Western Cape Department of Social Development Annual Report 2021/2022

Meeting report

Acting Minister of Social Development Mr Daylin Mitchell conveyed an apology on behalf of Minister of Social Development Ms Sharna Fernandez, who was unable to attend the meeting.

In giving a synopsis of the Department’s Annual Report, Dr Robert Macdonald, Head of Department (HOD), Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD), said that the COVID-19 pandemic had constrained 2021/22. As a result, the Department has taken measures to mitigate its impact on the Department’s official business and cushion its effect on citizens. Some relief measures were put in place as the normal course of services was disrupted. Some group activities were curtailed as DSD could not have gatherings, resulting in lower outputs. Some activities planned in schools were also partially disrupted as most of them were closed then, which also affected targets. It had been a difficult year, punctuated by big budget shortfalls. Should any questions arise on specifics from committee members, more information would be provided.

The Chairperson commended the Department for its good audit report from the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) and for spending 99.9% of its budget. It was commendable that it had sailed through the year with no fraudulent issues, and he thanked the staff for a job well done.

Discussion
Ms N Bakubaku-Vos (ANC) commended the Department and the MEC for the positive audit outcomes and wished this could translate to better service delivery for people in communities. Given the Department’s stated priorities regarding child protection, could the Department articulate an overview of how it protected children from poverty? What programmes are in place to address the concerns raised in the 2020 General Household Survey, which found that 13% of children lived in households that reported insufficient food, and 21% of households reported that meals were skipped due to insufficient funds and resources? Was there a food relief programme focusing specifically on child hunger? Were the two specialised vehicles for transporting children with disabilities enough to address the needs of children? Children with disabilities were far less likely to attend school, and even more so if they lived in rural areas. She also requested an update on purchasing additional vehicles in the current financial year. It seemed as if the HOD had avoided meeting with the Committee to tell them what he knew about the alleged misconduct of former MEC, Mr Albert Fritz. The Chairperson had committed to schedule a meeting to discuss this matter, but it never happened. As a lead department in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV) in the province, it was disappointing that just R80m of a total budget of R2bn budget was allocated to GBV. Given the rise of GBV and femicide in the province, this was unacceptable. What programmes on GBV were being run in partnership with other departments?

Dr Macdonald replied that specific food relief programmes focused on child hunger. Food relief had been significantly increased across the board during the pandemic. The primary means of doing this was through target feeding, whereby child meals were provided by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) funded by the Department. Other NGOs were funded to distribute food ingredients to less formal food providers such as community kitchens. That helped to reach several beneficiaries in areas the Department could not have reached. In addition, drop-in centres were activated for children. These centres provide and support for children struggling with resources in the community. The biggest part of the provincial government food security support to children was the school feeding schemes. In addition to that, the Department of Health (DOH) also offered food and nutrition support to children at risk of wasting. DSD worked together with DOH. Food was also provided through the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres which had now moved over to the Department of Education (DOE) in 2022/23. Around 80 000 beneficiaries were reached via ECD Centres. In summary, there was a multi-pronged approach to nutrition, and this did not include what the Department of Agriculture was doing as well, in terms of their support for food gardens and partnerships with farmers for donations, and municipalities as well in providing food support. 

Mr Charles Jordan, Chief Director: Children, Families and Special Programmes, DSD, said that, in addition to the two vehicles purchased in 2021/22, an additional two had been recently purchased and handed over to the NGOs. Two more were in the pipeline of being purchased and still further purchases were being considered.

Minister Mitchell said the HOD’s comments on the former Mr Fritz’s misconduct were on record. Right now, DSD was dealing with the Minister’s foreword, and this was a separate matter. The HOD had made himself available to discuss the matter.

Ms Leana Goosen, Chief Director: Social Welfare and Restorative Services, DSD, said that the GBV programme was the only one that had not had its budget cut in 2021/22. With this money, DSD was currently running 27 shelters including shelters for people rescued from human trafficking. DSD had also co-founded service organisations and five new GBV centres within six months of the financial year. The DSD was running a 365 days of GBV campaign under the leadership of Minister Fernandez, and had a provincial task team to implement the national strategy on GBV. DSD was part of the human trafficking task team with the South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as the DOH and is leading the 16 days of activism for the province.

Dr Macdonald added that the GBV budget had grown rapidly over the last five years, from around R12m. There was however still a long way to go before all the communities in need were reached. 

Ms W Philander (DA) asked how the Department tracked, monitored and evaluated GBV cases in the province. How was it collaborating with SAPS, given how under-resourced SAPS was and how victims of this crime were dealt with in some police stations?

