Speech delivered by the Member of the Executive Council, the Hon. MG Qabathe (MPL), on the occasion of the presentation and debate of the budget vote 7 for the Department of Social Development
Hon. Speaker, Hon. Deputy Speaker;
Hon. Premier of the Free State Province;
Hon. Members of the Free State Provincial Legislature;
Hon. Members of the Executive Council; Executive Mayors, Councillors, House of Traditional Leaders,
The Director-General, Heads of Departments and Senior Managers in all spheres of Government;
Representatives of NPO’s and the broader civil society; Members of the Business Fraternity;
Representatives of Labour unions, Media Houses; Comrades, Compatriots and Esteemed guests.
A Very Good Day to you All
Honourable Speaker,
It gives me great pleasure to be delivering this Budget Speech in the month of March which is a very important month for Social Justice and Human Rights.
We have just commemorated International Women’s Day on 08 March 2022 followed by the International Social Workers Day on the 15th and the Human Rights Day on 21 March 2022.
On the 15 March it was International Social Workers Day. In honouring the day we joined the University of Free State Social Work Department in the Oath-taking Ceremony. This was to prepare social work students for their experiential learning with the Department. We have very good working relations with our Institutions of Higher Learning.
The government faces the challenge of returning to spending priorities in the medium term while balancing its ability to provide sufficient and immediate responses to any possible additional Covid-19 waves that may manifest themselves throughout 2022 and beyond. There is therefore no space to be complacent.
The Department therefore continues to provide support in the form of income, food relief and psychosocial services to the vulnerable groups.
In the midst of this pandemic, we have a more insightful understanding of the incredible contribution that social services professionals make to the wellbeing of our nation. We therefore thank these professionals for their dedicated service to humanity during these challenging times.
Speak
er, the increasing costs of delivering services are higher than the average inflation rate; in this way, the budget of the Department is generally negatively affected. The Department is therefore compelled to scale down and defer non-critical projects/programmes and reprioritize funds towards high impact services. One of the ways is to review and streamline the services of funded NPOs.
Despite the challenges, the Department still endeavours to respond to national and provincial key priorities: 2019-2024 MTSF targets, State of the Nation Address and State of the Province Address of February 2022.
Social Development is the lead Department for implementation of Government key Priority 4: Consolidating the Social Wage through Reliable and Quality Basic Services, with the following planned MTSF Sector outcomes:
• Reduced levels of poverty, inequality, vulnerability & social ills
• Empowered, resilient individuals, families and sustainable communities
• Functional, efficient and integrated sector
Equally so, the Department also contributes to the achievement of all the 7 Key Priorities of Government.
The final budget allocation for the Department of Social Development for 2022/23 is R1.179 492 billion which represents a nominal decrease of 23 % from 2021/22 allocation.
The decrease is mainly as a result of the function shift of Early Childhood Development (ECD) from Department of Social Development (DSD) to Department of Basic Education (DBE) from 2022/23 financial year, and onwards.
The Budget allocated for the Department for the 2022 MTEF per Programme is as follows:
Programmes Medium-term estimates
2022/23
1 Administration 307 632
2 Social Welfare Services 249 020
3 Children and Families 283 452
4 Restorative Services 188 056
5 Development and Research 151 332
Total 1 179 492
2023/24
1 Administration 284 783
2 Social Welfare Services 253 910
3 Children and Families 302 979
4 Restorative Services 187 046
5 Development and Research 131 359
Total 1 160 077
2024/25
1 Administration 295 527
2 Social Welfare Services 285 138
3 Children and Families 334 904
4 Restorative Services 193 629
5 Development and Research 137 336
Total 1 246 534
An amount of R841.775 million is excluded over the 2022/23 MTEF from the department’s budget as a result of the shifting of the ECD function. This consists of R281.119 million for 2022/23 and R280.328 million for each of the two outer years for earmarked funding and equitable share. The conditional grant allocation related to the function has also been excluded from the DSD allocation.
This budget has been allocated per programme as follows:
Speaker, in our journey to build a Capable Developmental State with an effective and ethical public services.
We are done reviewing our organizational Structure. The structure is reconfigured in a manner to enable the department to deliver on its statutory and compliance mandates.
This structure will also enhance the capacity of the department to respond to new challenges that our environment presents; amongst others will be:
- The increased number of orphans and increased child headed households brought forth by the Covid-19 pandemic (Child Health Experts say 134 500 SA Children were orphaned by Covid-19 pandemic)
- The increased numbers of people who are depressed and have suicidal thoughts and behaviour.
