Development delivered by MEC G Akharwaray, Northern Cape Provincial
Legislature
21 June 2007
Introduction and macro social focus
As we enter our 14th year of democratic governance we know that,
transformation obtains legitimacy only if it is carried out with the people,
and not for them. To that end we have much to be proud of. We are building a
society founded on values such as mutual respect, caring for one another,
critical thinking and creativity, to name but a few.
As a department, Social Services and Population Development continues to put
people first in line with its Integrated Service Delivery Model, which provides
a blue print for the rendering of Developmental Social Welfare Services as
opposed to the previous residual, passive approach. Ultimately our aim is to
enable people to become self reliant within a caring and cohesive society.
In pursuance thereof we have over the last few years started many innovative
initiatives commencing with the focus on internal efficiencies, devolution of
authority to managers, building a team spirit among employees all of which are
aimed at enhancing service delivery.
As a result of these interventions, the sound management of public resources
not only resulted in unqualified audit opinions for the department but also
released fiscal resources for deployment in pursuance of our developmental
objectives.
As part of our endeavour to develop evidence based governance, we have
developed and continue to refine accurate and reliable information systems. So
for example the Population unit completed seven research projects in 2006 and
will embark on a further five in this financial year.
We have also sought to create an enabling environment amongst our social
partners, the NGO/NPO sector. Not only were their allocations increased in the
last two years but we steered them on a path of efficiency and effectiveness
through capacity building and monitoring.
The NPO Conference held in 2006 highlighted the need for partnerships and
co-ordination of service delivery, thereby confirming that we are on the
correct path in this regard.
The department's macro focus for 2007/08 is geared towards strengthening
social protection networks, empowering and developing families and those
vulnerable sectors of society and rededicating ourselves to protect children
from abuse. We will also put increased emphasis on the fight against substance
abuse and give specific and practical attention to the presidential priority of
tackling child poverty.
Services being rendered to the, newly incorporated, Kgalagadi areas into the
Northern Cape will be enhanced in a way to ensure it has the required impact on
the lives of people.
I am happy to announce that the department just concluded an agreement with
Transnet Foundation to avail eight containers that will be utilised as service
points in Kgalagadi.
Services to families
Families are the indispensable building blocks of any community. I have
previously highlighted the various threats that seek to undermine the family
structure. The Family Life Indaba held in 2006 in the Northern Cape confirmed
this and amongst others resolved that parenting programmes be rolled out more
vigorously, that alcohol abuse be a specific focus for combating and that we
look at opportunities for families to sustain themselves.
In line with the resolutions of the Family Life Indaba we intend to protect
the family structure or rebuild it where necessary. To that end, various
interventions and therapeutic programmes will be undertaken or expanded. We are
confident that in strengthening our support to families we will build social
cohesion in communities especially where poverty and other social ills
undermine the very fabric of society.
Care of the aged
One of the most stabilising factors in society is the role played by older
persons. They are the principal custodians of our culture, our morality, and
our customs and hence should be at the centre stage of the quest for a stable
family life. Active Ageing is a vision the department has where a balance is
achieved between residential care of the aged and community based care and
support services.
The Older Persons Act, which was promulgated by Parliament, aims to promote
the rights of the elderly. We will strengthen the fora that will promote these
rights and play a meaningful advocacy role.
As part of our commitment we previously increased subsidies to Old Age Homes
by 25% supporting 875 frail older persons and will top that up by a further six
percent this year. This increases the allocation to R11 662 per person per
annum.
Our programme of community based care and support services will receive a
further boost this year with the registration of an additional 12 service
centres at a cost of R680 400, the opening of the third Multi Purpose Centre at
Strydenburg and the construction of a fourth one at Williston.
In this way we ensure that the elderly remain in communities to fulfil a
special role, as the department puts in place infrastructure that supports
their unique needs.
Child care and protection services
The safety of our children has come under continuous threat, despite efforts
to create safe environments for the most vulnerable. Children also remain on
the periphery of social transformation and continue to be affected by poverty.
Therefore, and as a result of the directive given by the Provincial EXCO
Lekgotla in January 2007, the department will in this year co-ordinate its
efforts with those of the Department of Health and Education and design a plan
of action, which will include the sharpening of special protection measures for
the protection of children below the age of four.
