Hansard: NCOP: Unrevised hansard
House: National Council of Provinces
Date of Meeting: 09 Jun 2021
Summary
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Minutes
UNREVISED HANSARD
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
WEDNESDAY, 9 JUNE 2021
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
Watch video here: NCOP Plenary (Virtual )
The Council met at 14:01.
The Chairperson took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: As we do so, let me add my voice and join the nation as we mourn the loss of Surtie-Richards, well known for acting in productions such as Fiela se Kind as well as Generations. Those who watch generations earlier will remember this. I now take this opportunity at this point to say to delegates and urge them to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: I will start off by reminding delegates that the Rules and processes apply in this sitting. I would like to remind you of the following: That the virtual sitting constitutes the sitting of the National Council of Provinces, that delegates in the virtual sitting enjoy the same powers and privileges that apply in the sitting of the National Council of Provinces. For purpose of the quorum, all delegates in the virtual platform are deemed to be present in the House. Delegates must always switch on their videos and ensure that the microphones on their gadgets are muted and must always remain muted unless a member has a permission to speak. The interpretation facility is active and that any delegate who wish to speak must use the raise-hand function. I hope and trust that members are familiar with this function. I would then move on. I have been informed that there will be no notices of motions or motions without notice. Hon delegates, before we proceed to the policy debate I would like to take this opportunity to welcome in the House the Minister of Police and the Minister of Social Development as well as their deputies. I have also been informed that there will be one debate on First Order, Second Order and Third Order, we therefore proceed to the First Order, Second Order and Third Order of the day, policy debate on Budget Vote No 28 – Police, policy debate on Budget Vote No 24 – Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, policy debate on Budget Vote No 21 - Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, Appropriation Bill [B 4 – 2021] (National Assembly – sec 77). I will now call now the hon Minister, Bheki Cele to open the debate. Hon Cele?
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Policy debate on Budget Vote No 28: Police
Policy debate on Budget Vote No 24: Independent Police Investigative Directorate
Policy debate on Budget Vote No 21: Civilian Secretariat for Police Service
The MINISTER OF POLICE: Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers that are here, hon Deputy Ministers, hon Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Tina Joemat-Pettersson , hon Members of Parliament, hon MECs, National Commissioner of the SA Police Service, SAPS, heads of entities, heads of department, the leadership of organised labour and the Ministry of Police, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, receive our revolutionary greetings on behalf of the brave and dedicated members of the SAPS and all the employees in the entities
serving under the Ministry of Police, both nationally and in provinces.
This year we dedicate this Budget Vote to our members from the SA Police Service, Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, CSPS, Private Security Industry Regulating Authority, Psira, and all other supporting structures who are a strong “engine” that keeps the policing machinery active in responding to the fundamental and constitutional obligations that governs our existence.
Every car on the road boasts on the strength of their engine capacity – therefore, without a solid engine a car remains a useless shell that never moves nor reach any desired destination. This juxtaposed the Ministry I serve. If we don’t take care of our solid manpower within SA Police Service, Ipid, CSPS, Psira and other supporting structures, we will end up with a non performing and useless institution.
Capacity building and training as part of human capital investment will be prioritised during this financial year. Meanwhile, proper and adequate resourcing of police stations and operational environments are top on our agenda. Police
station visits in provinces and community outreach programmes will be enhanced to ensure that the solid “engine” is running effectively and efficiently in servicing the communities. To date, a number of Ministerial izimbizo have been hosted in different provinces, where stringent operational interventions were implemented in responding to the policing needs and crime fighting strategies of various policing precincts. In the next few weeks we are scheduled to visit Zandspruit in Gauteng and this weekend we will visit Ulundi and Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal
– actually we will be there in Ulundi and Nongoma this Friday and Saturday and in Zandspruit we will be there on 18 of this month.
Once again, we dedicate this Budget Vote to the safety and wellbeing of our members and to further elevate and properly position the subject of police safety as the responsibility of the nation. Equally, as our members uphold the oath of office to serve and protect on a daily basis, our communities must unite in supporting the work of the police and most importantly communities must stand together in ensuring the safety of our police members on and off duty.
Last but not least, we dedicate this speech to all members and employees of this sector who have succumbed to the deadly
COVID-19 pandemic. Up to this point we have lost 635 police and those who have been infected are 30 333. Many of them could not get their well-deserved dignified send off because, we had to observe COVID-19 regulations. Policing under the COVID-19 pandemic has left the sector with numerous lessons and unmatched level of experience; of policing against all odds.
The SAPS budget breakdown per programme make visible the initial budget allocation and the adjusted budget allocation thereof. Over the medium term, we endeavour to mitigate the impact of budget reductions on service delivery. The expenditure is expected to decrease at an average annual rate of 0,8%, from R99,6 billion in 2020-21 to R97,1 billion in 2023-24.
Compensation of employees accounts for 78% of the department’s expenditure over the period ahead. To remain within government’s expenditure ceiling for compensation of employees, the department’s budget for this item is reduced by R35,8 billion over the medium term. Of this, R15,9 billion is in line with the decision not to implement the third year of the 2018 public sector wage agreement, and freezing of salary increases for the next three years.
The remaining R19,9 billion represents Cabinet’s approved baseline reductions to narrow the budget deficit and shift the composition of government spending from consumption to investment. Excluding the reductions on compensation of employees, Cabinet has approved further reductions on the department’s baseline amounting to R3,4 billion over the medium term. These reductions will mainly be effected on noncore goods and services items. The department’s spending focus for the year which is mainly on goods and services as well as capital investment over the medium term includes the following. Reductions in the compensation of employees’ budget baseline. The department will sustain the forensic services baseline allocation as increased in the 2020-21 financial year. The baseline allocation for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, DPCI – those are the Hawks baseline, as recently increased will be sustained. Professionalising the police service through skills development, continued strengthening of the criminal justice system by supporting the Integrated Criminal Justice Strategy, investing in capital assets consisting of machinery and equipment essentially transport assets as well as mobile police stations, continued focus of other critical items such as bullet resistant vests, firearms, uniform, etc.
In our efforts to continue with the implementation of the panel of experts reports emanating from the Marikana Commission recommendations, funding has been set aside to continue to capacitate the existing public order policing units. Members of this unit will be deployed in various provinces to stabilise crime in identified hotspot areas. Departmental spending over the medium term will be in relation to the core programmes with visible policing taking more than 51% weight of the total budget. The programme, which is detective services will take about 20%.
The latest crime statistics revealed Plessislaer in Pietermaritzburg as a murder capital in the country, followed by Inanda and Umlazi - which are also in KwaZulu–Natal. To date, operational interventions are yielding positive results following crime combatting operations that were held in Pietermaritzburg and other policing precincts in the past week. Provinces with the highest incidence of reported crime, have been prioritised in terms of the allocation of baseline budgets. This will also ensure prioritisation and resourcing of the top 30 high contact crime stations in the country. This is R62 million extra that has been given to the stations that are high on the top 30 crime stations. Western Cape has been given R10 million, Northern Cape R4 million, Free State
R4 million, Eastern Cape R10 million, Kwazulu-Natal
R10 million, Mpumalanga R6 million, Limpopo R4 million, Gauteng R10 million, North West R4 million. This is above the baseline that the provinces are getting. For instance, Western Cape has got R774,5 million, Northern Cape has R334 million, Free State has R479 million, Eastern Cape has R864 million, KwaZulu-Natal has R1,1 billion, Mpumalanga has R467 million, Limpopo, R550 million, Gauteng has R1,3 billion and North West, R514 million. This R64 million is an additional equitable share.
Furthermore, national intervention plans, which involves crime combating and prevention operational deployment are activated to respond to the Top 30 murder stations; in order to address the stubborn murder trend and other violent crimes. The interventions to date includes the establishment of the Anti- Gang Unit, introduction of Operation Thunder, the Base Camp approach, Operation Vala, Operation Lockdown, Operation O Kae Molao and many others.
The negative impact of the environmental design on policing cannot be understated. It is a huge challenge to execute policing operations in areas where there are no physical addresses, no street lights, no access roads and many other
challenges. Equally, an integrated approach and generic involvement of other departments and sectors of local government in eradicating crime contributors must be intensified.
Gauteng province continues to slow down the increase of cases of violent crimes including murder. The ongoing Operation O Kae Molao is yielding positive results in crime fighting. Once again, we would like to acknowledge the supportive and exemplary leadership by Gauteng Premier David Makhura and MEC Faith Mazibuko for their assistance in policing interventions. Last year the province donated high-powered motor vehicles to the police to increase police visibility and contribute to other crime fighting initiatives in the province. Those high- powered motor vehicles donated were 100 BMWs – that is what the province of Gauteng has done in contribution to policing.
The Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Units of the DPCI have a joint working relationship with the Specialised Commercial Crime Units of the National Prosecuting Authority. This joint working venture has resulted in 38 411 guilty charges being recorded in the 2020-21 financial year. COVID-19 has also presented opportunities for corruption and some criminals have used this opportunity to target government
initiatives such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the special dispensation for unemployment, tender processes for Personal Protective Equipment and to steal State resources intended to assist the most vulnerable.
In the VBS Mutual Bank case, the investigation team, which works closely with the prosecutors, was at some point expanded to 20 members. This assisted in recording more than
950 statements, which is commendable. It is worth mentioning that 17 suspects have been arrested and faces 188 counts of patterns of racketeering activities, theft, fraud, corruption; and money laundering in the courts of law. One of the accused persons is now convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment of which three years is suspended for five years. The case against the rest of the accused is postponed to 2 August 2021 for pre-trial process. May I add that the team is now focusing on 20 municipalities that deposited an amount of R1,8 billion in the VBS Mutual Bank. Other legs of the investigations are also receiving attention.
Amongst the 20 000 cases handled by the DPCI, is the Steinhoff International Holdings N V investigations. The allegations that are being investigated include the submission of false, misleading or deceptive financial statements to attract
investors in contravention of the Financial Markets Act. The case is still under investigation, and so far 278 statements have been obtained. On 30 April 2021 a draft report was received from the appointed forensic auditors and is currently being analysed by the investigation and prosecution team.
Investigating serious corruption, serious organised crime and serious commercial crime remain the focus of the DPCI.
The Hawks will be enhancing the capacity through the filling of prioritised vacant posts within its approved structure. The procurement and maintenance of the vehicle fleet and the procurement of specialised technological aids and equipment will also be attended to. Corruption levelled against state- owned enterprises and municipalities, serious violent crimes such as cash-in-transit robberies and the murder of police officials, crime committed by organised criminal groups who tamper, steal or damage essential infrastructure will remain the high focus of the Hawks. The latest crime statistics has revealed Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, followed by Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal and Thohoyandou in Limpopo as the rape hotspots, while the overall sexual offences have decreased by 3,9% in the last quarter of the financial year. The truth of the matter is that one rape is one too many.
In this regard we would like to acknowledge the leadership of the Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane and the MEC Weziwe in supporting police interventions in Lusikisiki in the past few weeks which were aimed at addressing crimes against women and children and sexual offences crimes. Meanwhile, the department has allocated over R1,2 billion rand on baseline activities related to fighting gender-based violence and femicide, both proactive and reactive responses to these crimes, and the resourcing of Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences, FCS, units. I want to explain that this money is on top of the baseline and it is on top of the R64 million meant for the Top 30 murder station, but more than that, we have put an additional R30 million on youth, children and vulnerable groups including awareness campaigns.
An additional amount of R100 million was allocated to provinces for prioritisation of gender-based violence response and the strengthening of FCS units. The amounts were allocated as follows: Western Cape R13 million, Northern Cape R
5 million, Free State R7 million, Eastern Cape R14 million, KwaZulu-Natal R17 million, Mpumalanga R7 million, Limpopo
R8 million, Gauteng R17 million and North West R7 million. We have been doing this since this has been declared as the
second pandemic by the President. We are putting more shoulders on the question of gender-based violence.
Last week the Ministry of Police hosted a successful virtual dialogue which was attended by more than 50 different formations of gender activists. The meeting was aimed at harnessing ideas that are aimed at addressing crimes against women and children. Whilst the reality remains that on a daily basis, we are still awaken by news of another gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF, related incident. What is encouraging is the high impact joint response from the criminal justice system in bringing perpetrators to book – we are very encouraged.
The FCS unit has been instrumental in securing heavy sentences for perpetrators in this regard. The most recent heavy sentence to mention a few is the six life sentences handed down this week to the Zimbabwean-born Eastern Cape man who slaughtered Nokuthula Mhlanti, a mother, and six of her children, including a six-month-old child with an axe.
Furthermore, there has been an arrest made that involved pastors in places of worship, supervisors in workplaces, teachers in schools, family members, spouses, boyfriends and
girlfriends. This must be applauded and highly publicised in order to reduce numbers of reported cases, going forward.
In response to capacitate the SAPS members to deal with GBVF,
1 763 members across all provinces were trained on GBVF- related courses during 2020-21 financial year. Last month we had a robust debate in the National Assembly discussing an emotional but imperative subject of the massive DNA backlogs in the Forensic Science Laboratories, FSL. We are equally concerned about the negative impact this has on the court processes involving crimes against women and children and GBVF related cases.
In addressing the issues of capacity, a total of
127 scientists have been promoted to critical posts within the FSL. An additional 150 posts of forensic analysts at warrant officer level have been advertised externally and the new incumbents will commence on duty 1 July. The following steps have been taken to reduce the specified backlog, in cases relating to gender-based violence. All forensic analysts underwent medical surveillance ... [Time expired.] Thank you very much. We want to say that the FCS is working. Last week one team led by the female sergeant managed to arrest someone who was given 1088 years in prison for the serious raping.
Thank you very much, Chairperson, we will come when you call us again. Thank you.