Ms R Windvogel (ANC) welcomed the report but criticised Minister Mitchell for deflecting the question put to him about the former MEC’s misconduct. It smacked of arrogance. The Committee was sitting on a burning issue, which was the protection of our communities. If government then become a perpetrator and then tried to shield its members, that is very wrong. This was still a burning issue, and the Committee would demand answers until things changed. She asked about the foster care backlog at the end of 2021/22 and by October 2022. She recalled that at the previous meeting, the director of foster care had mentioned that the new system would enable the Department to know exactly how many children were in foster care in the province. According to some NGOs, certain children placed in foster care were no longer staying in the home where they had been placed. Did the Department have records of such children? Some community members had reported to the Committee that money was still being paid to these foster parents even though the child was no longer there. She also asked for an update on the work of the disability desk. How had the position of manager become vacant? When was it filled? Was the desk operational and if so, how much funding is allocated to it? What are some of the tasks and campaigns it had undertaken during the year under review?

The Chairperson said there was no need to get angry about the MEC’s misconduct case. The Committee had followed due process by launching a full-scale investigation and had taken action. Mr Fritz had been removed from the position. This was common knowledge. It could not be said that he was being protected.

Dr Macdonald replied that the DSD had put in place a provincial implementation plan for the national strategy on GBV. It played a coordinating role, pulling together other departments to work in a transversal manner. The monitoring of GBV criminal cases was done by the Department of Community Safety (DOCS), which monitored court briefs and inspected police stations to look at how well they were implementing victim support rooms at police stations, and if they provided the right approach to support victims that came to the stations. DSD’s role meanwhile was in a restorative and supportive capacity. It also implemented the Trafficking in Persons Act, which required that all records of people confirmed as victims of human trafficking were kept.

Ms Goosen replied that DSD’s collaboration with SAPS took the form of a criminal response task team that monitored GBV cases reported to it directly or through SAPS. Police officers at stations in high-risk areas were receiving training on handling GBV cases, while the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) was rolling out its own internal training regarding human trafficking. There was also the national call centre and the provincial call centre for GBV matters. People could call in there, and a response would be activated depending on what was needed, for example, an immediate police response or a matter that involved psychosocial support through DSD. There were six Thuthuzela Care Centres in the province, which always had a social worker on standby to assist police stations with GBV cases when required.

Mr Jordan reported that as of March 2022, the backlog of foster care cases had been 2 900, and the figure now stood at 2 100. There were about 207 children whose birth certificates DSD was unable to get from the national Department of Home Affairs (DHA). This has been escalated to the national Department of Social Development, since they had regular meetings with DHA at the national level. Another challenge to clearing the foster care backlog related to court orders. If there were cases in court, court orders for the child took more than a month to reach DSD. Currently, there was a total of 38 338 children in the foster care system. The foster care web-based tracking system captured every detail, including the child’s date of birth, birth certificate, biological parents, where they came from, the present foster parents, and where they lived. The national DSD developed this system and the Western Cape was one of the provinces using the system to the fullest. Court orders that lapsed were one of the causes of the backlog. It was difficult to keep track of this information manually because there were just too many cases in the system. With the new automated system, every Sunday at 12 noon, an email was sent automatically to all managers in the foster care team informing them of cases that would expire in the next three months. This gave social workers time to prepare documents and do site visits in preparation to go court, and to arrange a court date. The Department had also picked up on and was concerned about cases of children not living with their foster care parents. When these cases were picked up, DSD immediately contacted the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) so that grants could be stopped and SASSA inspectors could investigate the matter.

Dr Macdonald explained that the disability desk was originally created as a position that reported to the ministry and was a contract appointment. Since then, Public Service Act regulations have changed so that no one could be appointed on contract for longer than one year. DSD had then looked at establishing a permanent post. More posts on the disability desk would be looked at in future but for now, budget constraints would not allow this. What was missing in that desk now was an advocacy and liaison role that would drive disability programmes.

Ms N Makamba-Botya (EFF) asked whether DSD had established a relationship with police stations in the province to ensure that the seriousness of GBV was understood and that secondary victimisation by police officers was prevented. How many shelters did DSD have across the province for abused women? Did these shelters only house women or did they also accommodate LGBTQIA+ individuals who might have experienced similar abuse? She noted that only two vehicles had been made available by DSD for children with disabilities in the whole province for the purpose of attending school. Were these vehicles staged in the rural areas or in the city? Would two vehicles be sufficient? What form of resources did DSD allocate to households where there was no single person employed and no other sources of income? Where were vehicles for children with disabilities purchased from? Are they not readily available? Why were there always delays in purchasing them? Concerning service providers not delivering because of loadshedding, why were these service providers not investing in generators, and why was DSD entering into contracts with service providers without checking if they could deliver? Were any of the organisations who had made gifts or donations to the Department also service providers, either directly or indirectly?

