Social Protection and Community Development Cluster

Briefing

18 Jun 2012

Minister Bathabile Dlamini, Social Development, Minister Thulas Nxesi, Public Works, Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, Correctional Services, Deputy Minister Maria Ntuli, Social Development, Zane Dangor, Special Advisor to the Minister of Social Development briefed the media and replied to questions at the Social Protection and Community Development Cluster briefing

[Note: Transcript of Questions & Answers provided by Government Communications and Information Systems]

Minutes

Journalist: My question is on the issue of the alcohol advertising, Minister you mentioned that government is considering restriction on advertising of alcohol. Can you just clarify what this restriction would entail? Are we talking about a total ban on alcohol advertising? Are you concerned about issues being raised about potential job losses in the advertising industry if the ban on alcohol advertising does go ahead? Thanks.

Journalist: Minister you mentioned that drug trafficking is a great problem we have just seen news that has come through that Nolubabalo from the Eastern Cape has been sentenced to 15 years in jail. What measures do you think should be put in place to stop young people to fall prey to these kingpins?

Journalist: It is on the comment that the cluster is committed to prevent all forms of abuse against women and children and that you are working together with civil society to develop a co-ordinated response to address this. Did it dawn on this department that this is a scourge yesterday? How come do we not have a co-ordinated approach to dealing with this when it is been something we have been aware of for many years possibly decades?

Journalist: My question is also on the alcohol advertising or the proposed ban on alcohol advertising. I wanted to find out if you have actually approached any of the companies involved in the manufacturing and kind of heard from their side what their thoughts are and how they could work together with government to help in the problem.

Journalist: You mentioned wanting to reduce fraud and corruption within the social security system. I wonder if you could say how many people do you think are illegally obtaining or fraudulently obtaining benefits from the system. And what is the cost of this new registration this re-registration that you are undertaking. Thank you.

Minister Sibusiso Ndebele: Thank you very much. I am sure we will be meeting quite a number of those drug abusers and doing some corrective service on them but it is a major problem outside with the youth, older people also even inside correctional facilities themselves. So the question of drugs is an international problem and we will do well to work in a co-ordinated fashion as government, as parents, as educators all of us to meet that problem because once you start on the root of drugs there is no telling where to stop and it is actually quite amazing how young people start. I had an opportunity on Friday to actually go to one correctional service that has got some 10 000 inmates and it was just heartbreaking to see how many young people are there by young I mean 18years to 20years who are on drugs either trafficking or using drugs. So it is a major thing which all of us will co-ordinate it is not something that we discover now as government if you go to any of the oldest governments in the world this is the problem that they are dealing with still.

Minister Bathabile Dlamini: Zane and the DG will make editions on substance abuse but I think it is not the first time that we have a committee in South Africa on substance abuse before the present administration there was a cabinet committee that was dealing with the matter but what happened during this administration the president and cabinet agreed there must be an Inter-Ministerial Committee that is going to focus on substance abuse. That is why there is progress when it comes to the issue of fighting the scourge we also have the Central Drug Authority which is driving this program throughout the country co-ordinating the drug master plan we have a national drug master plan and all provinces and departments that are affected have many drug master plans. So it is not the first time we are talking about the issues of substance and drug abuse yes we have spoken to some of the industries but we have also said categorically that our priority are the citizens of South Africa and we do have support from many stakeholders and one question that has been coming up that we need to all think about do we want to sacrifice our people because some people must have jobs? Do we want to destroy other people whilst we are having our jobs which are better between the two, you have to think about those things and do what is best for South Africa.

Drug trafficking; I think its programmes for instance we do have the programme Kimoja (sic) we are also working with Soul City in the campaign in the fight against substance and alcohol abuse.

Job creation is one of the issues but also ensure that our campaign is stepped up and it is understood by young people for instance if I drive a campaign, I’m old and young people would expect to see other young people as role models driving forcefully the campaign. Then the issue of fraud, I think DG you should give the estimates on that but later maybe we should ask SASSA to give figures but the re-registration process is part of the tender that was given to a service provider. I would ask you to make additions.

Zane Dangor, Special Advisor to the Minister of Social Development: Thank you Minister I will respond on the alcohol issues and the DG will talk to the SASSA issues. Just in terms of the engagement with other stakeholders I think the Minister has clearly stated that the Inter-Ministerial Committee has considered the draft bill that bill must still go to cabinet and the bill does envisage along with policy that the Inter-Ministerial Committee has already pronounced upon the issue of a total ban on advertising. We are talking about advertising we are not talking about an anti-alcohol bill so the potential losses of jobs will be in the field of advertising. We have engaged with the advertisers we have engaged with print media owners and the electronic media owners and I think more and more people are beginning to understand the purpose of the bill. It is about public health and social development and it is about the future of young people in particular so we are concerned about job losses but we are also concerned about the impact and damage that alcohol has in terms of the future of the country in terms of people not going to school.