Ms S SHAIKH: Chairperson and greetings to yourself, the Minister of Police, the Deputy Minister and all hon members, this budget vote is presented just over a year since we first started battling the COVID-19 pandemic. At the begging of this pandemic, many thought that by this time we would have dealt with this virus. However, we are meeting today, a few days after President Ramaphosa had convened a family meeting. We outlined the level two lockdown regulations to assist with the preventative measures against the third wave of the pandemic that has already commenced.
Hon Chairperson, it’s evident that the COVID-19 pandemic has had the most devastating effects on the lives and livelihoods of people from all spheres of life, but the poor and the working class bear the worst burden of this pandemic. The glaring level of inequalities in our society has come to the fore in the various aspects of our lives and there have been increases in the gender-based violence incidences during this period. Government has put in place measures to, amongst others, address the welfare of citizens and to ensure justice to victims of gender-based violence. Government has introduced
the three Gender-Based Violence Bills which have been passed by the National Assembly and are currently with us in the National Council of Provinces.
Hon Chairperson, I should also say that our humble condolences go to the family and friends of the members of the Police Force that have succumbed to COVID-19 virus. Hon Chair, as we prepare for the third wave, as citizens, we must bear in mind the importance of unity as South Africans and support each other in these trying times. The fight against COVID-19 will require more than just putting on masks and sanitising. It requires a united South Africa to defeat this pandemic. Like any other crises, COVID-19 presents us with an opportunity to reflect and see the importance of working together as it is said that ...
IsiZulu:
... umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.
English:
A person is a person through people. In essence, we are dependent on each other in the fight against this invisible enemy. No one is safe, until everyone is safe and this is true even at a global level. Hon Chair, the African Congress is
committed to creating a safe and secure society. This commitment is clearly outlined in the strategy and tactic, the guiding document of the ANC. The ANC is consistent with this call from the Freedom Charter to the 2017 National Conference resolutions. Safety and security are the cornerstones of our democratic South Africa, as it creates a fertile environment for all other activities to take place including economic activities.
Hon Chair, safe communities are where, economic activities can happen freely and will foster an environment for economic investment opportunity in South Africa. We have witnessed the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, and we have heard President Ramaphosa in his 2021 state of the nation address speaking about the need to intensify the Economic Recovery Plan, and that plan requires a safe and secure society. Hence, the President emphasised the need to prioritise, amongst others, the curbing of cable theft crimes, railway infrastructure vandalism, land invasions, construction site disruptions and attacks on truck drivers, as all these criminal activities hamper the economic activities and discourage investment.
Indeed, economic activities can only freely occur in a safe and secure society. The fight against crime is very important because it directly affects the fights against poverty, inequality and unemployment. The President is his Sona further emphasised fast-tracking the implementation and capacitation of the Border Management Agency to curb illegal immigration and cross-border crime. This priority will go a long way ensuring stabilisation at our border posts and will further contribute to greater economic activities. A further Sona priority is improved co-operation and sharing of recourses between the respective law enforcement agencies, enabling more integrated approach to investigations and prosecutions. The implementation of this priority will ensure that the fight against crime is addressed holistically and in an integrated manner.
Hon Chair, Chapter 2 of the SA Constitution, the Bill of Rights emphasises the importance of having a safe and secure society. The commitment of the ANC is to create a safe environment for all, irrespective of race or ethnicity, as well as making sure that everyone is equal before the law and everyone’s rights are protected. Indeed, from the ANC’s policy to the programs of government the importance of having a safe and a peaceful society is emphasised.
Hon Chair, the National Development Plan, NDP, clearly outlines the kind of society we envisage, as South Africans. It is in Chapter 12 of the NDP where it clearly stipulates the vision that:
In 2030, people living in South Africa feel safe at home, at school and at work, and they enjoy a community life free of fear. Women walk freely on the street and children play safely outside. The Police Service is well-resourced and professional, staffed by highly skilled officers who value their work, serve the community, safeguard lives and property without discrimination, protect the peaceful against violence, and respect the rights to equality and justice.
Hon Chair, this vision is a reflection of a society which we are striving towards and all efforts must be made by the department to reach this vision. This will be achieved through a well-resourced, professional and single police system as stated in the strategy and tactic of the ANC. In addition, the NDP sets out five key areas to achieve this vision in our society, this includes, the need to strengthen the criminal justice system, demilitarise the police, ensure that the Police Service is professional and the importance of
mobilising the community to play a central role in making sure that their communities are safe for all.
Hon Chair, the program of combating crime is instrumental in creating a safe and secure community. The Department in its priorities has clearly stated that it seeks to reduce violent crime by 50% by the end of the decade. In trying to make this target a reality, the department has prioritised provinces with high incidences of reported crimes and allocated more baseline budget and resources to these provinces and the Minister has already provided the details of these five provinces. Furthermore, police stations with high levels of contact crimes have also been prioritised by the department and provinces to curb crime in these hotspots.
Hon Chair, the African National Congress has taken the fight against crime very seriously and the strategy and tactic view this fight as more equal to a war, because these contact crimes happen on a daily basis in our communities where our people live, and indeed this creates a hostile environment and does not provide safety for the masses of our people. In trying to understand these conditions, one must have an appreciation of the historical injustices of the past from the apartheid colonial system. Hence, in the strategy and tactic,
it is further argued that when combating crime, we must understand that crime is born out of a particular mind-set and historical conditions that drive elements of the crime problem. However, crime does not only come as a result of poverty and unemployment, but it is also a phenomenon amongst the affluent and rich people who are generally greedy and driven by profit and are sometimes behind such crimes to achieve their own selfish objectives. The ANC proceeds from the premise that addressing the challenges of crime largely depends on reducing poverty and inequality.
Hon Chair, our country is confronted with a second pandemic, which is the pandemic of gender-based violence and femicide and the department has allocated additional funding to this pandemic which the Minister has outlined. To this end, additional funding for prominent environments has also been allocated to provinces, such as Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences, FCS, units. Gender-based Violence and Femicide, GBVF, and safety at police stations. The department has also included targets towards improving its effectiveness at the police station level by ensuring that it renders victim friendly services to victims of crimes at all police stations. The department has focused targets aimed at reducing the number of reported contact crimes against women
and children. Further, under its detective services programme, the Department has targets aimed at increasing the detection rate for crimes against women and children. These focussed targets will ensure that the department fights the second pandemic in a real and measurable way.
Hon Chairperson, gangsterism remains a scourge in certain provinces. The department has a dedicated antigang strategy to address this scourge. It is only through a dedicated and targeted strategy that our communities will no longer remain hostage to gangs and violence. The department should continue working towards decreasing crime, addressing gangsterism and working towards the eradication of gender-based violence and femicide. Hon Chair, the program of police visibility is one of the most instrumental tools used by the department to fight and prevent crime. The department must continue as per the resolution of the ANC to increase the police capacity numerically on the ground with sufficient tools of trade.
The department has committed to unblocking hindrances to service delivery and to provide the necessary support to police officers on the frontline. The department has further committed to the identification, analysis and constructive addressing of specific service delivery-related challenges. In
addition, the department has committed to drive migration of resources to police stations and to correct the formula of distribution of resources, particularly to rural police stations under the rural safety strategy and to allocate sufficient budget for rural safety.
Hon Chair, the high incidence of stock theft and contact crimes in mountainous rural areas, requires the department to be adaptable in its approach to fighting crime. The Police Service must therefore evolve with the times and find creative and technological ways of fighting and preventing crime like using drones in the fight of combating crime. Further, we must mobilise our communities in making sure that we make it difficult for the criminals to commit crime. For this reason, the community policing forums, CPF, and their work within communities are of the utmost importance in addressing the root causes of crime at a community level. It is by engaging directly with the community, that the department will understand the challenges and develop workable crime prevention strategies to ensure that the NDP vision of creating a safe environment is realised.
Hon Chair, a safe and secure society would require collective effort by all different stakeholders, and this includes
intensifying the work of the CPFs and ensuring that they are better resourced and well trained. To this end, the department has targets to ensure functional CPFs, increasing the implementation of the community-in-blue concept and the traditional policing concept on a provincial basis. The achievement of these targets by the department will go a long way in strengthening community partnerships in the fight against crime. Hon Chair, the fight against corruption is of the utmost importance in our country.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, DPCI, has prioritised, amongst others, continued investigations of COVID-19 related cases, Truth and Reconciliation cases, clean audits focusing on municipalities. Hon Chair, in addressing corruption, the DPCI should be sufficiently capacitated to tackle corruption effectively, particularly in respect of cybercrime and narcotics. As the Minister, has indicated priority vacant funded posts will be filled and it is encouraging that the DPCI is addressing recruitment of specialists in cybercrime investigations and narcotics.
Hon Chair, the government of the ANC will continue to expand the working relations and co-operation among the law enforcement agencies to fight crime and also pay more
attention to the program of improving the criminal justice system so that it responds, promptly, sufficiently and efficiently in the call to fight against crime in South Africa and indeed to create a safe and secure South Africa. The strategy for achieving a safe community is based on progressive relations between all different stakeholders, which includes the police and society as a whole. Indeed, the safe society as outlined by the NDP, will be a product of collective effort and we must appreciate that our challenges are structural, and they will need all the necessary resources to fight crime and indeed together we can take South Africa forward.
Hon Chair, we continue to support the budget vote as the ANC and we further motivate the department, that despite budget cuts due to the bleak economic outlook and the COVID-19 pandemic, they should find other innovative means to achieve their goals. The ANC supports Budget Votes 28, 24 and 21. I thank you, hon Chairperson.
Mr G MICHALAKIS: Hon Chairperson, between 2012 and 2020 the number of murders in South Africa has been slowly but steadily rising and the murder rate for the first quarter of this year is again higher than last year.
Granted, the members could come and argue that a violent country with serious social economic issues is part of what it inherited from the apartheid government.
However, 2012 was already 18 years after the ANC took over and
today is 27 years on. I don’t expect you to eradicate crime in
27 years, I expect you to bring it down.
Under your watch, as the ANC, crime has been worsening over the past decade and more. The cliché expression that a fish rots from the head, finds some application here. Of the police commissioners that we had over the past two decades, three left under a cloud of corruption allegations, one was removed following the Farlam Commission’s report on Marikana and the current, for whose suspension the Minister himself has been calling, has a few skeletons in the closet and oversaw the total collapse of the SA Police Service, SAPS’, lab abilities and the firearm licensing fiasco.
None of them had an honourable end. None of them were career police officers either, except Sithole, who came from nowhere within the ranks, hand-picked by President Zuma; which is not something I would put on my CV if I was him.
The crisis we sit with today, is not only the legacy of the past, it’s the continuation of incompetent cadre deployment that has caused this government to fail in fulfilling its basic constitutional obligations towards our society.
Now, there is always talk that the opposition only opposes and does nothing to put alternatives on the table, despite the word opposition meaning exactly that; our job to oppose your terrible policies and bad performance.
But let me make these few suggestions, as we’ve done on many, many occasions before, with the limited time I have, there are four clear steps that can be followed to make a success of our police service:
Firstly, the budget. It's no secret that the police budget as it currently is, is unsustainable. There are no resources on the ground where people are lucky enough to have a police station of their own. Police vehicles are parked at government scrap yards and police officers are on foot patrol, if on any patrol at all.
In places like Valhalla Park, Makhaza, Capricorn and Hanover Park on the Cape Flats, residents have been waiting for years
for a police station of their own, but to no avail. The 85 000 residents of Bonteheuwel still don’t have a police station of their own.
If we want an effective police service, we can’t continue tweaking the budget in its current format. The money is not going to get more. It needs a bottom-up approach where only after every community has a station and every station has enough officers and the officers have enough serviceable vehicles, then we can appoint top-earning generals and spend on VIP protection.
Secondly, training. If you enter any police station in this country, Minister, and believe me, I’ve done this, chances are that they will not be able to do as much as an affidavit properly; let alone take witness statements. I have heard of countless cases where civilians approach the police with the relevant law in hand asking to open criminal charges and the police simply refuses.
Thirdly, the strongman culture as if we are in a police state must stop. There are cases presented to us by Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IPID, where the SAPS has
blatantly failed to take action as required by the law as per their recommendations.
If you take a closer look at the IPID stats of this past year, Minister, it would also be apparent to you that there are still officers in your rank who have been found guilty of murdering and raping civilians on duty, but they have not been fired. They are there, in your service, and they are protected. These are just the murderers and rapists.
I’ve only nine minutes, so I can’t go through the list of other criminals guilty of corruption and torture and assault in your ranks.
Police are meant to be the friendly, approachable protectors of society who are tough not on elderly people not wearing masks on a deserted beach, but on real criminals. I would have thought those are easy for some of your servicemen to spot.
After all, it takes one to see one or maybe that is the root of the problem.
Fourth and finally, and we have had this debate before and will continue to have it. The Minister must reach out to the provinces and metros who are willing to help him keep
civilians safe. There are metros such as Mangaung who have budgeted for metro police for years and all they have is one lonely officer sitting in a deserted office. And then you have big metros who are doing excellent work, they’re not always perfect, but they do their part in making our communities safer. Then there are provinces like the Western Cape, standing ready to help because enough people here have died at the hands of gangsters and thugs. Yet, you don’t reach out, Minister. Based on the same old argument that the Constitution only allows for a single police service. That, is only one line from the Constitution.
So, let’s look a bit more at what that chapter says. Section 199(3) says, other than the security services established in terms of the Constitution, armed organizations or services may be established only in terms of national legislation. So, it does not prevent the establishment of other services.
Section 205(1) says, the national police service must be structured to function in the national, provincial and where appropriate, local spheres. It is structured in the provincial sphere, but the legislative arm responsible for the provincial sphere is confined to oversight over it.
And then section 204 says, a provincial executive is responsible for policing functions (a) vested in it through this chapter, (b) assigned to it in terms of national legislation, and (c) allocated to it in the national policing policy.
