Minister of Social Development (NCOP) 2013 Budget Speech

Minister of Social Development (NCOP), Ms Bathabile Dlamini, gave her Budget Vote Speech on the 05 June 2013
_______________________________________________________________
Chairperson,
Honourable Deputy Minister, Mama Bongi Maria Ntuli,
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Ms Nomonde Rasmeni,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
MECs of Social Development,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good afternoon.

It is an honour for me to present Budget Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development which outlines the policies and programmes of our Government in this financial year and beyond. This month, we commemorate two milestones that should inspire all of us, to continue marching together and confront the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Fifty eight years ago, brave men and women of this country convened in Kliptown, Soweto and adopted the Freedom Charter. This document was and still is a collective expression of aspirations and a vision for a united, non-racial, non-sexist and a democratic South Africa. It encapsulates the achievements we have made towards nation building, yet it also highlights the challenges that lie ahead as we continue in our efforts to create a better life for our people.

On this note, let me applaud Ms Nomthandazo Scholastic Magoso, who participated in the 2013 Comrades Marathon despite her disability. Ms Magoso finished the marathon in position sixty five. Her achievement, tenacity and resilience bear testimony to our commitment towards building an inclusive society as articulated in the Freedom Charter. This achievement reinforces our commitment to accelerate the programmes we are currently unfolding to address challenges of people with disabilities.    

In June 1976 the youth of this country took up the challenge to demand a better education. Many of those who took part in that historic struggle did not live to see the country of their dreams, as many of them were killed by the brutal apartheid forces and others were jailed for fighting for a free and a democratic South Africa.

To this day, their blood continues to water our freedom, as Solomon Mahlangu said: “my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom”.

Honourable members, the journey towards a better South Africa envisioned in the Freedom Charter continues. The duty of our generation is to ensure that the next generation has the ability to complete that journey. At the heart of our challenge is our ability to address the massive challenges facing the youth, which constitutes the largest sector of our population. We must therefore ensure that the talents of our young people are positively engaged in the process of national development.

As a response to that challenge, the Masupatsela Youth Pioneer Programme seeks to prepare young people to be active and responsible citizens. Consistent with the theme of this year’s youth month: “Working Together for Youth Development and a Drug Free South Africa”, we will be hosting our second National Youth Camp scheduled to take place from 22 to 30 June in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

The inaugural National Youth Camp, which we organised jointly with the Department of Defence and Military Veterans in 2012 in the Free State province, attracted five hundred young people and was a resounding success. This year we are targeting to reach one thousand young people from all nine provinces. We are convinced that this initiative will inspire our young people, foster a sense of nation-building and galvanize the youth into becoming agents of change in their communities.

Chairperson, unlike the youth of 1976 who struggled against the highly repressive apartheid regime, the challenges facing our youth today are very different. In the recent Orphans, Vulnerable Children and Youth Conference children and young people identified the following key issues affecting their lives negatively. These issues include poor parenting, bullying, alcohol and substance abuse, sexual abuse by those they trust, teenage pregnancy, and so forth.

The scourge of alcohol and substance abuse that is ravaging our communities demands our collective and urgent action. Last month, I had an opportunity to accompany President Jacob Zuma to Eldorado Park, in Johannesburg to witness first hand, the devastating impact of alcohol and substance abuse on the lives of young people, their families and communities.

Together with the provincial government under the leadership of Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and other structures, we are implementing an integrated plan focusing on prevention, early intervention, treatment, after care and reintegration.

With the assistance of law enforcement agencies, more than 20 drug dens, including “lolly lounges”, have been closed down and drug addicts are being assisted by government in partnership with NGOs to places of safety and to access treatment.

We welcome the arrest of drug lords in Gauteng many of whom do not care that the substances they are marketing and selling harms our communities and destroys the lives of our youth. Nobody has the right to destroy the lives of others in pursuit of profit. I urge all South Africans to work with police and community organisations to make our townships, villages, suburbs and cities safe from those who peddle drugs and other harmful substances to our children and young people.