Dr Macdonald confirmed that DSD provided training to SAPS around victim support and worked jointly through Thuthuzela Care Centres as the first point of contact for victims in preference to police stations. There was a working operational relationship between SAPS and the DSD at the local level not only because of GBV but also for child protection. SAPS was also engaged in implementing the national strategic plan on GBV.

Ms Goosen said that DSD was funding 26 shelters across the province and provision had been made for LGBTQIA+ individuals to access shelter services, and services had been dedicated to their specific needs. An arrangement was made with the TRIANGLE organisation and training was rolled out.

Dr Macdonald added that some of the shelters also made provision for children to stay with their mothers. He said the two vehicles were specifically for severely and profoundly intellectually disabled children. Less severely disabled children were also catered for by other departments as well. The DBE, for instance, had a dedicated allocation for disabled children too. DSD had been funding organisations undertaking specialised services for these children. The first batch of vehicles had been slow to be produced, and the Department of Transport and Public Works had struggled to find service providers capable of fulfilling the specialised requirements of the vehicles. Support to households with no income earner included food relief provided not only by DSD but also by the DOH and through ECD centres. The biggest single support was from SASSA through various grants. Support for child-headed households by the DSD was legislated through the Children’s Act. The service providers not providing during loadshedding were mostly concerning sanitary towels given to girls. Towards the end of March, they had been supposed to deliver the final batch but had had some difficulty doing so. Because of this, the last batch could only be delivered in April. That was the reason DSD had asked for a rollover of the funds so they can be paid for. The project was now concluded and the service provider had delivered. On whether any DSD service providers had also made gifts and donations, he said that some donors were DSD-funded NGOs, but the donations captured in the Annual Report were usually for the facilities and DSD beneficiaries. Donations such as clothing from NGOs collected from the community were donated to some of our children and youth centres. Although registered as gifts, they were not for staff benefit in 99% of cases. There was no risk of conflict of interest but even so, all gifts and donations were screened for conflict of interest. The kind of gifts received were things such as infant formula and nappies.

Ms Bakubaku-Vos asked what creative methods might be used in partnership with other departments to increase spending on GBV. If it had been possible to use funds from provincial reserves to fund COVID-19, why couldn’t the same be done to respond to GBV? Children and women were raped and killed daily, and GBV was a second pandemic. She asked how many ECD centres had been affected by lapsing registrations. What effort had the Department made to prevent this from happening? Why had irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure been allowed to occur in the first place and had disciplinary measures been taken against implicated staff? What was the latest update regarding money that had been referred for recovery?

Ms Makamba-Botya asked about establishing victim support rooms by SAPS in collaboration with DSD. Who was responsible for administering these victim support rooms? How often did DSD monitor and take stock of what was happening there? They did not seem to be working as intended. What was DSD’s involvement in these support rooms? How did DSD identify households for unemployment support?

Dr Macdonald replied that the Department’s implementation plan was all about getting more resources to the fight against GBV through a collaborative approach. The national strategic plan on GBV has pillars that speak to different sectors in government and DSD in its work speaks to some of the pillars, but DSD alone could not address the problem. The provincial cabinet had also adopted the implementation plan and there was good buy-in from other departments in the province. Funds put in by DSD were not the only funds made available in this fight: for instance, the DOH was the host of the Thuthuzela Care Centres, and they had a dedicated budget to run them. The DSD agreed with the Committee that provincial reserve funds could be used to fight GBV and had made a similar proposal, not only for GBV but also for child protection. Future directions would be discussed at the upcoming presidential summit.

Mr Jordan replied that ECD centre registrations had increased and DSD had registered 1 727 centres against a target of 1 500. The Department had been making an effort to get centres to register and had been doing quite well before until responsibility for ECD centres had been transferred to DOE. The regulations set out in the Children’s Act were however unrealistic and should be reviewed. They were designed for ECDs operating in the formal sector, whereas majority of them were in informal areas where building plans, resources and zoning were not always strictly observed.

