Honourable Speaker
Honourable premier
Distinguished colleagues in the legislature
Stalwarts and veterans of our struggle
Executive mayors, mayors, Speakers, councillors and managers of municipalities
Esteemed traditional leaders here present
Leaders of the religious organisations and churches
Government officials present here
Youth, women, business and community leaders in our midst
Distinguished guests
Comrades and friends
The people of Eastern Cape
Isebe Lezophuhliso Loluntu, lempuma koloni Liyanibulisa.
The Department of Social Development salutes you, all.
1. Introduction
Honourable Speaker and Honourable members, Mr Kofi Anan then Secretary of United Nations had this to say during the 24th special session of the United Nations General Assembly 2000:
"Social and economic welfare are not separate concepts. Without economic prosperity, no country can provide for all the social needs of its citizens. But nor can any country be called truly prosperous so long as many of its citizens are left to fend for themselves against ignorance, hardship and disease".
As we enter the second year since the country went into the polls, we have to create conditions for prosperity and make sure that the majority of our poor people are integrated into the country's economy. With the help and support of an intervening government our poor people must be taken out of conditions of ignorance, hardships and disease.
To achieve this, we will work with institutions of higher learning, church groups, civil society structures and all the key stakeholders in our country, and together we will draw inspiration from this vision:
Striving to improve the social well being of vulnerable individuals, groups and poor communities; through facilitation of social processes for increased participation, power and control by recipients over the resources and services delivered.
We will be driven by a commitment to the promotion of developmental social welfare services and community development to the people of the Eastern Cape province in partnership with stakeholders.
For our people to benefit from the fruits of our democracy we will ensure that developmental social services are transformed, equitable and the quality is improved. In pursuit of our collective responsibility, the following shall forever be our lighthouse, the values of people centred development, equity and fairness, courtesy and commitment, integrity and honesty, transparency and accountability. We will promote good family values.
The current democratic context and the transformation of the social welfare system demand for the transformation of institutional systems and structures to add value to social service delivery in the country in general and our province in particular. In his address on 11 February 2010, the president of the republic stressed in no uncertain terms that this is a "year of action".
Our honourable premier emphasised the need and I quote "to rededicate ourselves to work together to speed-up effective service delivery to our people". In aligning ourselves, the department will refine its focus, integrate its competency, and upgrade its standards, improve customer care and access to the services, gauge its performance and monitor its targets to speed up service delivery.
The department has allocated 60 percent of its overall budget of R1.5 billion to meet the demands of developmental social welfare services. To this effect, an amount of R943.1 million is allocated for the 2010/11 financial year. This represents an increase of 9.6 percent of which is unprecedented in the history of this department.
This in itself is an expression of our resolve to expand the delivery of services to the vulnerable groups and to strengthen our business relationship with the non-governmental organisations (NGO) sector, as well as the expansion of services to rural areas.
2. Building cohesive, caring and sustainable communities
2.1 Child care and protection services
In guaranteeing children's constitutional rights in respect to care, protection, survival and development and in line with the mandate of the Children's Act No. 38 of 2005 as amended, an amount of R215.1 million has been set aside for this purpose. Out of this amount R183.6 million is the funding for transfers.
In tackling child poverty, we will intensify our Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme as part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) in partnership with other departments.
In this next financial year, 50 new ECDs will be established and will benefit 1 500 additional children in the 11 poorest municipalities. The 50 new ECDs will increase the number of ECDs from 1 262 to 1 312. The infrastructure for ECDs remains our concern in ensuring quality services and expanding ECD to the rural areas.
In 2009/10 through this programme the department created 3 786 job opportunities. With the newly established ECDs 150 jobs will be created. The total budget for this programme is R111.7 million. This budget includes an increase of subsidy per child per day from R12 to R15.
On the occasion of the 2009/10 State of the Province Address that was delivered by the Honourable Premier, Ms Noxolo Kiviet, she publicly instructed me to deal with challenges that continue to face the children who are leaving and working in the streets. In responding to this call the department in 2009/10 conducted a pilot project by establishing five transit shelters in Maluti, Mt Frere, Mthatha, Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth.
Through this intervention 129 children were re-unified with their families and communities of origin. In 2010/11, two additional transit shelters in Port Elizabeth and Aliwal North will be established. The budget set aside for the transit shelters is R8.1 million.
To strengthen inter-sectoral collaboration with other key stakeholders, a provincial strategy to deal with children living and working in the streets aligned to the national strategy has been developed. Our efforts to improve the quality of the existing ECD centres will include a thorough audit of all current ECD centres in our database.