There’s a whole lot of job losses associated with the harmful use of alcohol so that is what the bill is intended to do it will be taken forward by the Minister of Health through cabinet under the leadership of the ANC and once the bill has been considered by cabinet it will then be open for public discussion and the alcohol producers will be like any other stakeholder open to make their own views heard. The approach we are taking is that this is a public health issue and we’ve got to take the public health issue so that the producers together with others from communities to make their views heard.

? DG: Let me start with the SASSA issues specifically how many people are obtaining grants illegally? We can only estimate based on an international standard that has become understood that by in large all social security systems around the world have an estimated 10% leakage whether or not it is 10% in South Africa or not remains to be seen as we continue to succeed in our efforts of combating fraud and corruption within the system. Over the years we have estimated that we could be losing ± R2bn but we have since engaged with the special investigating unit, SASSA has also developed internal capacity to deal with fraud and corruption within the system. Many people have in fact been taken off the system; many people have appeared before our courts, many of them have signed acknowledgement of debts so we can tell you more about the successes we have made rather than what is the estimate number of people who remain in the system illegal. SASSA can provide you with actual figures of the numbers of people we have taken off the system and I am confident that if there is any leakage still it is far less than the 10% that is understood to be the international norm. On the cost of re-registration I would like to say there isn’t an additional cost when we re-register our beneficiaries because this is part of the package of services that are included in the current costs of the tender that has been awarded which will cost government R10bn over the next five years. We have said that this R10bn over the next five years represents a saving of what we have been incurring as costs towards the administration and management of social grants. We save per annum R800m so rather than talking about what is the cost or re-registration as if it is something that is going to drive our costs any higher if anything it is part of the cost saving measures we have already benefitted from by awarding the tender that SASSA did early this year. So if you want the exact amount of money that we are carrying with respect to re-registration I would say it is part of that package and that is where the answer lies.

There was a question raised with regard to what strategies are we putting in place to prevent young people from falling prey to drug mules? As part of our Kimoja campaign (sic) which targets specifically young people the slogan goes “No thanks I am fine without drugs” , that campaign targets young people discouraging them from using drugs but it also discourages them from being peddlers of drugs in their own communities. We have begun to realise that more and more young people are being lured by drug peddlers into becoming mules and as part of our Kimoja campaign we are going to look specifically at how do we target young people who by in large are people who come from backgrounds that are impoverished. How do we make sure that we respond to their needs in a manner that militates against them considering entering the drug trade as an option out of which they can get their own livelihoods? I am not sure if there’s any question I haven’t covered if there is I will be happy to add.

Deputy Minister Maria Ntuli: Just a small addition when Minister Nkosozana Zuma then as Minister of Health introduced the legislation on the ban on smoking there was all sorts of concerns about jobs and so on so the principle to us is that the health risks which are associated with what we call irresponsible advertising they outweigh all these other concerns which tend to be raised. So to us the issue then is how do you promote health in the nation let me use another horrible example the DG talks who are peddling drugs some people can argue very strongly that some of the drug lords have taken kids to schools and they have offered jobs and so on. It doesn’t mean that even if there are positives from that it is not dangerous in our society it remains very dangerous and it must be do away with. So to us it is the issue of the principles are more important than anything else, thank you.

Journalist: Regarding the zero hunger strategy of the word Food Bank Programme besides the planned meals what does the zero hunger strategy entail? Does it for example entail empowerment? Thank you.

Journalist: My question is competency from the statement that was made on pg five regarding the Road Accident Fund Provincial Bill. First I would like to find out what is it that this bill is trying to address that was not captured in the old bill? Secondly how different is the bill trying to propose in terms of the usage of the applicant can he personally apply to be reimbursed? Or use the lawyers as was the case before.

Journalist: With regards to the age restriction on alcohol the proposal is from 18years to 21years. What is the logic behind this because some people have argued who will police these people? Who will make sure that it is only a 21 year old and people above who buy alcohol and not 18years and below. As we see at the moment that kids as young as 10years old actually go into taverns and buy alcohol and so forth.

Journalist: Just a follow on would we also be considering perhaps down the line introducing legislation to raise the legal age that alcohol can be consumed? I know we are saying that they would possibly not be able to purchase it under the age of 21years but will you still be able to consume at the age of 18years even though you can’t buy it? Thanks.

Journalist: Also adding on to the Jacaranda question. Minister of Correctional Services congratulations with your appointment just very quickly do you think there is space in the jails u know to lock up people that are drinking if they are 19years old? I mean is government not foreseeing at administrative nightmare if we start considering raising this legal age of drinking. Minister Dlamini looking at page 5 the UIF figure, I’ve got a question how many people were receiving UIF benefits in March 2011? Has that increased or decreased and then my add on to that is I am trying to look at this figure of job creation that you have been mentioning surely if government  has been so successful in creating so many jobs why is the UIF seemingly increasing? I just don’t completely understand how we should correlate those two. And then also relating to the social grants last year it was mentioned that thousands of foreigners actually come into the country to collect social grants. Would you be able to comment on any progress? Is this still happening and if so how many thousands of foreigners actually collect South African benefits.