Mr Juan Smith, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), DSD, noted that there had been no new cases of irregular, fruitless or wasteful expenditure in 2021/22. The cases recorded in the Annual Report were from prior years and most of them had been closed. The three outstanding cases of irregular expenditure amounted to R48 000, R22 000 and R8 500, respectively. The funds in the second and third cases had been recovered and the Department was in the process of recovering the funds from the first case, which related to a retired official. The Department was attempting to recover the funds from the official’s pension. One matter of fruitless expenditure related to an official who had not attended a course for which accommodation had been booked and paid for. The official had been disciplined and the funds had been recovered in 2022/23. 

Dr Macdonald said that the SAPS victim support rooms were operated by SAPS and oversight of those rooms was done by the Department of Community Safety. DSD provided support and training to SAPS but did not play an oversight role. Responses to domestic violence were uneven depending on the particular police station. Some stations would only respond to domestic violence complaints if there was a protection order in place, so there was a long way to go in terms of the implementation of the legislation. There were multiple ways that DSD identified unemployed households. For example, information could come from community stakeholders, NGOs, schools noticing academically struggling students, DOH clinics noticing malnourishment, or community profiling done by DSD to identify households in need. When the need was identified, DSD activated food relief to connect them with providers of food or provided them with a report that they could take to SASSA to apply for social relief.

Ms Windvogel asked whether DSD had statistics on child murders in the province, and whether it had a programme to address these murders. She noted that her question about the disability desk had not been answered. Was it operational and how much funding was allocated to it? On child-headed households; what was DSD doing to identify existing child-headed households? She believed there were more child-headed households than the DSD accounted for. She said that it was understandable that the conditional grant allows for sanitary pads to be distributed in schools only, but what was stopping the Department from using its funds to expand the programme to provide sanitary pads outside of schools?

Dr Macdonald replied that the DSD participated in the annual review panel chaired by the DOH and forensic pathology services to stay up to date on all unnatural child deaths in the province and receive referrals from families who might be at risk. Most unnatural child deaths in the province were a result of gang violence. In addition, babies were being abandoned, and other children were abused or neglected. He said that DSD received child death figures quarterly, and he offered to share them with the Committee in writing. The DSD child custodian system was designed to support children from coming to harm and is geared toward removing children from homes where they are at risk of abuse, neglect or worse. However, teens involved in risky behaviours such as gang activity were more difficult to assist because they could not easily be placed into foster care. They ended up in DSD secure care facilities if they were arrested or needed care due to behavioural challenges. On conditional grants and the Community Dignity Project, DSD had found room to expand it slightly but expanding to all schools was beyond the Department’s reach because of budget constraints.

The Chairperson agreed with the HOD’s comments in the Annual Report that drew a connection between economic challenges and the overall reliance on social services provided by DSD, and asked about the Department’s role in job creation. He noted the difficulty of addressing GBV, saying that most interventions were, in a sense, always too late because GBV usually occurred within the walls of private homes. He added that debates about human trafficking had been raging on radio stations. Was this becoming more of a problem in this province? He asked for clarity on what exactly the DSD’s After School Care (ASC) programmes involved. Were they specifically for the vulnerable? He also asked for clarity on what references in the Annual Report meant to irregular expenditure having been removed from the register.

Dr Macdonald replied that the DSD contributed to job creation through NGO funding. It funded almost 2 000 NGOs, although this number would decrease now that responsibility for ECD centres was moving to the DOE.

Mr Mzwandile Hewu, Chief Director: Community and Partnership Development, DSD, said that the Department funded several programmes and 127 community-based organisations. Most of these provided soft skills such as CV writing and digital skills. DSD also had youth cafes that ran programmes providing services and support to young people. Unfortunately, these youth cafes were not in every town in the province due to budget constraints and the inability of municipalities to provide space for them. Regarding the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), the Department had arranged workplace placements for girls in ECD centres.

Dr Macdonald said the Department had also linked up with the private sector to provide job opportunities. It also worked with the Department of Economic Development, taking an inter-sectoral approach to job creation and economic recovery. There had been a small increase in cases of human trafficking, and this was a concern, although the numbers were still not very high. The increase might also be related to the implementation of the Trafficking in Persons Act: for example, cases that might not have been recognised as human trafficking, such as women being lured into sex work on false pretences, were now recognised as such in terms of the Act. The ASC programmes provided what was known as partial care. This might take the form of a safe place where a child could go in the afternoon and, get a meal and participate in some activities. Responsibility for these programmes remained with DSD, unlike the ECD centres.

