ADDRESS BY DR. Z.ST. SKWEYIY A, THE MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, PARLIAMENT, 12^TH FEBRUARY 2008.

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Advocate Masutha, and Members of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development

I am delighted to be associated with the work of this committee and am grateful for the invitation to deliberate with you on the impact of issues emanating from the Polokwane Conference, the recent NEC and Cabinet Lekgotlas and the February 2008, State of Nation Address.

The 52nd ANC conference in Polokwane noted with concern the negative impact of poverty in our society, within households and at the individual level. The following priorities emerged as imperatives for Social Development;

1. That a comprehensive social security net provides a targeted and impeccable approach in eradicating poverty and unemployment.

2. We must establish a mandatory retirement fund and ensure that retirement provisions cover low-income groups.

3. We need to prioritise the welfare of children and in this regard develop services that seek to deal with child poverty.

4. The Department must strengthen collaboration with the Department of Education and other departments involved in the provision of Early Childhood Development (ECD).

5. The Child Support Grant should gradually be extended up to the age of 18.

6. The pensionable age must be equalised and be set at 60 years.

7. A coordinated national drug campaign must be intensified to combat substance abuse.

The Department identified seven (7) strategic themes to drive policy and programme interventions in line with the apex priorities discussed during the State of the Nation Address on the 8th of February 2008. Each theme will have a number of focus areas.

The themes and related projects are:

1. Tackling Child Poverty - Under this theme the focus will be on the following projects:

• Implementation of the Integrated Early Childhood Development Plan

• Implementation of the Children's Act.

• The gradual extension of the CSG up to the age of 18.

• The development of other measures to reduce child poverty, especially for those children over the age of 14. This will be done in partnership with other government departments.

2. Social Cohesion - Under this theme the focus will be on the following areas:

• Introducing the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse Bill to tackle the growing drug problem.

• Implementation of a campaign to combat substance abuse

• Social Crime Prevention measures.

3. Youth Development - the focus will be to ensure

• Implementation of a programme to engage young people to be part of the new active citizenry. This involves the development of a framework to implement the Masupa-tsela Youth Pioneer Programme.
• Empowering and integration of youth into the mainstream of society through, amongst others, the scaling up of the National Youth Service Programme.

4. Strategies to prevent poverty amongst adults & older persons - in this area of work the focus will be on:

• The equalization of the pension age between men and women. This will require changes to the Social Assistance Act.

• Introduction of a mandatory retirement scheme, with the associated schemes for risks benefits such as disability and survivors' benefits

• Using the social assistance grants to improve access to economic opportunities and other services for families and households.

5. Civil Society Support and Strengthening of Communities. In this area the focus will be on:

• Development of a framework for holistic community development. This will assist in defining what the department's and government's community development approaches and products should be.

• Targeted strengthening of civil society capacity through grant funding through the NDA and also improving our implementation of the Non-Profit Organisations Act.

• Finalisation of a pilot project to link beneficiaries of Social Grants to sustainable livelihoods.

6. Governance and Institutional Development - This theme involves activities to improve service delivery capacities and accountability throughout the National and Provincial Departments, SASSA and the NDA. It also includes initiatives to develop the sectors human resources and systems to improve service delivery. The following are key projects included under this theme:

• Amendments to the SASSA Act to facilitate the establishment of a Board.

• Amendments to the NDA Act to increase its board size and to clarify the policy role of the NDA.

• The Implementation of the Human Resources Development Strategy for the National and Provincial Departments.

• The establishment of the An Appeals Board.

• Changing the functions of the HSD and MINMECs to facilitate better accountability with respect to agreed service delivery priorities.

7. Regional and international solidarity and engagements. Our key priority in this area will be:

• Post conflict, reconstruction and development work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

While we have not located work on the anti-poverty strategy in any one theme, work in all of these themes will contribute to the further development of the anti-poverty strategy. The department will continue to be part of the social cluster team that works with a team from the economic cluster to finalise work on the strategy. The department, together with the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) will establish an 'anti-poverty war room', that will seek to develop and track programmes geared at reducing poverty.

I trust that we all work tirelessly in the furtherance of these objectives and the overall social transformation of our country.

Thank you.