The Constitution explicitly allows for provinces to be given more responsibility for police functions through national legislation and through national policing policy. This leaves the door wide open to you as national Minister to delegate powers to set up what is needed within the provincial sphere by the provincial executive wherever is required to bring crime down. The constitution does not close any doors to this.
Minister, if you are more serious about fighting crime than about politics, you better start talking to the Western Cape and all the other provinces about this and stop dismissing their offers. Otherwise let the people of these provinces know that your hands are dirty. And unlike washing your hands for
20 seconds, it’s a lot more difficult to disinfect your conscience.
You and the police service have lost a lot of respect during this pandemic with a reputation for being drunk on power and
authoritarian. Your dream to unarm innocent civilians who feel unsafe because of you is not doing that reputation any favours.
Yet, I do believe that somehow, beyond the bravado and the looney policies, there is some intention to make this country a safer place. I still want to think that it’s not only thugs who wear fedoras.
I’ve given you four simple things that need attention. What you do with them, will reveal the real man behind your mask. And if the time comes for your mask to fall off and you did nothing to fix this, I can only hope that you would suffer the same fate as those who innocently were caught without their masks under your iron fist. I thank you, Chair.
Ms M BARTLETT: Hon Chair, Minister, chairperson, Deputy Ministers and hon members, good afternoon. The ANC has categorised children, women and elderly people as vulnerable people of our society and is committed to protecting them from all kinds of abuse. Given the history of a violent society created by apartheid, we continue to face concerning and shocking incidences of violence in our society. Women in South
Africa received what is called a triple oppression, where they were discriminated against based on gender, race and class.
The ANC is committed to fighting and correcting the injustices of the past, and it is important to note that many years of oppression left structural systems ... black people in general and African people in particular.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, we have witnessed the numbers of
... gender-based violence, GBV, increasing and this means that the fight against GBV must be intensified. In the state of the nation address, our President Cyril Ramaphosa declared both GBV and femicide a national pandemic which requires a national response to fight it. Furthermore, our President declared that GBV as a pandemic, like any other pandemic ... there is a need to mobilise all South Africans to stand together in the fight against GBV.
The National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence must be implemented fully and continue to mobilise different parts of society to join hands in the fight against GBV. We need to come with more practical solutions in the fight against crime
... GBV. The problem is deeper and structured, and it requires more substantive measures to fight it.
Patriarchal attitudes in our society favour the dominance of one gender over the other ... emanate from simple things like gender roles. As a society, we must come up with creative means to fight this dominance, even if we should lobby for the structuring of paternity leave in a manner that ... fathers would be able to take responsibility. In doing that, they would appreciate that both women and men are equal in our society.
The ANC, at the 54th national conference in 2017, resolved that perpetrators of crimes against women and children must be subjected to harsher sentences, while there must be clear working relations between the police, social workers, especially ... dealing with victims of abuse.
The ANC government is committed to fighting GBV, hence ... the last three years the Department of Police has been dedicating funds from the Budget Vote to support the police in intensifying the fight against crimes ... against women. That proves that the fight against GBV is a priority to the department and to the government. Indeed, the GBV and sexual offences action plan stipulates that there must be resources injected in these units, both at provincial and national levels.
The department has put in place different measures in trying to combat crime, and to monitor the SA Police Service’s compliance and also the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. The department will conduct oversight at different police stations, particularly those ... and from as simple a thing as gender roles.
The ANC is committed to the fight against GBV. The department has put in place different measures in trying to combat crime, and they must also monitor the SA Police Service. The department will conduct oversight at different police stations, in particular at those which rank high in terms of GBV-related cases in different provinces. This will enhance the police’s response to those cases of GBV.
The department will also conduct oversight at all the police stations. The ANC and government will continue with awareness campaigns that include the involvement of churches, faith- based organisations and society at large. The department saw the need to have a joint programme between the police and social workers in trying to provide support to survivors of GBV, and in the process identify the causes that lead to the withdrawal of GBV cases, while ensuring that the police are able to perform their responsibilities fully. This can be done
through creating a friendly environment for the victims from the very first moment they enter a police station. To be in a safe and private space ... they must be created for the purpose of the interviews. This is to ensure that those police
... responsible ... promptly and they make victims feel protected at all times.
The analysis of DNA is very, very instrumental in the process of concluding cases in the fight against GBV. The testing of DNA is critical and vital in the war against it. However, it is clear that the police have been having challenges in that area, and that leads to the backlog that we have been experiencing, which hinders the courts from accessing evidence so that cases can be concluded faster.
However, the police have acknowledged the challenges and they have been working hard in trying to address these challenges. Indeed, there is work done. It is safe to say that the police are in the process of addressing the problems. There is progress and some arrests have been made, which is a positive sign. There is work done. We applaud the police for those efforts. Thank you, hon Minister.
The other challenge that needs to be addressed is the need to increase capacity in terms of laboratories in the country. As it stands, we have only four laboratories in the country — in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. Of those four, the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces perform both evidence recovery and DNA analysis, while the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal only perform evidence recovery. There is a need to intensify the recovery plan in order to address the backlog in DNA testing laboratories. The DNA Board and the police service are working together in trying to ensure that the DNA backlog is resolved.
In conclusion, we have seen the level of commitment put by the government of the ANC in waging the war against GBV and femicide. Like any other challenge, it will require all South Africans to hold hands together in the fight against this pandemic. This struggle is deeply rooted in the patriarchal
... that we live in today, and hence there is a need to change the mind-set of society on how different genders live side by side in harmony. As a society, there are certain tendencies which were used by the capitalist system that we must unlearn, like the idea of the division of labour, where responsibilities were given to certain people because of their gender ... but begin to understand that we are all equal. As
the ANC, we support this Budget Vote as it will be an instrument to fight GBV.
Lastly, ending GBV is imperative if we are to claim to be a society that is rooted in equality and nonsexism. Thank you very much, hon Chair.
Ms W TIKANA-GXOTHIWE (Eastern Cape): Hon Chairperson, hon members of the NCOP, hon Minister, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is certainly befitting to celebrate the life and exceptional contribution of mama Charlotte Mannya-Maxeke, whose 150th Anniversary we mark this year.
Mama Maxeke is the undisputable champion and epitome of the struggle for the liberation of women in South Africa.
She was on the South African streets, fearlessly fighting to improve the conditions under which women lived, in particular the vulnerable. Mama Maxeke taught us that the fight for gender equality is not a sexist agenda but an integral part and definition of a free society.
Her teachings are more relevant today as we face the second pandemic of gender-based violence and femicides, GBVF. We can
only be relevant if we commit our resources, energies and everything to eradicate our communities and streets of this scourge.
Hon Chairperson, His Excellency, President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, has correctly defined GBVF as the second pandemic. As the province of the Eastern Cape, we have taken his call and are acting accordingly. We have strengthened our fight against GBVF and are implementing the GBVF strategy targeting the most vulnerable women in the rural areas.
We are committed in turning the tide in the Lusikisiki area.
Just on the 5th of June, led by the Premier, hon Oscar Lubabalo Mabuyane, we visited the Lusikisiki area to mobilise the entire community against GBVF, and in particular rape.
Our people have joined the march towards a society envisioned by Mama Maxeke. They have unequivocally declared GBVF as crimes against humanity.
The increasing brutality and violence against women and children ranks as the highest form of betrayal and is
perpetrated mainly by those they supposed to trust. South Africans are vibrant people who have demonstrated that when they work together they can change their conditions.
Our collective effort, from all walks of life, brought the victory against colonialism, apartheid and triple oppression.
Accordingly, it is our collective effort as men and women that will end the terrible evil of GBVF.
As part of our interventions in the fight against GBVF, we are rolling out the Court Watching Brief Unit, CWBU, in all our districts. The pilot conducted during the last financial year has confirmed the correctness of Minister Cele, when he directed that this is one intervention we need to implement.
Thank you to the Minister for his leadership and guidance.
We are following up on the cases that were removed from the court rolls due to subjective weakness. Working with the National Prosecuting Authority, NPA, and SA Police, SAPS, we are facilitating that these cases be re-enrolled into the respective court rolls. To give confidence to the people, we are creating, in partnership with our sister departments, a
toll free number where cases of GBVF can be reported and followed.
The other important matter is the stock theft. Our rural women are targets of criminals. This is another brutality meted again rural women in particular, and is deadly when maximum force is used. We are putting together, and implementing strategies and plans as interventions and responses to this challenge.
We have engaged with our partners, such as traditional leaders, local communities and the NPA with a clear view of tightening the screws and save our rural economy. We are doubling our efforts to strengthen the criminal justice system’s response to the stock theft challenge and are determine to succeed. Where we make interventions, we are able to recover stolen stock and arrest suspects.
We are working towards the appointment of a dedicated senior prosecutor and two other prosecutors to supervise and prosecute all stock theft cases working with the NPA. We are creating a database of all stock theft cases currently on the court roll with the assistance of the SAPS. We are moving towards a prosecution-led investigation where there will be
joint collaboration between SAPS and NPA to ensure successful convictions. We are working towards a dedicated regional court to focus and cover the provincial hotspot areas such as the OR Tambo District.
Working with the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, we are investigating innovative ways to assist the communities with branding of stock. Centrally to this fight, is the role of local government and traditional leaders, working with community-based structures and individuals to assist stock owners with branding and other related interventions.
Hon Chairperson, the Justice Crime Prevention and Security Cluster, JCPS, plays a very strategic role in the fight against crime and violence. It is a strategic platform where all partners put their efforts on the table and work collectively towards crime and violence free communities.
We have just resuscitated the provincial JCPS Cluster and are now working towards strengthening its programme of action.
The JCPS plays a very strategic role in the fight against crime and violence. It is a strategic platform where all
partners put their efforts on the table and work collectively towards crime and violence free communities. We must relieve our communities from the feeling of being cornered by criminals everywhere, in rural areas, in townships and in suburbs. It is through these dedicated efforts that safe communities shall be born.
Hon Chairperson, through these budgets, we have obligation to ease fear of our communities and give our people hope. I thank you, Chairperson.
Mr K MOTSAMAI: Hon House Chair, the EFF rejects the Budget Vote of the Police. House Chair, five taxi drivers were shot dead at the Ceres Taxi Rank in the Western Cape yesterday. It did make much noise because society is used to those violent acts. We are used to those violent acts because of the failure of the police to detect those crimes before they happen and to investigate properly after they have been investigated.
That is not all. In Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape, a 42- year old woman was arrested for selling her two children to the shop owners in that town. While we were applying for her arrest and the arrest of those who bought the girls, it is well known that in that town policing has completely collapsed
and that they are in the pockets of known gangsters and taxi operators. South Africa has lost its fight against crime and the citizens have no one to turn to but themselves.
The SA Police Service has become an integral part of the criminal network ravaging the nation. Minister Cele is aware about this and instead of targeting officials to fight crime he is obsessed with failing his ... [Inaudible.] ego and picks up an unnecessary fight with the Commissioner of the Police and others. You cannot walk peacefully with your phone on the streets of Johannesburg because there are criminals everywhere ready to snatch your phone away. The police know about this, they know the criminals and yet they are doing nothing to deal with the crime. Instead in the streets of Cape Town, a Plein Street is the race informal trade, small businesses, property owners in Khayelitsha, Nyanga, Delft and other townships are required to pay protection fee to the criminal gangsters who have taken over the running of the townships. The police know these and are in many instances part and parcel of those criminals and gangs terrorising our people.
The recent death of over 13 young people in Khayelitsha over one week is as a result of those fights amongst the criminals for the control of the protection fee.
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: [Inaudible.]
Mr K MOTSAMAI: It will surprise no one in Khayelitsha when the police merger up with these gangs and eventually release all those who have been arrested for those murders. Our people have become accustomed to live with their tormentors, rapists and murderers. The so-called Anti-Gang Unit meant to be fighting gangs in Cape Town has become servers of important sources for the criminals and the criminal underworld. Those people ... [Network problems on the part of the speaker.]
Members have no idea to deal with the criminal behaviour in Cape Town. [Network problems on the part of the speaker.] ... find that you have long lost and our people have to live with the [Inaudible.] of crime every day.
You have also lost the fight against the scourge of gender- based violence. There were over 900 murders this year. Those are only the reported and thousands do not get reported because many women have no confidence in ... [Network problems on the part of the speaker.]
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: Please speak to the microphone.
Mr K MOTSAMAI: ... many women have no confidence to the police. Even those that got reported, only a few will lead to successful prosecution because of the shoddy work done by the police administration. [Network problems on the part of the speaker.] Your DNA laboratories are a mess leading to thousands of cases that need DNA confirmation to be delayed and to just disappear leaving victims with perpetual scars.
You are... [Network problems on the part of the speaker.]
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Motsamayi, try again and let us see if you cannot be audible in the next two minutes.
Ms B T MATHEVULA: Chairperson, I would like to make a request that hon Motsamayi must switch off his video. It seems that wherever he is there is a problem of network.
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Motsamayi can you try to be audible in the next minute?
Mr K MOTSAMAI: The community ... [Network problems on the part of the speaker.]
The CHAIPERSON OF THE NCOP: It seems as if we have a serious network difficulty there. Maybe we should call upon you to submit the speech so that it can become part of the Hansard.
Ms C VISSER: Hon Chairperson, the Constitution of South Africa stipulates ... [Interjections.]
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Chairperson, a point of order based on the programme ...
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Oh sorry. No, no, we will revert back to ... if hon Visser can just be a bit patient.
Ms C VISSER: I am patient
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: We will start with hon Allen.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Thank you so much Chairperson, I trust that I am audible.
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Yes, you are audible.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Hon Chairperson, the greatest deterrent to fighting crime is to ensure that criminals are convicted. It is the responsibility ... [Interjections.] ...