Mr Smith explained that removing irregular expenditure from the register involved meeting certain criteria, such as an investigation to determine guilt and financial loss, the recovery of the money, and consultation with Provincial Treasury. 

The Chairperson noted that an inter-sectoral steering committee had been established in response to the 2018 High Court order directing the national government to provide certain services for children with severe or profound disruptive behavioural disorders. What has it achieved so far? In connection with a different High Court judgement, were the NPOs contracted to provide support for victims of sexual offences delivering?

Ms Bakubaku-Vos asked some questions that were inaudible.

Ms Makamba-Botya asked what the Department did to prevent drug offenders from relapsing after they left support facilities. She noted that the Annual Report (page 38) referred to 145 social work graduates appointed on contract. Would they become permanent employees after their contracts ended? Similarly, many ECD teachers complained that they had been working on contract for years without being adequately remunerated, despite being asked to take university courses to up-skill themselves. What kind of resources had DSD transferred to DOE along with responsibility for ECD Centres? Why had 19 invoices not been paid within the 30-day period (Annual Report, page 44)? This was a concern for small service providers that relied on timely payments to stay afloat. What would the Department do to ensure that invoices were paid within 30 days? What evidence was there that people opted for DSD food relief intervention instead of being referred to SASSA to get a social grant (Annual Report, page 51)? She asked whether the DSD had followed up on the case that emerged the year before of a 50-year-old person with a disability who had been evicted from an old age home in Gugulethu. In general, what support was given to persons with disabilities in old age homes? There was also another case of a man and his disabled son that had been reported to DSD. What happened to these cases?

Ms A Bans (ANC) asked why corporate management services targets had not been met (Annual Report page 44). Why had targets for services to older persons not been met? (Annual Report page 47)? What was the impact of closing three state-run homes in the province? What had happened to the staff and residents of these homes? There had been a delay in procuring vehicles for intellectually challenged children (Annual Report page 52). Had these vehicles now been delivered? What were the reasons for underspending on services to people with disabilities and on social relief (Annual Report page 52)?

Mr Jordan recalled that the inter-sectoral committee was chaired by DSD and included representatives of the DOE and DOH and the organisations that would provide the actual services. The focus of the court order had been these children’s right to education. At the moment, the children were given a specific curriculum at care centres, and transitioned back to the DOE’s special needs schools where possible.

Dr Macdonald replied that the Department monitored organisations providing support for victims of sexual offences to ensure that they were offering the services they were supposed to.

Mr Hewu said DSD collaborated with other departments to respond to job losses. It also sought available opportunities in other government agencies and NGOs and tried to link young people with them. Because of the low economic growth, businesses were unable to create new jobs and absorb new entrants into the labour market. DSD had therefore ended up providing young people with skills to boost their chances of landing employment, in collaboration with NGOs.

Dr Macdonald said that DSD had made inputs to the provincial sexual harassment policy, although the corporate services branch was leading it in the office of the Premier. The GBV policy was articulated through the DSD implementation of the National Strategic Plan on GBV and Femicide (GBVF-NSP) adopted by Cabinet in September 2021. Meanwhile, the safety plan identified key hotspot areas for implementation based on murder statistics. Those same areas are also hotspots for GBV, according to recent police statistics. DSD area-based teams were linking into areas, implementing the safety plans so that DSD services could be deployed there. DSD had also deployed 30 GBV social workers to the hotspots to support the safety plan. Quantitative information about the prevalence of women and child abuse in the period under review could be provided in writing. DSD took a three-tiered approach to the link between victims of GBV and substance abuse. Firstly, prevention through media campaigns directing people to available resources across the province. Secondly, community-based services for female victims of crime who are substance users. Thirdly, funding special residence care centres such as the Kensington care centre for women with substance abuse problems. This centre could accommodate 30 women at a time and was free of charge. However, there had been a noticeable drop in people attending these centres during the Covid period. The DSD’s understanding of the law around the sale of alcohol in schools was that alcohol was only allowed in schools outside of school hours for fundraising purposes. DSD has always advocated for limiting the availability of alcohol, particularly in areas where alcohol-related violence is high. Global evidence has shown that reducing the density of liquor outlets helped to reduce alcohol-related violence.

Ms van Reenen said that one challenge in the organisational environment was the severe staff shortages resulting from budget cuts. The high volumes of child abuse and neglect cases also required immediate responses. These cases placed staff under severe pressure. One thing the Department had done to raise staff morale was to encourage them to participate in a Friday fitness programme.