Then another question for Minister Dlamini the Child Protection Register, how many names is currently in that register. I understand last year there was one name and that this register was run at a cost of nearly R2m. At the moment how many names is on that register. Thanks.

Representative of Road Accident Fund: Honourable Ministers, people from the press what is quite important to note from this transitional Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill is that we are trying to address the discriminatory practise where certain particular claimants were involved in accidents prior to 1 August 2008 and those claims have not been prescribed and they have not been finally determined. The question now is to which extent parliament will allow compensation that will be equitable. In the first instance we will provide an opportunity of choice for those claimants either to settle those claims in accordance with the previous dispensation prior to 1 August 2008; or they can also chose to be dealt with in accordance with the Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill of 2005 which basically regulated the dispensation from 1 August 2008. The intention is not to open any new claims and also to provide against any form of double dipping so there will be a one year opportunity for any claimants to chose between being dealt with in accordance with the previous dispensation or the post one 1 August 2008 dispensation. These are claims and I need to emphasise of a court of action that arouse prior to 1 August 2008 and which has not been deal with either by a court of law or by way of agreement with the Road Accident Fund.

To answer the second question yes it is quite possible and actually advisable for claimants to approach the Road Accident Fund directly for any of these claims of course you need to respect any existing agreement with your lawyer if you have already entered into such an agreement but if you haven’t lodged any claim, yes there are more than ample opportunity to provide for immediate access to the Road Accident Fund.

Representative of the Department of Labour: I think on the issue of the numbers of jobs that were created in the current year I think we have indicated that we have created over 16 000 new jobs which are not people who were in employment these were people who were outside employment through job creation scheme and new investment opportunities that are created in collaboration with the Road Accident Fund by funding new business ventures. The other issue where we have seen the number of beneficiaries who are listed here those are beneficiaries who were not able to be saved from losing their jobs however we have also saved 18 000 jobs through the programme we have with employers where we are able to look at those companies that are falling and provide relief through assistance to save jobs. I thank you.

Journalist: Sorry I just wanted to know whether the gentleman would be able to say what the figure was in March 2011 of people drawing UIF benefits.

Representative of the Department of Labour: Sorry I will not be able to give you that number now but we can be able to forward the number to the newspaper concerned as soon as we leave here.

Minister Sibusiso Ndebele: Well the question about overcrowding and whether we’ve got capacity to absorb all those people who might be arrested. I think we should differentiate here that what the courts do is to sentence you meaning that certain rights are taken away from you and we can then have what you call non custodial punishment you are prevented from doing certain things like in this case we are talking about drinking. There are cases and we are going to be pursuing this policy of having people not removed from being providers for their families. You are assaulting, drinking and driving you are doing all these sort of things but you do it mostly on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we then say at 16:00pm on Friday you report to prison and 16:00pm on Sunday we release you for 8 weekends you are in prison in that way we have not interfered with the rights of the family to the income that you are deriving. You go to work nicely but when they tell you about a wedding that is taking place Saturday you will say no I’m attending a funeral or something but you are in prison. So there must be that flexibility but the punishment must be carried out no matter what it takes as you can see. So the non custodial punishment is going to be used quite a lot.

? Selwyn Jehoma, DDG for Department of Social Development: Ladies and gentlemen indeed the Zero Hunger Campaign involves a number of departments and there’s a lot of empowerment this campaign is led by the Department of Agriculture it involves Rural Development, Water Affairs, Social Development is also there. Government is encouraging the people to use their land to plough and produce for themselves to be self sufficient but also what government does is to supply people with implements, with seeds and all the basic necessities including the skills to be able to do that. If there are surpluses in their produce government is facilitating that people use their economies of scale they are put together it might be in the form of the co-ops and one of the ideas we have been toying around is to come up with a model where the small-scale farmers and these co-operatives they have access to the market. Government is a very big market for all these produce when we are talking about schools we are talking about hospitals; we are talking about the very prisons so we think there is a lot of empowerment which is involved in that. So the different departments they come with the different elements, Rural Development for instance would come with the land, Water Affairs to make sure that when people want to plough we have the water. So there are different elements to this so it is an empowering programme. I am not sure if the Rural Development DDG would want to say something about this because they are co-ordinating it.

Rural Development DDG: Thank you basically the campaign is trying to revitalise all the unproductive land in mostly the communal areas we are trying to target all the small scale farmers, assist them with implements and also take them through the value chain where government will be the main procurer of the produce that will come from those properties. So it is at the inception stage for now we are targeting Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and North West. We will provide more details as we go along for now we are just at the beginning stage targeting the first provinces of August this year.