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms S E Lucas): It is the
Chairperson of the NCOP, and not the House Chairperson.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): It is the responsibility of SA Police Service to investigate crime, gather evidence and present it to a court of law to secure convictions. However, SA Police Service members are hamstrung due to a lack of political will from the national government. This was confirmed yesterday, during an oversight visit to the SA Police Service Forensic Science Laboratory headquarters in Cape Town, where it was revealed that the Deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, backlog for the Western Cape stands at a new total of over a 107 118 samples. Chairperson, the ... [Inaudible.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Can I just ask you again to speak closer to the microphone so that you can become more audible? Hon Allen ...
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): Can you hear me now, Chairperson?
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Yes, I can hear you. Just keep it like that.
Mr R I ALLEN (Western Cape): The reason behind the significant increase in the backlog is simple. It is sub-standard administration and, like members will hear many more times today, a sheer lack of will from national leadership. This is despite the national Police Minister’s earlier commitment to eradicate the backlog at all costs, something for which it seems national government has no plan. Instead, this backlog continues to inhibit the issuing of forensic reports to courts and thus may very well be crippling the entire justice system. The Western Cape provincial lab is faced with many challenges within the human resource management, the delivery of consumables, broken equipment and facilities management, along with inefficiencies in the central track-and trace system.
If the existing challenges are overcome, SA Police Service claimed yesterday that it would be able to process over 2000 DNA samples per day. It is the duty of the national Minister to tie up the unnecessary loose ends in this process and fix this system without further delay. If the Minister fails to do so, justice is quite likely denied. I wish to remind the Minister that in 2019, the Citizen Newspaper quoted the
Minister to have said: “Crime has nothing to do with politics” but here in the Western Cape, the ANC is more fascinated by personality politics within SA Police Service, and forget that the real issues are much larger and one that speaks to the rampant crime and gangsterism, the ongoing misallocation, scarcity and poorly managed policing resources by the lead agency, the SA Police Service, under the leadership of the national Minister.
Furthermore, the need to address under-resourcing within the Western Cape, as confirmed by the Public Service Commission, lack the political will, and as a result, SA Police Service personnel are overwhelmed and demoralized. The provincial government, here in the Western Cape, continues to push the limits of its oversight mandate, and with the Western Cape safety plan that promotes a whole of society approach to community safety, has been rolled out to buffer the inefficiencies of the SA Police Service in the Western Cape.
I have noted that the Minister dedicated his speech to the men and women in blue who serve our communities selflessly, and to those who have sacrificed their lives and send out our sincere condolences to their families. But Chairperson, that is simply not enough. I agree that these men and women indeed offer a
self-less service and I also agree that staff morale is a priory when it comes to those who keep our country safe, and that we must do all we can to empower them. Through you, Chairperson, to the Minister, just do it! It is your job! \
Where I begin to disagree, I will outline below.
During the last financial year, we lost a top detective here in the Western Cape when security was withdrawn and still no clear indication of the reason behind this call. From the national leadership, there was silence. We were having a fanfare when we announced a 20% of the 2021 budget allocated to detective services. It has been reported that this leader was uncovering a guns-to-gangs saga that we know back in 2018 has led to the death of over 200 minors.
I agree though that the almost 1% reduction of the medium term to the SA Police Service budget is discouraging. Be as it may, had the national leadership exerted it political will it would buffer frontline departments such as education - funding for more educators and equipment, health - funding for in nurses and doctors, and police men and women – detectives, analysts and reservists alike. Yet, close to 80% is spent on cost of employee already but had national government considered and
acted on the dire state of finances in due time, there wouldn’t be no need to ceiling cost for employees for SA Police Service members.
Chairperson, it is the ANC its self who are behind the time bomb of the Public Service Wage Bill. In the Western Cape, three years ago, we were already behind policing resources we needed back in 1998. So as much as we need more boots on the ground, the 7000 trainees promised by the Minister is not merely enough. Moreover, the reduction of R36 billion for compensation must be reconsidered by National Treasury. And, I cannot stress this enough; we need more boots in the ground.
I commend the 72hour activation plan by SA Police Service in locating the 11 suspects allegedly responsible for 11 people that died in Khayelitsha over the course of this year. But, had we had enough resources, that same response could be for every spate of shooting here in the Western Cape. But, supplementing resources is how we boost staff morale. It’s how we boost capacitating and reinforcing the SA Police Service members here in the Western Cape. I call on the national Minister to stand in conviction in the promise to support the criminal justice system without further delay.
For the 2021 budget, I welcome the 51% directed to visible policing, but at the same time through a parliamentary question, it was uncovered that 266 SA Police Service members per year, misuse vehicles, breaching the vehicle usage policy. On top of this, 1200 vehicles in the Western Cape is currently out of service. The Minister mentioned vehicle engines earlier in relation to human resources, but it is the engine that is literally and figuratively broken. I wish to remind the Minister again, that the SA Police Service annual report yearly indicates that the supplementation of this programme discourages crime. So again, where is the willpower to do good on promises that the majority is spent on discouraging crime through visibility?
I do wish to welcome the R1,2 billion allocated to support the victims of gender-based violence and femicide. In the same light, I note the announcement of 3000 vacancies for filling in the current financial year for officers and the targeting of 1000 reservist to be fully fledged officials.
This brings me to my next point on the temporary nature of operation lockdown 2 in the province to which accountability has been avoided to the standing committee at provincial Parliament and moreover to the residents of the Western Cape
who are in permanent suffering. The Minister, in his speech, acknowledged interventions in both Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Western Cape regarding the 30 top murders stations where the province features yearly, and the R10 million is welcomed in this regard, but we need intentional and long-term interventions from the lead agency.
The Western Cape government is doing a tremendous work in terms of preventing violence through the work of youth safety ambassadors, area-based teams to integrate crime interventions via the deployment of permanent additional law enforcement officers, in areas where it matters most. These officers have made significant strides. Particularly in confiscated illegal firearms which poses a gang challenges regarding the murder rate, organized crime. But their work is subject to the inefficiencies of the central fire arm registry.
Again, when the Minister dedicate a speech, it is not merely enough. We need to capacitate these men and women in a meaning full and intentional way and; not allow a loss of R1,6 billion which could have been used to tackle crime instead. Crime is never to be politicised. Innocent residents die at the hand of organised criminals and gangs, worsened by the SA Police Service in a state of free-fall.
It is unacceptable that communities live in fear because police resources are both inadequately allocated and managed. The time to act is now. So, instead of a single police service as mentioned earlier here today, we should decentralize SA Police Service and bring SA Police Service closer to the people on the ground instead of Pretoria. The Western Cape has showed itself willing and capable of leading a professional police service. I thank you.
Ms C VISSER: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members, the Constitution of South Africa stipulates that the SAPS has a responsibility to prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic of South Africa and their property, uphold and enforce the law, create a safe and secure environment for every citizen in South Africa.
Afrikaans:
Plaasmoorde is meer as net die statistieke wat gepubliseer word. Elke plaasmoord is een te veel en het ’n psigologiese impak tot gevolg, insluitende hartseer, angs, lyding en vrees. Plaasmoorde het ekonomiese gevolge, veral vir naasbestaandes wat agterbly en het ’n geweldige impak van onsekerheid op die landbousektor, sowel as op die onmiddellike omgewing.
Boere, plaaswerkers en hul gesinne word in alle provinsies van Suid-Afrika brutaal gemartel en vermoor. Steeds is daar by meeste polisiestasies geen landelike veiligheidseenheid geimplimenteer nie. Die afgelope twee weke is John Viedge van Maclear doodgeskied, ’n veëwagter wat nog nie geidentifiseer is nie, in die Bethlehem distrik vermoor, Jansen van Rooyen van Warden is wreed aangerand, Gerrie Brits en sy vrou was aangeval deur drie mans in Fochville. Maar ’n plaasaanval in die Boschfontein-arera, suid van Rustenburg is met AK-47- gewere uitgevoer.
Daar bestaan nie meer publieke vertroue in die polisie om hulle grondwetlike mandaat uit te voer nie. Die Nssionale Landelike Veiligheidsplan het min tot geen impak op meeste van ons landelike areas, kwansuis omdat daar nie ’n begroting daarvoor is nie.
Minister, daar is geen rasionaal in u denke om te bepaal dat Suid-Afrikaanse burgers nie selfverdediging as rede vir die besit van ’n vuurwapen mag aanvoer, om hulself en hul mense teen midadigers te beskerm nie. Dit is misdadigers wat met opset getaak is om te moor, sonder om te roof en die polisie is futloos en kan nie hulle grondwetlike mandaat uitvoer nie.
English:
I have reported to your office, Minister, the safety and security issues of the North West rural town in Vryburg, where SAPS lost their public credibility and respect, since they refuse to open cases when citizens are attacked and assaulted in the streets, dismissing it as petty crime and petty theft. Some SAPS officers even threaten members of the public, swearing at them and warning them that they know where they live.
The National Rural Safety Strategy defines farms attack as any act of violence against any person residing, working on or visiting a farm or smallholding, whether the intent was to murder, rape, rob or to inflict any bodily harm, remains the talk of talks due to the failure of your implementation. SAPS argues that the workload exceeded their ability to carry out their duties efficiently because they are understaffed and underresourced to serve in areas that have become notorious for rapidly rising crime levels.
SAPS complains that they are understaffed and with my visit to a SAPS station recently, I found that 40% of the staff depleted their sick leave, but they are now using chronic medication for stress-related problems and are subsequently
unable to work. Further to that is the limited capacity of the leadership corps at station level in terms of training in analysing statistics, identifying problems accordingly and to formulate steps of action. Role players from sector policing forum, SPF, business chambers and farmer unions should be ... [Inaudible.] ... solutions. Incapacity of SAPS officers should be a priority issue to ... [Inaudible.] ... in training of uniformed members.
What happened to the decentralised training units? Dololo [nothing]. Absolutely nothing! They don’t exist. The public has no confidence in SAPS, as a direct result of SAPS who are ignorant to the process of dealing with complains and crime scenes. Everything is currently revolving around the top structure and nothing improves at ground level, negatively impacting every South African life.
Let there be no uncertainty, the incessant terrorisation of farmers and farmworkers poses a serious threat to food security, economic growth and job creation. If the ANC government is serious about preventing more farmers from leaving the agricultural sector, urgent action should be taken to ensure the safety of all our rural communities. I thank you.
Ms F MAZIBUKO (GAUTENG – MEC COMMUNITY SAFETY): Thank you very
much, hon House Chair. Let me acknowledge the Minister, let me acknowledge the Deputy Minister, let me acknowledge members of the NCOP and the Special Delegates present today, let me acknowledge all the ladies and gentlemen that are listening to our debate today. It is an honour and a privilege to be part of this policy debate, during a year in which the South African Government marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the liberation struggle heroine and human rights campaigner, Charlotte Mannya, under the theme - “The Year of Charlotte Maxeke: Promoting Human Rights in the age of COVID-19.” We commemorate the role played by this bold, courageous and outstanding leader of our glorious movement, the ANC. The iconic and colossus Charlotte Maxeke was at the forefront in the fight against the colonial rule and the apartheid regime.
Mme Maxeke served the country in ground-breaking ways, along with other freedom fighters who bore the brunt of the racist pass laws and actively resisted those unjust laws. In honour of Mme Charlotte Maxeke, we must redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to be active participants in the fight against criminal elements, which threaten not only the safety of communities, but also threaten the economy of our province.
Hon members, policing during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a mammoth task for law enforcement officers and officials as many of them contracted the disease, while others succumbed to it. We therefore want to take this opportunity to send our heartfelt condolences to their families, friends and colleagues.
The Gauteng Provincial Government is relentless in its effort to implement the Growing Gauteng Together, GGT2030, plan, and has identified several priorities and specific interventions in strategic sectors and corridors to ensure optimal outcomes during this Sixth Administration. The Gauteng Provincial Government has adopted a coherent and integrated Growing Gauteng Together, GGT, 5-year Policing Plan, which is supported by resource allocation. And, this is a concrete step in equipping our law enforcement agencies with the necessary capabilities to keep all Gauteng citizens safe and secured.
The plan draws from the analysis of crime statistics of the previous years, even from the previous quarter and are interventions made thereof. It also identifies crime categories to be targeted and prioritises what were considered petty crimes in the previous years. An implementation plan has
been developed and is currently being executed by all law enforcement agencies in pursuit of a crime-free Gauteng.
The effective implementation of the Growing Gauteng Together, GGT, 5-Year Policing Plan is essential in ensuring that the commitments of the Gauteng Provincial Government are fulfilled. At the centre of the commitments made by this administration is the reduction of crime by 50%.
As part of our oversight mandate, which is enshrined in the Constitution we will continue to monitor all our 143 police stations, with a specific focus on the 55 priority stations which are crime hotspots and contribute high numbers to the crime statistics in our province. A special focus will also be given to police stations with a high number of reported trio crimes and sexual offenses. Announced and unannounced visits will be conducted at police stations, as part of the intervention process to address complaints relating to breakdown in community police relations.
Hon members and hon Minister, in the past few weeks we experienced the most gruesome act of vigilantism the province has ever encountered. On the morning of Wednesday, 19 May 2021, our country woke up to the news that eight people have
actually been killed in Zandspruit. Out of the nine, eight have actually died and those who died were actually victims of this vigilantism died. And, may their souls rest in peace.
Even though the information we received from the community of Zandspruit, indicates that the cause of the fights was about drug territories, the incident in Zandspruit is a practical example of what happens when the relationship between the police and the community has actually broken down. The department will enhance its efforts in ensuring that there is a good working relationship between police and the community.