Ms Goosen explained that children who went through substance abuse programmes were placed back into the care of the social worker who had initially referred them to the programme. In cases where a child was diverted through a court order, the Department had to report to the court on their progress during and after the programme.

Mr Macdonald explained that the contracted social work graduates were employed according to the terms of their bursaries. No mechanism would allow the Department to automatically employ them permanently. Many did however apply successfully for advertised posts. He explained that the DSD did not itself run ECD Centres, it just funded them, and the individual centres hired the staff. The funding contracts and about fifty administrative staff were transferred to the DOE.

Mr Smith said that paying of invoices was a priority and just 19 out of about 9000 had not been paid on time. DSD investigated every case of late payment and took disciplinary action in cases of staff negligence. To prevent further payment delays, an invoice tracking system had been established at the head office and it was being rolled out in the regional offices.

Mr Macdonald said that one reason for the reduced number of referrals to SASSA was that a direct SMS line had been set up during the pandemic, allowing people to apply to SASSA for grants directly.   The lower number of bursaries awarded was also a result of budget cuts.

Mr Jordan said that COVID-19 was also the reason that targets for the admission of older persons into care homes had not been achieved: during this time, new admissions of older persons to care homes had not been allowed. The reason Cape Peninsula Organisation for the Aged (CPOA) homes were closing was that there were other organisations providing similar services. DSD had capacitated those organisations to take over three homes from CPOA. These three homes had not closed but had been transferred with their assets, staff, and clients. Although only two vehicles for people with disabilities had been procured in the year under review, two more have since been procured and two more would be procured every year going forward. The four vehicles had been allocated to two metro and two rural areas. The Older Persons Act did allow the Department to house older disabled residents in old-age homes. In reality, there were some exceptional cases of people below 60 years old with disabilities being housed in old age homes.

Ms Makamba-Botya asked whether DSD had a system to cap the social benefits received through various grants. Could the Department clarify how many registered and unregistered NPOs there were in the province? How many were funded by the DSD? How many were unfunded and why? In which regions were they located? How many were contracted by DSD as implementing agents and how were they monitored?

Ms Bans appreciated that more vehicles had been procured but it did not seem like two a year would be enough. This was a serious need that had to be addressed. Oversight visits had shown that every old-age home visited had disabled residents, but not all homes welcome the disabled. Could DSD not find alternative ways of handling this matter? Perhaps it could be made mandatory for the homes to place some disabled persons.

Ms Bakubaku-Vos wondered whether the number of substance abuse treatment centres was sufficient to address the problem. Did DSD have plans to open more? Did it know how many unregistered treatment centres operated in the province (Annual Report page 69)? What was the prevalence of hunger and poverty in the province? What programmes were there for poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods, and were the Department’s targets in this regard aggressive enough? How much had been budgeted for these programmes and how many people had been reached?            

Ms Windvogel asked why targets for social relief and care services to families had been missed (Annual Report pages 51, 54). What had caused registrations of ECD centres to lapse, resulting in a missed performance target, and what measures were in place to prevent this from happening in future (Annual Report page 57)? How many vacancies for GBV-trained social workers were there? Why had substance abuse prevention and rehabilitation targets been missed (Annual Report pages 68-69)?

Mr Hewu said that DSD met regularly with SASSA and shared information extensively to minimise double-dipping. On the stats of registered NPOs in the province, 36 000 of the 68 000 registered NPOs in the province were non-compliant.

Dr Macdonald added that the COVID-19 grant was quite low, so there was the possibility that families would need additional support. DSD was however aiming for maximum spread and ensuring that one family was not benefiting to the detriment of another. One reason for non-compliance by NPOs could be the backlog in the national directorate. That information could be provided in writing on the breakdown of NPOs per region. The total number of NPOs funded by DSD had decreased from about 2 200 to 1 100. This was due to ECD centres being transferred to the DOE. NPOs were monitored by DSD officers who visited premised and checked financial statements. He acknowledged that more vehicles for disabled students were required but funding constraints were the problem. He confirmed that disabled residents of old-age homes would not be evicted. The Department accepted the reality that they might not have any alternative. However, national legislation was needed to clarify the roles and responsibilities around this issue. DSD could force care homes to take in disabled persons because most were independently run and their boards had discretion on whether to accept them. He said that the Western Cape had more drug treatment centres than any other province but also had not reached the ceiling in terms of money for that purpose. There had been a dip in the number of treatment and admission requests during COVID-19, perhaps as a result of the fear of contracting COVID-19 in the rehab centres.

