Committee Report on Departmental Briefing: adoption

It was expressed that while there are developments to meet many of the needs of children in urban areas, we need to in particular look at what is being done to meet the needs of rural children. In all the inputs we therefore need to ask specifically about the extension of services and resources in rural areas.

1. Arising from the inputs by the Departments and the hearings of the Task Group on Child Sexual abuse, there is a need to monitor the work done by Departments of Social Development (DSD), Department of Safety and Security (DSS) and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DJCD) in respect of child abuse of all kinds.
2. From the input by Molo Songololo and the subsequent answer to the question by the Minister of Safety and Security the issue of child trafficking is not a major problem in S.A. but it is just beginning to emerge, and therefore we need to ensure that there is adequate legislation and policies to deal with this problem which poses major problems in other countries. We need to get input from the DSD on their programme to combat this, the DSS and the DJCD to see whether our legal structure sufficiently addresses this problem should it occur in our country.
3. School drops outs, which maybe because of lack of fees, because of failure, because of long distances between school and home and no public transport provision. Children under 15 years of age out of school need urgent attention as although we have compulsory education up to 15 years of age we know that many children below that age are in fact out of school and there needs to be a program to deal with this group. We need to follow up with Dept. of Education (DE) on what plan they have to deal with this problem.
4. Child offenders whether in prison, places of safety, secure care facility or diversion programs need to be carefully monitored and the services need to be evaluated. Follow up with DSD, and Department of Correctional Services(DCS)
5. Education programs in terms of life skills education, sex education, religion education values education and moral regeneration as a whole need to be monitored and evaluated for its effectiveness. Follow up with DE
6. We need to monitor whether the health rights of children are in fact being met needs to be monitored. Follow up with Dept. of Health (DH).
7. The survey report on child labour needs to be presented to this committee. Follow up with DSD and Dept. of Labour.
8. We need to look at the plight of child headed households and what is being done for them both by DH, and DSD

Other issues arising from the presentations by the Departments to this committee, and possible issues for follow up:-

Communications:

1. How is this department ensuring the participation of children in their productions and in the evaluation process.
2. What amount of money in the budget has been set aside for children.
3. Is there a monitoring and evaluation strategy especially to evaluate the effect of TV and radio programmes on children, and monitoring and ensuring that the films that are known to have an adverse effect on children are not screened.
4. In light of the moral regeneration movement what is being done by the electronic media, and the independent broadcasting authority, to monitor material that is having adverse effects on the community.

1. Correctional Services:

1. We need to monitor the numbers of children still in prison, their condition, programmes organised by correctional services for these children, is there separation of the different age groups and what restorative programmes are in place to rehabilitate the children.

1. Education:

1. Are there programmes for out of school children?
2. What planning is in place for Reform schools or Schools of Industry and what policies are there in respect of children who have come into conflict with the law?
3. What plans are there for Early Childhood Development?
4. What plans are there for mainstreaming of children with special needs.
5. What is the status of funding and subsidies to special schools.
6. There is a need to clarify the present overlapping between the subsidies provided by the ED, the DH, and DSD for ECD, and special schools.
7. We need to monitor the effect and administration of the nutrition schemes in schools as there have been many complaints received by our constituency offices about the discrepancies on the amount provided the stoppages of the scheme in some schools, and the corruption and poor administration at other schools.

1. Health:

1. The department needs to clarify the budget in respect of allocation for children.
2. Allocation for home based care and to give us an idea of the extent of these centres where and how many children are receiving this care, and what is the budget for it.
3. The department needs to inform us as to how the work in respect of these children is being coordinated between the department of Social Development and department of Health.

1. Constitutional Development and Justice:

1. The instruments available to children at present are:

1. Section 28 of the constitution
2. Convention on the rights of the Child
3. African Charter on Rights and Welfare of child
4. Legislation affecting children
5. The Hague Convention and
6. The directorate on child and youth care.

They have indicated plans for the following:

• child-friendly courts
• one-stop youth justice
• pre-trial hearings
• awareness campaigns
• personnel training
• Child Justice Bill

1. We need to get reports on how far has this process progressed and what are the tangible effects of these programmes on the community. Whether these programmes are also extended to rural areas.
2. We need to get information from this Department whether there is provision in our laws to combat child trafficking.

6. Labour:

1. Public Works:

1. They need to inform us on what programmes are aimed at children and what is the budget for these programmes
2. We need more information on the provincial projects such as the multi purpose centres aimed at youth and children and their impact on them. We need information on whether these centres are built with the issue of accessibility of these buildings in mind.

1. Safety and Security:

They informed us of the various strategies they intend to put into place we need a report back on how far are these strategies and what impact it is having in combating child abuse and neglect.

2. Department of Social Development:

1. We need a report on their policy in respect to child labour
2. We need information on the subsidising of ECD and the collaboration between this department and the health department on this issue
3. We need information on what policies have been developed to combat child abuse and neglect and whether the department has a strategy or a protocol to deal with the situation especially in respect of the growing incidence of child sexual abuse.
4. We need a report on the AIDS orphans especially in the rural areas and what plans are there to meet their needs
5. We need information on how to access the various government grants and pensions, simple concise information document.

1. Sports and recreation:

• Housing
• Defence
• Public Enterprise
• Foreign Affairs
• Land and Agriculture
• Mineral and Energy
• Environmental Affairs and Tourism
• Arts Culture Science and Technology
• Home Affairs
• Office of Presidency-GCIS etc