Deputy Minister Maria Ntuli: Good morning on the age restriction from 18years to 21 years old, I think when a child is 18 years old he is still young and not matured and also doing matric, others have just finished matric they are not yet at tertiary. At the age of 21years the child is more matured and he or she can choose what is right and what is wrong. We are not working alone as DSD we are working with SAPS, SAPS is part of this, DTI is part and also education. We also need to enforce the law, shebeens that are closer to schools will be closed and unlicensed shebeens will also be closed and people will be arrested. And we don’t need to work alone on this we as DSD needs to work with parents, churches as well as the media itself to assist us in this campaign of fighting alcohol. There was an advert on newspapers I think it was about a tavern in Soweto that was advertising close to tertiary’s that they are selling liquor at a discount for students, I think that alone tells you a story that we are dealing with a lost generation. We really need to work hard to make sure that parents participate in this, all the stakeholders participate in this because we need to build a nation here it is not just something that we want to do but we need to build a nation, we need to make sure that our children are educated and our children are spending more years at school rather than becoming alcoholics before the age of 20years. Thank you very much

Minister Bathabile Dlamini: Thank you Ntuli I am going to ask the DG to respond to the issue of the register the Child Protection Register as well as the issue of grants to foreigners and then Zane on the zero hunger?

Vusi Madonsela, Director General of Social Development: I suspect the question on the Child Protection Register escaped me; perhaps someone is going to help me? I will deal with the one regarding foreigners who are taking up social grants. SASSA has begun making inroads in curbing the uptake of social grants by people who are not entitled to them and there’s a specific focus being placed on people from across the borders of our country that come into South Africa on pension pay days. We have been able to track their movement in and out of the country during that time as part of this new system of re-registration we will be in a sense identifying which people is not South Africa, which people are not resident in the country who up to now have been receiving social grants. So part of the efforts of this new system that we are talking about would be to make sure those foreign nationals who move in and out of our country during pension pay days do not succeed. To date SASSA has been able to stop grants of 111 people who’ve been coming in and out of the country at this stage but we believe that through the re-registration process we are going to identify more people who fall in that category and we will be able to give you more information in due course once that process has flourished. Thank you very much.

Zane Dangor: Thank you Ministers the Zero Hunger Campaign firstly aims to ensure that all people in households receive nutritious food basically it is analysed the way people access food is you either purchase food, you produce food or you are given food when you are unable to purchase or produce it yourself. So you have social policies that are part of ensuring that people access food who are unable to purchase or produce it themselves and that is school feeding schemes, nutrition programmes as mentioned by our Minister and the child support grant especially reaching children under the age of three years are key issues. The social policy issues creates an enormous demand for food and that is where the production process comes in because the supply and demand issues are then  met because the social policies create demand and that is where we begin to support family farms to supply your schools, your hospitals and also the food banks. A key legislative issue that will have to come into place there aside from the extension services is a food purchasing act that we are considering as well that will compel all of those in the public sector to purchase a certain percentage of all our food from small and family farms so that we can actually begin to re-engineer the agricultural economy in a nutshell that is what the Zero Hunger Campaign seeks to achieve.

Minister Bathabile Dlamini: The register the famous register I think during the last financial year we announced that we have more people in the register but we will give you the correct figures. Then we should understand that when someone is found guilty in court they must go through a second phase of proving or pronouncing the unsuitability of that person to work with children. Then number three provinces are also supposed to submit names and up to so far some of the provinces like the Western Cape have not given us any names that are supposed to be in the register. Those are things that we have to look into because we want to make sure that the register works and people have been attaching the R2m in this whole thing and we really think that this is not about the R2m it is about firstly when there is an act you build the infrastructure for that act and then secondly ensure that as government you are on the safe side, you are able to do your work when you are supposed to be doing your work because this is mainly about the protection of children and I think we should all take it that way. Thank you.

Journalist: We are talking about alcohol but there is something very much important like water. Can we get somebody from what is it?

Program director: Ask your question?

Journalist: Okay my question is what is this department doing to get the water to the municipality that have been identified as poor performance.

Journalist: Firstly I wonder if it is possible for us to get the name and phone number of your special advisor we seem to miss a crucial part of one of the answers there. Then secondly I am interested in what you say in your last few paragraphs you are concerned about the fact that most of the funds that your department transfers to the NPO’s are spent on administration. Can you give us some idea of what amount you spent on these NPO’s every year? And what sort of service do they render and what sort of repercussions is this failure to deliver having on the rural communities where they are supposed to operate. Thank you.

Journalist: Minister Dlamini I just like to get that figure as well about the number of names on the register and maybe if you can actually just say what the actual I understand what you are saying about the R2m but what the running costs are then of this register per year. Just a new question it is going to page six; looking at houses informal settlement upgrading saying there is a total target of 400 000 for 2014 upgrading. What is the backlog of houses at the moment and upgrading of informal settlements? Would you be able to comment on the general thought out there that informal settlements are actually growing and expanding rapidly as people become more urbanised. Is this a growing concern for government or would you disagree? Would you say informal settlements are shrinking as we provide more houses.