In addition to the existing 24 children's homes currently funded by the department, two more children's homes will be funded in Sterkspruit and Mthatha. The budget allocated for the children's home is R36.3 million.
The department recognises the good work that is done by non-governmental organisations in providing child protection services to children in need of care and protection. As part of our inter-sectoral collaboration agenda, the department will continue the partnership with these organisations and the budget for this is R26.3 million. An amount of R1.2 million is budgeted for safekeeping of children in communities.
2.2 Substance abuse prevention and rehabilitation
South Africa and our province, in particular, are confronted by a growing and multifaceted substance abuse problem. In response to this challenge, the Department of Social Development has a responsibility to facilitate and implement preventative, rehabilitative and community based care interventions.
Provincially, the trends indicate that youth are more vulnerable to the effects of substance abuse. As a result, our programmes are designed to prevent and empower youth against harmful effects of substances. In addition to 480 in and out of school youth trained in Ke-Moja strategy, 280 will be trained.
Further, in addition to existing 25 Teenagers Against Drug Abuse (TADA) groups, 48 new TADA groups will be established provincially. The total budget for this sub-programme is R10, 4 million and R9.9 million of this amount represents funding for NGOs.
2.3 Victims Empowerment programme (VEP)
The department has been mandated to coordinate the Victim Empowerment programme in the province. This programme is inter-sectoral in nature and it ensures response to the criminal justice system for diverse needs of victims of violence specifically women and children.
Our departmental VEP initiatives are aimed at mitigating the impact of violence and abuse of women and children through services such as creation of One Stop outreach centres, counselling centres, victim support and victim friendly centres around the province and in particular where high levels of abuse are reported and, Safe homes for overnight accommodation for victims.
All these centres provide integrated services and prevent secondary victimisation as most are situated at police stations which are a point of entry.
The department also raises public awareness to potential victims through coordination of 16 Days of Activism of No Violence against Women and Children and other special provincial events in collaboration with other departments.
In preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the department in collaboration with other stakeholders will continue to render various services including awareness and prevention campaigns on abuse of women and children and in particular human trafficking especially in hot spot areas of our province. The total budget for this sub-programme is R9.8 million and R8.9 million is the funding for NGOs.
2.4 Care and services to older persons
Honourable Speaker, care and services to the senior citizens are an essential element of social stability. The Older Persons Act, 2006 enjoins us to ensure participation, dignity, independence, care, support and protection of older persons within the community.
In 2010/11 financial year, we will increase the number of community service centres from 214 to 247 and this represents an additional 33 community service centres. The department has set aside a budget of R94.9 million, of this allocation R91.9 million is the funding for transfers and subsidies.
2.5 Care and services to people with disabilities
The socio-economic empowerment of people with disabilities in line with the integrated national disability strategy continues to be our focus. In 2009/10 financial year, the department implemented integrated support services to 1612 children with disabilities.
Furthermore, our department in collaboration with the Department of Education conducted an assessment of nine out of 31 special day care centres focusing on issues of compliance and re-directed those that belonged to the mainstream schooling.
The department will continue to strengthen 24 existing homes for people with disabilities, 11 protective workshops and 11 civil society organisations. The budget set aside for this programme is R31.2 million. Of this allocation R28 million is the funding for subsidies and transfers to NGOs.
2.6 Care and support services to families
Honourable Speaker and honourable members, the important role of the family in promoting moral values cannot be overemphasised. The department has been assigned a responsibility to render care and support services to families, and to promote moral values and social cohesion, through family resource centres, family preservation programmes and single parents associations.
This is in recognition of the fact that values are learnt and practiced within a family context. 10 family preservation programmes were funded in 2009/10. During 2010/11 the department will fund four family preservation programmes.
Regarding families headed by single parents, the department developed a programme on life skills, parenting skills and how to build relationships between those families and extended families. Seven single parent associations were funded during 2009/10 and will continue to be funded in 2010/11.
The budget set aside for families is R9.5 million. Of this allocation
R7.7 million is the funding for subsidies and transfers to NGOs.
3. Improving the health profile of the province
3.1 HIV and AIDS
In ensuring a long and healthy life of the people of the province, our role is to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS and mitigate its social impact. To reduce new HIV and AIDS infections, the department engaged in preventative programmes focusing on behaviour change through awareness campaigns and commemoration of national events.
The department will continue to provide care and support services to people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS as well as accelerate the implementation of preventative programmes.
Furthermore, in supporting and caring for orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC), the department funded 115 home community based care centres (HCBCs) which provided services like counselling, support groups, after school care programmes, nutritional support and other material support to 88 625 OVCs. This financial year, four new HCBCs will be established benefitting additional 3 083 children. In total we will support 119 HCBCs.
