Honourable Chairperson,
Deputy Minister of Social Development, uMama Maria Ntuli,
Chairperson of the Select Committee on Social Services,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As we commemorate the World Elder Abuse Awareness day today, allow me to express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who passed away at the Struisbult Care Centre in Springs following a fire blaze early this week, and wish those injured a speedy recovery. Events such as these should not occur and I will work with the MECs and municipalities so that we improve on the safety and conditions of all places of care for older persons and other people in need of care by the state and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs).
It is, today, a great honour and privilege for me to address this august House of Parliament, the National Council of Provinces, being fully conscious of and inspired by the historic significance of the timing of this debate on Budget Vote 19. I rise today, on the eve of the 35th Anniversary of the 16 June 1976 uprisings, and stand high on the shoulders of the youth of my time, to salute you in the name of all patriotic South Africans, especially those whose sterling contributions and sacrifices have made the current political landscape in our country a reality.
Many of these have laid down their lives while countless others were maimed for life while in active duty in the service of their country and people. It is thanks to these, to whom we shall forever be indebted that, today, we gather here as legitimate representatives of our people, to consider my department’s plans for the year underway to respond to the plight of the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalised members of our society.
Just four days ago, we had dipped our banners, with our flags flying at half mast, as we mourned the passing of one of the mothers of our nation, Mama Albertina Nontsikelelo Sisulu. After 75 years under apartheid and 17 years under democracy, at the age of 92, Mama Sisulu cut links with life and she handed the baton to those of us who remain behind to pursue the struggle for social transformation to realise the goal of a better life for all.
Honourable Chairperson,
Today, 17 years into democracy, many of our communities continue to suffer devastation from the ravages of apartheid, which manifest itself in the form of poverty, inequality, unemployment and underdevelopment. The Department of Social Development’s mandate, together with responsibilities of the agencies associated with it, is founded on government’s desire to extricate our people from the trappings of poverty and helplessness, to enable them to realise the benefits of the South African promise of a better life for all. As a department, we remain committed to this promise and shall spare no effort to ensure that it is realised.
Our efforts in this regard are inspired by our vision of building an inclusive society, based on the principles of human solidarity, in which the happiness of children is the hallmark of our daily experience. The society of which I speak is one based on the full integration of all its members, where those who are at the dawn of life – the children, are cared for and protected; where those who are in the shadow of life – the disabled, are supported to overcome their activity limitations; where those in the twilight of their lives – the elderly, are still meaningfully engaged in the affairs of their communities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Given that poverty and inequality remain our biggest challenge, the social assistance programme has proved to be our most effective social policy response. This year, government has allocated over R100 billion to the social assistance programme, which provides the poor with the means to meet their most basic needs. Over 15 million South Africans currently benefit from the programme.
Research shows that social grants have a huge beneficial impact on the lives of those who receive them as most recently indicated in a research report published by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Finance and Fiscal Commission. The report found that the social assistance programme reduced inequality and in fact reduced child poverty even at the height of the economic and financial crisis.
While majority of the beneficiaries use social grants to support their families’ basic needs, there is evidence that many are using the grants as a means to seek employment or support informal economic activities. There is evidence that social grants provide more than just a safety net and that it has a catalytic role for poor people to engage in the economy.
With regards to comprehensive social security, the Inter-departmental Task Team on social security reform has made extensive proposals for the introduction of new social insurance benefits and the total overhaul of the institutional framework within which social security is provided in South Africa. Specifically, the Interdepartmental Task Team has proposed that the policymaking function for social security should be consolidated under one department, and that a new social insurance fund should be created to render retirement, disability and survivor benefits to all formally employed contributors who will be mandated by government to contribute. These proposals are contained in the consolidated government document which will form the basis for discussion with the public and other stakeholders.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As part of this vision, my department has developed programmes and plans to invest in children. In pursuance of this vision, on 30 May 2011, together with other social sector departments, we launched the Child Protection Week under the theme: Working Together to Protect Children. This served as a platform to mobilise the rest of society, including families, to work towards investing in the well-being of children. As part of this desire, we unveiled an awareness campaign on Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Tweefontein, Mpumalanga on 1 June this year.
We undertook to exponentially increase the number of registered ECD centres over the next three years. The importance of registration is to enable government to provide subsidies for children from poor families, provide project funding and ensure the standardisation of norms and standards.
As government, we are aware of some of the challenges faced by the ECD sector and commit to work with civil society and other stakeholders to develop lasting solutions. This will include a review of the subsidy formula for poor children to ensure uniformity and equity.
Ladies and gentleman, our vision of a society enabling of children, families and communities to realise their fullest potential will be difficult to achieve at the current rate of alcohol and substance abuse in our country.
In this regard, we have embarked on a campaign against alcohol and substance abuse and proposed legislative changes aimed at reducing the abuse of alcohol and other substances. This campaign is supported by evidence that illustrates the extent to which alcohol abuse, in particular, contributes to violence against women and other forms of inter-personal violence.