We are heartened by the leadership that President Jacob Zuma is providing in the campaign to fight the scourge of alcohol and substance abuse.

Ladies and gentlemen, as the recent outcry has shown there are many Eldorado Parks in our country that need our decisive intervention. I call on South Africans to draw inspiration from this initiative and play their part in our national effort to build a South Africa free from the scourge of drug abuse and the harmful use of alcohol. The most important lesson we are learning from this process is that we must work with communities in order to succeed. Extensive community mobilisation and social cohesion, with specific focus on young people will be a corner stone of our programme of action. I also call on you Honourable members to assist the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Alcohol and Substance Abuse so that we can reclaim our communities.

We need to improve our capacity to provide treatment to victims of substance abuse and to effectively reintegrate them into society. Currently, we have seven government facilities which are clearly insufficient.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no better investment that we can make as a society other than in the development of our children at a very young age.  Therefore as part of our commitment to implement the National Development Plan (Vision 2030), we will forge ahead with the expansion and universalisation of the integrated ECD services. This includes making early childhood development services a public good.

Chairperson, in my Budget Vote Speech to the National Assembly on the 8^th of May this year, we pledged to continue with the delivery of social development services that protect and optimise development outcomes for our children. During the Child Protection Week we hosted a national conference on orphans, vulnerable children and youth. The conference identified many constructive proposals, including models of care and support.  We are committed to implement them to better the lives of our children, particularly at community level. We have committed ourselves to recruiting and training ten thousand Child and Youth Care Workers over the next five years to implement the Isibindi Model in 260 sites. To date we have recruited the first cohort of three thousand one hundred and fifty Child and Youth Care Workers.

The figures per province are as follows:

Western Cape - 15
Gauteng province – 622
Free State – 182
Northern Cape – 95
Limpopo province – 300
North West – 184
Mpumalanga – 126
Eastern Cape – 92
KwaZulu-Natal - 362.

On 30 May 2013, I had the pleasure to participate in the graduation ceremony of 250 Child and Youth Care Workers in KwaZulu-Natal Province.  As part of our efforts to bolster the workforce in the sector, we will continue with the recruitment and retention strategy for social workers. To this end, we have allocated Two Hundred and Fifty Million Rand to the social work scholarship which has been awarded to two thousand and thirty seven students in the current financial year.

The provinces have committed to absorb all graduate of our Social Work Scholarship Programme. North West has absorbed 302, Western Cape 80, Gauteng 244, KwaZulu-Natal 455, Mpumalanga 18, Free State 38, Eastern Cape 557 and 41 in Northern Cape.    

Chairperson, care and protection of senior citizens continue to receive our uppermost attention. During this year, we will finalise all processes to ensure the establishment of Older Persons Desks in the Offices of Premiers in all provinces as endorsed by the President’s Coordinating Council.  We are also working closely with the National Treasury over the MTEF period to implement the universalisation of the Old Age Grant by 2016.

In addition, we have begun with the development of an electronic Older Persons Register which will be finalised by the end of this financial year. We have also trained provincial coordinators on the Protocol for the Management of Elder Abuse and funded the National Elder Abuse Line.

Equally, the lack of dedicated personnel at provincial level is receiving my attention. I proposed to amend the Older Persons Act and consultations are already underway.

Honourable members, the issue of violence against women and children must remain high on our agenda if we are to ensure that they are and feel safe.  The magnitude of the on-going violence against women and children in our country is rife and well-known. In this regard, we will work through the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children to bring to Cabinet the Programme of Action. Key to this is community mobilisation to challenge social norms and values that legitimise the use of violence against women and children, including traditional practices.

The first protest against the carrying of passes by women took place in Bloemfontein in 1913. The protest, led by Charlotte Maxeke, co-founder of the Bantu Women’s League was one of the earliest cases of women mobilising against the dispossession of land against the defiance of fundamental rights.

