State of the Nation Address: briefings by Office on the Rights of Children

Joint Monitoring Committee on Children, Youth and Persons with Disabilities

29 February 2008
Chairperson: Ms W Newhoudt-Druchen (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

State of the Nation Address – 08 February 2008 Implication Analysis: National Children’s Rights Facilitation, Implementation, Coordination and Oversight Programme 21 February 2008 (PPT Presentation)
NYC Response to SONA 08/02/08 Presentation
National Youth Commission Response to President Mbeki’s SONA Feb 2008 – Briefing Notes
Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Children, Youth and Disabled Persons (PPT Presentation)

Meeting report

The Office on the Rights of the Child noted that the sector dealing with children’s rights would have to determine Sectoral Apex Priorities imperatives; adopt a Business Unusual work ethic; and utilise allocated resources to advance delivery on the Constitutional, Regional and International Children’s Rights obligations. The imperatives identified in the State of the Nation Address were described and it was indicated that the Office was already in the process of implementation of many, but would need to strengthen its efforts. Emphasis was placed on food security, power outages, the World Cup and the implications of all these for children. The importance of adult literacy to support children, and providing recreation facilities, were highlighted. An intensified implementation of the National Strategic Plan against HIV/AIDS would advance delivery on the children’s right to health care services. The learners’ oath and pledge were useful starting points, but South Africa should be reflecting also on other issues.

The National Youth Commission (NYC) noted that there was a need to intensify efforts to have Identity documents for the youth. Key issues in the State of the Nation were highlighted, including skills development interventions, social cohesion interventions, economic participation, and institutional arrangements. The Mass Literacy Campaign was positive. Employment opportunities for unemployed graduates were useful, but it believed that the training should be geared towards the job market, and basic literacy should enable the graduates of these courses to be absorbed into the labour markets. In relation to the pledge, it suggested that this should be broadened to all youth up to age 35, and linked to implementation of the National Youth Service. It was accepted that challenges would still lie in implementation. It would have liked a clearer articulation on youth issues. It touched upon the policy for the merger.

The Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) also responded to the issues raised in the State of the Nation address, and spoke to other imperatives identified, the key strategic priorities for 2008-2009, and the challenges and the way forward. It too mentioned the need to upscale delivery. The UYF summarised the issues that were required for the merger, including the legislative changes. The challenges were identified strongly as insufficient funding, particularly supporting the unemployed and out-of-school youth. Unless this government took the issue of their plight seriously, “business as usual” could not continue.

Members discussed issues around implementation, the roles of the various organisations, the budgets, and stressed that they would like to see real implementation rather than plans. The relationship with other departments was also investigated. It was noted that further discussions would be held on the merger on 18 and 19 March.

MINUTES
Programme Announcements
The Chairperson announced that changes had been made to the programme, and described them. She noted that on 18 and 19 March the Ministers responsible for the Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF) as well as the National Youth Commission (NYC) would brief the committee on their plans were in relation to the merging.

The Second Term Programme was not yet available but the Chair asked members to prepare themselves for two EPC meetings that would be coming up for Fridays. 

Briefing by Office on the Rights of the Child (ORC)
Ms Maria Rantla, Director, ORC, briefed the Committee on the ORC’s response to the President’s State of the Nation Address. She noted that the Children’s Rights sector must determine Sectoral Apex Priorities imperatives; adopt a Business Unusual work ethic; and utilise allocated resources to advance delivery on the Constitutional, Regional and International children’s rights obligations.

Ms Rantla noted that the Government’s Apex Priorities (GAP) had included the need for accelerated action in economic growth and development, including strengthening the quality of education at all levels. The sector must ensure the infrastructure to achieve economic and social goals. Second economy and poverty eradication interventions required the strengthening of work around talent search and promotion programmes in poor communities. ORC believed that education was the first tool to eradicate poverty, but they also believed in, and had already started, a programme where each province was going to ensure that identified talents of children were used to access opportunities. In respect of education and training, she noted that it was now acknowledged that there were children outside the schooling system who needed also to access education. Health for all required strengthening of preventative medical examination programmes in rural and poor communities.  This included testing the children’s hearing, eyesight, dental care and physical fitness, ensuring that children with potential problems were identified and referred to appropriate institutions for attention. The revamping of the criminal justice system, giving protection to children, was noted. The children’s rights machinery in government needed to be strengthened for efficient child protection and development, especially at municipal level. It seemed the national and provincial levels were much stronger in terms of systems for child protection and child development.