Intervention programmes such as Isolabantwana and
Neighbour-Helping-Neighbour have shown successes where they were implemented.
Our innovative spirit resulted in us being the first province to initiate
community based safety networks for children constituted by prospective foster
parents, adoptive parents and safety parents. To date we have close to 14 000
children in foster care. I would like to urge many more of our families to come
forward to participate in these programmes as the need for adoptions have
increased.
In pursuance thereof, for this year, programmes to high risk areas such as
Kakamas, Groblershoop, Wegdraai and Upington will be expanded.
The demand for alternative care options is high in our various Children's
Homes, and will also be expanded at a cost of R2,2 million for children in need
of care and protection. This support will be further strengthened through
subsidy increments to the Homes. Their subsidies were previously increased by
50%. This year again it is increased by 20%, raising the allocation to R1890
per child. In doing so we ensure that the 419 children in various children's
homes are adequately and properly cared for.
In addition, the phenomena of homeless children needs focussed intervention
before it mushrooms. A pilot programme will be launched in Kimberley in this
regard this year. This is in addition to increasing the subsidy to shelters
that cater for such cases by 31% and last year by 16%.
It is also safe to say that the Early Development of children aims to
empower and develop well rounded human beings able to define their own
development path. The environment in which this relationship is established and
developed is through the Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. The
allocated R11,68 million will help to achieve our objectives in this regard.
This will facilitate the increase of the subsidy to R9 per child per day
attending an ECD centre which represents a 20% increase from last year.
It is envisaged that this will enable us to register and fund 305 ECD
centres in the province and thus ensuring that about 18 000 children are
exposed to early education and development.
In the Kgalagadi region during the recent members of the provincial
Executive Council (Exco) Izimbizo, I made a commitment to look into ECD needs
of certain areas. In pursuance to that commitment we will register about 120
ECD sites and fund about 60 of them including new ones in areas such as
Heuningsvlei, Pepsi, Gasehunelo, Huishou and Kagung.
The Helen Joseph Pre-School and the Rethusaneng ECD Centre housed at the
Helen Joseph's Women Development Centre in Kimberley are in a very dilapidated
state. We cannot allow children to be exposed to these conditions. A once of
R150 000 will be availed to improve the facilities there. R100 000 and R50 000
respectively, I am confident that these interventions give practical expression
to the presidential priorities.
Social crime prevention
The Child Justice Bill provides for a legislative framework for the
protection of children in conflict with the law. In essence the Bill places
emphasis on a wider range of diversion programmes and extends a variety of
sentencing options for children in conflict with the law. This in itself is
developmental in nature.
As planned and in pursuance of our fight to prevent social crime we
appointed more probation officers and assistant probation officers, trained 25
volunteers at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4 and rolled out
prevention and diversion programmes to 43 towns in our province.
In this year programmes will be rolled out in a focussed way in Ritchie and
Groblershoop as we did in 2006 in Noupoort and Postmasburg and work with
appropriate community based organisations in the fight against social
crimes.
There are currently three secure care facilities in the province where
approximately 120 youth awaiting trial are housed. The department has embarked
on a programme to improve these facilities, render proper therapeutic
programmes and generally to improve the efficiency of these facilities. The
construction of the new facility in Springbok at a cost of R25 million is
progressing well, despite the initial delays due to a land claim, whilst the
construction of another secure care facility at De Aar is due to commence
soon.
The abuse of women and children is still unacceptably high. How anyone can
deliberately hurt their loved ones is beyond my comprehension. Therefore the
usual 16 days programme of activism against violence against women and children
will be extended to a full 365 day programme at an initial cost of R1
million.
Substance abuse
It is our dream to transform our communities into alcohol and drug free
societies. The abuse of these substances has reached pandemic proportions and
is usually linked to most violent crimes.
If we are to eradicate this scourge we will need preventative measures or
early intervention, in the first instance, and rehabilitative ones in the case
of those considered to have substance abuse problems.
We have resolved to increase our focus more prominently in this regard. The
budgetary allocation has been trebled to R3,5 million on substance abuse
prevention services, which will entail mass mobilisation, prevention and
education programmes.
To achieve the outcomes we seek more social work professionals as well as
social auxiliary workers to support them will be needed.