A second question maybe to Minister Nxesi relating to availability of land. Is there greater co-operation to make land available by the department and again I refer to the issue that was in the Western Cape recently where the province indicated that they wanted property for land for a school but said the Department of Public Works didn’t want to give them the land. So I just want understand there is land available but it not being made available, is this a valid comment? Then just a last question going to page two the Eastern Cape you are saying that the successful early childhood development conference in the Eastern Cape and you have committed yourself to achieve quality basic education. Would the Ministers present their mind commenting on the current state of education in the Eastern Cape which seems to be a growing crisis with no real end in sight? Or would you say that you are actually happy with the current state of education in the Eastern Cape. Then just a final question I am sorry going back to the alcohol issue this is a question out of curiosity maybe you have thought about this the question is simply this, drugs there is obviously no advertising for drugs, dagga, cocaine etc; yet it is very clear that the use of drugs has increased dramatically and rapidly every year, every month. More people are using drugs and this is something that is not advertised at all so you are saying that you want to ban advertising on alcohol that is going to bring down the use of alcohol abuse, I assume. How do we collate the two because clearly it is not the case for harder drugs, do you believe it is going to happen in alcohol. Thanks.

Minister Bathabile Dlamini: Alcohol the difference is that alcohol is regulated I am a good student see and drugs are illegal but also when children start drinking some started drinking at a very early age they start with popup drinks the sweet ones the nice ones and then they move to hard drinks like brandy, whiskey, spirit and others. Then they graduate to drugs that is what the research is saying because we have gone through the research so do we have an understanding of what is going on and I think the police have been doing a lot of work in dealing with the issues of drugs and they have been busting a number of people so I think that is how we relate the two.

And then on the issue of the funds that we give to NPO’s actually social development it is plus R7bn that is distributed by provinces to various NGO’s because national department we only co-ordinate and give to a few national NGO’s. Then the whole amount that goes to NGO’s from the government is close to R15bn because there are other departments that work with NGO’s but welfare services workers is done by vendors and that is why the bulk of our money goes to NGO’s and that is why we had the summit so that we can be clear on the services that have to be delivered and secondly so as to ensure that all NGO’s realignment themselves with the priorities of the government. People that are our vendors are those that are working with people with disabilities, children, and older persons those that are managing institutions for the children, disabled people and older persons. They offer social services, substance abuse programmes, early childhood development, youth programmes there are a number of people we are working with as our vendors if you want to have a list you can have a list. For instance in South Africa there is more than 80 000 registered NGO’s and we are not working with all of those when we had the meeting last week in Limpopo; 600 NGO’s participated and most of them are dealing with the issues of early childhood development. I will ask Minister Nxesi to respond on the issue of land availability, DG to respond on the issues of housing. Is there anyone from Water Affairs, yes you will respond to your question?

Minister Thulas Nxesi: I just want to deal with one issue the ECD and the state of education in the Eastern Cape. I think ECD’s has nothing to do with the state of education in the Eastern Cape. ECD we are talking about children from zero to four years and to five years in other areas those falls under the Department of Social Development. We are saying children must not be at home during that age but they must be in early childhood development centres and be taught at that tender age. Then from Grade R, education is taking over now you can’t mix ECD’s and the state of education in the Eastern Cape. I don’t think we are going to answer that about the state of education in the Eastern Cape but if your question was only related to ECD’s that one is fine we are dealing with ECD’s and we make sure that even ECD’s that are in rural areas there is uniformity with those that are in urban areas and especially those that are in big cities. You find there is a big discrepancy between ECD’s that are in rural areas are run by elderly women, there is no education taking place the older person is just taking care of the children, giving them food but we want to make sure there is uniformity in all the areas, rural and urban, children are given the relevant foundation. Thank you.

Unknown speaker: Firstly to act on the issue of education the human development cluster will respond on the state of education. Secondly the issue of the land whether it’s being made available when you are talking about the Zero Hunger Campaign we are referring to the arable land and some of that land is available but underutilised that is our starting point. So we are trying to encourage and mobilise the people to utilise that land and I think the DDG from rural development did emphasise that we are talking about the communal land. The land is never enough for our people and I think you know the history of this country about the land. There are intense debates in response to the Green Paper released by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and you know that Green Paper is very important it is going to lead to a very clear policy to deal with the land and in particular transferring the land to the people. So that process because up to now that Green Paper is responding to the frustrations and a number of problems which are associated with the transfer of the land back to the people.

The issue of the land and Grabouw is a different matter that was a piece of land requested by the provincial department to be given to them so that they can build a school. The other one was Da Noon unfortunately that issue became an issue on the eve of the bi-elections in Grabouw it was politicised all along it had been very quiet but the fact here is there are processes which must be followed before you can transfer any piece of land. We have to satisfy ourselves as both DPW and Rural Development and land reform whether that piece of land is going to be used for the purpose as its required for we must be given plans and all those details before we can transfer that particular land and there’s concurrency between DPW and Rural Development and land affairs whenever that land has to be transferred. Thank you.