There was also a need to mainstream children’s rights in South Africa’s Continental, South-South and International relations. When South Africa entered into bilateral or multilateral agreements the sector would have to make certain that benefits for children were mainstreamed into those agreements. Facilitation of child participation in the national campaign for energy supply and efficiency needed to be strengthened. The Department of Minerals and Energy, together with ORC, had started this programme a year ago and it was agreed to roll it out in the provinces this year. There was a need to look at computer centres and competencies in rural and poor communities. The Department of Communications (DoC) had already started some work in this area, and ORC’s responsibility was to strengthen and support DoC in that context. Department of Education was to strengthen life skills programmes in schools.

The sector had to mainstream children’s issues in the comprehensive anti-poverty strategy. The judiciary was to be transformed and there was a concomitant need to entrench children’s rights competencies in the process so judges and magistrates were aware of and knowledgeable around children’s rights, to make rulings that were in the best interests of the child. The expression of Batho Pele Principles in service to children and their parents or guardians needed to be strengthened. Children often voiced in the workshops that the schools or clinics were not kind to them, and children had experienced services from officials who did not really care. The sector also needed to strengthen services to children, especially children in farm, informal settlements, and rural and poor communities, in line with GAP.

ORC believed that as the Industrial Policy Action Plan unfolded the sector must strengthen awareness in the industrial policy action programme, and increase awareness of the benefits of children with income security. If the issues of the impact on children of job losses and industrial action were discussed, the chances were that the best interests of the child would begin to influence decisions. It was noted that within the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) there was a programme called Tshwaragano ka Bana, which was an early child development programme for children below four years. This must be expanded to children in farms, informal settlements, rural and poor communities.

The implications for the sector in terms of land and agricultural reform lay in mainstreaming the issues of child protection and development in land reform processes. Facilities such as pre schools, recreation and sports were often not taken into account in redistribution agreements.

The awareness among learners and young people on the National Youth Service Programme needed to be increased. The sector should also be sensitive to procurement of services from small, medium and micro-enterprises.

A very important area lay in strengthening of border control and cross-border child protection. The ORC had been working very closely with the departments of Justice, Social Development, South African Police Service (SAPS), Home Affairs and Defence.  A conference on International Cooperation for Cross Border Protection of Children of the Southern and Eastern Africa Region was coming up in June and ORC was working very closely with the Hague Conference in the Netherlands to organise that. They were also working with their counterparts in Eastern Africa.

Ms Rantla noted that the initiatives mentioned in the State of the Nation Address were mostly already in progress. The challenge was to accelerate, advance and strengthen implementation.

Ms Rantla then noted a number of other points arising from the State of the Nation address. The increase in food and fuel prices put food security for many children and their families at risk. The impact of power outages put the lives of babies in incubators and children in need of power based health services at risk. Power outages also affected education. It was important to strengthen systems for the protection of children from paedophiles and commercial sex exploitation in the period of the World Cup. The promotion of Adult Literacy would enable parents to be meaningfully supportive in the education of children. The National Programme for Sustainable Human Settlement must take account of children’s rights to leisure (parks), recreational and sports facilities.  Delivery on the commitment to improve services and interventions in poor households would strengthen delivery on the Constitutional, AU and UN mandates on children. Intensified implementation on HIV and Aids would advance delivery on the children’s right to health care services.

Ms Rantla was of the opinion that the proposed learners’ oath and pledge were a good beginning towards character building among children, but there were other issues that South Africa should reflect on in the process of defining our national character. The issue of child headed households, for example, needed attention because it was un-African to have children raising themselves.

Overall, children’s rights performance targets need to be mainstreamed in the agenda of 5-Year Local Government Strategy to advance delivery on the rights of children. There was a need to standardise norms and standards of the children’s rights mainstreaming, coordination and oversight system in the three spheres of Government. Essential resources must be allocated properly and the ORC and Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) initiatives to this end must be urgently finalised.

The children’s rights sector and its partners must determine and support or action strategic interventions on the Continent, and internationally, to strengthen delivery on the universal rights of children.

Ms Rantla noted that the oversight responsibilities were essential. The ORC and Departmental Children’s Rights Focal Points at the three spheres of government had the responsibility to facilitate, coordinate and exercise oversights on children’s rights work in government. These structures were also accountable to society, the AU and UN on the performance of the children’s rights programmes in South Africa. The UN country reports on children’s rights delivery were based on Municipality, Provincial and Departmental reports.

The various Advisory Councils had the responsibility to facilitate and exercise oversight on sectoral work in both government and civil society. She concluded that President Mbeki’s call for ‘All hands on deck and business unusual’ made perfect sense to the ORC because the challenges of child protection and development in South Africa left no room for non caring officials in the sector.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked Ms Rantla what came out of their strategic planning meeting, and whether they were able to give some type of programme.

