following the State of the Province Address
21 February 2007
Early Childhood Development (ECD)
This year the department will give more attention to Early Childhood
Development. This has been identified by government as a necessary step for
children to undergo in order to properly prepare them for their first years in
schooling.
We will erect an ECD site in each of the twenty identified townships in the
next financial year. We will register and subsidise those sites at a fee of
R9,00 per child per day. This will continue in the subsequent years until we
are satisfied that this service has reached all children in Gauteng. We will
work closely with local government in the implementation of this ideal.
Bana Pele
We will continue to offer a comprehensive package to grade one children who
receive Child Support Grants (CSG) under our Bana Pele programme. Under this
programme the children will receive free school uniforms, will be exempted from
paying school fees, will receive school nutrition, free transport to and from
school if they are five kilometres from school and free health services. 72 000
children throughout the province will benefit from this programme.
To further improve on the preparation of the child to enter their school
years we have introduced a school readiness programme for grade R as part of
our early childhood development programme. The intention is to phase in grade R
into the formal education system by 2010.
On orphaned and vulnerable children
We continue to fund the 100 existing Community Home Based Care sites that
cater for orphaned and vulnerable children and to roll out an extra fifty in
those areas where none exists. All sites will be fully equipped to offer
psychosocial support services, bereavement support, succession planning,
support groups, material assistance, day and after care programmes and
awareness programmes.
Senior citizens
For older persons we have a long term intention of reversing the skewed
apartheid era distribution of old age homes. Of the 90 or so old age homes only
eight are in the townships with the rest in the former white residential areas.
We will use the next financial year to plan and then erect a home in each
subsequent year until there are homes in all the 20 prioritised townships.
We will also in the next financial year erect day care centres in the twenty
townships which will serve as our model for community home based care sites.
These sites will on a five day a week basis offer comprehensive services as
required by the older persons act. They will offer recreational opportunities,
information, education and counselling services. They will also offer
spiritual, cultural, medical social and nutritional services.
Retention of social workers
As a strategy to retain social workers in their profession we are working
closely with universities to motivate children to take up social work studies
and to retain those who want to migrate to other faculties. We will provide
bursaries to 200 children who chose to pursue a career in social work.
Thank you.
For more information contact
Fred Mokoko
Cell:082 447 8407
Issued by: Department of Social Development, Gauteng Provincial
Government
21 February 2007
