Programme Director, Mr Coceko Pakade,
Honourable Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi,
Deputy Minister of Social Development, Mama Bongi Maria Ntuli,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, Ms Yolanda Botha,
Honourable Member of Parliament, Ms Pam Tshwete,
MECs of Social Development, Ms Weziwe Thusi, Dr Pemmy Majodina and Dr Norman Mabasa,
Representative of the US Embassy, Ms Virginia Palmer,
UNICEF Country Director, Ms Aida Girma,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Comrades and friends.
Sanibonani, Dumelang, Avuxeni, Molweni, Namaste!
I am singularly honoured and privileged to be given this opportunity to address this conference on ‘Changing Children and Young People’s Lives’.
From the outset, I would like to extend a very warm welcome to the children and young people in our midst today. I would like to acknowledge and thank each one of them for their presentations, which have given us such enormous insight into your lives. I would also like to acknowledge all those who supported the children to attend the dialogues. The children’s participation in this conference would not have been possible without all of your individual and valuable contribution.
This is indeed a very historic evening for all of us assembled in this great place, which is named after the Isithwalandwe, former President General of the African National Congress and distinguished freedom fighters of our liberation struggle- Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. Of significance this year is the fact that we are marking 53 years of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chief Luthuli, who was the first African to receive this prestigious recognition in 1961. It is therefore befitting that we are gathered here this evening in solidarity and in action to further the vision that the forefathers of our struggle, including Chief Luthuli had when they developed the Freedom Charter in 1955.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me start today by asking you to picture the life of a child anywhere in South Africa that might have been deprived of parental love, care and support.
On 17 May, Sowetan published an article about a 17-year old teenager in Mpumalanga who has been taking care of her siblings since the death of their mother in 2010. According to the article, the children’s mother did not have an identity document and could not get them any form of identification before she passed on. What caught my attention about the plight of these children is that their mother’s family came to her funeral and have since made no contact with the children.
This is one of the many stories I have witnessed in my interactions with communities throughout the country. Theirs is a shocking example that things are still very far from right, and that more can, and must still be done and also underlines the importance of this conference.
Programme Director; let me preface my brief address with these two important questions:
1. What are the barriers that get in the way of providing effective and timeous interventions to orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS, and how can we remove them?
2. How can we ensure that no children slip through the cracks?
These are questions that must occupy our minds over the next three days as we deliberate to find practical solutions because all children deserve the chance to grow up in a loving and environment.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have chosen this momentous event to bring to the fore similar stories of orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS. Our presence here is not just to highlight their plight, but also to showcase community-based interventions that have a long lasting impact on their lives. The case I have alluded to brings home the fact that we face very clear challenges that requires us to make some big decisions during the course of this conference. And I believe that we can work together over the next three days to make these decisions in a balanced and responsible way.
Early this month, I had a chance to meet with groups of caregivers, child-headed households, parents of autistic children and youth with albinism drawn from all nine provinces. The aim was to get their input on how best we can improve our services and change their lives for the better. I believe there is only one way to solve the challenges confronting the sector, and that is to work together. And that is why I am encouraged by the presence of so many of this evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, this conference is part of the 2013 Child Protection Week activities, which we launched this morning. It gives us a unique opportunity to collectively reflect on how well we are doing in our commitment to build a society fit for children. In particular, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come in implementing the recommendations of the two previous conferences, from the first one held in 2002 to the follow up conference held in 2006.
Most importantly, this conference gives us an opportunity to reflect on how far our government has gone in attempting to meet our constitutional obligations, particularly in the context of protecting our children. Such reflections will also give us an opportunity to recommit ourselves to working even harder to play our part caring and protecting our children.
The need for collaborative effort is now more important than ever before, more so in the light of the 2011 census data which shows that the number of orphans in South Africa is increasing. Among children under the age of 18, the data shows that 3.7 percent of them are orphans, and 22% are either without a mother or father.
Former President Tata Nelson Mandela could not have put it more aptly when he said: “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
In pursuit of this soul that Nelson Mandela spoke about, we gather here determined to change the lives of children and young people and to ensure that the best possible outcomes are provided to all children in our country. Our Constitution commits government to take reasonable measures to ensure that all South African children have the right to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development. Section 28 (1) (b) of the South African Constitution states that children have a right to family or parental care. It further provides that where there is no family, or where a child has been removed from the family environment, the child must be given appropriate alternative care.
Since 1994, government has given priority to services for children to promote equal chances and to improve prevention and encourage early intervention. Key policy changes, including the Children’s Act, Social Assistance Act, Child Justice Act and the Sexual Offences Act have given effect to government’s constitutional imperatives and reaffirmed our government‘s commitment to ensure that every child receives proper care and support, including alternative care. While we are the first to acknowledge that we still have a long way to go, a significant amount of progress, worth mentioning, has been made.
Over the last eighteen years, government has done well to provide a safety net for the poor, particularly children. Today, more than eleven million children receive income support in the form of Child Support Grant, Foster Care Grant, Care Dependency Grant and Disability Grant. The provision of social grants has contributed significantly to the reduction of child poverty in South Africa. There are, however, emerging challenges that calls for definitive action to protect our children in light of the increasing number of children who have become vulnerable to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence.