Ms Rantla responded that ORC was not able to do that because the strategic planning meeting with the ORC in the provinces took place earlier than the State of the Nation Address. ORC would be regrouping to adjust their strategy.

Ms X Makasi (ANC) was concerned about time frames and also asked who would run the programme, how would it be run, and how would ORC ensure it went down to the right areas.

Mr A Madella (ANC) thanked ORC for being able to dissect all the key issues out of the State of the Nation Address. He asked who constituted ‘all hands on deck’. He noted that it was well to identify the challenges but they had to be implemented, and there had to be mainstreaming. He asked if there was a plan to interact with the departments on their expectations.

Mr D Gamede (ANC) asked what was the core function of the ORC and what was its mandate. He enquired if it had the capacity to meet and address this programme. He was most concerned the issue was not about children but about the future of the country. There had to be a clear programme stating what was going to be done. ORC had indicated it would support the department but he asked if this was a core function.

Ms Mazibuko referred to the issue of early childhood development and the importance of building young people who in future would be able to play important roles. She noted that although young people at primary level could speak English very well they were unable to read or write it and parents did not encourage them to use their own African languages. She asked to what extent was the Office assisting with improving English at an acceptable, rather than “SMS” level. She also enquired to what extent ORC was working with other departments with the establishment of crèches, and what type of curriculum was being taught. She noted that specialised schools were not mentioned. There were a lot of young people who, because of not having enough people to detect learning problems early, were kept at home rather than attending schools. She enquired to what extent ORC would monitor this, including the mainstreaming of education for children with disabilities at accessible schools.

Ms E Ngaleka (ANC) asked whether the ORC normally had their strategic planning before the SoNA and regroups every year, and suggested it might be wise to hold this after the address. 

Ms Ngaleka noted that the issue of land redistribution ignoring the rights of children. She asked what the ORC was doing to rectify this, and if it was working with any other structures to make sure the children were not left out. In relation to increase of fuel and food, she noted that a few years ago government had a programme where basic food was distributed. She asked to what extent was the ORC making proposals to Cabinet to ensure that there was a similar allocation so that the most needy people did not suffer from high inflation. She asked how it was possible to have a budget surplus yet people could not afford to feed themselves. She asked whether ORC played a role in ensuring that Cabinet considered a programme to alleviate hardship from the poorest of the poor.

Mr Madella reflected that there was an overlap in definitions of “children” and “youth” although a child was defined by the Constitution as being under the age of 18. Youth was sometimes defined as starting at the age of 14, so there had to be some collaboration between the NYC and the ORC.

Mr Madella raised queries on the issue of drugs and violence against children. None of the strategic priorities seemed to address the issue of child safety. Much was said about children who had evolved in the criminal justice system as perpetrators or accomplices in crime. He was particularly concerned about the issue of drugs because more and children were exposed to drugs and in this province tik use had become a national crisis.

The Chairperson added that price fixing by the bread companies meant that the food nutrition programme was affected by the increase in the bread price, and less nutritious food was being given to the schools. She asked if ORC had a plan to ensure that instead of simply providing less bread, proper nutrition programmes were still in place. There were a lot of issues covered by health but she was shocked to read in the press that a children’s home in the Eastern Cape was dirty and did not have clean water, and a mother was denied access to her child. She asked if ORC was involved in this kind of scenario, whether it saw the state of these children, or had asked the provincial office to visit to ensure that this sort of thing was prevented.

Ms Rantla responded in general on the questions raised.

On the question of implementation, she said that line function departments were responsible for service delivery. That was why, when talking about education, the Department of Education (DoE) was responsible for implementation, and the same would apply to lead departments on all issues. ORC had to meet with structures involved in implementation to agree on responsibilities and planning. In March every year the ORC facilitated an Annual Sector Performance Evaluation and Planning meeting; a four-day meeting where municipalities, provinces, departments and ORC met together with civil society. It focused on the President’s State of the Nation Address and its implications for the sector, and on what might need to be added to strategic plans. She pointed out, however, that the President would have consulted with the departments prior to the address.

Ms Rantla noted that the ORC’s core function and mandate was the same in the Presidency Office, in the provinces, and in municipalities, together with children’s rights focal points and departments. It had to facilitate children’s rights delivery in government; to coordinate children’s rights activities, and also to monitor and evaluate children’s rights delivery in the country. When ORC wrote a report to the UN, or the AU it would have to produce a national report on children’s rights delivery, including reports from all those structures.