As the Department of Community Safety as per our mandate, it is of critical importance that the department heightens audits on all those closed dockets, especially dockets that were closed as undetected. Madam House Chair, the number of dockets that were closed as undetected in 2020-21 is shocking. The breakdown is actually in these categories of murder which is 1591, robbery which is 38028, rape which is 2731, sexual assault which is 319, assault GBH which is 8503, theft of motor vehicle and motorcycle which stands at 23269
It pains by the reality that almost 1591 people were killed and 2731 people, mainly women and children, were raped and no one has been brought to justice.
This calls for more efforts in ensuring that detectives work tirelessly in ensuring that perpetrators of crime are brought to book. I’m 100% sure all of you as hon members when doing your constituency work people do come to you complaining about their cases that remain unresolved.
Police services are the primary entry point into the criminal justice system, therefore poor service delivery by police discourages citizens from reporting crime and negatively impacts the execution of justice. The Department of Community Safety will conduct exit surveys at police stations and customer satisfaction surveys on policing in Gauteng through social media and other platforms.
As the Gauteng Provincial Government in the year of 2020, we made a commitment to provide and assist the police with high- performance vehicles fitted with cutting-edge crime-fighting technology, 50 additional patrol cars and 12 mobile police stations were also added to the number. We have so far already
delivered 55 of those cars and procurement processes have already started for this financial year.
The vehicles will assist in enhancing the police visibility and police response in crime hotspots, on highways and in public spaces on a 24-hour basis. These high-powered vehicles also assist in fighting trio crimes such as car hijackings, truck hijackings, business and house robberies. They will also help to respond to cash in transit incidences and also will increase police visibility in our province. Ever since the launch in February, impressive successes were recorded resulting in the arrests of some of the wanted suspects. I’m sure even Minister, indicated that as Gauteng we seen a reduction of our crime statistics, although is not yet down, but we must say there’s an improvement.
On School safety, the department will continue working with the Department of Basic Education, in mobilizing resources and also mobilizing our communities to fight this criminal element that are harassing our young people at school and that breaking to the schools. And through our community policing forums including governing bodies and local drug action committees, as well as organized social movements. This will make sure and endeavor to improve safety in our schools,
institutions of higher learning, health facilities and other public spaces.
The department has developed and implemented safety plans for all those schools at risk, including some of them, we will be doing unannounced visits. But over and above, focusing on those problematic schools
This partnership is important because schools exist within our communities and its infrastructure cannot continue to be vandalised under our watch.
Gender-based violence also continues to be a very dangerous pandemic and a societal problem. The Gauteng City Region is acutely aware that an integrated approach in policing and a paradigm shift is required to put gender-based violence to a complete halt.
Sexual offences cannot continue unabated. Crimes against women, children as well as other vulnerable groups has reached crisis point and there is dire need to intensify our efforts to turn the tide.
A gender-based violence Coordinator has been appointed by the provincial government to ensure the implementation and monitoring of the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Response Plan across all spheres of government in the province. The Department also launched the Gender-Based Violence Brigades programme, which facilitates and strengthens survivor-focused and coordinated to gender-based violence
To date, I must indicate that almost 89 000 households have been visited by the GBV Brigades for psycho-social support and also ensuring that they have cases that have been closed and those that need help are actually assisted.
Madam House Chair, we have already started at Vaal University of Technology to out our green door programme, which is a service point that will also help all our learners when they are at these tertiary institutions.
Community mobilization is a critical pillar of our safety strategy in Gauteng. This pillar is executed through establishing functional Community Policing Forums and deployment of community patrollers as a force multiplier in the fight against this crime. The department will continue with the mass mobilisation of our communities in the fight
against crime by strengthening the social movement against crime in our province and our safety structures such as Community Safety Foras, community patrollers, faith-based Organisations, military veterans, young people, women safety promoter.
As I conclude Madam House Chair, let me congratulate the National Assembly for recently passing the three Bills that will help in the fight against gender-based violence and femicide. We hope as they come to the NCOP for concurrence our hon members will make sure that this august House will speedily make them into law. A tight grip is needed if we are going to win the war against crime and gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF. Dankie, ngiyabonga [Thank you.]
Ms M LERULE-RAMAKHANYA (LIMPOPO – MEC TRANSPORT AND COMMUNITY
SAFETY): Thank you hon Chair. Let me take this opportunity to greet the Chairperson of the NCOP, all members, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, my colleague, MECs and everyone who is in attendance.
Chairperson of the session, we have assembled here virtually grieved with another wave of Covid-19 that has already been confirmed in some other provinces in the country and today we
are converted here to liberate on one of the most critical and very difficult votes when it comes to the security of our country but also to say how do we continue to serve the community.
I would like to start off by indicating that as portfolio and as we deliberate on this budget, we are strengthened by the words of our former President hon Nelson Mandela who said:
“Honour belongs to those who never forsake the truth even when things seem dark and green, who try over and over again and who are never discouraged by insults, humiliation or even defeat.”
You will know that today as we debate the vote tabled by hon Minister Cele, it comes at a very critical time to address challenges emanating from the recent crime statistics. We are satisfied that allocation has been made in accordance with the pressing challenges that needs our urgent attention in the province as well as nationally.
Chair, as a country we are still grappling with the gender based violence and fermicide. The announcement to wage a fearless war against gender based violence and fermicide as
alluded by the Minister and the allocation of R8,4 million towards Limpopo to deal with the scourge is a step in the right direction. It attests to the fact that we are a caring government that is well armed and to eradicate the scourge declared by the second pandemic by the state President.
We must thank our men and women in blue for the conviction attained in most of the heinous incidents of crimes affecting women and children.
A recent case in the province is that a 50-year-old Lucas Pasha from Sekhukhune, Limpopo was a handed four life sentences last week by the Limpopo High Court for hacking his four children to death shows the commitment that we have.
The empowerment of officers with knowledge and resources which was articulated in the budget by the hon Minister will go a long way in ensuring that the perpetrators of extreme violence against vulnerable groups like Phasha and many others are locked away for good.
Chair, we are saying that we are also celebrating today in our Limpopo High Court, Aubrey Manaka who is the man accused of murdering Precious Ramabulana has pleaded guilty at the
Limpopo High Court and the sentence will be tomorrow. This continues to be the commitment towards us dealing with the issues.
The allocation of R1,2 billion to fight the scourge of gender based violence and fermicide also indicates the willingness by the government that we are ready to put the plan in action.
Chair, in the past, the members of the public raised concerns on the experiences at police stations and how their cases were handled. The training of the 1757 members across all provinces on gender based violence courses will benefit thousands of victims who were reluctant to speak out of fear of secondary victimisation. The implementation of this in the top 30 stations per province is another way to assist the victims as well by the department.
Chairperson, we have noted the decrease of sexual offences in the last quarter of the financial year but we have also noted that there are some areas that need urgent intervention to reduce numbers further.
The number of reported cases in Lusikisiki and other areas and we have been sent her by the Minister, Limpopo follows Eastern
Cape and KwaZulu-Natal through Thohoyandou is a cause of concern. We are glad that the Minister has noted the rising cases in the above mentioned areas and we are confident that there will be swift intervention to ensure that the safety of our people is secured
Chair, we have also noted that forensic evidence is very key to conviction in some of the cases. The department was in the news two days ago because of the backlog in our forensic labs.
The backlogs have done serious injustice to victims whose cases are hanging and awaiting finalisation. We are fortunate that we have a Minister who leads from the front. We saw him visiting laboratories in Cape Town and Pretoria to ascertain the courses of backlog and parts of the solution to address the challenges were well articulated which as a province we are happy because we have benefitted.
The Minister made commitment that government is planning to eradicate the backlog of our science laboratory within a period of two years and that is commendable. We also note that promotion of 127 scientists to critical positions and the advertisement of 150 posts of forensic analyst at warrant officers level.
Chairperson, you will note that these issues are actually a backlog where women are brutally murdered and their families are unable to receive their bodies on time.
Over and above, the killing of our women and children, our officers are dying in the hands of criminals. The recent statistics are revealing that 24 officers were killed in the past three months. A death of one officer is a tragedy that needs to be rooted out and condemned.
There is a need to capacitate our men and women in blue to remain vigilant and ahead of criminals. Hon Minister has alluded in his budget vote that there’s a need to reprioritise resources as well as investments in technology for us to be able to fight the criminals.
Chairperson, it is a fact that visible policing is very key in the reduction of crime in our areas. The presence of police in the crime hotspots derails criminals’ plans and more often bring hope to our people.
The department’s plan to capacitate public order police will help improve the relationship between the police and ordinary citizens. The incident of a man who was killed earlier this
year when students were protesting sparked an uproar about the conduct of police. The announcement that visible policing will take more than 51% of the budget is welcomed and we have no doubt that the figures will bring transformation.
Our communities cry for visibility because they will be able to go to sleep feeling safe. Our people’s safety is not negotiable and we are comforted by the outlined intervention plans. It is worth noting that troubled areas are identified and the plans are in place for swift intervention
You will note that in Limpopo we have got other troubled areas where the intervention of visible policing will help us where we’ve got community unrest and we have got people that are fighting to be employed in mines. Chairperson, goals have been set, targets are within reach and communities rely on police for protection.
In conclusion, what is left for us is to ensure that the plan on paper is executed for the benefit of our people. It will not be easy but where there’s will there’s away. Quoting from the writing of Michael Phelps:
“I think goals should never be easy, they should force you to
work even if they are uncomfortable at the time.”
And, we concur to this that the goals should make us work and I would like to support the budget vote. Thank you very much Chairperson.
Afrikaans:
Mr S F DU TOIT: Agb Voorsitter, daar is nog manne en vroue wat met 12-uur-skofte hulself, vrywillig aan die gruwels van die wêreld blootstel om ander te help. Persone wat onbaatsugtig die uniform wat eens trots deur almal gedra was aantrek, hul kinders op die voorkop soen om dan ’n dagloon te gaan verdien, met die wete dat hul dalk nie weer hul kinders sal sien nie.
Hierdie onbaatsugtige helde en heldinne verdien ’n oomblik van stilte, net om erkennnig te gee en dankie te sê vir als wat hul opoffer, om op hul manier, met die minimum hulpbronne, ’n meestal moedelose, hulpbehoewende, woedende en ongeduldige publiek te help.
Ware polisielede is nie slegs ’n lid van die wetstoepassingsagentskap wat die gemeenskap moet dien en beskerm nie, maar tree ook op as berader, vertrooster,
beskermheer en vriend. Die VF Plus waardeer julle en bid julle alle seën toe!
Mr K M MMOIEMANG: Voorsitter, kan die agb lid ’n bietjie
stadiger lees, assbblief.
Mr S F DU TOIT: Chair, I would appreciate it if I can be protected, please. The question however is, can he set an example? Does he portray the image of respect and a caring authority? The media has made mention of a Mafioso and that is food for thought! National Treasury indicated that the police to population ratio has worsened. It is currently 1:400 against a norm of 1:220. Limited recruitment of a young and physically active force and increased backlog of cases is evident.
Lawful firearm ownership has never been defined as illegal and legal firearms ownership is being discriminated against. On average, 58 people are murdered per day and an average of 116 rapes occur per day in South Africa. Individuals must be allowed to protect themselves from the life-threatening acts of terror! The FF Plus advocates for the licensing of the individual and the registration of the firearm. Violent
crimes, in general, are out of control in South Africa. You confirmed it in your opening speech.
Currently, the police are understaffed, undercapacitated and unable to do preventative law-enforcement. In most instances, their actions are reactive, rather than proactive and they arrive at a scene, only to mop up the blood, if they arrive.
Afrikaans:
Op hierdie oomblik wil dit voorkom of die Minister met sy benaderings ten opsigte van lisensiëring van vuurwapens, asook sy departement se sloering met die hantering van lisensiehernuwing, as medepligting in die pleging van misdaad gesien kan word, aangesien hul onvermoë om wetsgehoorsame burgers te bemagtig en hul verhinder om hul eie en die lewens van hul naasbestaandes te verdedig, veroorsaak dat meer mense se lewens bedreig word.
English:
In February 2021, SAPS provided the following figures with regard to the number of firearm amnesty applications as well as the number of finalised applications. In 2019-20, a total of 50 962 applications were submitted and only 2 059 were
finalised. In 2020-21, 30 356 amnesty applications were submitted and only 280 finalised.
The Minster also responded to a written question I posed and reacted that no additional staff was employed or deployed to facilitate the processing of firearm license applications during the amnesty period.
Afrikaans:
Die Minister het ook bevestig dat die koste aan die staat vir hernuwing per lisensieaansoek sonder administratiewe kostes, R40 beloop. Tans betaal ’n individu R70 per hernuwingsaansoek, en dit wil sê dat die totale bedrag wat deur die publiek slegs aan hernuwings van amnestielisensie gedurende 2019 tot 2021 betaal is, R5,69 miljoen beloop vir die 81 318 aansoeke, waarvan slegs 2 339 tot en met Februarie2021 gefinaliseer was.
Die SAPD se onlangse jaarsverslag toon dat sowat 80% van die persone wat in die jaar 2020 moord gepleeg het, en 83% van die wat ernstige rooftogte gepleeg het, steeds nie agter slot en grendel is nie. Dis belaglik! Rapport berig namens ’n polisiekenner dat minder as 10% van die moore wat in Suid- Afrika gepleeg word, in skuldigbevinding eindig.
English:
We will have a huge backlog on DNA testing at forensic labs, as a result of lack of leadership. Minister Cele mentioned that, according to the police, more than 1 800 alleged criminals are roaming the streets of Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion, because that can allegedly not be arrested.
Minister, you said that some dockets were closed because of failure to arrest the fugitives! How absurd!
In closing, in the Appropriations Bill, the department will receive 29,4% less, and National Treasury indicated that the directorate’s plans of recruiting and appointing adequate investigators will be limited. However, still, a VIP protection unit escorts the Minister to the beaches of South Africa, while millions of South Africans have to fend for themselves with brooms and feather dusters. The current crime situation is not the fault of apartheid.
