Over 4 000 De Doorns seasonal farm worker families benefit from government support
Government has come to the aid of four thousand and twenty one (4 021) De Doorns families whose bread winners are mostly seasonal farm workers.
The people of De Doorns are mostly unemployed and find seasonal employment in the area’s farming sector only during September and April, leaving them without income for the remainder of the year.
This assistance has come in the form of social relief of distress from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), the supply of seed and seedlings for family gardens as well as the critical funding for the establishment of community based organisations and cooperatives.
The Minister of Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, announced during a community Imbizo in De Doorns on 2 August that SASSA had rolled out an extensive social relief of distress programme aimed at providing food and other necessities (such as school uniform for children) for struggling families.
She also announced that the National Development Agency – an agency of the Department of Social Development responsible for poverty eradication through engaging Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and capacitating them to empower communities – has provided grant funding to the value of R1 083 160 to support eleven (11) non-centre based early childhood development (ECD) playgroups.
During her visit to the area in October 2013 Minister Dlamini found that children in De Doorns attend ECD centres only during the part of the year when their parents are employed and thereafter pulled out because of their parents’ inability to pay for the service.
This investment is already proving worthwhile. There are now nine hundred and seventy five (975) children attending ECD centres in the area, seven hundred and eighty nine (789) of whom benefit from the government’s ECD subsidy. Government subsidises children who attend ECD centres by R15 per day.
The NDA has also helped to establish a sewing cooperative of nine members through funding to the value of R363 661. The funds have been used for the procurement of sewing machines, ironing boards, a blind stitch machine, a lockstitch machine as well as other essential equipment. Four other De Doorn cooperatives have benefited from the NDA’s capacity building programme.
Other interventions that have been rolled out in the area include the establishment of a community nutritional and development centre (CNDC) for older persons – located at an older persons’ multipurpose centre (Club 60).
A winter feeding project, which targets unemployed seasonal farm workers, was also launched in July. It serves meals from Monday to Friday to about two hundred (200) people per day. A number of other suitable sites have been identified where CNDCs will be established.
Finally, a youth development initiative was established and has resulted in young people accessing job opportunities through a workforce recruitment programme and the extended public works programme (EPWP).
Minister Dlamini’s visit to De Doorns was part of Project Mikondzo, a Social Development service delivery initiative aimed at expanding the reach of social services in the poorest communities of the country as identified by Cabinet.
Media inquiries may be forwarded to:
Ms Lumka Oliphant
Cell: 083 484 8067
E-mail: lumkao@dsd.gov.za