Ms Rantla moved to delivery. She noted that children’s rights delivery was done at times by mainstreaming the best interests of the child in policy development processes, or in strategy development processes. ORC could  go out, as they did with the municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, to see how they could implement an early childhood development programme in the context of Tshwaragano ka Bana. ORC shared technical knowledge, supported by the lead department on service delivery, and both approaches would capacitate Local Government. In some instances ORC would be physically doing work within different contexts.   Facilitation happened through mainstreaming, through on-site involvement and capacity building. Capacity building took different forms. At times it could be working with a particular municipality over a number of days, or could be workshops at any level. It could also be addressing specific delivery issues within departments to tell them what gaps had been identified.

The issue of child headed households was very close to ORC’s heart. ORC had written to Department of Social Development (DSD) to say that as a country it was doing its best in supporting child headed households, but felt that as a principle, an African country could not have children raising themselves. ORC proposed that DSD must look at the reintegration of children into extended family systems and at supporting those families with structures to enable them to build the protection and development of these children.

The second core function of the ORC was monitoring and evaluation of delivery on the constitutional mandate, on the AU mandate and on the UN mandate and reporting on delivery around those particular obligations.

The ORC did not implement any projects because it was designed to facilitate, coordinate and exercise oversight.

On the issue of early childhood development ORC supported the lead department, DSD, which was the lead for the 0 to 4 age group. ORC’s responsibility was to heighten awareness in communities on the importance of early childhood development, and, once the children were in a programme, their right to nutrition, safety and health care tended to fall within that programme. DSD’s role would be service delivery. ORC’s responsibility was to ensure access to service delivery by the most needy communities in our country.

Ms Rantla agreed that children today spoke English very well but reading and writing was cause for a lot of concern. ORC’s responsibility was to monitor the quality of education in schools. This was done in partnership with ORCs in the provinces and in municipalities. The data gathered would be taken to the Department of Education. A lot of work was already happening in the country around children’s rights through different departments and the three spheres of government. This response was mainly restricted to the State of the Nation Address so did not pick up on many other initiatives such as the issue of special schools. The Department of Education was very strong on ensuring that children needing special schools were enabled to attend. There were simply not sufficient numbers of these special schools and some parts of the country, especially the rural areas, did not have special schools. The Department of Education was aware of that challenge and work was being done to ensure that children with special needs also accessed education.

Referring to children with learning disabilities, the ORC felt very strongly that there had to be preventative medical examinations of children because if problems were detected when the child was young it was possible to assist that child so that it could be addressed and so that the child would not end up dropping out of school. ORC insisted on taking medical examinations to communities.

The issue of land redistribution and children’s rights issues was not on their operational plan but would be added,  and they would meet with the Department of Land Affairs to advocate the mainstreaming of children’s rights issues in their processes.

Ms Rantla noted further that the State of the Nation Address did highlight the need for government to do a whole lot of work around vulnerable families, and this would include the issues of food prices and food parcels.

MS Rantla then noted that on the overlap of age definition, preliminary discussions had been held with the NYC but these had fallen by the wayside on the departure of the CEO. They would be picked up again. It was also necessary to talk to other departments such as Labour, which allowed children to work at fifteen.

Safety in schools was an issue for the DoE, and this Department and SAPS had a special programme and were working hard. She was not sure how far that programme extended in terms of schools in rural and poor communities.

Ms Rantla responded to issue on health conditions in one of the children’s homes in the Eastern Cape. At times ORC did miss out on what was happening in the province and relied on their provincial offices to raise and deal with the issues, but ORC Head Office would give support. .

The Chairperson asked that the strategic plan be sent to the Committee once available.

Briefing by National Youth Commission (NYC)
 Ms N Nkondlo,  Chairperson, NYC, played a radio jingle being used to focus on the ID campaign for young people, particularly in schools, in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the SA Broadcasting Commission (SABC) and the Independent Electoral Commission. EC.

Ms Mazibuko found the jingle very interesting, but said that the issue was implementation. The majority of young people who were writing exams this year did not have Identity Documents (IDs) because their families could not provide the required documentation. She felt NYC should make it a priority to ensure that young people had supporting documents. DHA had changed their policy; and had done away with late registration.

The Chairperson felt that the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee should be asked to push the Department of Home Affairs to instruct children to prepare themselves to get their IDs and birth certificates. Elections were almost upon the country, and the issue should be brought to the attention of Home Affairs to ensure all documentation was in order.

Ms Nkondlo agreed, and said that at the centre of the campaign would be visits to schools, focusing on the sixteen year olds. The campaign would be launched with the Minister of Home Affairs in schools in the Western Cape Friday next week.