It is only through such dedicated actions that we will succeed in the full emancipation of women from violence, poverty and exclusion. During this financial year, we will be setting up a Call Centre that will support women who are subjected to violence and abuse. 

We are currently consulting with various sectors of our society, including the business sector, faith-based organisations and other social partners to support this national campaign. Tomorrow I will be hosting an interfaith dialogue in Khayelitsha with various organisations from the Western Cape Province to discuss their role in the fight against these social ills and challenges that confront our society.

Honourable Members, during 2012/13 financial year the SASSA embarked on a massive re-registration campaign for the new social grants payment system.  By the end of May this year, we had successfully re-registered on the new system 93% of our total grant beneficiaries.

Chairperson, tackling fraud is an integral part of our goal to put SASSA on a stable footing and to ensure that the tax-payers hard earned money is used to good cause. To this end, we have set aside over Two Hundred and Twenty Four Million Rand over the MTEF period for the acceleration of our ground breaking Fraud Management Strategy.

Over the MTEF period, we will continue with our efforts to enhance the integrity of our social grants system, with particular focus on data cleansing and modernisation of operations. As part of our effort to improve the quality of service to our social grant beneficiaries, we have since March 2011, upgraded three hundred and twenty one offices, and a further one hundred and nineteen will be upgraded in the 2013/14 financial year.

Research findings indicate that there are about two million eligible children who are excluded from our system. In our effort to address this error, we have embarked on the implementation of the Integrated Community Registration Outreach Programme (ICROP), in two hundred and fifty poorest wards in the country. As part of SASSA taking control of all aspects of its operations, the Ministerial Advisory Committee commences its work this year to advise the Minister on the future payment options for social security.

Protection of poor and vulnerable grant beneficiaries from unscrupulous micro lenders and funeral insurers remains a challenge. During my recent visits to pay points, I was approached by some gogos who showed me the receipts and figures which are more than forty percent of their grant. As a result I have instructed SASSA to inform the micro lending industry that no loan deductions will be processed on the SASSA grant card from June 2013. In addition, all the regulatory bodies together with SASSA are investigating all the companies involved in funeral and micro lending including Cash Pay Master Services (CPS).

Most importantly, we are exploring all legal avenues to put an end to this exploitation. These efforts by government agencies seek to ensure that vulnerable beneficiaries are not exploited by the micro lending and insurance industries.

Honourable chairperson, in order to improve social development services in the country, particularly the welfare services I will be appointing a Ministerial Advisory Committee that will review the White Paper for Social Welfare, which was developed in 1997.

Some of the issues that warrant the review include Household Food and Nutrition, Promoting Active Citizenry as well as Supporting Families to foster social cohesion.

Honourable Members, the department received a budget of One Hundred and Twenty Billion Rand for 2013/14 financial year. One Hundred and Thirteen Billion Rand is allocated for the payment of social assistance grants. We have also allocated One Hundred and Twenty Million Rand over the MTEF period to expand the Household Nutrition and Food Security intervention.

This budget reflects the ANC's commitment to the most vulnerable, with particular emphasis on our children, youth, older persons and people with disabilities. During the current financial period, we will embark on a nationwide frontline service delivery improvement initiative, focusing on the poorest wards in the country. This will be a face to face engagement with people in municipalities so that we can jointly determine the nature and quality of the services we render.

Honourable members, with this budget we honour the memory of our compatriots who made sacrifices and dedicated their lives for the achievement of a shared dream and a vision of a South Africa that is inclusive, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic.

Chairperson, I acknowledge the support of the Deputy Minister Mama Bongi Maria Ntuli and my colleagues, the Members of the Executive Committee in the Provinces for their sterling efforts and support in implementing the programme of this portfolio. Qinani maqabane ndithi Nangamso!

I would also like to express my gratitude to the Director-General, Special Advisors, CEOs of SASSA and NDA and every member of DSD family, without whose contribution the work of this department would not be possible.

I thank you.