million is allocated, an increase of 59% from the previous financial year.
The social exclusion of youth from the labour market coupled with youth poverty, substance abuse, crime and violence all points to the need to address how best we can improve the socio-economic condition of the youth of Gauteng. In response to the challenges above, we will be guided by the Youth Development Strategy developed by the National Department of Social Development. In addition to targeted interventions to improve the lives of youth, we have mainstreamed the needs of women and persons with disabilities in all outcome areas.
We will implement targeted procurement, continue to engage with the supplier forum for persons with disabilities, and train persons with disabilities who own companies on tendering. We are targeting 6 571 work opportunities, with a budget allocation of R8 million, an increase of 16% from the previous financial year.
Institutional capacity building and NPO support
Honourable Speaker, the transformation of the NPO sector is one of our key priorities. To this end, we are transforming the sector through training and monitoring. The initiative will ensure visible efficiency and effectiveness in the sector, contributing to improved service delivery. 800 NPOs are trained according to capacity building guidelines.
In this financial year, we will provide financial support to more than 2 482 NPOs servicing various sectors of society at a cost of R2 billion, an increase of 12%.
This is a demonstration that we are prepared to work with non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders. However, going forward, the state will progressively ensure that it plays a larger role especially in the provision of statutory services. This is in keeping with the National Development Plan and the National Department of Social Development’s new policy directives. We are exploring various interventions ways of building the capacity for the department to gradually take over those services. We have allocated a budget of R137 548 for institutional capacity building, an increase of 14% from the previous financial year.
Faith Based Organisations
Honourable Speaker, as government we will work together with civil society to promote our vision of a more caring society which raises our common humanity, promotes mutual respect and support and protects the most vulnerable. We will continue to build moral communities, healthy and skilled people as well as stronger families and socially inclusive and cohesive communities. To this effect we will work with faith based organisations. We have already signed a memorandum of agreement with SACC (South African Council of Churches).
We are all aware that the government alone will not be able to reach out to all the communities. Since faith based organisations are existing in all communities. we are expanding government’s service delivery networks, we are confident that the partnership that we have entered into with them will help us to accelerate social transformation and implement the commitments we have made towards rendering effective and efficient services to our communities.
Service delivery war room
Honourable Speaker, we have noted that people have expressed their dissatisfaction of the level of delivery of services by government. We participate in the implementation of the Gauteng Service Delivery War Room Strategy. We are leading in the implementation of Gauteng war room strategy. We continue to profile households, capture information and analyse the information, refer people with specific challenges to various department. We have improved the human capacity to accelerate service in various poorest wards by employing 300 personnel, the assistant community development officers (60), community development officers (60), social auxiliary workers (60), social work supervisors (60), and child and youth care workers (60). All of them have been provided with tools of trade that include the tablets and cellphones. We are continuing to host community engagements sessions and we submit our monthly reports to the provincial service delivery war room task team, hosted by the Premier’s Office.
In the past 6 months, we embarked on many outreach service delivery outreach campaigns that targeted the Coloured townships and the Hostels in all the 5 Regions of Gauteng. In these service delivery Blitz we came across many problems of poverty, unemployment and disabled children whose parents are do not know where to find help. Those who were profiled, interventions were made through social relief in distress and others have been directed to SASSA for assistance with regards to Social Assistance. More outreach campaigns will be embarked upon this time in the Rural areas. The community mobilisation programme is allocated R4,5 million, decrease of 5% from the previous financial year.
Institutional arrangement
Honourable speaker, we have outlined to you the scope of work we will be covering in this financial year, as informed by the directives for us to implement accelerated social transformation. Our interventions will be informed by research. We will commission research that, consistent with the objectives of the Gauteng Social Transformation Strategy, and in consultation with the Gauteng City Region Academy, will provide information that will foster common identification of critical Social Ills and Pathologies that requires prioritisation by the Social Sector. We will work towards coordination with all the departments in order to measure the impact our services are providing to the communities. We will also align our programmes to maximise impact and avoid wastage and duplication in the delivery of services to communities and households.
The information generated from research will promote migrating from our performance monitoring being output focused but to an outcome and impact driven performance system. Our researchers will be with us when we engage with our communities to record their impression on government service delivery, the successes and challenges. Ultimately they will conduct research on the changes of life of the people as a result of the interventions of the department. We have allocated a budget of R3,9 million for community research projects.
We will intensify our leadership role in the implementation of the South African Population Policy to ensure that the population and demographic factors are integrated into our our plans, programmes, policies, and strategies. This will strengthen our profiling when we visit our communities and provide information that will guide our policy decisions, intersectorally, and strengthen cooperative governance. We have allocated a budget of R2 million for this programme.
We will put in place the policy performance management system that will integrate performance at the political level, organisational level, stakeholder level, and individual level. This will assist in managing the performance of the department holistically in terms of the capacity to deliver services, the effect of inflation, the impact, and resource capacity.
We will fast track service delivery at Ward Level in line with the Ntirisano War Room and intervene where urgently interventions are needed.
Early this year we held 5 Regional Social Work Indabas, this was a build up to the National Social Work Indaba which was held from the 25th till the 27th March2015 at the King Luthuli Conference Centre in Durban. In these engagements it became clear that Social Worker is an important profession in the realisation of our the goals of the NDP.
We will work with the council for social service professionals, provincial chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (SA), and universities to contribute towards the implementation of the resolutions of the Social Work Indaba held in Durban last year. We will also respond to the issues raised during my consultation with the social workers in the department.
Honourable Speaker, the budget vote I present today will indeed enable us to contribute meaningfully in the acceleration of social transformation.
In Conclusion
We would like to thank all the NGOs, NPOs, Cooperatives, Faith Based Organisations and everyone who continue to partner with us in providing a better life to the citizens of Gauteng, especially the most vulnerable, the disabled, the children, the elderly and the women. Sithi Kubo Ukwanda kwaliwa ngu mthakathi! Yimbambeni njalo!
Let me also thank the HOD Ms Shoki Tshabalala, DDGs Amanda Hartman, Onkemetse Kabasia, CFO Desiree Legwale, All the Chief Directors, Regional Directors, and All the Officials in the department and the Regions, All the Social Workers, Social Auxiliary Workers, Community Development Practioners. And all the Siyabangena Teams for always doing a sterling work to make this department one of the best performing department in Gauteng, under difficult circumstances they do their best. Ngithi kini: ningadinwa nangomuso!!!!
Sibonge kanye no Sihlalo ohola I komidi elezenhlalakahle lapha kwi sishayamthetho, kanye namalunga e komidi. Siyabonga kakhulu ukuthi njalo nisishaye ngoswazi oluncane ukuze sihlinzeke umphakathi wakithi ngezinsizakala, nabo izimpilo zabo ziphucuke.
Siyaqhuba!!!. Together Moving Gauteng City Region Forward!!! Transformation forward.
Dankie, Siyabonga