Ms Nkondlo briefed the committee on the key issues outlined by the State of the Nation address. She focused on skills development and educational interventions, ICT interventions and supporting youth, cohesion interventions, and anti poverty strategies, particularly those geared to unlock job creation opportunities.

She noted that the youth pledge was supported in principle but NYC was engaging with the Department about the manner in which this particular pledge had been structured. NYC felt that the pledge should not just be about young people saying it in school assembly but it should be linked to broader programmes of social cohesion.

In respect of the intensive campaign on energy and security, she said that there was a possible opportunity to get the masses of young unemployed people to visit homes to do energy audits, and be able to assist in their own communities. This would get young people involved in the energy crisis and would also assist in raising awareness about energy efficiency.

Ms Nkondlo noted that there was a need, to achieve economic participation, that there should be self employment interventions in the second economy and youth targeted strategies ensuring youth would be absorbed into the job market.

Ms Nkondlo then touched on Institutional Arrangements. Through Cabinet, the NYC was reviewed by the Chapter Nine ad hoc committee, and there were considerations around the possible merger of the UYF and issues concerning National Treasury. These issues must be taken into cognisance in undertaking their work.
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Areas of emphasis for NYC were then outlined. She noted that literacy campaigns should not only be about the functional skills, but must also link to other skills that were needed in the market. Social cohesion must involve partnership and communication in fighting crime nationally. Young people were participating in this broad national partnership and there were pieces of legislation and programmes. The Youth Commission was making an input into the community development fund. When talking about community development work at a local level, it was important to ensure integrated youth development programmes and activities, so community development workers could understand that the provisions in the National Youth policies need to be inculcated at a local level.

The National Drug Master Plan was of importance. It was a requirement to have local drug action committees, on which young people must be participating.

The partnership by Independent Electoral Commission, DHA and SABC around the Youth and Democracy Week Programme was mentioned. Other areas of emphasis included the Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign, the National Youth Service, and the pledge.

On the topic of the pledge, she noted that there was a need to broaden this, as it should not be just a student pledge, but one for all those from 14 to 35, as defined in the Constitution. This matter should be extended, possibly to the Youth Month or 16 June,  and allow a process of further consultation. The NYC would be prepared to engage youth sectors and organisations to be able to give an expression to what the youth pledge was all about. The pledge should be linked to the implementation of the National Youth Service (NYS) in schools, especially in secondary schools, so that young would understand what the practical effect of the pledge would be, by engaging in community work.

Ms Nkondlo noted that a merged process would have to take into cognisance the achievements in the youth sector, the good work that had been done, and the weaknesses, to have a clearer strategy to move forward. The NYC would always see the main challenge as one of implementation, and the pace of implementation. The Commission was quite happy with the issues raised in the SONA but would have liked a clear synergy
and clear articulation in this Year of African Youth. 

Discussion
Mr Moss felt the NYC had looked at the SONA very critically. He supported the comment that the failure to ratify the African Youth Charter was a shortcoming. Whenever any department wanted a Charter to be rectified they would come to Parliament and make a recommendation. He suggested that the NYC should perhaps do this. 
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Ms Nkondlo responded that ratification was reported on in the last two meetings, including the workshop. The NYC had done its work. The matter had been referred to Department of Foreign Affairs and the State Law Advisors and sent it to the Presidency. A resolution in the last workshop had been taken that  this Committee would assist by writing to the Presidency to find out progress.

In respect of the NYS, the President mentioned a figure of 10 000 in relation to the Department of Defence. It seemed to him that other Departments were doing very little, as this number  could be found in Mamelodi alone. It was a very small figure, given the millions of youth doing nothing and becoming potential targets for crime and drug abuse. He asked for comment. He also asked why departments were not filling the numerous jobs being advertised every month, in light of the thousands of youth graduates unemployed. The country suffered as a result.

Ms Mazibuko raised concerns with the issue of the development of the Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges ad the youth ‘falling through the cracks’. The committee heard input, especially from the NYC, focusing on the youth out of school, but this seemed to neglect the youth that were still in high school. As much as the NYC targeted youth between the ages of fourteen and twenty five years, there was a need to target what young people really wanted to do after high school. The subject choices occurred at school level. She had not heard of any influences here and she asked if NYC would advise which subjects to take in order to create employable graduates.

Ms Mazibuko would like to hear to what extent did NYC in their programmes influence young people not to neglect professions of social workers, nurses, and engineers. Much money was being ploughed in the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town to produce more engineers. African universities that used historically to accommodate the majority of Africans were being neglected in terms of funding.  There was migration of professors from those previously disadvantaged universities to the leading white universities. She asked to what extent was the NYC also going to engage the departments, including DoE, in making sure that the youth were in line with the proposals.