Afrikaans:
Suid-Afrika, die gemeenskaplike doel is oorlewing! Staan vas, staan trots, staan sterk! Ons sal dat hulle ons onder kry nie! Dankie.
Mr V R SHONGWE (Mpumalanga): Hon presiding officer, the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, the Chief Whip of the NCOP, the hon Mohai, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, hon members of this House, as well as all my colleagues, let me take this opportunity and greet everyone on my maiden speech. [Interjections.]
Ms D G MAHLANGU: Malibongwe!
Mr V R SHONGWE (Mpumalanga): Since the death of police officers, it was difficult and often dangerous situations. Culprits must be found, be arrested, be prosecuted and sent to prison. That is why in Mpumalanga, we have developed a slogan which states, “Wabulala Iphoyisa, wabulala umphakathi.” [You kill a police, you kill the community.]
By this slogan, we intent to mobilise the communities to refrain from killing our officers. It is worth noting that the greatest challenge facing our nation is crime and this challenge has no colour, it faces all of us. The fight against crime should be seen as a key stepping stone towards the vision 2030.
Hon Minister, you have dedicated this year’s budget to fallen members who have died in the crossfire against ruthless criminals. I think the time is now to reconsider bringing back Minister and hon members the technical response team commonly known as “amaberete”, to fight against organised crimes such as taxi violence, gang violence, illegal mining, tire spike incidence and heist. In fact, there a huge public outcry to members of the community to call for amaberete to come to the fore to fight organised crime.
Wherever there is a crime incident, whether violent or not, that requires Police interventions, questions about appropriateness about police response will always be raised. This usually include whether the Police could have prevented the incident if they have been better prepared, reacted more quickly, acted more forcefully and brought the situation under control. Therefore, the technical response team must be led, managed and guided by the capable people.
Hon Minister, we have dedicated this year’s budget under the detectives, investigators, foreign analysis, K-9 units and scientists who are working tirelessly to follow leads and solve the most complicated and sophisticated crime scenes.
We have dedicated this year’s budget to members of Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid, who performed the most difficult job of policing the law enforcement agencies. We have dedicated this year’s budget to the oversight personnel of the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service who performs the crucial oversight task of ensuring that every commitment made by the police is honoured and implemented. We have dedicated this year’s budget to all employees of the sector who have succumbed to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic and we are fully in support of your sentiments.
Indeed, hon Minister, I share the same sentiments with you that we have painfully lost hundreds of our employees, both t in uniform and those that are at personnel members.
Hon members, South Africa has one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world and a femicide rate that is five times the global average. Many women continue to live in fear in their streets and homes. This is one challenge that requires all of us to work together in fighting this scourge.
Hon Minister, we welcome the court’s work that have been
instrumental in security heavy sentences to perpetrators.
The presiding officers and hon members, we also welcome the actions in arresting crises on DNA backlogs in the Forensics Science Laboratories.
We are also equally troubled about the negative impact this has on the court processes involving crimes against women and children, road accidents and also the Gender Based Violence and Femicide, GBVF, related cases.
We are also equally concerned about the way that criminal intelligent officers perform their task. They need to provide a central role in providing stations with information regarding prevention of crime, but also in terms of investigations.
hon members, I want to move to the Civilian Secretariat of Police. We are expecting more from the secretariat in that it represents the citizen interest in the SA Police Service, SAPS. It must make a difference in the service delivery of the SAPS. We are expecting them to contribute immensely in the strategic intent of the SAPS so that it completely impacts on the overall fight against crime.
Mpumalanga fully support the budget of the SAPS as presented by the Minister of Police, Gen Bheki Cele. The current budget has spelled out the commitment on the protection of the vulnerable. On that note presiding officer and hon members, we support this budget. We want to say to all those that are opposing the programmes that the Minister is leading and the entire Ministry, I know for the fact that when they come across any level of crime, the first thing that they do, they shout and say Police! I thank you.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF POLICE: Hon Chairperson, Minister of Police hon Bheki Cele, Ministers present, Deputy Ministers, chairperson of the select committee, hon MECs present, members of the NCOP, heads of entities, national commissioner, generals present, Ministry of Police, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, “avuxeni” [good day].
We will never sleep peacefully when many of our people cannot walk to the spaza shop nearby without looking behind their shoulders and when women and children cannot enjoy their constitutional rights due to fear. It is this realisation that keeps us as the Ministry and the SA Police Service pushing for new and innovative ways of combating and preventing crime in the country. I wish to say to the Chair and members of the
NCOP no amount of hatred that has been displayed by some members here in the debate towards the Minister will defocus us. As the SA Police we will continue to work as a team and we will not be apologetic if there is a need for any intervention to make at a political level. It is not correct to say that there is no political will from the leadership as led by General Cele and General Sithole with regard to what we need to do. we will do what we are supposed to do as enshrined on us by the Constitution of the republic of South Africa.
Crime in the country has seen the poor and the vulnerable suffer at the mercy of the heartless criminals who continue to rob and take away innocent lives unprovoked. Every day I imagine the trauma of young and defenceless women who face gender-based violence on a daily basis with very little recourse, and I tell myself that this has to come to an end.
And I know this is a sentiment shared by many of us within the community in blue led by General Cele.
Hon Chairperson, it goes without saying that we need to intensify our efforts to fight crime and we need to be smart about it. Criminals are innovating more sophisticated modes of operation and we cannot be left behind. It can never be enough to declare war against crime without appropriate machinery and
today's high tech systems to fight these criminals who are no longer just petty, simple criminals but software engineers and intellectuals in various fields including the law. It is time we change the game.
In our drive to changing the game we are astutely aware that what we put in is what we will get out, hence we are, amongst other endeavours, refocusing on strengthening and professionalising the Police Service. To this effect we are embarking on a process of re-enlisting former noncommissioned police officers back into the service so we can tap into their experience and expertise. To date 30 former members have already been confirmed to capacitate specialised units such as the Crime Intelligence Services, Detectives Services, Visible Policing and the Tactical Response Team.
We are also ensuring that the newly established Modus Operandi Strategic Analysis Centre and Cold Case Units are fully capacitated to respond to the ever revolving criminal operations while the Cold Case Unit will relook at the identified unsolved cases that have been closed throughout the country. Depending on the availability of financial resources, we will also ensure the strengthening of other specialised units.
The effectiveness of the SA police Service is also premised on the employee health wellness, it is therefore one of the task that we are engaged in as the SA Police to ensure that the wellness of our employees is taken care of. In this regard, there were 1 421 sessions on employee health and wellness programs which include, amongst others, mental health, dignity and diversity in policing, gender based violence, relationship building, ethical awareness and substance dependency held last year, reaching more than 20 000 employees. 41% of the high contact crime stations were reached with the aim of offering support and care interventions to members located in these stations. World-class training of our members will also contribute immensely to the desired output of our members, hence we are reviewing the general training of members as a whole.
In our Budget Vote last year, we indicated our intention to establish a detectives’ academy which was to culminate into the first crime detection university in the country. Planning and implementation of this is progressing well, despite the delays brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown regulations.
The Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation is working with the Minister of Police in the mandatory process of the establishment of the SA Police Service, SAPS, crime detection university. The SAPS has nominated senior managers to form part of the project team and submitted to the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation which lead the process as it is the mandate of the department of the Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation to deal with higher education. This detective university falls in that category, hence the central, role they are playing. Of course they will be guided by the SA Police.
Chairperson, during the 2020-21 financial year, the SAPS piloted the National Safer Cities project in identified cities to see law enforcement agencies integrating and maximising on technology to fight crime more effectively. This project focuses far beyond the inner city and suburbs of the cities, but stretches to the townships and rural communities through the Rural safety strategy, the traditional crime prevention programme with the introduction of community-based mounted police as well as the royal reserve police.
The Safer City project identified cities are as follow, namely, Durban, Gqeberha, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane,
Rustenburg, North West, Bloemfontein, Witbank, Kimberley and Polokwane in Limpopo. The pilot project in Durban has resulted in R52 million from SAPS and R36 million from the City’s budgets ring-fenced for this project in during 2020-21 financial year. I must say, Chair, that this programme is not the programme between the City and the SA Police head office only, but it also involves the provincial government and we are working together in this regard. This will be an approach that will be adopted throughout the length and breadth of our country.
With regard to community policing concept, SAPS has held engagements with traditional leaders in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces for the implementation of the
traditional policing concept in an effort to ensure that rural ties access police services and collaborate in the fight against crime. I must indicate that when we talk about rural communities we are not only talking about African communities, but we are also including the farming community at large because rural areas include farming communities. And I our fight against crime in these areas requires of us to work with all the stakeholders – farmers, farming communities, farm dwellers and our traditional leaders.
Hon Chairperson, credible forensic evidence forms a critical backbone of the police service’s ability to properly investigate crime and apprehend perpetrators, particularly the most violent in our society.
The low sample processing rate goes to the heart of the challenge that we are faced with. With the leadership of the Minister and the national commissioner we have tackled this challenge head-on and I am happy and comfortable with the plan that we have put in place to deal with the backlog. I am definitely certain that we shall succeed in that regard.
Policing approaches will continue to adapt to the changing landscape, with the role played by the various entities within the SA Police family such as the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service and the Investigative Police Directorate in maintaining police accountability through the necessary checks and balances becoming all the more crucial.
The Civilian Secretariat of the Police Service priorities for 2021-22, include facilitating the implementation of an integrated crime and violence prevention strategy; closely monitoring the programme of action emanating from the 2019 crime retreat; monitoring of police response to gender-based
violence cases; and conducting research into whether saps is fulfilling its constitutional mandate effectively within the parameters of democratic policing.
The Civilian Secretariat of the Police Service has also advanced with the promotion of draft legislation to contribute to the professionalisation of the police service, addressing the regulation of the possession of firearms and updating legislation to combat international terrorism. The Firearms Control Amendment Bill and the SA Police Service Amendment Bill have been published for public comments. We call upon our people to participate in the processes that will ultimately lead in the amendment of the two legislations which are critical to the fight against crime in our country.
The Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Bill is in the process of consideration by Cabinet for authorisation to publish for public comments.
The gender-based violence scourge in the country continues unabated. To contribute in dealing with this scourge the department continues with its commitment to monitor police response and engage various stakeholders to find meaningful
and lasting solutions. In this financial year, attention will be directed towards developing a system that will enable the department to monitor management of the gender-based violence, GBV, cases by the police from initial response through to placement in the court roll. The department will further continue with community awareness campaigns in collaboration with community-based social partners on the fight against gender-based violence and femicide because we are of the view that ...
Xitsonga:
... ritiho rin’we a ri nusi hove ...
English:
... but working together with all stakeholders we shall overcome.
Furthermore, the department has concluded a memorandum of understanding with Wits University to provide accredited train the trainer programme for community police forum through the Safety and Security Sector Education and Training Authority, Sasseta, funded programme. It is envisaged that 80 community police forum, CPF, members will be trained during this
financial year and the first cohort with about 30 members have just completed the training programme.
Over the medium-term, the directorate will continue to focus on investigating serious and priority crimes outlined in section 28 of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate Act of 2011, and strengthening investigative capacity and processes to improve the quality of investigations. A projected 69,1% of the directorate total budget over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period is allocated to compensation of employees due to the nature of business that is labour intensive. The spending on compensation of employees is expected to increase at an average annual rate of 10%. The funded establishment of 391 personnel is expected to remain constant over the MTEF period in order to remain within government’s expenditure ceiling for compensation of employees. The department has planned to realign its organisational structure for optimal utilisation of the limited available resources as we are all aware that COVID-19 has placed a strain on the role that we are supposed to do because of the resources available.
Ms B T MATHEVULA: Chairperson, on a point of order.
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J NYAMBI): Hon Mathevula!
Xitsonga:
Man B T MATHEVULA: Ndza khensa, Mutshamaxitulu. Ndzi lava ku vutisa leswaku xana va averiwe timinete tingani?
The HOUSE CHAIRPERSON (Mr A J NYAMBI): Let’s allow the Deputy
Minister to conclude. Conclude, Deputy Minister.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF POLICE: As we have indicated there are entities that fall within SAPS and in particular the South African industry remains a critical partner in the fight against crime. However, the nature of the industry itself requires strict regulations hence the establishment of the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, Psira. In this regard we will work to ensure that this added force at our disposal is regulated and properly governed. Thank you, Chairperson.
Mr S ZANDAMELA: Hon House Chairperson, the EFF rejects the Budget Vote for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Ipid.
The Ipid has in essence failed to deal with the proliferation of criminal conduct within the police, and the sheer disregard for the rights of citizens, particularly black citizens in this country, who are abused, beaten up, and even killed by police on a regular basis.
We have often seen how police treat black people who are involved in protests, as compared to the manner they treat white people. The SA Police Service, SAPS, is still at the core, a colonial and apartheid force meant to browbeat black people into the lanes that the oppressive neocolonial system has preordained for black people.
The institution may be led by black people, and even has a black minister, but at the core, it is a force against black people. The black leaders are merely tokens who have no philosophical grounding to understand how the conduct of the police reinforce colonial stereotypes.
The Ipid is supposed to be working hard in uprooting this disrespect for black lives at the SAPS, but they have spectacularly failed to rein in the Police.
Not so long ago, House Chair, we saw how police brutalised EFF protestors in Brackenfell, and to this day, nothing has ever happened to those police. Rather, to show their racist selves, the police have refused to investigate a case where everyone saw a white bully kicking and beating with a baseball bat a black woman in Brackenfell.
That is not all, the very same Ipid found that there was nothing wrong with the conduct of the police who sprayed the elderly and the disabled with canon water at the offices of the SA Social Security Agency in Bellville, Cape Town.
The very same Ipid has found nothing wrong with the conduct of the police in the manner they relate to black protestors.