The target will of course be the whole province, with special focus on high
risk areas such as the Upington-Kakamas belt; De Aar and Kimberley. The focus
on De Aar is necessitated by the high prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome
prevalent in that area.
The Kemoja project has been successfully implemented at targeted schools and
will again be continued this year as a key intervention involving youth. From a
rehabilitative perspective, the need for an in patient treatment facility in
the province has been highlighted for some time now. We have decided to put
action to idea and budgeted for its construction, by setting aside R37 million
in the outer years of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.
Services to the disabled
People who live with some or the other disability, constitute about 5 % of
our population. In almost all instances they can and must be allowed to
participate in the productive life of society.
But it is up to us to create the enabling environment to promote their
participation. Hence support to those organisations that support and promote
the cause is important.
In line with the 2007 EXCO Lekgotla Resolutions, the department will focus
on this target group in an increased way. Last year over 102 social service
professionals were trained to support people living with disabilities as well
as support given to Deafsa. The department will continue with these support
measures.
However, this year emphasis will be placed on persons with multiple
disabilities. In support of children who live with multiple disabilities, this
year, an additional 100 parents and caregivers will be trained to provide
support to them. In addition, four Day Care centres in Pampierstad; De Aar;
Calvinia and in Kgalagadi, will cater for some 140 children with multiple
disabilities. A need was identified for the registration of a section of the
Helen Bishop Home, which is mainly funded by Health, as a home for 15 children
with multiple disabilities in need of care. As a result of this approach an
allocation to the extent of R283 500 will be made this year.
In addition, support will be given to cover the salaries of four additional
staff members at identified non-profit organisations (NPOs) that work in
support of this target group.
Sally Aucamp is a home that caters for the needs of severely handicapped
persons. It seems that despite subsidy allocations, they struggle to make ends
meet. A once off allocation of R150 000 will be made to assist them this year,
pending a review of their operations into next year. Thank you, Honourable De
Beer.
Sustainable livelihoods
The scourge of poverty and underdevelopment continues to define the lives of
many in our communities. Poverty is multi-dimensional and our responses must be
in tandem with that fact if we are to address it. Hence our programmatic
interventions aim not only to eradicate hunger and malnutrition but also the
lack of access to education and other basic services. We focus on empowering,
mobilising and developing the poor and marginalised.
The most effective poverty eradication programme has been government's
social security programme. Although grant administration is the functional
responsibility of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), it is useful to
note that to date over 183 000 persons are social grant recipients in the
Northern Cape of whom 145 600 are children, Child Support Grant and Foster
Care., this excludes the Kgalagadi figures of 41 661. I am proud to say that in
the Northern Cape the average turnaround time to process grants is four days
and in some instances the same day.
The challenge however lies in Kgalagadi both in terms of turn around times;
currently three months, as well as meeting norms and standards at pay points
e.g. inadequate shelters. I have met with Northern Cape SASSA to embark on a
focussed service improvement programme.
This programme on sustainable livelihoods seeks to address food insecurity;
provides material assistance and makes socio economic interventions where
appropriate.
To that end 20 new soup kitchens, six community food gardens and seven new
drops in centres will be established. This will, by example, increase the total
soup kitchens that are funded by the department to 65. The department also
funds various second economy interventions from time to time. The key concern
in most cases has always been sustainability. There are many successes though
there are also failures. We need to become more innovative in this regard and I
hope that our discussions with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) will
lead to that sustainability.
In this regard public private partnerships are crucial. In order to reach
that higher trajectory of development and self reliance, it is incumbent on the
public and private sectors to work together. Bold interventions are needed. To
that end, I want to thank First National Bank and Absa for their support to
date.
HIV and AIDS
The most effective way to eradicate this disease is through awareness and
prevention. We have focussed our energies mainly among the youth and in
particular orphans and vulnerable children. The Isibindi project which was
initiated in Donkerhoek, and later expanded to other areas, has proven so
successful that we intend to expand it further into other areas of the
province, starting with Platfontein and Greenpoint this year.
It is also vital that we know who is vulnerable and where they are.
Accordingly a database will be compiled of all orphans and vulnerable children
(OVC) to inform our policy choices and the allocation of resources. To date
support was given to some 800 OVC and 320 vulnerable families. In addition,
about 39 child and youth care workers who are active in this project do
sterling work on a voluntary basis in support of OVC, at a stipend of
R1000.