- The increasing numbers of food vulnerable families because of covid-19 deaths and loss of jobs
- The increasing numbers of teenagers and children from the ten- year age who are falling pregnant
- Gender Based Violence and Femicide
- Substance abuse is consuming our country.
Therefore Speaker, we appreciate the stimulus package that enabled us to take 173 Social Workers to help us deal with the challenges I have just mentioned.
We are thankful that additional funding has been made available to maintain the 92 Social Workers that were taken in response to Covid-19 over the MTEF period.
- We will also recruit Social Service Professionals for our Residential Care Facilities.
- 25 learners in partnership with HWSETA will be placed at our NPOs to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation,
- We will also take from some of our Ex-Masupatsela Pioneers and train them on Monitoring and Evaluation,
- We are going to establish a Departmental Call Centre to enhance our Customer Care Complaints Management,
- We are going to introduce New Posts on Business Development and Project Management Specialist to ensure that the Disability Protective Workshops; Cooperatives and some of the CNDC’s that we are supporting to become financially sound and economically viable.
Speaker, we have delivered on our mandate as pronounced by our Premier during her 2021/2022 State of the Province Address.
Salaries of 216 Former Masupatsela Pioneers were upgraded from Salary Level 2 to Salary Level 3 from the 1st of June 2021. We have solved legacy challenge that dragged since 2011.
The other 27 Ex-Masupatsela Pioneers were trained as Security Officers as we committed and they are now qualified and are placed in various Departmental Facilities.
We committed that within this ending financial year we will fill 37 Posts consisting of Social Workers, Social Work Supervisors, Social Work Managers, Social Work Policy Developers and Community Development managers.
Unfortunately, we could only fill 16 of the 37 posts. We are using a phased- in approach to fill the posts due to budget cut on compensation.
Speaker, in 2020/21 Financial year, we appointed Persons with Disabilities.
In 2021/22 financial year we committed to create an enabling environment for them to ensure that they perform optimally.
I am proud to announce that so far we have procured 4 Disability adapted vehicles, Assistive Technologies – Hearing Aids, Magnifiers, Mechanical Lifting Devices, Automated trolley mops; Reflective Neon Strips for the partially blind persons and Wheel chairs.
We will continue to ensure that the work environment is conducive to maximise potential and productivity of the staff.
Speaker, It is worth noting that as we strive to build a strong human resource there are set backs too.
Our Department, like any other, experienced the scourge of COVID-19. Since its onset in the Country; The Department recorded 559 officials who contracted the disease and unfortunately we lost 8 lives. “May their Souls Rest in Peace”, “Siya Ba Khumbula”. Psychosocial support services were provided to the affected families.
During the week 19-23 July 2021, the Social Development Sector COVID-19 vaccination program was rolled out in partnership with the Department of Health. The rollout included departmental staff, SASSA, NDA, the ECD sector, the NPO and NGOs Sector and our residents at Residential Facilities.
A total number of 6 099 persons were vaccinated, out of a target of 7 621.
Good Governance
Speaker, I want to announce here that Clean Audit is a far cry for the Department of Social Development. As long as the department is not assisted to pay R91.536 million owed to ENGO and settle the debt in full, as long as the Department is paying interest on the outstanding account we will forever experience wasteful expenditure.
Therefore, standing here I cannot commit to a Clean Audit, but I stand here to commit to a Clean Administration.
Hence all Senior Managers have signed the Pledge of Commitment to Clean Administration. Senior Managers are charged with a responsibility to ensure improved Audit outcome is achieved for 2022/23, by including this Key Performance Area in their respective performance agreements.
In an effort to prevent misuse of Government vehicles, our vehicle are branded in bright colours and are bar coded.
This will assist to ensure that vehicles are visible and easily identifiable.
Re etsa kgoeletso ke hona: hale di bona di sa kgannwe hantle kapa di eme ditameneng, re kopa le re tsebise ka potlako e kgolo.
Speaker, during 2021/22 financial year, the department allocated R55 million 325 thousand to 200 NPOs:
• 162 luncheon clubs for our Senior Citizens,
• 35 Residential care facilities for older persons
• 3 Social service organizations
Our continued concern is the mushrooming of unregistered Residential Facilities hence I said earlier we are strengthening the Department on Monitoring and Evaluation.
Speaker, ke motlotlo ho ema mona ke reporter hore re phethahaditse tshepiso ya rona. Re ekeditse Di-Stipents tsa Di-Care Givers tse 222 from R1 800 to R1 920. Bana ke bahlokomedi ba bana ba nang le disability dibakeng tsa polokeho tse bitswang ka hore kedi “Day Care Centres”.