The total budget for this sub-programme is R77.2 million and of this amount R69.5 million including incentive grant of R5 million is earmarked for creating work opportunities through EPWP.
3.2 Social relief of distress
The department has a responsibility to intervene in cases of disasters and families in distress across the province. To this effect the department has allocated a budget of R7 million for 2010/11 financial year.
4. Intensify the fight against crime and corruption
4.1 Crime prevention and support
In pursuing crime prevention and support the Department provides various services to the children at risk. These include developmental programmes aimed at preventing and diverting children away from the criminal justice system, re-integration of offenders and provision of residential care centres for children awaiting trial.
The total budget for this sub-programme is R90.8 million and of this amount R44.2 million is funding to NGOs.
The Child Justice Act, No. 75 of 2008 will be fully implemented with effect from 1 April 2010. In preparation for readiness to implement this act, all probation officers and assistant probation officers were trained.
5. Rural development, food security and land reform
5.1 Community development and research
Honourable Speaker and Honourable members, the Republic of South Africa provides indisputable evidence of positive economic growth occurring alongside increasing inequalities. It is for this reason that the department has embarked on the process of searching and implementing approaches that would locate the benefits of development at the micro-scale of individuals, households and communities.
The development literature demonstrates that community development approach offers the necessary qualities of a people cantered approach that seeks to promote human development and well being by placing people at the centre and forefront of their own development process.
The department has allocated 13 percent of the total budget of R1.5 billion to community development function across the province.
Our department is using the community development approach as a vehicle to promote vibrant, equitable, and sustainable communities has increased the budget of this programme from R176.7 million to R202.9 million representing an increase of R26.2 million.
This budget will have an impetus on our contribution to the National Youth Service programme and strengthen our focus on sustainable livelihoods, institutional capacity development for the non profit organisations and creating decent work opportunities with a strong rural focus.
Inevitably, a host of disparate human (people cantered) development initiatives have been implemented without much integration, coordination, unity of purpose and coherence.
We will therefore work closely with various departments and development partners including municipalities to build sustainable communities. We will also focus on issues of compliance by enhancing our monitoring and evaluation processes in order to ensure that all the non-profit organisations (NPOs) comply with government prescripts and are in-fact sustainable.
5.2 Youth development
In creating an enabling environment for the improvement of the quality of life of the youth and in line with the National Youth Service programme, our department seeks to achieve a seamless integration and responsiveness to the demands of young people by investing on skills development, employment creation and crime prevention.
In 2009/10, the department financially assisted 49 youth projects which benefited 490 young people. Furthermore, 420 young people were recruited and trained through the Masupatsela Youth Pioneer programme.
In 2010/11 financial year, the department has set aside a total budget of R26.7 million, of this amount R11.2 million has been set aside for
Masupatsela Youth Pioneer programme, R11.6 million has been allocated for transfers to NGOs. R7 million of these transfers has been set aside to facilitate and support economic opportunities for young people and R4.6 million will strengthen the existing initiatives.
5.3 Sustainable livelihoods
In order to promote sustainable livelihoods and increase household food security among the poor and vulnerable communities targeting women, the department funded food security projects that benefited 2 575 households in 2009/10. In 2010/11 financial year, 1 950 households living in the poorest 11 municipalities will be identified, profiled and provided with start up capital to develop new projects towards creating self employment opportunities in the province.
R100. 3 million is set aside as a contribution towards sustainable livelihoods and women development of which R70.3 million is meant to fund sustainable livelihoods programmes and R30.1 million for women development. Of the R70.3 million an amount of R65 million has been allocated for transfers to NGOs.
5.4 Women development
The department will focus on the socio-economic development and empowerment of women targeting the most rural and poor communities where women bear the brunt of poverty in our province. This will contribute to the improvement of quality of life of women.
In 2009/10 financial year, the department funded 50 women development projects, targeting mostly rural women at a cost of R25 million. About 800 households benefited from this.
The department has set aside an amount of R30.1 million in this financial year (2010/11) for women development which is one of the priority areas for the delivery of developmental social services to reduce poverty and promote sustainable livelihoods in partnership with other departments and development partners, R26.2 million has been set aside for transfers to NGOs.
The allocated amount will target the following interventions:
- R17.7 million for 39 new women cooperatives
- R5 million for funding 10 initiatives identified by Imbumba Yamakhosikazi Akomkhulu
- R3.5 million has been budgeted as a top up funding to strengthen 14 women cooperatives that were partly funded in the previous financial year.