The bulk of our resources of course are directed toward the 570 Home
Community Based voluntary caregivers active in this programme, all of whom also
receive a stipend of R1000. This service includes psycho-social support,
material assistance and protection of rights regarding access to services.
These programmes are implemented in partnership with NGO and community based
organisations (CBOs), without whose support we would not achieve the successes
we have recorded in the improvement of the lives of orphans and vulnerable
children. In line with our endeavour to strengthen the NGO sector, the
department has concluded a contract worth R4 million with the United Kingdom
based department for International Development (DFID) to build capacity amongst
NGO active in this sector.
Youth, an Egyptian poet once said:
"In Youth a tree bears fruit
In old age it gives nothing but wood."
This is quite a dramatic exposition of the value of youth in development.
Many of our programmes expounded here are aimed at youth child care services,
crime prevention programmes, substance abuse and HIV and AIDS awareness
campaigns.
But these are all aimed at addressing negatives and threats that could
negate their potential to "bear fruit."
But we need to focus on facilitating the burst of potential also. At the
heart of this is the development of skills, entrepreneurial savvy, life skills,
capacity building and so forth. Our programmes seek to do so. Some 250 young
people had been participating in these programmes throughout the province, in
addition to us funding the Young Women's Network and two youth service centres
in Postmasburg and Hopetown.
We will continue on that path and support the National Youth Service
Initiatives, especially youth volunteers, fund socio economic projects aimed at
young people, and fund more youth centres.
The provision of Developmental Social Welfare Services is hampered by the
shortage of social service professionals. As part of our dedicated focus on
human capital development we structured an innovative agreement with the
National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE), to academically train 120 young
social workers all of whom receive full bursaries, with the first group of 35
qualifying by 2010. A condition will be that they work in the Northern Cape be
it for us as Social Services or other departments who need their services. I
want to thank First National Bank for their support in this programme through
the allocation of some of the bursaries and the NIHE under the able leadership
of Dr Kopano Taole for their efforts in this regard.
Administration
We have been working hard at pulling our administration into shape. There is
no point in having lofty ideals if the ability to carry it out is lacking. To
that end the department identified 120 of the most critical posts, early in
2006, and all have been filled in cycles of six to eight weeks.
We recruited all the necessary skills at all levels and have ensured the
requisite training for all, even senior managers.
I think we are geared for effective service delivery. We will however need
to be vigilant against becoming complacent.
Budget in perspective
The total budget of the department is R304,319 million. The increase
represents mainly the impact of the Kgalagadi allocations.
Personnel costs amount to R112,253 million which is 37% of our budget. This
is considered extremely efficient given that we are personnel driven service.
Administrative expenditure amounts R72,8 million which is 24% of the budget,
and is consistent with the nature of a service delivery department.
Transfers to our social partners is R87,450 million, which is 29% of the
budget. Most increases are consistent with inflationary increases except for
ECD centres 20%, children's homes 20% and shelters 31%. This higher increase is
consistent with our policy goals.
Funding to fight substance abuse has been increased by 300%
Acknowledgements
I wish to express my profound gratitude to:
* the Premier and my colleagues in the Executive Council for their
support
* the Chairperson and members of the Portfolio Committee for their constructive
engagements
* our social partners in the NPO/NGO sector
* the Head of Department and staff of Ministry as well as the department who
have worked hard and under difficult conditions achieved much, I am proud of
you as a team.
Conclusion
I have not covered all our plans in this speech, but rather gave you a sense
of the direction that we are embarking upon.
As a department we are well focussed now. We achieved internal efficiencies,
though there is always scope for improvement.
We revised our strategic plan and our organogram.
We are geared to progressively move towards a developmental trajectory. Our
various programmes, though individually distinct are collectively geared
towards re-establishing the pre-eminence of the family as a source of stability
in society.
Our social partners are adequately funded by us and there exists a trust
relationship between us as opposed to a conflictual one. In a nutshell we are
all on the same page now.
I think we are geared for enhanced delivery, delivery of our objectives of
social upliftment and a cohesive society.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Social Service and Population Development, Northern
Cape Provincial Government
21 June 2007
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za)