In Cape Town, it is a well-known fact that police, particularly those in the antigang unit, are working hand in glove with the gangsters. They cannot investigate themselves because they are conflicted, and yet, Ipid is folding its arms. We reject this Budget Vote. Thank you.
Ms M BARTLETT: Hon Chairperson, it is hon Bartlett speaking. There is load shedding where she is staying. I am putting an apology for her and she has a problem with the network.
Mr T J BRAUTESETH: Hon House Chair, hon Minister, the scholars amongst those assembled in this House today may know the poem by Alexander Pope titled, “An Essay on Criticism.” Those who do not know it, will surely know its most famous line, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” This simple line sums up everything wrong in the SA Police Service, SAPS in South Africa today.
Hon House Chair, let me tell a story that will illuminate the state of affairs. Late in the 20th century, in 1996 to be exact, a police constable set at his desk dreaming of better things. From those dreams emerged that out an outlandish plan to leave the Police with a knowledge of all the scoundrels were and how to do business with them and the SAPS. This industrious police constable formed the company in 1999, designed to provide services to the SAPS, that the constable knew full-well that they had no capacity to provide given the maladministration of their services, at the advent of democracy in 1994.
From fancy torches sold at to steal R52 million for a 169 torches, to really fancy property control in the exhibit management software for a bargain basement price running into hundreds of millions of rand. When the money runs out just
repackaged and sold the same software back to the SAPS as version 2,0.
However, surely the SAPS would see such a scam coming. Surely they would know the true cost of these things. Well, not really.
That was left to the state information technology, IT, agency, an entity full of IT types who speak their own language, but rarely know what is what when it comes to gadgets. They would surely expose the grand larceny and kick it firmly into touch. That would have happened, but our dear constable had thought of that. Being a former insider he knew exactly who all the corrupt oaks were and started making sure they were taken care off. Sorting out bargain deals on cars, hooking up tickets to Manchester United games at Old Trafford. Building dream houses for senior officers and of course the good old cash in a box gifts.
As we know, the average cadre deployed to the SAPS is long on loyalty to the ANC mothership, but a bit short on knowledge and ethics and so we have the perfect mix, a triangle of political loyalty and ethics deficit and a little knowledge. Enough knowledge to know that when you are buying something
fancy, but not enough to know what it actually does and what it should cost.
We all know that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Enough knowledge to understand that when yours truly at Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Scopa, exposed this mess in 2017, that there was a problem, but not enough to know how to deal with it.
Instead of following the advice to investigate every contract signed with our good constable, the SAPS run to court to argue about whose idea the whole thing was? That the idea belonged to the constable or to the SAPS? The argument should have been about whether the idea should have been bought in the first place and how it was bought. That was where the real Public Management Finance Act crime was. But that would take real knowledge. And so this knowledge deficiency let to an absurd situation. A real state capture scenario, where a private individual, a former constable was able to simply turn off the software, claimed to be the victim and the process stifled thousands of criminal cases. A little knowledge is indeed a seriously dangerous thing. No wonder then that everything else is falling apart.
The SAPS vehicles booked into the SAPS workshop in Mobeni, Durban for basic maintenance in January are still sitting there. Six months later! The good officers at the SPAS want to do their jobs, but the mismanagement of funds and other resources have literally tied their hands behind their [#...
Inaudible ... #] backs.
House Chair, and then we have the final insult, in a country raged by violence coupled with massive unemployment and inequality, the Minister wants to remove the firearms, the last line of defence, the right to defence.
Surely the Minister knows that the cause of crime is socioeconomic and that until those problems are resolved the violent crime will never go away. Surely the Minister knows that criminals have easy access to illegal and deadly firearms. Surely the Minister knows that the environment he has created from his time as the National Police Commissioner and an enabler of Roux Shabangu to the Minister of Police has forced law-abiding citizens with no other option, but to defend themselves.
However, as we have learned a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. A seriously dangerous thing. Minister, please take this
cautionary tale to heart. Please avoid the pitfalls before it is too late. Please heed the suggestions of my colleagues the hon Michalakis and the hon Visser. Use this knowledge and this advice to write the wrongs and travel the right path. There is simply too much at stake. I thank you, House Chair.
Mr E M MTHETHWA: Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, hon members, fellow South Africans, the Budget Vote debate is presented when we are in the middle of the vaccination process in the fight against coronavirus. The President has just adjusted the lockdown regulations to level two in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
We remain committed in the fight against coronavirus and we encourage every South African to adhere to the lockdown regulations. We must remain united against this COVID-19. One lesson we got from this global pandemic which is even at international level, is that the states need each other and there is a need for global solidarity and international co- operation to defeat this pandemic. And as South Africans, we should learn from this approach.
Hon Chair, the ANC is committed in the fight against corruption and holding accountable everyone in the public
office. This cleaning process does not only focus on the general people but everyone. Even in the police system there is a clear ant-corruption campaign. In its 54th National Conference in 2017, the ANC outlined that there is a need to strengthen and co-ordinate the ant-corruption agencies to intensify the war against corruption. The investigations must be intelligence driven and the accused people must be prosecuted and thus lead to conviction. Furthermore, the government will conduct vetting for all its employees at all levels in the fight against corruption.
The Civilian Secretariat Police Service, CSPS, mandate is to primarily conduct oversight of the police service and then act as a technical policy adviser to the Minister. It further provides administrative support, guide and advise the Minister on his international obligations. The CSPS also monitor the implementation of the Domestic Violence Act of 1998 by the South African Police Services, SAPS. This is done to ensure effectiveness, and to address the lack of trust in the police by the public and improving police service delivery. In a nutshell, this entity exists to provide support to ensure that SAPS is efficient and effective in its operations. The CSPS also exist at provincial levels and operate within the provincial sphere of government.
There is a need to bring back the hope and the trust of the people in the police service and that can be done through various ways. A localised way of addressing crime need to be developed that will be inclusive of all people in our society. Hence the need to facilitate the implementation of programmes of the partnership strategy and framework which seeks to mobilise key role-players and harness the social capital in communities by facilitating greater involvement of various community safety structures. The ANC in its resolutions highlight the importance of having all community forums working together with the police in the fight against crime.
The Budget Vote of 2021 will support the CSPS to carry out its mandate to provide oversight and provide guidance in different police stations right across the length and breadth of the country. In the South African law, no one is above the law and thus this budget will provide means for the CSPS to monitor the members of the SAPS and indeed investigate any complaints lodged against them.
Regulating and monitoring compliance by the police service with relevant legal prescripts which means police must always conduct themselves within the confinement of the law. All these efforts can only be attained if there are strong working
relations between the community members and SAPS and those relations should be intensified by the CSPS.
This will combat any corruption and fraudulently tendencies that might have been committed by the police members. It will further enhance the police to implement different crime prevention measures that are a product of a research conducted by the CSPS. Therefore, Budget Vote will enhance the work of this unit and the African National Congress support the Budget Vote 21.
The ANC further welcome the Budget Vote 24 as it will provide support to the work of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, IPID. The IPID has a very important role to play in the fight against crime and corruption. IPID derives its authority from the Independent Police Investigation Directorate Act which empowers IPID with powers to investigate any complaints, alleged misconduct or even offences committed by the members of the South African Police Service. This is in particular the serious crimes and the priority crimes.
The Budget Vote will enhance IPID’s ability to conduct investigations thoroughly, improve the quality of the investigations. Further, intensify the fight against gender-
based violence within the police service, look more on the cases like, rape, death, torture and most important corruption that must be rooted out. The Budget Vote must further the finalisation of the IPID Amendment Bill to enhance the work of the IPID.
There must be a strong compliance of SAPS to the IPID recommendations and it further make recommendations to the Minister. The IPID has been facing serious financial challenges and it must continue do it work and develop creative means of generating funds for its investigations to be effective and efficient. There must proper co-ordination between IPID and provinces. There must be collective effort from different departments to reach their targets and all have a role to play in creating safe and secure South Africa.
It is evident for all to see that the ANC is committed to the fight against corruption. The ANC-led government does not talk about fighting corruption, but it does act against corruption. There are different steps in place to combat corruption and there is work done in this regard.
The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, PSIRA, is mandated to regulate the private security industry, and
exercise control over the practice of the occupation of security providers in the public and national interest, as well as in the interest of the private security industry itself. This department has a responsibility to create a conducive environment to have a competent and stable security industry which protects the interests of different stakeholders from the public, private security and the state. All these stakeholders require their interests to be protected.
We welcome the Budget Vote 28, 21 and 24 and recommend that the NCOP approve these Budget Votes to ensure the safety of our society, in an environment of co-ordination of different departments that are working together to fight against crime, and corruption in South Africa.
The ANC remain at the centre of holding people accountable and ensuring efficient and effective ways of managing and utilising state resources, and that where there are acts of deviation with the laws and regulations, consequences must follow. Police, community and business sector together has a role to play in the fight against crime and corruption in this country. The ANC supports this budget.
As I conclude, I want to deal with the issue of hon Michalakis, he is always destructive and insensitive particularly to people that are victims. I wonder what type of a leader who comes on national television and insults ...
IsiZulu:
... ethuke uNgqongqoshe ukuthi ...
... he is having “Drunk with power”. What type of a language is that in a debate where we deal with issues? Instead of motivating why he is not in support of the budget.
IsiZulu:
Kungakho sithi manje sekunesidingo sokuthi abantu abafana naye bashintshe. Awukwazi ukubonakala kumabonakude wethukane noNgqongqoshe ...
English:
... instead of producing you own programme ...
IsiZulu:
... ukuthi yiziphi izinhlelo eningazenza ngoba ...
English:
... crime affects everyone. It is not about the Minister and it is not about power.
IsiZulu:
Sihlalo weNdlu, ngithi le nto kaMichalakis besilokhu siyibuka nje eyenza eqhubeka nayo. Nanamuhla uselokhu eqhubeka nayo.
Makazikhumbuze azi ukuthi yini le edingwa umphakathi, naye abe yingxenye ...
English:
... of fighting crime. Crime is not about police. We need to fight crime together to defeat it.
IsiZulu:
Uma usazogibela entabeni uthuke abantu ubuke ukuthi ubani okumele enzeni ...
English:
... what is your role and why are you not doing you own part? Thank you very much, Chair.
The MINISTER OF POLICE: Thank you very much, hon Chair. Chair, I am absolutely worried about the self-rising attitude of the DA in this debate.
The
HOUSE CHAIPERON (Mr
A J Nyambi):
Hon Minister.
The
MINISTER OF POLICE:
Yes. Can you
hear me?
The
HOUSE CHAIPERON (Mr
A J Nyambi):
Yes, I can hear you.
The
MINISTER OF POLICE:
Chairperson,
I’m simply saying, thank
you very much. I am absolutely worried about the self-rising attitude of the DA in this debate. They are absolutely not telling the truth at all, especially Mr Michalakis. He must go to his leaders in the Western Cape and understand how best we work together, from the Premier and the MEC of the city.
As the SA Police Service, SAPS, we have poured more resources in the Western Cape more than any other province. That is where we have sent literally extra resources in terms of personnel. So, for him to come here and tell something that is completely untrue, it’s very much disturbing, but that is a debate for another day. He comes here and talks about the murders that are unsolved. When we went for statistics, there were no statistics before the 1994 election.
So, he doesn’t know how many people were killed, and
unfortunately, statistics were only given when a white person
is killed in South Africa. Black people were never recorded in the statistics. When we started in 1994, there were 30 000 people that were killed in the year, this time, they’ve moved down with 10 000. Therefore, he must work on his mathematics, but mostly, he must work on his conscious. When you come here, try and tell the truth. Having said that, thank you very much, Chairperson, and let me thank the members that debated the matter.
Chairperson and hon members, allow me to conclude this Budget Vote, by presenting the SA Police Service Budget Vote 28 for this financial year, to the amount of R96,3 billion, the Independent Police Vote 24 to R348,3 million and Budget Vote of the Civilian Secretariat of R148 million. Chair, let me also take this opportunity to thank everybody, especially those that I work with, the Deputy Minister, the National Commissioner, the Executive Director of the Independent Police
Investigative Directorate, IPID, Mr Chauke, this year, Godfrey Lebeya, the Head of Hawks, Mr Luyanda Maqhubu, the Chair of the Internal Audit, the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority, PSIRA, board, and everybody else, Adv. Nkosi who is the Chair of the Forensic, the Firearm Appeal Board, Ms Lungelo Shandu, who heads the board, the Chair of Firearm Appeal Board.
Let me also thank the people that we work with on daily basis and we forever forget to mention them, and our families. Let me also thank my kids, especially my beautiful wife who support me as I work on these challenges, and wish her and all other wives of the families that we work with, especially the police that are out there all the time to face the dangers.
IsiZulu:
USOSWEBHU OMKHULU WOMKHANDLU WEZIFUNDAZWE: Yebo, Nyambose,
phoyisa lomthetho.
The MINISTER OF POLICE: We wish them well together with their families. Thank you very much.
IsiZulu:
USOSWEBHU OMKHULU WOMKHANDLU WEZIFUNDAZWE: UNdosi!
The HOUSE CHAIPERON (Mr A Nyambi): I thought that you will add even the husbands, hon Minister. Let me take this opportunity to thank the hon Minister of Police, hon Cele, the Deputy Minister, hon Mathale, and the number of MECs in our different provinces for participating in this very important debate.
Thank you very much. Hon members, we shall now proceed to the Fourth Order of the day, policy debate on Budget Vote 19,
Social Development Appropriation Bill. I will now call upon hon Minister Zulu, Minister of Social Development to open the debate. Over to you, Minister Zulu.
Debate concluded.
BUSINESS SUSPENDED AT 16:54 AND RESUMED AT 17:00.
