Kgaogelo Lekgoro, for the 2007/08 financial year
19 June 2007
Honourable Speaker
Honourable members of the Legislature
Stakeholders in the non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
Officials in the Department
Distinguished guest in the gallery
Sartori says, "Inequality can be attributed to acts of God, equality can
only result from the acts of men." What he actually asserts is that we may be
at liberty to apportion blame to other forces than ourselves for inequality,
poverty, disease. But the solution to these problems can only result from the
acts of those who have a conscience.
When confronted with societal problems it is natural that citizens will
respond differently. Similarly, in the political arena, we must go beyond
political jargon and state exactly what we are doing to correct these
problems.
I am mentioning this at the onset because what we are presenting today is a
combination of what we tried to do and what we will do in this financial year
to contribute to the solution of social welfare problems in the province. We
are aware that in the parliamentary theatre the representatives of the people
often fall prey to grandstanding and not telling the electorate how they will
be part of the solution to the social ills that afflict the province.
Speaker, it is little over a year since the South African Social Security
Agency (Sassa) took over social security services from our province. We can say
in hindsight, without fear of contradiction, that the migration of the said
service to Sassa removed a burden from the province which in turn allowed us to
fully examine the impact of our work in social welfare services.
This exercise revealed that we gave more attention to the important work of
social grants, at the expense of rendering other important social services to
the different vulnerable groups in our province.
It is important that we assume even more capacity to deliver in welfare
services. We want to help build a province that embraces the character of a
global city region. This policy shift will provide the framework for us to
capacitate ourselves in order to be deal with any unforeseen social
consequences a global city region will present.
In a global city region, those who were excluded for various reasons must
begin to feel that the government is responsive to their needs and has the
capacity to address their problems. We cannot for example have a city region
that has no capacity to attend to early childhood development. We cannot have a
city region that lacks the institutional and community development capacity to
address problems of the elderly. In short we do not envisage a city region that
only promotes the survival of the fittest.
Appropriate social assistance to those who are unable to support themselves
and their dependants is a constitutional imperative. It is also a very
important pillar of the broader Global City Region Strategy.
The elderly
On the elderly we can now say beyond the pension grants we have to a great
extent, neglected services that are equally important in assuring comfort and
better life for this age cohort.
This skewed rendering of services to the aged is a legacy of our apartheid
past. The reality of the matter is that after many years of democracy, we have
not redirected that skewed way of rendering services.
There are a little over ninety old age homes in the province. Ten of those
are found in predominantly African townships. It is a fact of life that many of
the elderly are frail and in need of professional attention that only that the
old age homes can provide. So, if all was equal, no community should be without
these facilities.
We have 135 luncheon clubs throughout the province where the elderly can
gather during the day for different activities such as recreation,
physiotherapy, counselling services and provision of nutritionally balance
meals. Of the 135, only 27 are found in the townships where the majority of the
province's elderly people live.
This attests to the skew distribution of resources which is a legacy we
inherited from our apartheid past. But as we said earlier we can blame
inequalities as a result of other forces beyond our control, but bringing about
equality can only be as a result of our own actions.
To this end, the Department will in this financial year, extend the services
rendered in the 27 luncheon clubs to cover all services required by the Older
Persons Act, namely spiritual, cultural, medical, civic and social
services.
We will also expand these services to Duduza, Wattville and Boipatong where
none exists at the moment. In the next financial year, we will start building
old age homes in our 20 poorest townships on an incremental basis from one
financial year to the next.
As for existing old age homes in the townships we can only say at the very
least, that the conditions leave much to be desired. Based on the needs
assessment of each home, we will as far as resources allow renovate the most
affected areas.
Children
The Premier, in his State of the Province address (SOPA) indicated that
early childhood development (ECD) would receive priority in the province. There
is empirical evidence that proves that early childhood development is a need
and not a luxury.
Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that in the last 12 years we have
not given due attention in this area. We have around 930 264 children between
ages of zero to six years in the province. Yet we are only able to trace at the
most 23 504 children that are currently under ECD programmes. Of this group,
half of them are African children in backyard programmes that offer nothing
more than child minding while parents are at work.