Ms Mazibuko commented that year in and year out the Committee would look at the intentions of NYC, but implementation had seemed to be lacking. She agreed that outputs should be presented. Maybe the Chairperson could ask for a very broad statement as to what they would do and how. There were a lot of young people who would want to hear what the NYC was doing, especially on the Mass Literacy Campaign, EPWP and the SA National Defence Force options.

Mr Gamede said the NYC had done a very good interpretation of the State of the Nation Address, and had also identified the gaps. He was interested in the process of the merger. He asked if the merged NYC would work as a collective, and noted that the Committee must be kept informed.

The Chairperson  referred to the mass literacy campaign and wanted to be sure that young people were trained to do the training. She noted that the launch of the mass literacy campaign would be happening this weekend.

Ms Nkondlo responded that only some time last week was NYC informed that the DoE would be launching the campaign, and rolling it out. Fortunately there had been discussions with the DG.

Ms Nkondlo noted that NYC had noted the that the DoE did not have a youth directorate, but it was a coordination point. Issues of youth development were scattered. Some fell in FET, some in higher education, or curriculum content. NYC believed education was more than just curriculum. NYC had raised this many times but it was difficult for them to engage with the many units within the DoE. The DDG of DoE acknowledged that challenge and would be trying to assist in coordinating. This would be discussed at the meeting on Tuesday, but NYC suggested also inviting youth organisations that were continuously in schools and leading student struggles pertaining to education transformation. Umsobomvu could also be engaged.

In response to questions around the merger, Ms Nkondlo noted that this would affect the Youth Commission, UYF and the youth sector at large. Particular issues were raised at the workshop. The Committee was also going to assist them to understand the process in terms of the NYC legislation. The NYC did have discussions with the Minister and made its own assessment of what needed to be done. There was a joint Committee, including National Treasury, and a technical committee. This was raising some insecurity amongst NYC staff.  A Chairpersons’ Forum would be held to discuss the merger with the provinces. The Commission would want to ensure it was able to consolidate its own input together with the provinces to be able to present a collective viewpoint when engaging with UYF and other stakeholders. 

Ms Nkondlo noted that NYC continued to struggle with implementation. There was a need to have resource allocation backed up by budgets to support NYS programmes. They would continue to engage with the NYS Union and the UYF and would have agenda items on the NYS to identify targets when discussing matters with departments. She also expressed her agreement with comments by Ms Mazibuko. Focus on engineering subjects, maths and science must not be done at the expense of the other traditional areas, including social work. NYC was currently with implementation plans to operationalise the policy. NYC’s role, through its coordination function, was to ensure that departments were able to implement and relegate problematic issues to the relevant portfolio committees. It should also be able to call on departments where they were unable to adhere to the commitment they had made. Participation statistics would be conveyed to the Committee.

The Chairperson  was not sure whether the Committee had received the Draft National Youth Policy and asked for a copy of that document.

Ms Nkondlo understood that the Draft Youth Policy had been circulated, but would also ensure that the final draft would be sent on once it had been finalised with the Minister. 

The Chairperson noted that there had been mention of 400 000 vacancies in the public service, to be filled within six months. She asked about career exposure, asking if vacancies were ever listed at campuses. Some students might be drawn to a particular career if it was given exposure.

Ms Nkondlo noted that she would take the issue of career expos into Tuesday’s meeting to expose more young people to job opportunities. She would also highlight the issue to student organisations. 

The Chairperson noted that Members had expressed the wish to conduct oversight on the ground, and asked if NYC could help to identify possible areas.  

Briefing by Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF)
Mr M Mtshali, Head of Operations, UYF, gave a brief overview of the presentation, which was the response to the apex priorities as defined by the President in his State of the Nation Address, and also spoke to other imperatives identified in the SONA; the key strategic priorities for 2008-2009, and the challenges and the way forward around the way forward with the National Youth Commission. He noted that the priorities were already aligned to GAP, and needed no change in focus, but rather an upscaling of delivery. -

UYF had put together a campaign to respond to the National Electricity load shedding and blackouts, in conjunction with NYC, Department of Environmental Affairs, and Old Mutual. The campaign was an information drive to mobilise 10 000 young people who could get skills and assist with power saving in the country. There would also be support from Water and Energy Sector Education and Training Authority, which would speak to the use of solar equipment and panels to be installed to save energy in the country..