Hona le Batswadi ba bana ba Disabled ba ikopantseng ba ema ka maoto ho fana ka tshehetso le tshireletso ya bana. Ba di-strekeng tse pedi fela ha jwale, e leng Fezile Dabi le Thabo Mofutsanyana.
Re tlo sebetsa le dikomiti tsa batswadi hore di be teng le Lejweleputswa, Xhariep le Mangaung Metro. Hare batle hore hobe le ngwana ya phelang ka boqhwala, ya patuweng hobane re mo swabela.
Ntle le dibaka tsa polokeho tsa bana ba phelang ka boqhwala, re na le dibaka tse 24 tsa boithapollo le boitjhoriso tsa batho ba phelang ka boqhwala tse bitswang di “Protective Workshops”. Ba bang ba bona ba etsa mesebetsi e metle ya matsoho hona moo.
Re ile ra thusa Protective workshops tse 2 ho hlahisa di “Hands-Free Sanitiser Stands”. Ra ba ra reka ho bona jwalo ka lefapha. Re tlo eketsa ka ho theha One Day Care Centre and One Protective Workshop in this new financial year.
Re ilo eketsa maqhama hoba thusa kadi partnerships for donations and opening of Markets. Ke ka hoo re batlang Poso tsa Business Management le Project Management.
Early Childhood Development (ECD)
Speaker, we held a very successful Summit on the 24th of March 20022 for the ECD Function Shift from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Education.
We are happy that the curriculum content of our children will be chiselled and sharpened at a very early stage. Thupa e kojwa e sale metsi.
We had many social partners within the ECD Sector amongst others we had National Lottery contributing 10 State of the Art ECD Centre s.
We had the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) contributing 3 beautiful container ECDs. Many contributed PPEs during Covid-19 pandemic. We thank our staff members who are shifting. We thank the challenging but good working relations we had with the 3 main ECD Formations; SA ECD Congress, ECD Forum and ECD Network and Advocacy Free State (NAFS).
Child Care Protection
The Department of Social Development remains with the custodianship of the Children’s Act.
The department provides Child Care Protection Services which include, amongst others adoption, placements to homes and to caring families for foster care and protection against child abuse.
Now that the ECD function shifted to Department of Basic Education, we will now focus on other challenging matters like children getting pregnant at the age of 10 to 18 years. We are to going to drive a campaign for arrest of statutory rapes and fight against cyber sexual grooming of our children.
We will continue working in partnership with NPOs and the amount allocated for transfers is R140 918 000.
Foster Care remains a challenge, for 2021, 9 862 Foster Care orders were to be extended, out of these only 4 724 orders were dealt with, progress was affected by closure of SASSA and the Judiciary offices due to COVID- 19 compliance resulting in 5 351 cases being carried over.
The Department is striving to ensure that 6 296 orders are dealt with by November 2022 when the court order expires.
In striving to address the foster care backlog, we have procured and issued 65 laptops to our social workers, we have also placed 81 contract social workers to assist. We are still struggling on procurement of vehicles in order to overcome the challenge.
Madam Speaker, we continue to deliver a package of social protection and development services.
We continue to improve the conditions of our shelters for Gender Based Violence and Femicide.
Last year we provided funding to a Shelter in Welkom to increase its capacity intake from 16 to 30 bed capacity.
More so when crime statistics indicated that Thabong Police Station is amongst the Top 10 Countrywide on dealing with cases of rape.
This year our focus will be Xhariep District. The Department of Public Work has identified a property for us at Gariep Dam which will be converted into a Centre that will deal with social problems in the area through our Social Behaviour Change Programme.
We will establish another Centre in Jacobsdal, an area that is known to have a chronic problem of substance abuse and many children born with Foetal Syndrome condition.
The third Centre will be in Sasolburg, Fezile Dabi District. Special thanks to ESKOM for donating a property for Curios Future Movement. The Department has started renovating the facility. We will fund this new shelter for its operation and programmes on GBVF.
Speaker, in the last Budget Vote, I mentioned that we have established a partnership with Sparta Beef. To this effect we are funding a Day Care Centre for children with disabilities in Marquard and are still in a journey with Sparta to establish a new One-Stop Shop Development Centre in the area. It will be one of its kind, a Centre of excellence which will focus on all social behaviour challenges but the extra ordinaire will be giving skills development to the communities of Marquard.
A special thanks to Setsoto Local Municipality who have availed a site for the Centre.