Unknown speaker: The question that has been raised relate to the upgrading of informal settlements as one of the programs that Human Settlement Department is running on behalf of government and the media briefing statement made reference to the fact that we have succeeded in achieving 49.5% of our target which is part of the 2014 strategy. Yes indeed the informal settlements are becoming dense but are quite contained in our programme the increasing in terms of new informal settlement I can say without any fear that the number has not increased in terms of informal settlement but what has happened was that the existing informal settlements are becoming more dense the reason simply because the urbanisation of our strategies is continuing and what we have done to deal with this matter was to adopt a strategy whereby various structures of government including rural development are also engaged in promoting work opportunities in rural areas so as to minimise the flow of people into urban areas. In terms of the numbers increasing our statistics have reflected that the numbers have not increased and in terms of our target we are still within the target that we have set for ourselves in terms of ensuring that we deal with the current ones by 2014. Thank you.

Unknown speaker from Water Affairs: Just a quick one on the issue of the municipalities this came out as a result of the annual Blue Drop Report that we do in Water Affairs that looks at the issue of delivery of water quality to the country and yes a number of municipalities were identified as hotspots because of the low level of service delivery in those new municipalities for different reasons. One of those was the issue of where those municipalities actually have a lack of revenue base to be able to lift the delivery of services in the particular municipality to the required level. We are also saying what do we do together with the municipality and provinces to be able to deal with the matter so it is not just an issue that we raise and we leave it there but we are saying we need to look at but we must also not look at only as a water affairs issue because you must remember with COGTA turnaround strategy as well these are some of the things that are included in there as well as other departments that are working with provinces and other municipalities to look at some of these things. Thanks.

End of briefing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Protection and Community Development Cluster media briefing


18 June 2012

Statement by Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini

Programme Director,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers present,
Directors-General present,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
 
Welcome to the Social Protection and Community Development component of the Social Cluster briefing. The purpose of this briefing is to give an update to the nation on progress made since our last briefing post the State of the Nation Address in February. We are reporting on the implementation of our plans set out in the delivery agreements. The cluster will also cover additional key programmes of government that contribute to the priorities of government to be reported on by other clusters. We are happy to say that we have made good progress towards the attainment of the outcomes as well as commitments and pronouncements made.
 
This briefing is taking place two days after the 36th anniversary of the Soweto and related uprisings of 16 June 1976. During this month, we pay tribute and celebrate the role and efforts of the youth of South Africa who waged the struggle for liberation and a better life for all. This year, we commemorate this Youth Month under the theme “Together We Can Do More to Build Infrastructure and Fight Youth Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality”. As we celebrate the sacrifices of the youth of 1976, we also encourage present day youth to put their shoulder to the wheel and make their own contribution to the unfolding democratic transition in our country.
 
 In 2010 we committed ourselves to achieve quality basic education for our children. In order to achieve this outcome, our cluster focused on the expansion of access to early childhood development services to create a firm foundation for positive developmental, health and learning outcomes. As part of this effort, we held a successful Early Childhood Development (ECD) conference in the Eastern Cape in March this year in order to consolidate a shared understanding of the importance of ECD among various role players within government, as well as our partners in civil society, academia, UN agencies and the ECD caregivers and practitioners themselves.  
 
The conference reaffirmed the importance of the first thousand days in the child’s life from conception, which provide a child with a unique opportunity for cognitive development, sensory motor coordination and the overall wellbeing. The conference agreed that all efforts must be made to expand access to ECD services to all children, especially those in the rural areas as well as children with special needs, to ensure that they are given a good start during the early stages of their lives.
 
As a contribution towards the achievement of Outcome 1, a total of 870 834 children now have access to ECD programmes, which means an increase of 22 834 children from birth to 5 years of age having access to ECD programmes since February 2012. We have also ensured that 412 ECD programmes comply with the norms and standards. We further have 407 Partial Care facilities which are registered. The Human Development Cluster will give a comprehensive statement on progress made in respect of these issues inclusive of details related to school readiness and the quality of teaching and learning.  
 
Access to early childhood development services has a multiplier effect. This includes providing work opportunities for women as caregivers and early childhood development practitioners, while freeing mothers of working age to go to work and young parents to continue with their education. The job creation potential of ECD has rendered this programme as one of the key contributors of the Social Sector plan of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). The social sector plan constitutes 15% of the overall programme.
 
Working towards the target of 4, 9 million job opportunities over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2009-2014, the Social Sector plan is responsible for the creation of 750 000 work opportunities. To date we have created 500 000 work opportunities. On a straight line analysis we are at 50 000 work opportunities ahead of the scheduled target (450 000). For the 2011/12 financial year, which ended 31 March, we created 164 662 work opportunities against a target of 132 000, thereby exceeding the target by 32 662.
 