To make up for this, government will establish one ECD site in each of the
twenty townships. We will train the ECD practitioners from those very
communities. We will further consult ECD stakeholders in these townships to
discuss the modalities of how these sites will operate. In the coming financial
years we will incrementally establish these sites where we identify the
need.
We will also continue to support crèches that were initiated by mothers in
our communities. We will help them meet the required standard of a crèche to
register and then fund them.
In our province we have 300 000 orphaned children, a significant number of
them as a result of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. We have made inroads through our
community home based care programmes. We now have to roll out these programmes
in areas where they do not exist and offer a more comprehensive package of
services that will bring more relief to other children who are infected and
affected by HIV and AIDS.
The Department will continue to fund the hundred existing community home
based care sites and rollout thirty new sites in this financial year.
Besides children orphaned as a result of the HIV and AIDS pandemic,
indications are that there are more orphaned children who are equally
vulnerable. Most of these children become an added burden to their immediate
relatives. Their future depends on the capacity and ability of their immediate
relatives to care and provide for them. They often encounter heavy odds while
growing up and most do not end up in successful careers. It is my opinion as
the representatives of the people, the Legislature must ensure that the state
makes the necessary interventions to improve the lives of orphaned
children.
On our part we take advantage of foster care as a statutory community based
response to orphaned, neglected, abused and abandoned children. This
intervention retains children in families and communities as opposed to
placement into institutional care.
Last year we made an undertaking to the legislature that the Department will
break the backlog with regard to foster care. I am happy to report that we have
succeeded. To date, 47 075 children have been placed under foster care.
Realising that there will be an increased demand as a result of the HIV and
AIDS pandemic, we have positioned the Department to avoid the recurrence of
backlogs and to finalise each case in no more than six months. To that end we
have set up dedicated teams in regions and funded all subsidised social work
posts in the NGO sector.
We have 9 578 children in residential care. These are children in need of
care, those who voluntarily left the streets into shelters those in places of
safety and in those in conflict with the law. We continue to fund 58 NGOs that
cater for 5 000 such children in their facilities. This financial year we will
increase subsidy per child from R1 300,00 to R1 600,00 per child.
We have picked up a worrying trend, our statistics show that the number of
children in conflict with the law is on the increase. During financial year
2004/05 there were 10 239 and in 2005/06 we had 16 359 youth in conflict with
the law. This indicates the need to pay more attention to elements of the
government's social development strategy on vulnerable groups with particular
emphasis on children.
We will continue to offer children who are receiving child support grants a
comprehensive social package under the Bana Pele Programme. For the rest of
this financial year we will roll out the automation of the single window system
to the rest of the province. This will enable the child who receives a child
support grant to gain access education and health services without having to go
through another means test. Besides benefiting children, this programme
benefited 688 unemployed women in sewing projects through the production of
school uniforms.
As the numbers of children living on the streets increase, the Department in
partnership with its stakeholders will embark on a comprehensive program to
respond to their plight. This program will be underpinned by a research study
to determine the cause and extent of the problem and what the appropriate
interventions should be. One of the main objectives of this programme will be
to promote the re-unification and preservation of families.
People living with disabilities
Despite the development of a comprehensive legal framework for the provision
of services for people with disabilities, they still face extreme levels of
social exclusion, poverty and discrimination. The majority of people with
disabilities and their families are therefore depending on social grants for
survival.
The government's Social Development Strategy fosters an integrated
inter-departmental approach in partnership with persons with disabilities to
ensure that the challenges facing them are addressed. This relates to the
physical environment in terms of housing, roads and public transport, health
services, access to public buildings etc.
Besides issuing disability grants, the Department subsidises 35 residential
facilities which caters for 2 200 persons with disabilities. We have also
increased per capita funding from R743 to R843 for person with moderate
disability. For persons with severe disability, the grant has increased from R1
175,00 to R1 275,00.