Through our programmes of Men Championing Change, we will continue to encourage more men to be “better men” with an emotional intelligence to know when to walk away from a volatile situation. They must learn to talk and stop bottling up. They must be good role models to their children, who will not hurt their loved ones but will give them love, support and protection.
I wish to take this moment to fondly remember and salute the effort of the late Patrick Shai, the founder of Khuluma Ndoda Foundation. He dedicated his adult life to address issues of GBVF as a rehabilitated abuser himself. He left a foot print in the Free State by addressing men on Gender Based Violence and Femicide and on Vooma Programme to encourage men to vaccinate against Covid-19.
In consolidating our fight against violence meted to women and children, we shall be supporting the development of a Provincial and District networks for Gender Based Violence and Femicide organisations to ensure coordinated action responses against this scourge.
Furthermore, the department will organize mass advocacy campaigns throughout the province to mobilize communities to confront the demon of gender-based violence. This will be sustained through provision of training on advocacy and utilisation of mass media and social media platforms.
Honourable Speaker, We are still very thankful about the Charlotte Maxeke Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre that was opened by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Honourable Speaker and Premier, this Centre is doing wonders.
- After rehabilitation, there are some service users that were reintegrated with their families.
- 2 service users accepted back in their work places (1 food ending another sad ending)
- One service users was admitted at Nelson Mandela University and through the Office of the MEC and HOD. The Department is envisaging giving him a bursary.
Planned interventions
In the new financial year, we will consolidate our engagements and collaboration with Motheo TVET on skills development programmes.
Because it is a new Centre we learn as we go along. We have since realised that we need to expand our services to the new NPOs for re- integration with families and community as an aftercare service.
In this regard, the Department will be funding 2 organisations to render aftercare and reintegration services for the outpatients.
We will also be working with Botshabelo Digital Hub to give short courses on Skills Development.
STATS SA Research indicates that;
- Free State is high on unemployment and poverty levels
- The women constitute 51% of the Free State Demography and
- The youth of the Free State who also constitute a majority are unemployed and therefore exposed to vulnerability
The Department will therefore focus on strengthening self-initiated survival efforts through our Community Development and Stakeholder Partnerships and through Social Grants as disbursed by SASSA.
POVERTY ALLEVIATION & SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS
Honourable Speaker, the Department has sustained 51 Community Nutrition Development Centre s (CNDCs) across the Province, ensuring that more than 7 724 individuals have access to Nutritious Meals and Developmental Programmes. These Centre s became essential as the air that we breathe during high levels of COVID-19 to respond to hunger and food security in many homes.
Our efforts were strengthened by concerted collaborations with Social Partners who streamed to assist. We will forever be grateful.
We are humbled by our Premier who gave some of the Social Partners Certificates of Appreciation for the role played given to our poor communities.
In the financial year ending today, we are proud to announce that we have assisted 5 CNDC’s to acquire fully equipped operating containers.
- 2 in Virginia
- 1 in Henneman
- 1 in Viljoenskroon
- 1 in Paul Roux
In the new financial year, we will be increasing the number to 55 by adding 4 CNDCs in collaboration with the Royal Houses of Bakoena and Batlokwa in Qwaqwa, Barolong in Thaba Nchu and one in Jacobsdal.
Premier, it is worth noting that we did not finalise the establishment of the Provincial Disaster Relief Centre as promised because Sister Departments did not come to the fore on our commitments.
“Kodwa Premier A Soze A Phele Amandla”. We will continue with the work in the new financial year.
JOB CREATION THROUGH EXPANDED PUBLIC WORKS PROGRAMME
Speaker, with the R20.320 million allocated to the Department as an Incentive Grant for the 2021/22 financial year, we have created 5 611 Work Opportunities who were placed at our NPO’s and CNDC’s.
With the additional R2 million EPWP Incentive Grant allocation, 45 participants will be placed at 12 Community Parks and at SASSA Offices as Porters.
It is also worth mentioning that with the ECDs function shift to the Department of Basic Education, we will be losing 4 200 work opportunities which will affect the Department’s targets and achievement over the MTEF Period.
Women Development
In the year 2021/22, the Department provided financial support for Itekeng Sewing Project in Sehlajaneng Village, an organisation that sews uniforms for Primary Schools in the area and surrounds, to procure industrial machinery essential for their further development and growth.
As part of ensuring the growth and sustainability of Women-owned cooperatives, the Department is in the process of finalising the procurement of 5 operating containers for Cooperatives in Xhariep, Mangaung, Virginia, Tweeling and Sehlajaneng. These containers will be officially launched in 2022/23 financial year.