Initially the sector implemented two main programmes namely the Early Childhood Development (ECD) and Home Community Based Care Programmes. The Social Sector plan has since been expanded to include the Mass Sports Programmes, Kha Ri Gude Mass Adult Literacy Campaign and School Nutrition Programme. Government is also exploring the inclusion of community safety and security programmes as part of EPWP. Through the current and newly integrated social sector programmes, we were able to create 96 000 work opportunities and 23 348 work opportunities were created during the third and the fourth quarter. This number includes 10 000 social grant beneficiaries that were linked to employment and work opportunities.

Through National Rural Youth Services Corps (NARYSEC), 2 500 youth were granted workplace training and 70 are enrolled at the Agricultural college to study animal production. Approximately, 1 000 learners are placed on discipline training with the Department of Defence, while others are completing theoretical training at Further Education and Training (FET) colleges. Individuals, particularly the youth involved in NARYSEC have indicated that their lives and those of their families have improved since the introduction of this programme. These interventions contributed to access to land for production, food security, access to markets and increased income.
 
In addition, government has now adopted a Child and Youth Care Programme, using the Isibindi Model (courage), which focuses on orphaned and vulnerable children living in child headed households. This programme affords an opportunity for young people to be trained as child and youth care workers to provide overall life skills orientation and support, including school work at home to children living in child headed households. Effective April 2013, we will train an additional ten thousand child and youth care workers to extend their services to more orphaned and vulnerable children.
 
The cluster is committed to prevent all forms of abuse against women and children. To achieve this goal, we are working together with civil society to develop a coordinated response to address this scourge. We call upon communities to oppose all forms of violence against women and children and to get actively involved in initiatives to combat violence against women and children. As part of our mobilisation campaign, we held a successful Child Protection Week from 27 May to 3 June 2012 throughout the country, launched by The President in Kimberley.
 
During the Child Protection Week, I was impressed by members of our communities who have taken it upon themselves to assist government in providing care and support to orphaned and vulnerable children. It was also disheartening to learn about the lack of support from social workers in the provision of much needed services.  
 
Ladies and gentlemen, our efforts at building vibrant communities continue to be undermined by persistent social ills such as alcohol and substance abuse. In our efforts to continue strengthen our campaign against this scourge, on Saturday this week, we will be commemorating the International Day against Drug Abuse and illicit trafficking in Mpumalanga, Bushbuckridge.
 
We acknowledge that substance and alcohol abuse are amongst the ever-increasing challenges facing the youth globally and in South Africa. The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a crucial period in which experiment with Alcohol and Illicit drugs usage usually takes place. Drugs may have a strong appeal to young people, especially at that stage when they are most susceptible to peer pressure and are trying to find their own identity.
 
However, alcohol remains the most common primary drug of choice across the country and it results into a burden of risks including accidents, injuries, teenage pregnancies as well as unprotected sexual behaviour which leads to HIV transmission.
 
Substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is a global phenomenon, and South Africa is no exception. This has serious implications for the millions of citizens because substance abuse contributes to crime, domestic violence, family dysfunction and other forms of social problems. The South African government recognizes that the drug problem is complex and requires decisive and collective national action.
 
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on anti- alcohol and substance abuse has considered the draft bill on restricting alcohol advertising and marketing.  The draft bill will be submitted to cabinet before the end of this year for consideration. Draft bills dealing with matters such as raising the purchasing age of alcohol from 18 to 21 years, zero tolerance to drunk driving, management of geographic spread and licensing of shebeens will also be tabled before Cabinet before the end of the year.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, the fight against poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon remains firmly on our agenda. Social grants, with a budget of R105 billion, remains government’s biggest poverty alleviation measure. The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) provides social grants to over 15 million beneficiaries, and therefore bears the responsibility to ensure that only legitimate beneficiaries are on the system. To this end, SASSA has intensified mechanisms to reduce fraud and corruption within the social security system. We have already started with the re-registration process of grant beneficiaries. Between April and end of May 2012 SASSA has managed to get all its cash beneficiaries on a limited biometric card swop. From 1 June 2012 SASSA is undertaking full reregistration of all social grant beneficiaries, including babies, on a comprehensive biometric identification system.
 
In responding to the economic downturn which affects both South Africa and the world, government resolved to undertake and implement several measures to curb and minimise the impact of this challenge. The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has always provided a safety net to alleviate hardships to those affected by economic down turn. The fund has provided relief to seven hundred and five thousand, eight hundred and fifty six unemployed people (705 856) from April last year until March 2012. A total amount of R5.6 billion was spent for this purpose.
 
Several initiatives including amongst others, the training of workers to ensure their competence and empowerment in the labour market were also initiated. Some of the job creation initiatives included the Productivity South Africa Social Plan aimed at saving jobs. Funding was also made available for the training of artisans.
 
The training for the unemployed scheme is done jointly with the SETAS. In implementing the scheme, the Minister of Labour has approved two training initiatives during the previous financial year. These will be carried out during the 2012/13 financial year where 1850 Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) beneficiaries will be trained in various ICT programmes.
 