Ms Goosen said there were currently 36 unregistered substance treatment centres in the province. The problem was that no legislation mandated the DSD to close them down. As things stood, they could only be closed using municipal by-laws, related to incorrect zoning or fire certificates, for example. DSD was busy with amendments to the legislation to provide the power to close unregistered substance abuse treatment centres. DSD had also approached the courts concerning human rights abuses at those centres. Some 11 centres have been assisted to register and comply with the norms and standards in the last few years. DSD had also asked municipalities to police the by-laws.

Dr Macdonald added that some of these centres threatened DSD staff when they tried to enforce closure. On hunger in the province, DSD had data on malnutrition and wasting collected from DOH clinics and it also cross-referenced data from household surveys. There had been a peak in hunger during 2021/22 but it has declined somewhat now. Quantitative data could be provided.

Mr Jordan explained that ECD Centres had to re-register every five years, which they sometimes failed to do, causing registration to lapse. In this situation, the Department continued to transfer funds for six months, to give the Centre time to re-register. This protocol would continue under the Department of Education. Zoning was sometimes an issue but the City of Cape Town had relaxed some zoning regulations in informal settlements.

Dr Macdonald said that there were three vacancies for GBV-trained social workers. Of the 26 shelters for sexual assault victims funded by DSD, most were in poorer areas. It should be noted that it was not necessarily desirable for a victim to be sheltered in the same neighbourhood where they had suffered the abuse, so some locations were kept secret. 

Ms Bakubaku-Vos asked what the reasons for the high number of unfilled vacancies were, and what the latest update was as of October 2022. What was the number of unemployed social work graduates? How much money would be needed to create employment opportunities for all unemployed social work graduates? Why was DSD not partnering with the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to bring these graduates into schools? What were the reasons for the high turnover rate in critical posts, and what were the plans to address them? Was the Department not concerned about the high number of resignations by staff under 40, and what were the plans to address this challenge? What plans were to recruit more Africans into senior to top management positions? Why were persons with disabilities not given opportunities to manage programmes for persons with disabilities? How many of disabled staff were in top management in their respective programmes? Why were promotions not used to address employment equity by creating opportunities for African and Coloured employees to occupy top positions?

Dr Macdonald replied that vacancies remained unfilled because the compensation budget had been cut due to a combination of reduced tax revenue, reduced money coming to the province from National Treasury, and a rise in public sector wages. There were a lot of community development posts, social worker posts and administrative posts that were vacant. Since the beginning of this year, the situation has worsened because of uncertainty about how much the province was going to get from National Treasury next year. The national Department of Social Development had been told years ago that it was funding more bursaries than there were posts to fill, leading to graduate unemployment. NGOs had been advised to employ graduates, which they had been doing, and graduates had also been advised to look beyond the public sector. The high staff turnover in DSD was mainly a result of people resigning to take on other opportunities or being appointed to higher positions. DSD initiated a drive early this year urging people to retire early. This allowed more people to be employed because people at the top end of the salary scale left. A large number of staff went to work in England where they could earn a higher salary, and there was also high staff turnover at child and youth centres because of the stressful work environment. Exit interviews revealed however that the majority of people leaving were not doing so because they were unhappy with the Department but because they were looking for other opportunities. He confirmed that an employment equity plan was in place and employment equity targets were applied. Gender equity at DSD was above 50/50; that is, there were more women than men. Regarding designated groups, it came down to whether enough candidates applied when appointments were being made. DSD used promotion to meet employment equity targets but also depended on who applied. The high number of terminations was a result of resignations and some dismissals. 19 social work graduates resigned from their contracts to take up permanent positions. There were also some cases of finance staff being poached by other departments.

Ms Windvogel asked how long the three GBV-trained social workers vacancies had existed. What was causing the constant turnover of social workers specialising in GBV? If the budget impeded filling vacancies, why were millions surrendered every year to National Treasury? How much would be surrendered to National Treasury in the current financial year? What had the response of the WCED been to the idea of placing social workers in schools?

Ms Bans asked how a senior management post could have been filled if it had not been advertised, and why had the remaining senior management vacancies not been filled. What were the details of the misconduct leading to suspension without pay? Did the cases recorded in the Annual Report include the case of Mr Fritz? What had happened in each of the cases of fatal injury? Had the employees been working when the incidents happened?