Furthermore, in order to promote the rights of women in the province the department will focus on empowerment programmes to promote gender equality and the rights of women, as women continue to be the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society.
6. Institutional capacity building and support
Honourable Speaker, building the institutional capacity for non-profit organisations, particularly emerging organisations remains our focus. In 2009/10 the department managed to capacitate 149 funded institutions on financial and project management skills for sustainability, viability and good governance.
The total budget for 2010/11 financial year is R16.2 million, of which an amount of R7.6 million has been set aside to address the identified incapacity of our NPO sector in the province. This is a drop in the ocean given the size of the NPO sector and challenges confronting them in the province.
Furthermore, the department will continue to engage our national department with the view to have powers of registration of NPOs devolved or delegated to the province to improve the management of the NPO sector in the province.
7. Poverty coordination
Honourable Speaker, the department is also mandated by the provincial administration to review its approach to poverty alleviation and critically evaluate the impact of current poverty relief programmes with the objective of developing comprehensive, consolidated and integrated programmes within a sound policy framework that addresses the priorities of government.
Informed by evidence emanating from research commissioned by the University of Fort Hare, basic services have been delivered in an integrated manner to the identified wards of the poorest municipalities by various government departments.
In the last financial year, we have managed to disseminate findings on the extent of poverty within 11 poorest municipalities to sector department so as to ensure proper alignment of poverty strategies.
In addition, we have managed to establish 11 oversight boards or local war rooms in the existing 11 poorest municipalities, through these structures, as a short term intervention we facilitated and coordinated the delivery of non-negotiable services by municipalities, sector departments and social partners.
The department will continue to coordinate these interventions to move poorest households out of extreme poverty. To achieve this, the department has allocated an amount of R9.6 million, to further enhance integrated delivery of services, focusing on the family or household as the centre of intervention.
8. Partnerships
Honourable Speaker, Honourable members, the department and South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) in the province will together continue to play a critical role in the fight against poverty. In an effort to ensure effective social safety net through this partnership to most vulnerable groups across the Province, the ANC government contributes monthly average expenditure of R1.1 billion covering 2.3 million beneficiaries with an annual total of R13.5 billion. Part of what has to be achieved by these partnerships is a serious national debate on mechanism to link these beneficiaries to the main stream economy, in order to avoid dependency syndrome in our society.
The department will continue to strengthen collaboration in the implementation of its various programmes; in 2009/10 we signed a memorandum of agreement with Nestle South Africa to support our Early Childhood Development centres and non-governmental organisations.
In our work with other sector departments, we will integrate our interventions on food security projects with Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Health and Education. In 2010/11 we will conclude a memorandum of understanding with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) Eastern Cape and this partnership will help in training cooperatives and help improve business processes for funded NGOs.
In the new financial year 2010/11, our focus will be on addressing how we deal with community development in general, redefining our role in a more integrated process with added emphasis on rural development work and poverty reduction.
We will redirect our efforts to capacitate our community development practitioners to enable them to provide a more facilitative and supportive role within communities in partnership with other role players. This will indeed require re-evaluation, of our business processes and enhancement of our structural make-up so that we can be responsive to the needs of the communities.
Building the developmental state, improvement of public service and strengthening of democratic institutions
9. Human capital development
Honourable, Speaker, our department has a role to contribute to government initiatives of creating decent employment through inclusive economic growth, and, as part of public sector contribution to this end in mind, whilst keeping in mind the recent world financial crisis and its effects.
Our staff complement has increased to 3219 in 2009/10 compared to the 2008/09 figure of 2 868. The departmental transformation programme of redressing past imbalances is on track, we continue to hold that if the essence of our struggle was the creation of an equal and just society, previously disadvantaged people should continue receiving our primary focus as government.
Having successfully progressed in terms of meeting our targets, the department will focus on rolling out programmes targeted at increasing the capacity of the organisation. An amount of R4.3 million has been allocated in 2010/11. Our plans are afoot to meet the 2014 targets, more especially in meeting the two percent target in employing people with disability.
We wish to announce, Honourable members, that we are on course in dealing with the shortage of social workers in the province, currently we have successfully absorbed the 208 social work graduates that benefited from our bursary scheme and furthermore, 50 social work bursaries totalling R2 million will be awarded to student social workers in this current financial year.
In an effort to retain and attract Social Workers, the Department has successfully implemented the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) in 2009/10 financial year, however the department is currently quality assuring the entire process. The total budget for administration for 2010/11 is R414.1 million.