Youth Development
Speaker, In 2021/22 financial year, the Proud to Serve was allocated R228 000 to procure a container, machinery and material for the manufacturing of Hands-free Sanitiser Stands. They were also assisted with training on improving the quality of the products.
In 2022/23 financial year, they will be linked with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and Department National Development Agency (NDA) for training on Business Management.
DESTEA through their SMME focused localisation policy framework supported and helped grow a woman owned sanitary towel project to a level where they could export their products to Lesotho. Realising this, the Department took a conscious decision to hand over the sanitary towel manufacturing project in Qwa Qwa to DESTEA to ensure that the project becomes sustainable and viable.
In addition to the departmental interventions, Our Agencies also contribute to food security as follows:
POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH SOCIAL GRANTS
Honourable Speaker, In order to mitigate the impact of poverty among the most vulnerable people; priority focus is put on children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. The Department’s agency, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), disburses various social grants as part of Government’s efforts to mitigate poverty.
By 28 February 2022, a total of 1 043 376 (one million, forty-four thousand, three hundred and seventy six) needy people were benefiting from social grants in Free Sate. The number of people benefiting constitutes 36% of the Free State population.
The breakdown per grant type and per district is as follows:
Grants per Grant type
Grant Type - Number of Grants - Grant Value per month - %
Old Age grant - 213,748 - R322,574,436 - 20%
Disability grant - 74,497 - R140,799,330 - 7%
Care Dependency grant - 8,921 - R16,860,690 - 1%
Foster Care grant - 19,326 - R20,292,300 - 2%
Child Support grant - 715,487 - R411,491,624 - 68%
Grant-in-Aid - 11,397 - R5,242,620 - 1%
TOTAL - 1,043,376 - R917,261,000 - 100%
Grants per District
District - Number of grants - Grant Value per month - %
Xhariep - 52,169 - R45,863,050 - 5%
Mangaung Metro - 281,712 - R247,660,470 - 27%
Lejweleputswa - 219,109 - R192,624,810 - 21%
Thabo Mofutsanyana - 302,579 - R266,005,690 - 29%
Fezile Dabi - 187,808 - R165,106,980 - 18%
The total amount of social grants paid is over R900 million per month, amounting to over R11 billion per year.
Honourable Speaker, SASSA undertook the following outreach programmes:
On School Uniform, approximately 2 512 needy learners were issued with school uniform to the total value of over R5 million from 1 April 2021 up to 28 February 2022.
The breakdown per district is as follows:
District - School Uniform - Nr of Scholars - Nr of Households
Fezile Dabi - R1,507,305.00 - 754 - 1
Lejweleputswa - R237,050.00 - 119 - 208
Mangaung - R2,028,282.00 - 1,014 - 37
Thabo Mofutsanyana - R920,666.00 - 460 - 36
Xhariep - R330,817.00 - 165 - 32
FREE STATE TOTAL - R5,024,120.00 - 2,512 - 314
SRD Disaster Response
During the floods disasters in December 2021 and January 2022, approximately 314 households were assisted with disaster relief of R700 cash per household with the total value of over R219 000.
The breakdown per district is as follows:
District - Disaster - Nr of households
Fezile Dabi - R700.00 - 1
Lejweleputswa - R145,610.00 - 208
Mangaung - R25,900.00 - 37
Thabo Mofutsanyana - R25,060.00 - 36
Xhariep - R22,400.00 - 32
FREE STATE TOTAL - R219,670.00 - 314
In conclusion, Hon. Speaker,
We are a Lead Department of a very critical pillar of National Development Plan (NDP) which is “An Inclusive and Responsive Social Protection
System”. We have said that we are building a “Caring Society”, therefore we have to demonstrate more and more that ours is a responsible Government.
I wish to thank and appreciate the support of our Hon. Premier, Mme “Sisi” Sefora Ntombela and Members of the Executive Council.
Let me also thank Hon. Member Heinrich Smith and Members of the Portfolio Committee for their continued support.
I wish to thank the Senior Management Team of the Department, led by Advocate TJ Phahlo, who continues to act capably as the Head of Department in these challenging times.
I also wish to thank all the employees of the Department of Social Development who have been at the forefront of service delivery during these trying times of COVID-19.
We believe that the majority of our public servants serve our people with diligence and commitment. We applaud them for the excellent work they do.
Special thanks to my family and friends for their continued support at all times.
Let me thank the Speaker for affording us the opportunity to share our 2021/22 achievements and our new injunctions for the 2022/23 financial year.
Speaker, we hereby table the Budget of the Department for 2022/23 financial year.
I THANK YOU!