The proposals to reduce the negative impacts of alcohol and substance abuse were tabled and refined at the National Summit on Substance Abuse. The implementation of these proposals is overseen by an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Substance Abuse.
With respect to treating the victims of alcohol and substance abuse, we plan to establish at least one treatment facility in each province during the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
Chairperson,
Children need to grow up in a nurturing and secure environment that can ensure their development, protection, survival and participation in family and social life.
More than just families and relatives, we need communities at large to care for needy children, especially orphans and vulnerable children. Research indicates that in addition to psychological distress resulting from the death of one or both parents, orphaned children are more vulnerable to poverty, illness and abuse.
They are at higher risk of HIV infection, malnutrition, stigma and isolation. Children orphaned and living in child headed households have increased, adding to the number of children who are profoundly impacted on by social and economic underdevelopment. Over the next three years, we will recruit and train 10 000 child and youth care workers to support children living in child-headed households, using the Isibindi Model.
This, together with the challenge of gender-based violence, amongst others, essentially puts undue pressure on the social workers due to lack of such professionals in our country. In the light of the socio-economic problems facing South Africa, many households look up to social workers to help them out of extreme poverty and vulnerability. This requires us to increase the capacity of professionals to help improve their livelihood. Therefore, 244 million rands has been allocated to support existing students and to provide for new scholarships.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Whilst our social assistance programme remains one the biggest poverty alleviation measures of government, the safety nets provided by such grants are not an end in themselves. We are working with economic sector departments to leverage social assistance investments so that it can yield job-creation benefits.
The Department of Social Development and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) will launch a pilot to link able-bodied care-givers of employable age to the labour market during 2011/12. The results of this pilot will be useful to finalise the draft policy framework on linking social assistance to economic opportunities. The pilot will place 1 000 beneficiaries in jobs between July 2011 and June 2012.
At our strategic planning sessions we had discussions with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on a partnership wherein the DTI would look to promote purchasing cooperatives in areas where there are significant concentrations of people accessing social assistance. The aim is to encourage collective purchasing of essential goods and services thereby, reducing costs and to stimulate the local production of such goods.
The Social Assistance programme has reduced the experience of hunger. This work will be complemented by other efforts by the Department of Social Development and its partners to tackle the vexing problem of food insecurity. We are working with FoodBanks South Africa that is distributing food to thousands of people on a daily basis. There are plans in place by FoodBanks South Africa to move towards stimulating family and small scale food production which will create jobs while tackling the problem of food insecurity.
Initiatives such as these will serve to complement the work of the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Developmentand Land Reform that in partnership with our department and civil society organisations are working on a ‘Road Map’ to reduce food insecurity in South Africa.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The National Development Agency (NDA) is tasked to support the work of civil society in key areas of concern to the mandate of the Department of Social Development and government. The NDA will therefore be an important partner in our efforts to promote Early Childhood Development (ECD), through using its grants to strengthen the capacities of ECD service organisations.They will similarly support our efforts to reduce violence against women and children by providing key support to the Gender Based Violence Sector.
The NDA’s five year strategic plan positions it to become the grant –making institution for an engaged civil society in South Africa. The plan sees it raising significant resources from the state, the business sector and international donor communities so that it can support Civil Society, to ensure that South Africa continues to have a vibrant and resilient civil society.
As the co-chair, with the United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) of the International Advisory Group on AIDS I was again reminded that without a robust Civil Society in any area of work that we do, our chances of sustained success will be limited.
Given the challenge of building a strong civil society, the 161 million rands that will be transferred to the NDA is therefore, clearly not enough, and the Agency will require more resources to deliver on its mandate. We have engaged with the private sector and other stakeholders about the important role that this agency needs to play and we hope that MPs will be equally robust in encouraging other government departments to support the work of the NDA.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In spite of the good progress made with regards to expanding government’s safety net, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) still has a mammoth task to enhance its systems and processes, for it to respond to the needs of its existing and potential beneficiaries.
In the year ahead, our priority is to ensure increased access to social security services by all eligible beneficiaries. SASSA will undertake a robust overhaul of its systems to improve service delivery to its customers.
Ensuring an effective and cost efficient administration remains key to the operation of the Agency. The overall administration cost for social assistance is still relatively high. This is largely due to the cost of handling and transporting cash. We are finalising the procurement of new payment providers for Grant payments. This payment contract will run for five years. Through this process we will ensure standardisation of payment processes, reduction of costs and improve validation of identity of grant recipients.
Grant administration systems are still largely operated on a manual basis. This has been the significant contributor to fraud and corruption in the social security system, delays in the turnaround times, and poor record management. In this regard, I am pleased to announce that for the first time since the establishment of SASSA, we have been allocated financial resources to automate our systems.
Let me take advantage of this platform to express good wishes to the new CEO of SASSA, Ms Virginia Peterson, who is now responsible for driving the SASSA machinery.
In conclusion, I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to the Deputy Minister Ntuli, Members of the Select Committee on Social Services, MECs for Social Development, the Director-General, the Special Advisors as well as management and staff of the department and its agencies, for their hard work and support.
Thank you.
