MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza on Post State of the Province Address

In his State of the Province Address last week, Premier David Makhura asked of the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD) to intensify efforts of nurturing values in our society.

 

He called upon us to build a caring society that thrives on excellence, cooperation and solidarity: “To create a united democratic and non-racial society,” as envisioned by OR Tambo. This encourages us to continue with our racially inclusive programmes.
 

It is indeed pleasing that our programmes are found in all corners of the province including in the predominantly white, Indian and Coloured areas. Similarly, we are attentive and responsive to the needs of all our people through Ntirhisano, Gauteng’s popular community outreach programme.
 
As part of the Cabinet collective, I am deeply touched by the loss of life of over 100 mentally ill patients who died as they were transferred from Life Esidimeni to Non-Governmental Organisations recently. We are working with the Gauteng Faith Based Organisations (FBO) Sector to assist these families to heal from this tragedy.

 

As per the Premier’s call to ensure that we don’t experience this unfortunate incident again, we are auditing all unregistered Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) per Programme (e.g. ECDs). We are mindful of mushrooming NPOs and the impact this might have on our database, as it may not always be accurate. 

However, when an unregistered NPO is identified, we will ensure registration and compliance. The NPO will ordinarily be given time frames to comply. Failure will lead to closure and removal of beneficiaries.

Radical Economic Transformation

 

 

We provide suitable facilities in remote parts of the province through the construction and maintaining the various facilities to achieve Registration of Child Youth Care Centres, Maintenance of social facilities, Universal access, Capital infrastructure and Infrastructure Delivery Management System (IDMS).
 

In the 2013/14 we spend R57.10 million, in 2014/15 it was R113.81 million, and R151.68 million was spent in the in 2015/16 financial year. The total infrastructure expenditure (2013/14 to 2015/16) sits at R322.6 million (current prices) this represents a whopping 66% increase in infratructure spend.
 

The impact this has on the economic activity created from social development infrastructure expenditure in Gauteng between 2013/14 and 2015/16 was in the order of R581 million.

We created about 2 953 direct jobs and 1 953 indirect jobs over the 3-year period. Total income received by households was in the order of R341 million, with an estimated 18% of this going to lower income households. Increased government revenue by about R144.1 million over the 3-year period.
 

Social Development: Planned infrastructure
 

Total economic activity created from planned social development infrastructure expenditure in Gauteng between 2016/17 and 2019/20 is estimated to be in the order of R1.5 billion. It is expected to create about 7 710 direct jobs and 5 099 indirect jobs over the 4-year period. We expect to increase government revenue by R376.1 million over the 4 year period.
 

Households will receive an income in the order of R890 million; an estimated R161.9 million of this is expected to go to lower income households. On average, every R1 in social development infrastructure expenditure potentially adds an additional R1.80 to the Gauteng economy, highlighting the potential contribution to the economy and the efficiency and productivity thereof.

Future social development infrastructure expenditure in Gauteng implies poverty alleviation impact for the provincial economy, in that 18% of additional household income generated is expected to flow to low-income households. Every R1 in social development infrastructure expenditure potentially adds an additional 45 cents to the national government revenue.

On average, future social development infrastructure expenditure in Gauteng implies an additional 9 jobs per R1 million spend.

 

Poverty alleviation and job opportunities
 

Our commitment to job creation is evidenced by the increased in the number of jobs created through the Expanded Public Works Programme. In total 20 506 (Target 19 263) jobs were created through the Expanded Public Works Programme.

The department achieved 30.69% on the procurement of goods and services from women owned companies with   913 companies benefitting. The department further achieved 3.19% on the procurement of goods and services from companies owned by people with disabilities and 233 companies benefited.
 

The Welfare to Work (W2W) is one such programme targeting young mothers and has 14 522 beneficiaries (target 7 750) to date. The focus will be to assist those with Matric access entry level job opportunities through the partnership with Lulaway in the service sector namely hospitality, financial and social service sector.

 

We support SMME’s; Co-operatives and township enterprises owned by historically disenfranchised individuals including women, youth and persons with disabilities. This includes programmes such as production of school uniforms and dignity packs for deserving girl and boy learners including learners with albinism, and Tshepo 500 000 amongst other programmes.
 

To date we have trained over   67 115 (Target 50 937) youth in various skills and will further provide more enterprise opportunities as part of township Enterprise Revitalisation. These will be in the Textile industry, cleaning services and agro processing.  Our social development institutions (old age home, ECD’s and secure care facility) will create off take opportunity for these enterprises.

Accelerating social transformation and promoting social cohesion

We continue to work very well with all spheres of government through our Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR) forums. We have agreed that all Municipalities of Gauteng should engage at a Regional level in IGR Indabas.

Through these Regional Indabas, areas of collaboration would be developed in areas such as Substance Abuse, Early Childhood Development, War on Poverty, Homelessness and Social Protection. Arising from the Regional Indabas, a Joint Plan of Action will emerge for the Department and Municipalities.
 

With the DREAMS programme, we aim to reduce HIV infection, teenage pregnancy and “blesser” phenomena among adolescent girls and young women in all areas in Gauteng. Since 2014 financial year we would have reached over 250 519 (target 250 000) girl learners and we will deliver 1 million Dignity Packs by 2019.

 

We are keen on building strong public private partnership. In Partnership with Edcon we launched the ‘Orange Day Campaign’ in support of Women unite against gender-based violence. We are exploring another private–public partnership with Adcock-Ingram with 1 592 (target 621) youth owned companies being economically empowered through the procurement of goods and services valued at R61 million.
 
Our war on drug abuse remains on the offensive. We are targeting the new method called “Bluetooth’ where users share the high through blood infusion. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will be in Mabopane as part of drug awareness campaign.  We have reached over 1200 people through these community dialogues. We are building infrastructure to respond to the scourge of drug abuse.

A 200-bed capacity treatment centre was launched in Randfontein last year to address the increased demand for treatment services. Since its launch the centre treated 768 service users for primary treatment and 106 service users benefited from the halfway house.
 

We have a Centre of Excellence Programme that helps youth exiting Treatment Centres, Child and Youth Care Centres, Foster Care and those in Conflict with the law to acquire accredited skills.  These include brick laying, tilling, electrical, plumbing, computer, etc. A total of 220 graduated have secured jobs or have been provided with starter packs to establish own businesses.

There are 101 youth that have completed training after the launch since June 2016 and 20 of these were recovering service users. There are 99 young persons that are currently undergoing training.

Transformation of the state and government

We keep our pulse firm on abuse of resources as well as greed and corruption because OR Tambo taught us that: "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." We have placed nine tenders in the open tender process, four were awarded, whilst five are at admin stage and will be awarded by the 24th March 2017.

 

Let me conclude by highlighting our efforts in Modernising the state. We have introduced the National Integrated Social Information System (NISIS) as a tool to be utilised in conducting household profiling. Furthermore, we have Supatsela IT system for NPO payment and Social Work Services case management.

We also contribute to connection of Broadband site.
 

The quality of the lives of the people of Gauteng is improving for the better. This government truly is the only hope for the poor and vulnerable.