Dr Macdonald replied that the three GBV-trained social worker positions had been filled but the incumbents had then left. The positions had been re-advertised. The high turnover of social workers resulted from better opportunities being available. It was important to recognise that when it came to budgeting for compensation of employees, one had to look beyond the current financial year because if the budget was not enough to pay people in the following year, then it was no use to employ them this year. No money was earmarked to be surrendered back to National Treasury this year, but it would also depend on the guarantees for next year. He noted that the discussion about placing social workers in schools had taken place at national not provincial level and had been part of a wider discussion about placing social workers in various contexts, not just schools. Unfortunately, other departments had not shown much appetite for placing social workers. He explained that most of the dismissals had related to assaults on children in child and youth care centres. The fatal injuries had all been COVID-19 deaths.

Input from the public
Ms Florence Campbell, Director, Woman2Woman, thanked Members for their inputs regarding GBV, a topic which was close to the heart of her organisation. GBV cases were handled very inconsistently by the police. Were statistics available on the training provided for police? Women were dying daily, and if the police were not properly trained, how could they deal with the scourge of GBV? Her organisation also found that GBV victims with mental illnesses were rejected at many safe houses. How and where could they be housed if even the safe houses were rejecting them? How could gang violence in our communities be dealt with? Gangs were raping many girl children and they are being silenced.

Ms Nosipho Daniels, Malihambe Women Outreach, asked how someone could obtain a referral to one of the Department’s GBV shelters. Her experience was that they never had any available spaces. Where exactly were the GBV-trained social workers placed? What plans were there to place social workers in schools? She said that in July 2022, she had reported the existence of a shelter in Langa where about 15 children were being housed in a shack. She had been promised a response but had not received one yet. There was also the case of a Cheshire Home shelter in Langa, where the disabled persons living there were complaining that they were very unhappy. In substance abuse cases, there was a propensity to transfer addicts to psychiatric wards they were taken to hospital, but the people coming back from these wards ended up being even more ill than before.

Responses
Dr Macdonald replied that DSD provided some training to police officers on GBV, and the police themselves also did their own training.

Mr Mzukisi Gaba, Chief Director: Restorative Services, DSD, confirmed that the DSD provided training to police on GBV. One challenge was that officers moved on to different departments after receiving training, and another set had to be trained. This training had been extended to neighbourhood watches because they were often the first on the scene in GBV cases.

Dr Macdonald added that detailed statistics of those trained could be provided in writing but they would need to be collected first. The possibility of accommodating people with mental illnesses in safe houses could depend on the severity of the illness, and the first port of call should be a psychiatric ward, as GBV shelters were not equipped to handle severe cases of mental illness. The effects of gang violence on children were a major concern for the Department. Depending on the age and degree of involvement of girls in gang activities, the Department had various ways of intervening. In particular, young girls could be brought into the child protection system. The fact that no branch of government nor the communities themselves had a grip on the gangs created a huge problem. GBV victims could access a shelter by approaching the police, a Thuthuzela Care Centre, a local departmental office or an NGO working in the GBV field. He acknowledged that the shelters were oversubscribed in some areas and it was a battle to find spaces. He recommended contacting the local DSD office, which might be able to find a space at a different shelter. The plan to place social workers in schools was under discussion with the WCED, but he thought it would be better if DSD could work directly with schools themselves.

Ms Marshionette Jonkerman, Director: Facility Management, DSD, reported that the shack housing 15 children had been investigated by the Department. The children had been assessed and some had been placed in child and youth care centres.

Ms Patiswa Momoza, Director: Special Programmes, DSD, said that the issues at Langa Cheshire Home were receiving priority attention from the Department. A team had been dispatched to engage with the residents and staff. The Department was also engaging with the provincial umbrella body for Cheshire Homes to try and get at the root causes of the problems and find solutions. The residents had submitted a list of complaints and proposed solutions.

Dr Macdonald said that referrals to psychiatric wards were done in terms of the Mental Healthcare Act which the DOH administered. Some wards simultaneously treated symptoms of substance abuse and psychiatric disorders. At most facilities, staff would try stabilising a person before referring them for some specific treatment.

Closing remarks
Ms Daniels noted that the Department’s responses pointed to a problem with the DSD office in Langa: it did not cover the entire area of the suburb.

The Chairperson noted that crime in the province remained a concern, and observed that GBV cases accounted for 6.9% of contact crimes. Of further concern was that nine of the top 30 police stations for GBV cases were in the Western Cape. What was government doing about this? Sexual offences at the police stations, drugs and gangsterism were interrelated issues. Was government taking a holistic approach to address them? What were its successes as a joint force in addressing these problems? The government needed to show the community that it was serious in addressing these issues.

The meeting was adjourned.