Mr Mtshali scrolled through some of the partnerships with the different departments. There were about 19 departments in the different areas that assisted with service delivery, access to health care and improvement in terms of infrastructure, and about 50 000 young people were involved n the different projects. It was expected to scale that up to about 74 000 for 2008/2009. An attachment to the presentation listed and described all the projects. 

Mr Mtshali said that there were Self-Employment Interventions in the second economy that brought young people into the economy by giving them appropriate skills, mentorship, coaching, access to technical assistance, access to finance and also skilled them to enter the job market. It sought to minimise the unemployemnt of young graduates, would link young people to jobs in the labour market and communicate with different government departments. More could still be done, given the high level of vacancies existing in government departments.

Mr Mtshali noted that UYF already had a project that assisted young people to access work from government and the private sector by way of tenders, linkages and contracts. UYF was working with a number of institutions and corporates. It also had a programme to enlist young entrepreneurs to become self-employed. The military skills initiative MSD was one of the NYS initiatives in partnership with the Department of Defence.

UYF supported of the youth pledge, and thought it was a good intention. The NYS would be a platform to inculcate love and respect for South Africa across all work that they did. In regard to the 2010 World Cup, UYF already had discussions with the Local Organising Committee and young people had served as volunteers in the preliminary draw held in Durban in November 2007. They UYF was collaborating with the Department of Sports and Recreation who would be providing financial support. It also had a project with the People’s Republic of China to train 200 young people as artisans in various skills.

UYF supported the proposed merger with the NYC and believed that the National Youth Development Agency, if set up via legislation, would have the constitutional responsibility to take youth development initiatives to scale and access increased funding.

Mr Mtshali outlined the strategic plan for 2008 to 2009. He noted that the UYF remained a critical catalyst for
youth development work. There was an average increase of about 30% in its work they did and more people were touched through the work of UYF.  UYF was increasing its presence, increasing its work with Local Government and the FET Colleges, where it was setting up Youth Advisory Centre Points that were increasing information flow and access to UYF

Mr Moses Kekana, CEO, UYF, addressed the Committee on the challenges. The main one related to funding. This year R5 million was allocated under MTEF. UYF was having a discussion with National Treasury. In the past, UYF’s request was based on the commitments that they wanted to meet for the year. National Treasury made the allocation based on the cash they were going to spend in that particular financial year. Although there was a lot of cash it had already been allocated to projects. National Treasury held that the cash should have been spent in the year of allocation. Now that recapitalisation was needed UYF would have to change the manner in which submissions were made. It was hoping to get an undertaking that projects committed to this year would be paid. Projects had to be approved way in advance.

The budget did not cater for supporting unemployed out-of-school youth. Of the R125 billion dedicated to Education, most went to young people in the schools, further education and higher education. Even the money for the SETAS under the National Skills Development Programme affected mostly employed young people. There were about seven to eight million people unemployed, which included discouraged work seekers. 70% of these unemployed people were young people, with their average age being 26 years of age. Very few resources were directed to them. EPWP funding was targeting all sectors, not just the youth. From 1997 to date more had been spent on youth in prison (who numbered 300 000) than on unemployed out of school youth (who numbered 5 million). He said disproportionate amounts were being spent on stadiums, yet many communities lacked recreation areas and facilities. When this was not available it was not surprising that there was drug abuse. He pleaded that this Committee should challenge the budget allocations for unemployed youth. More was going to 2010 than the entire budget allocation for sport and recreation for the youth over the past 5 years. The plight of young unemployed people must be taken seriously.

Mr Kekana then listed the issues in terms of the merger, which was really a proposal put forward from the UYF and the Steering Committee. The ANC had resolved that there must be a Youth Plan in place by December 2008. In order to do that, there was a need to resolve the mandate and the strategic focus related to the National Youth Policy/Integrated Youth Development Strategy.

There was a need to make decisions on governance, the Youth Development Agency and who it would fall under, including which Portfolio Committee it would report to. Other issues included how to relate to the Provincial Youth Commissions, which existed under a different legal framework. The legislation that established the Provincial Youth Commission must be repealed. The agenda of Parliament reflected only one bill, so the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)  Act must be passed before March 2009. The Youth Commission Act would have to be repealed and the Youth Commission would have to be liquidated and its assets transferred to the new institution. The Youth Council was established out of the Youth Commission Act, so there would have to be some kind of dispensation to cater for the support of the Youth Council.

He noted that this would involve public hearings and these would impact upon the elections next year. There was a need for proper communication to the youth to avoid negative effects. He anticipated that around R10 million would need to be set aside to facilitate this process.