10. Financial management
In spite of the fact that the department has experienced a vigorous top slicing in relation to 2010/11 budget, we have managed to reprioritise this budget away from non-core services to fund service delivery imperatives.
To give effect to Provincial Treasury circular number seven of 2009 regarding cost containment measures, we have developed our own internal cost cutting measures and the intention in the short to medium term, is to engender a culture of prudence in spending public funds, in a manner that continue to focus our attention more on service delivery.
Honourable members, the department will do all what it can to maintain the unqualified audit opinion that we received during the 2008/09 financial year.
11. Monitoring and evaluation strategy
Having identified a gap in monitoring and evaluation of service delivery, the national government has established a Monitoring and evaluation commission within the Presidency.
In line with the strategy to intensify the monitoring and evaluation of service delivery, the department has decided to step up its monitoring and evaluation of departmental programmes and projects. The first step has been to institutionalise monitoring and evaluation by developing a monitoring and evaluation Framework which is aligned to the government wide monitoring and evaluation system.
In the next financial year, more emphasis will be put on evaluation of the impact of our programmes and projects.
Honourable members, in the coming financial year we will step up our efforts to improve relations with municipalities and enhance participation in the integrated development plans (IDP) processes, in order to ensure integrated service delivery and monitoring is achieved.
12. Risk management
The department will in 2010/11 financial year pay particular attention to the work of this unit, re-examine its scope so as to pay a focused attention on developing annual risk reviews, develop a proactive fraud prevention plan, develop integrated data bases, develop systemic tracking systems of misconduct cases, thereby increasing the effectiveness of our risk management strategy that will also contribute to fraud prevention and risk assessment processes in the department. To fund this initiative, we have set aside an amount of R2.2 million in 2010/11.
13. In conclusion
Honourable Speaker and members, we would like to conclude by urging everyone present here, to commit entirely into the creation of an equal society, the one that guarantees equal access to opportunities and we invite all our partners to join us in the realisation of these noble goals.
We equally request all public service officials to work up to the last atom of their strength to help in uniting our people to tap on their collective strength in the creation of a prosperous country that respect all its citizens indiscriminately. To this end Honourable Speaker, our profound gratitude goes to the Portfolio Committee for Social Development, Eastern Cape executive council, my colleagues, friends and partners including the media, for their wisdom and guidance, Ndithi kuni inene anizange nafika inyathi sele idlulile.
Without your critical insight and wisdom, our path would have been more difficult to traverse, and we are standing tall here confident that even in these trying times of belt tightening, we are guaranteed of your unwavering support.
Honourable Speaker, Honourable members, I now present to you the budget proposal for the 2010/11 financial year.
Programme
Summary of actual and budgeted payments
R'000
Adjusted appropriation
* Administration
2009/10: 417.934
* Social welfare services
2009/10: 859.973
* Development and research
2009/10: 176.715
* Total
2009/10: 1.454.622
* Current payments
2009/10: 907.852
* Compensation of employees
2009/10: 604.757
* Salaries and wages
2009/10: 423.329
* Social contributions
2009/10: 181.428
* Goods and services
2009/10: 303.095
* Transfers and subsidies (cur)
2009/10: 491.350
* Payments for capital assets
2009/10: 55.420
* Transfers and subsidies (cap)
2009/10: 0
* Total
2009/10: 1.454.622
Medium term estimates
* Administration
2010/11: 414.095
2011/12: 479.153
2012/13: 505.584
* Social welfare services
2010/11: 943.132
2011/12: 1.012.789
2012/13: 1.065.894
* Development and research
2010/11: 202.924
2011/12: 240.329
2012/13: 254 809
* Total
2010/11: 1.560.151
2011/12: 1.732.271
2012/13: 1.826.287
* Current payments
2010/11: 938.764
2011/12: 1.081.445
2012/13: 1.142.882
* Compensation of employees
2010/11: 679.893
2011/12: 802.922
2012/13: 845.379
* Salaries and wages
2010/11: 476.184
2011/12: 562.326
2012/13: 592.072
* Social contributions
2010/11: 203.709
21011/12: 240.596
2012/13: 253.307
* Goods and services
2010/11: 258.871
2011/12: 278.523
2012/13: 297.503
* Transfers and subsidies (cur)
2010/11: 554.057
2011/12: 579.726
2012/13: 608.712
* Payments for capital assets
2010/11: 67.330
2011/12: 71.100
2012/13: 74.656
* Transfers and subsidies (cap)
2010/11: 0
2011/12: 0
2012/13: 0
* Total
2010/11: 1.560.151
2011/12: 1.732.271
2012/13: 1.826.250
I thank you!
Source: Department of Social Development, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