Between 2010 and 2011, twenty five thousand eight hundred and sixty two cases of sexual offences against children were reported to police. This number could be definitely greater if we are to include unreported cases. There is therefore, an urgent need to take decisive action by giving importance to prevention and law enforcement as a crucial component of the overall approach to children protection, and to intensify efforts on timely and adequate investigation and prosecution of violations of the rights of children. These are the matters that the Inter-Ministerial Committee to combat violence against women and children is working on. The IMC has established a Technical Committee which is currently seized with the task to finalise the Programme of Action to eliminate all forms of violence against women and children.
The Programme of Action proposes key activities including prevention, awareness and social mobilisation, as well as monitoring and evaluation. One of the key proposals is the establishment of a Gender-Based Violence reaction team that will respond promptly cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Distinguished delegates, our child protection efforts rely on community-based services because it is universally recognised that keeping vulnerable children in supportive and community-based settings is the most conducive for holistic child development. It is with consideration for the best interest and rights of the child that government developed the White Paper on Families. The overall policy objective of the White Paper is to protect the family, support the stability of family life and develop supportive communities.
I would therefore like to emphasise the importance of this three-day conference in generating greater awareness, a common understanding and a shared vision on how best we can support families and communities to care and support orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa. I do hope that through this conference best practices will be shared, reviewed, as well as relevant policy and regulatory frameworks to address the growing number of orphans and vulnerable children as envisioned in the National Development Plan (Vision 2030).
The Home Community Based Care (HCBC) programme is the centrepiece of our interventions to build a protective and caring environment for vulnerable children. Most services to OVCs are rendered through the Home-Community Based Care programme and these include early identification of vulnerable children and their families, referrals, training of community caregivers and psychosocial support and material assistance, to name a few.
This approach is geared towards keeping children within their families and communities. It is aimed at providing comprehensive care and support which is complemented by proactive action at community level. This includes linking families with poverty alleviation projects and other services in the community, such as food security initiatives and early childhood development (ECD) services.
During the budget vote speech in the National Assembly earlier this month, we committed ourselves to scale up ECD services, with focus on rural areas. Accordingly, we have approved a five-year integrated programme of action, which identified the urgent need to improve rural infrastructure, human resource capacity, a new comprehensive funding model, and amendment of the Children’s Act.
During the course of this year, we will finalise a national policy, which will define the ECD service package and make it a public good. We count on the support of development agencies and Non-Governmental Organisations as we embark on this new path to improve the lives of our children, including orphans, vulnerable children and young people affected by HIV and AIDS.
Consistent with our commitment to keep children in their families and communities, we have recruited three thousand one hundred and fifty Child and Youth Care Workers from local communities and have begun with the training programme for the roll out of the Isibindi Model in 260 sites throughout the country. We aim to recruit ten thousand child and youth care workers over the next five years. It is my hope and belief that the recruitment and deployment of this cadre of social service professionals will go a long way to uphold government’s constitutional obligation to care, support and protect orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS in South Africa.
Ladies and gentlemen, the last conference in 2006 recommended the establishment of a coordinating structure at national, provincial and district levels to ensure coherent policy and programmatic response to the issues of orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS. Since its inception, the National Action Committee for Children Affected by HIV and AIDS (NACCA) has worked hard to accelerate and scale up the national OVC response through amongst others, the Policy Framework and the National Plan of Action on OVC.
Another key recommendation of the last conference, which I hope this conference will have an opportunity to discuss, is the creation of a national database for orphans and vulnerable children, including child-headed households. This process is long overdue and I have instructed the relevant unit within the department to fast track this process during the course of this year. There are strong signs that policies of this government are delivering progress. However, the story above shows that children can still suffer the most appalling neglect and abuse, and that government and communities can fail them, sometimes with tragic consequences.
We need greater focus on ensuring that orphans and other children at risk are identified earlier, and to provide a tailored service that safeguards them from abuse, neglect and exploitation, and at the same time enables them to fulfil their potential.
Our first objective is to ensure that all children are safely attached to caregivers who are capable of providing care and support to children for the duration of their childhood. Our government recognises the tireless efforts of all those working with our children. I know that many caregivers work under pressure and in challenging circumstances. They possess a wealth and diverse array of skills and expertise yet often go without proper appreciation by society for the vital job they do.
Our government recognises the central importance of your work to the delivery of improved services to our children and we are beginning to take significant steps to recruit, train and improve conditions of services for those working with children. Encouraging more people, especially at community level to work with children and enhancing their skills is one of the issues that I will continue to work to improve. As a sector, we need to identify and address workforce development priorities as a matter of urgency.
Our aim is to ensure that welfare services have enough people, of a high calibre and with the right skills to meet the needs of children and families. We also acknowledge that most of the work done so far would not be possible without the dedicated and commitment of faith-based, community-based organisations and community caregivers.
I therefore would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude the valuable contribution of these unsung heroes and heroines who work hard to uphold the best interests of South African children. Our special gratitude is extended to partner organisations: UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development for their generous and continued support to NACCA to carry out its work and to meet the cost of hosting a conference of this magnitude.
We have developed a new National Action Plan for orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS (2012-2016), which is aligned with the National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs and TB (2012-2016). The Action Plan calls for meaningful involvement and participation by all stakeholders in the national response to orphans, vulnerable children and youth affected by HIV and AIDS, and I look forward to your continued support.
Let me conclude by thanking you for making the time to come and participate at this conference, and I accept the hand of cooperation offered by the various organisations, including government departments that have attended to help us create a better life for the children of our country.
I now have the singular honour of declaring this conference officially open.
And I thank you all.