Discussion
The Chairperson  thanked the UYF for the presentation, and asked that some missing slides be sent on. She noted that on 18 and 19 March the Committee would be hearing from the Ministers affected by the merger, as well as the Minister of Labour and National Treasury.

Her understanding was this bill was not on the Parliamentary programme for this year, but might rather be done next year after elections.

The Chairperson asked for clarity on the budget to be approved, and whether it was not R3 million. 

Mr Kekana responded that the R3 million was for the NYS Programme. The overall total was larger.

Mr Moss noted that the comment around stadiums ignored the fact that the stadiums would become legacies. He asked the CEO to look at this year’s budget for unemployed people, and for the sports and for youth in prison, as well as 2010, and commented it would be good to take up the figures with Treasury. 

Mr Moss asked what kind of training Department of Environmental Affairs did on fishing, and what its financial contribution was. He then also asked for a breakdown of the 74 500 young people to be trained and placed in NYS and asked in which departments this would be done.

Mr B Mkongi (ANC) welcomed the input from the UYF and referred to the relationship between the State of the Nation Address and the budget speech. In the budget speech the Minister of Finance proposed a policy shift, of a national skills levy, and shift of the national skills levy into further education and training. That spoke directly to the skills development strategy in the country, and also to the Act. He asked how UYF saw the implications of that policy shift, and whether it was possible that there might be legislation to amend the National Skills Development strategy of the country. HE noted that the Bill being proposed by Department of Labour only spoke to the manpower issues.

Mr Mkongi asked UYF to clarify concerns on the Apex Priorities as a commitment of Umsobomvu. The majority of matters referred to related to NYS. He was concerned that there was no reference to learnerships as a strategy and response to a number of issues.

Mr Mkongi noted that UYF would refer to the 2010 World Cup, but did not refer to the volunteer programme nor the tendering system. He asked what was the economic value of 2010 for young people.

Mr Mkongi also asked what informed the R10 million budget on the establishment of the Agency, and asked why the R5 million for UYF was not being added to it. He asked whether the Parliamentary Officer had already been employed.

Ms Mazibuko appreciated the report but was more interested when and where they would be implemented. It was time to speak to specifics. The Committee wanted to see outcomes. She understood the CEO’S frustration that there seemed not to be a commitment towards the employment of young people and wondered to what extent the NYC, together with the CEO, did make input to make that happen. Treasury was now starting the process of micro budgeting. She asked what input had been made to that process, and whether it was referred to the Financial and Fiscal Commission. She asked for contact details of the Parliamentary Officer. She wanted to know how specifically the youth was benefiting from the programmes.

Mr Kekana linked the last question the Hon Member raised on the despondency of youth with the request for the budget analysis. He agreed that, given his background as a youth activist, he must be able to tell the youth something positive. By Tuesday the Committee would receive the budget analysis which would show the disparities between the challenges facing unemployed youth and the budget allocation. UYF had not previously engaged vigorously in the budget process; but because they now depended to a large extent on government, they had begun to acknowledge the frustration that went with that process.

Mr Mkongi added that when he raised with the Minister of Finance Minister during the last budget the concerns over youth development, his response had been that youth structures had not come to National Treasury in the initial stages, and that was a serious challenge. He suggested that the Committee could perhaps devise ways to engage.

Mr Kekana responded that in fact he had engaged. However, in respect of the Development Agency Review, the submissions were not taken into consideration.

Mr Kekana said that he was frustrated that some government departments sent junior people to the meetings, so that whatever commitments were made were never fulfilled.

He said that the real crisis in the country, to his mind, was youth unemployment, and it was a time bomb. It was not so much service delivery that was facing people who engaged in demonstrations, but the fact that they did not have work. Yet this huge problem was receiving the least amount of attention.

Mr Kekana responded to the questions on fisheries, saying that there was a coastal care programme including the engagement of honorary fisheries officers. They looked at issues around pollution and coastal care, and controls around policy. Stipends were provided, and Umsobomvu’s contribution would be partly towards the stipend and also towards project management and training.

He noted that there was a breakdown of NYS members, universities and work. UYF had sought to create a linkage between learnerships and NYF, and were saying that all young people who were in learnerships must also do service.

Mr Kekana noted that the shift in terms of the National Skills Levy was not a policy shift but was a financial shift. The Minister of Finance was saying that the money that had not been spent by SETAs would be given to the FET Colleges.

Mr Kekana agreed that 2010 should not just focus on the volunteer opportunities, but on procurement opportunities as well. As a national challenge the Department  of Trade and Industry needed to do something about that.

He noted, on implementation, that UYF would send on their full project report with specific locations on an ongoing basis.

The meeting was adjourned.
 

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