What we should continue to examine is how our community development centres
can deliberately put aside a quota for people living with disabilities and
protect their environment in order to redress issues of exclusion and allow
them an equal starting point.
Substance abuse
Our province is mainly an urban setting with large townships and informal
settlements continuing to attract migration and in-migration. Through this
movement we are recipients to younger people who finally settle alone in houses
and face parenting challenges as they eke a living on daily basis. Single
parenthood is on the ascendancy. High divorce rates continue to impact on
children. Our labour market is unable to cope with the demand and results in
unemployment. All this weighs heavily on the family structure. Once the family
collapses under these conditions, the old and young turn to substance abuse as
a relief.
Alcohol and dagga remain the dominant form of substance abuse. Those who
abuse substances in turn abuse the old, women and children at home. Communities
in turn are also threatened as ordinary residents suffer assault, mugging,
theft and rape. It has been reported that some car hijackings and gruesome
robberies were committed after the perpetrators took some of the more illicit
drugs.
Our substances abuse programmes are still dominated by awareness content.
The challenge has been to develop programmes that are mainly preventative and
to deliver treatment services to the doorsteps of where the majority of those
who abuse substances live, namely the townships.
To promote our prevention programmes we will in this financial year put
together programmes on early detection and referral in schools. We will also
establish five local drug action committees in each region to co-ordinate
prevention programmes within communities.
There are 19 fully-fledged treatment centres in the province with none in
the townships. Since the advent of democracy we have been able to establish 12
satellite centres in the townships. In addressing this skewed delivery of
services, we will on an incremental basis build capacity in the township
satellite centres to cope with all daily and referred patients.
Abuse of the elderly, women and children
Abuse of women remains a feature that dents our democracy. We say so because
their continued abuse begs the question, do women like their men folk enjoy the
full fruits of this democracy. The traffic of children in our places of safety
tells the story that children also continue to be victims of abuse. To a lesser
extend we also have reported cases of abuse against the elderly.
This is a societal issue which speaks to norms and moral values that our
communities should uphold. The great Mother Theresa said, "We think sometimes
that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being
unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our
own homes to remedy this kind of poverty."
The Department will continue to provide shelters for abused women and
children provide girl child empowerment programmes and services to abused older
persons and those living with disabilities.
Community development centres
Our community development centres are an attempt to respond to the
government's social development strategy of maximising the capacity of the
individual, the family or household and the community to participate
productively in society.
Programmes in our community development centres are designed to implement
integrated development projects that facilitate the empowerment of individuals,
family members and communities towards sustainable livelihood.
Whilst we have provided skills training to individual community members
through various projects, the challenge remains as to how we should enable
these individuals to venture into the job market. We also face the additional
challenge of increasing our skills training in communities. In trying to
address this, we have isolated eighteen projects throughout the province that
will serve as pilots. These projects will be given resources to grow, to take
in more people and to promote their products in the communities where they
operate.
I hold the belief that a better life for all will not be judged by the
wealthy few; nor will it be judged by the emerging middle class, but by how we
brought the millions of poor families to the mainstream of the country's social
and economic activity.
Partnerships
Partnering with organs of civil society is the cornerstone of an effective
developmental approach. Through partnerships, communities learn to become
self-sufficient.
This is the background against which we partner with NGOs. We would like
NGOs to impart project management skills to communities where they are offering
a service. This will help to empower the community onto manage, operate and
sustain a project by themselves.
This approach will assist in correcting what is otherwise an anomaly in
black communities. There are few strong and anchored NGOs in these communities.
As a result most of the services we offer are either rendered by an NGO mainly
from outside on an outreach approach or there are no services at all. If we are
guided by a developmental approach in delivering our service, we will be able
over time to build more NGOs and capacity in these communities.
I am happy to report that we held a successful summit with the NGO sector in
our province to discuss challenges we are facing and the way forward. The
summit arrived at resolutions, which we were mandated to act on and report back
to the next summit in twenty-four months. On our part we will continue to do
everything to nurture this relationship.
