Following establishment of the Ministerial Committee on Review of 1997 White Paper on Welfare Services in 2013; the committee has today handed over the report to the Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini.
The scope of the committee’s work involved consultative meetings with communities, business sectors and other social sector partners in all the nine provinces.
Presenting the report, Chairperson of the Ministerial Committee for Review of the White Paper, Professor Viviene Taylor said that the report is the outcome of a broad and extensive engagement between members of the committee and stakeholders across the country. “Social Development should be able to utilise recommendations of this report to improve social welfare services in the country,” said Professor Taylor.
Amongst its findings, the report reveals that there is a shortage of social workers, Youth and Child Care Workers in poor and rural communities. The committee also found that the impact of HIV and Aids pandemic is high in poor communities and it recommended the need to educate HIV positive persons that it is only a chronic and not a death sentence.
Overall findings are showing that social protection services has increased significantly; especially through provision of social grants to more than seventeen million eligible South Africans.
Receiving and responding to some of the report findings, Minister Dlamini said that these findings will help the department to develop Social Development Act. The envisaged Act will among other things enhance and ensure that Social Development conduct its work in a coordinated manner.
“South Africans have a lot of potential but what hampers delivery of social services is lack of coordination and record keeping in our work. This can be achieved if our young social workers who are joining Social Development are taught basic skills such as report writing. Such reports will assist government, in particular, Social Development to be able to render welfare services in an equitable and non-discriminatory manner,” said the Minister.
She also emphasised the need for integration of the work of Social Development so that poor and vulnerable South Africans can be easily accessible and they do not fall into cracks.
The report will be used by national, provincial and locals spheres of government and stakeholders to measure the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP). Social service providers will also benefit from the report and its findings.
Full version of the report can be obtained on the Social Development website: www.dsd.gov.za
Media Enquiries:
Bathembu Futshane
Cell: 073 993 9391
E-mail: bathembuf@dsd.gov.za