Through the joint collaboration between the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), over 16 000 jobs were created and more than 18 000 work opportunities were saved. The Compensation Fund has also increased pension benefits from R277 860 – R292 032. The percentage increase which is 5.1% translates into R900.00 per month for an average person. Maximum Compensation funeral benefits increased from R13 050– R13, 716.
 
The Road Accident Fund (Transitional Provisions) Bill was recently tabled in Parliament and was referred to the Portfolio Committee on Transport and the Select Committee on Public Services.
 
The Road Accident Fund (Transitional) Bill, 2012 (Bill) seeks to provide for transitional measures in respect of certain categories of third parties whose claims were limited to R25 000 under the Road Accident Fund Act prior to 1 August 2008 (“Old Act”). If the Bill is promulgated, a victim who wishes to be subject to the Road Accident Fund Act post 1 August 2008 (new Act) will be entitled to all the benefits of the new Act. These benefits include entitlement to claim up to R25 000 in general damages, even if they are not seriously injured. This is in addition to claims for medical expenses, loss of income and support and, if the claimant is seriously injured, general damages. The Bill will make it clear that a victim obtaining the benefits of the new Act cannot claim double compensation from the Fund in respect of a motor vehicle accident.


Ladies and gentlemen, our government is committed to providing sustainable human settlements in order to improve the quality of household life for the poor. Such provision entails access to quality accommodation, basic services, secure tenure and affordable mortgage finance.
 
By the end of March this year, the Informal Settlements Upgrading Programme (ISUP) delivered a total of 114 062 serviced sites. This figure represents 29,5% of the total target of 400 000 for 2014. Of the total number of 45 prioritised cities and towns, 19 of them have established upgrading programmes of informal settlements.
 
By 31 March 2012 over 22 000 rental units were delivered through the Social Housing Programme. This figure includes the Institutional Subsidy, Community Residential Unit and private rental programmes. It also represents 27.6% of the 2014 target. A total of 72 out of the 130 restructuring zones have been gazetted as provisional restructuring zones.
 
To accelerate human settlements, the Housing Development Agency assessed more than 35 219 hectares of state land for suitability.  The Housing Development Agency is in the process of acquiring 1 329 hectares of urban land while an additional 500 hectares of privately owned properties are being considered. A total of 111,792 hectares of  provincially held land were released for human settlements.
 
The National Housing Finance Cooperation (NHFC) has interacted with all Provinces to identify pilot projects with regard to the Finance-linked Individual Housing Subsidy, to re-prioritise funding allocations and to conclude implementation protocols. A total number of more than 115,177 loans have been issued since 1 April 2010 up to 31 March 2012 by the National Housing Finance Cooperation, Nurcha and the Rural Housing Loan Fund.
 
Government is committed to improving its efforts at ensuring food security for all in the country, starting with vulnerable households and communities. To this end, households have established 4 776 food gardens to produce their own food. This poverty alleviation model ensures that communities participate in their own development.
 
The Food Banks Programme which is part of the Zero Hunger Strategy is an important channel through which vulnerable people access food. Government is funding the Food Banks Programme as it extends the reach of government programmes to ensure food security in the country. Between January and March 2012, the Food Banks distributed approximately 3.8 million meals. They reached approximately 320 000 beneficiaries a month working through 1600 agencies composed of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based Organisations (CBOs).
 
During this quarter, a total of 21 226 rural households had access to safe running water and 2 235 water tanks were distributed between January and March 2012.  According to the report from the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) the average percentage of rural households with access to water is now estimated at 89.38% (4.38% increase from December 2011). However there are challenges which include poor quality of water and lack of water sources in some of the municipal areas. As an intervention, the DWA has identified hot spot municipal areas where poor performance could result in health or environmental risks. These areas are being communicated with provincial sector partners for intervention.
 
To ensure that South Africans have access to quality water, an estimated 149,694 people were served with water during the first quarter. The total estimated number people served during 2011/12 financial year (April 2011 – March 2012) are 598,776.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, as we conclude, we would like to highlight the fact that government, through the Department of Social Development is currently engaging the Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) sector in dialogue across all provinces. Many social sector departments depend on NPOs to render services. The purpose of the provincial dialogues is to engage NPOs on matters of mutual concern such as funding and service delivery. Government is keen to ensure that NPOs operate in a more efficient and sustainable manner thus fulfilling the needs of the rural based communities. We are concerned about the lack of transformation in the NPO sector especially at community centres and that most of the funds transferred by government are spent on administration rather than the delivery of actual services for our communities.
 
We encourage NPOs to participate in the provincial dialogues that will culminate into the national summit which will take place in August this year. The outcomes of this summit will result in the formation of a forum which will assist in strengthening the relations between government and the NPO sector.
 
Enquiries:
Penny Ntuli
Chief Director: Social Cluster Communication
Cell: 076 794 9120
E-mail: [email protected]
 
Issued by: GCIS on behalf of the Social Protection and Community Development Cluster

 

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