The Department is aware that the private sector is injecting a lot of
resources into communities. A more co-ordinated integrated strategy will reduce
duplication and fragmentation of resources. The Department will therefore enter
into a partnership with the business sector to maximise the impact of their
contribution towards service delivery priority areas.
Gauteng Social Development Strategy (GSDS)
The GSDS is a strategy for sustainable development that will uplift our
common humanity, reduce poverty and contribute to a more secure, equitable and
prosperous province for the people of Gauteng. The GSDS will be implemented by
all social sector role players in government, in collaboration with organs of
civil society.
To this end the Department is charged with operationalising political and
administrative structures to implement and oversee the strategy. Technical
committees will develop business plans, which will be ready for submission to
Treasury towards the end of the second quarter. We will continuously produce
annual progress reports on the implementation of the strategy.
Human resources
This Department is committed to investing in human capital and as a result
we have developed a scarce skills strategy, which has paid dividends in the
recruitment and retention of social workers.
As a component of this strategy, a revised salary model was introduced for
social workers employed by the Department which resulted in an average increase
of salary from between 20% for entry level to 40% for more experienced staff.
The subsidy for salaries and number of social workers in the NGO sector were
also increased. This brought some parity between the salaries offered in the
global market and improved the quality of life and financial position of our
staff.
We believe that the dramatic reduction in the turnover rates compared to
past years is as a result of this intervention.
We went a step further and provided them with tools that would remarkably
improve their working environment. We have moved them from a paper based
environment to having access to computers and internet connectivity. We have
improved their mobility to allow for two social workers per car. We continue to
work on ways and means of improving their mobile communication.
In his SOPA, the Premier indicated that the tertiary education of 200 young
people who wish to enter the social work profession will be sponsored to
augment the shortage the province is currently experiencing. For the current
academic year, the Department has already sponsored 188 young people to pursue
social work degrees. We have also taken 400 caregivers through a two-year
social auxiliary work course offered by an accredited academic institution.
Management information system
Our people are experiencing delays in service delivery because of the
Departments' paper based environment, which results in loss of documents and
slow access to information. In order to address this problem, the Department is
currently implementing the integrated social care solution which will greatly
improve how we manage our information systems.
In addition, management will benefit from improved planning and informed
decision-making around the allocation of budgetary resources. The monitoring
and evaluation of services delivered will also improve. This initiative is an
extension of a broader enterprise resource plan driven by the Gauteng Shared
Service Centre (GSSC), which already includes procurement and finance
modules.
The first phase will focus on casework management, community development,
departmental residential facilities and records management.
Monitoring and evaluation
The Department is implementing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation
system that will integrate policy performance management, organisational
performance, programme performance and individual performance. This will be
supported by baseline information that will enhance decision-making and guide
the Department's strategic management process. To this effect the Department
developed a proposal to build capacity which would strengthen macro monitoring
and evaluation on a strategic level.
The Department transfers 48% of its total budget to NGOs. This reality
imposes on us the responsibility to improve our capacity to monitor NGOs to
ensure that what they deliver is worth the taxpayers' monies we transfer to
them. We need to monitor that they deliver within the prescripts of the Public
Finance Management Act, the Non-Profit Organisations (NPO) Act and the Policy
on Financial Awards. Resources have been allocated for the establishment of a
unit to monitor NGOs both at a central and regional level.
Speaker, let me in conclusion quote John Stuart Mill when he says "the
greatest happiness to the greatest number of people is a measure of good". I
believe that the manifesto of the African National Congress (ANC) in its
popular clarion call is within these confines when it espouses "a better life
for all". In our own humble way we hope that we are contributing to this
ideal.
In pursuit of this ideal I recognise the role played by the Department under
the stewardship of Mr Bheki Sibeko, the portfolio committee under the
leadership of Mr Steward Ngwenya, political organisations in the legislature
and organs of civil society led by NGOs.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Social Development Gauteng Provincial
Government
19 June 2007