APPROPRIATION BILL
(Policy debate)
Vote No 19 - Social Development:
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Hon Chairperson and members of the Select Committee on Health and Social Services, Deputy Minister of Social Development, hon Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, members of the provincial executive council present here today, ladies and gentlemen of media joining us on social media platforms and fellow South Africans, thank you for the opportunity to present the second Budget Vote 19 to the National Council of Provinces during the 6th Administration.
It is in working together with this House that we will strengthen our work within the District Development Model. We convene at a difficult time against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic. I wish to remind us all that the three of the nine provinces are experiencing the third wave of Covid-19, namely, the Free State, Northern Cape and North West provinces while new infections are rapidly accelerating in the Gauteng province and the Eastern Cape province. Its showing the highest reproduction number and rate of Covid-19 spread.
Fellow South Africans, we therefore urge you to invoke and practice the strictest adherence to all prescribed Covid-19 protocols and the minimum always wear your musk in public, maintain safe social distance and frequently wash your hands with soap and water and be vigilant, be cautious of other people around you.
Community activation in promoting safe practices and strict adherence is necessary. Working together with the relevant government structures, we must assume leadership within our communities towards effecting health improving behavioural changes. All social development institutions, including homes, shelters and service points should find creative ways of spreading the message on the dangers of the third wave of
Covid-19. Certainly, protection, safety and agility are indispensable in our fight against Covid-19.
Chairperson and hon members, National Protection Week from 30 May to 6 June 2021, we commemorated the Child Protection Week. Beyond the week itself the duty to protect children falls upon each and every one of us in our communities. This duty demands work from all of us beyond Child Protection Week. It demands that each and every parent and care givers know where their children are at all times. We must all align our work as all three spheres of government and social partners to ensure this happens.
The lessons from exchange with the children in the Delft in the Western Cape province as well as Kliptown in Gauteng province during the Child Protection Week are that our societies future leaders are asking all of us to decisively tackle the scourge of child abuse that will strengthen our social values and increase their prospect of realising that dreams and aspirations and thereby elevating South Africa to its rightful place among future civilisations.
On a recent development, we extend our hearty congratulations to a Gauteng couple who gave birth to 10 babies breaking the genius world record.
To this end, we wish to call on the community, non-profit organisations, NPOs, and the private sector to partner with us in supporting the family financially and in kind and every resource will be highly appreciated given the abandoned blessing of nature and the MEC for Social Development in Gauteng and I have had conversation about co-ordinating support to the family.
With regard to youth development, the Social Development Portfolio acknowledges the persisting challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality faced by the youth. As such, the Social Development Portfolio will be intensifying youth development and empowerment programmes that are integral in paving the path lead to social economic opportunities that our young people aspire.
With regard to Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress, SRD Grant, as government we are pleased to see that the over six million South Africans were able to benefit from Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress otherwise known as the R350 grant.
Our research found that during the implementation of the R350 grant some of the beneficiaries put their grants together with other household’s income in order to provide for the whole family. Likewise, other demonstrated their entrepreneur flag by directing the grant towards developing business that augmented these incomes as much as they create a sustainability platform that will provide for them beyond the duration of R350 grant. This grant seems to have provided the entrepreneur springboard that government programme needs to achieve.
We wish to call upon the private sector to do their part in increasing participation opportunities for our youth as our joint efforts will give rise to inclusive growth path for our country.
As we speak today, everyone is aware of the fact that we are celebrating 150 years of uMama uSharlotte Maxeke and in promoting patriotism and embracing partnership with all social sectors we call the expiring words of uMama uSharlotte Maxeke, a social worker, an intellectual, a diplomat and a freedom fighter whose 150 years of pioneering noble spirit we are commemorating this year, it is her who instructed us, and I quote: “This work is not for yourselves – kill that spirit of
self, and do not live above your people but live with them. If you can rise, bring someone with you.”
Noting this I am privilege to table the Budget Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development for the 2021-22 financial year as follows: The department’s overall allocated budget just over R205 billion for the 2021 financial year. From this annual allocation and constituting nearly 95% of the annual budget for the 2021-22 financial year, the department has allocated R195,5 billion towards the monthly payment of over
18 million social grants beneficiaries.
The social assistance programmes continued to be South Africa’s largest anti-poverty programme. The remaining 5% of the budget goes towards the implementation of all departments programmes. The big ones amongst these being Early Child Development, ECD, with an allocation of R1,56 billion.
Our significant investment was non-profit organisations with R8,3 billion being transferred to NPOs by provincial departments and R33 million being transferred to the welfare services and NPOs by the national department. The SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, the most popular one, has received R7,4 billion towards its efficient and effective management,
administration and payments of grants, R215,970 million has been transferred to the National Development Agency to implement the civil society organisations targeted at Civil Society Organisation, CSO, programmes that contribute towards the eradication of poverty.
Owing to the deduction of Wage Bill as well as the means of government to redirect its physical priorities towards addressing the socioeconomic challenges that accompanied Covid-19, the 2021-22 allocation has been reduced by
R6,5 billion. For the same reason the accumulative deduction over the next three years will amount to R38,5 billion. In the same year, hon Chairperson and members, we look at the legislative programme towards strengthening government social policy and addressing targeted programme gaps.
During this financial year, we are going to take the following through the legislative programme: Firstly, the Children’s Amendment Bill. Secondly, the Non-Profit Organisation Amendment Bill. Thirdly, the Older Persons Amendment Bill.
Fourthly, the Fundraising Amendment Bill. Early Child Development, the migration of the ECD from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education is on
course. The Minister of Basic Education and I will be providing an update on the nation in due course.
Hon Chair, we also have to deal with gender-based violence, and during this financial year, we will also be given priority to strengthening the implementation of pillar 4 of the National Strategic Plan on gender-based violence and femicide.
On the other DSD programmes of the department, include the implantation of the anti-gangsterism strategy, inclusive of cabbing bullying in schools and communities, improving our services to vulnerable groups, widening the digitalisation of social development services, improve access to food and nutrition through the implementation of the national household’s food and nutrition plan ctc.
In conclusion Chairperson, throughout the Covid-19 response, we demonstrated our ability to be responsive and agile but this should be accompanied by patriotic action and through the establishment of dynamic people, public, private, civic, multilateral partnership. A special thanks to the ANC for granting me this privilege to and in the service of fellow South Africans and I have led the Social Development Portfolio
during this unprecedented time for all of humanity in our people.
And as I close, I also wish to thank Deputy Minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, for the positive working relationship which we continue to strengthen the delivery of social development. I also thank the Acting Director-General, Mr Linton Mchunu and his management team, the Chief Executive Officers of Sassa and the NDA, Tsotsi Memela-Khambule and Thamo Mzobe respectively, and their management teams, the Registrar of the SA Council for Social Service Professions, Langi Malamba, the Ministry team, our social partners and importantly, all the social service professionals throughout the country. I also wish to thank my family for the endurance of me having not being there all the time but giving me the opportunity to continue to serve the people of South Africa. I thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Ms M N GILLION: Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, MECs present and all delegates of the NCOP, allow me first to pay tribute to a remarkable woman. On Monday morning when we woke up the country received sad news that a remarkable strong woman, Shaleen Surtie-Richards, is no more. We acknowledge the contributions she made in the world of arts
and culture in our country. Our sincere condolences to her family, friends and colleagues.
Hon House Chairperson, the democratic government continues to make great strides in improving the quality of life for all South Africans. The Report Towards the 25-year Review 1994 to 2019 articulates the role travelled by our country towards a progressive realisation of social wage. It reflects all the positive developments and progress made towards improving the quality of life of South Africans. However, much still remains to be done.
A huge component of the poor and vulnerable still remain outside the social safety net. Poverty and unemployment are increasing and inequalities are deepening. The entire social development portfolio, the department, National Development Agency, NDA, and the South African Social Security Agency, SASSA, remain central in our goal to eradicate poverty, promote social inclusion and building social cohesion.
The portfolio approach continues to build and strengthen strategic interventions in social welfare services, community development and comprehensive social security. This is particularly important because of the commitment ascribed to
the portfolio that is linked to advancing social transformation, reducing poverty and advocating for the promotion of social integration and commitment to Batho Pele principles of service delivery.
It is therefore significant that the work carried out through the portfolio approach promotes and preserves the rights and dignity of our people. It also advances a developmental social welfare approach that is able to transition our people from being dependent on the social grant system into the economy to be skilled and employed.
In this regard, we are pleased that the department is in its final stages of formalising a request for an extension of the
350 SRD grant. The impact assessment conducted by the department which was supplemented by studies conducted by academic researchers, National treasury and other government departments has revealed that the Social Relief of Distress, SRD, grant has a significant impact on the lives of people. The department is also looking at ways to link the SRD grant to the basic income grant.
Hon House Chair, the committee is concerned that the budget of the department has no allocations for the child support grant
top-up as legislation in the Social Assistance Amendment Act
16 of 2020 as part of a legal solution to the challenges of backlogs in the foster care system. We have also expressed concern on the impact of the budget reduction and service delivery over the medium-term period. Particularly we are concerned about the impact of the budget reduction over the medium-term on key programmes such as the Social Assistance Programme which will amount to R19,5 billion in 2023-24. This is against the increasing child malnutrition and stunting. We welcome the initiative by the department to conduct an assessment on the impact of the budget reduction on underfunding of non-profit organisations.
Hon members, we are deeply worried about the impact of the budget reduction on the employment of social workers. This is a long standing challenge and we must find practical ways of employing social workers. The South African Social Security Agency’s budget will be reduced by R641 million in this financial year, and the bulk of this reduction will impact employee compensation. This is a concern especially noting the high vacancy rate at SASSA as delivery of services to vulnerable grant beneficiaries will be affected. We commend the plan SASSA has effected to complete the assessments to renew lapsed temporary disability grants. We urge SASSA and
the department to come back to the committee and update us on their plans that will ensure that each town has a fully operational office in line with their turnaround strategy.
Escalating fraud and corruption in the payment of social grants, particularly activities in the SASSA card system, has reached escalating heights. The South African Social Security Agency and the department must give us a report back on the plans in place to intensify the fight against corruption and fraud.
Hon members, we are adamant that SASSA has to put in place a plan to clean the social grant payment system of ineligible beneficiaries. The lack of visibility of the National Development Agency remains a concern. We recommend that the Minister should, as a matter of urgency, ensure that the department finalises a budget allocation with National Treasury for the child support grant top-up grant. Minister, we also ask that you ensure that within the current year, the department prioritise and conducts an impact study on the implication and impact of budget reductions over the medium- term period and develop necessary interventions. Particular focus should be on ensuring that service delivery and social systems programmes are not adversely impacted upon.
Significantly Minister, as a matter of urgency, the department must investigate the non-payment, late payment or subsidy cuts to NPOs and NGOs who provide vital services on behalf of the state.
Furthermore, the department must engage with relevant departments to make sure that the 2019 Cabinet resolution on the employment of social workers is implemented and that, within the current financial year, the inter-Ministerial interventions with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies on addressing fraud and corruption in the South African Post Office, SAPO, SASSA card system are implemented. Within the current financial year, SASSA must complete investigations on government employees who receive the SRD grant and ensure that necessary disciplinary actions are taken.
Minister, please ensure that SASSA takes harsh disciplinary actions against its employees who were involved in fraud and corruption activities. The Minister should also ensure that within the current financial year SASSA strengthens its monitoring system in the payment of social grants to ensure that there is a preventative mechanism that will give early warnings of ineligible beneficiaries receiving grants. This
includes implementation of the biometric system and efficient and speedy validation process of ID numbers from SAPO payment files.
Hon members, this Vote is central to the reduction of levels of poverty, inequality, vulnerability and social ills. It also has mechanisms in place to empower resilient individuals, families and sustainable communities and also progressively ensure that it is led by a functional, efficient and integrated sector.
The social grant system continues to be a major antipoverty programme of government providing income support to millions of poor households. While there are budget reductions in real terms across all the social grants, SASSA is expected to pay social grants to 18,6 million beneficiaries in the current financial year.
We welcome the work that will be done to complete work under comprehensive social security reform raging from extending social assistance coverage to all, introducing mandatory contribution for retirement, death and disability. More importantly, we commend the platforms that will be created for informal workers to participate in social security coverage.
We welcome the work going in to determine the feasibility of a basic income grant which will function as another level to tackle poverty and inequality and engender a more inclusive growth path.
Hon House Chair, out of 17,4 grant recipient, the programme intends to target 2% to link the beneficiaries as a means to alleviate poverty and build sustainable communities. Over the medium-term, the department will implement the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan for South Africa that seeks to ensure the implementation of food and nutrition security initiatives targeting vulnerable individuals and households. This will be accomplished through the co-ordination of the department’s food and nutrition interventions which includes all centre-based feeding programmes proving nutritious food to the poor and vulnerable in partnership with the Civil Society Organisations, social partners and agencies. The department will also prioritise the linking of SRG recipients below 60 years of age to sustain livelihood opportunities.
Hon members, all of these initiatives underpin how this Vote enables a comprehensive social support system that empowers people and protects the poor and the vulnerable. The ANC
therefore asks this House to adopt the budget allocation for Vote 19 on Social Development.
Ms D C CHRISTIANS: Hon House Chairperson, hon Minister, data released by Statistics SA last week shows that South Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 32,6%, the highest it has been since 2008 when the Quarterly Labour Force Survey first started.
The number of unemployed persons increased to 7,2 million, with the official unemployment rate of youth between 15 and
34 at 46,3% with an elevated 9,3% of university graduates without employment.
The number of discouraged job seekers increased by 201 000 and according to Statistics SA the expanded definition of unemployment increased to 43,2%, the highest it has ever been. This in essence means that two in four people are unemployed and 55% of our population currently survives below the breadline. An estimated 14 million people go to bed hungry every night in South Africa and sadly, 31% of South African people are dependent on social welfare.
South Africa’s problem is that there is no viable economic growth, too much debt and corruption, and not enough money to assist the poor, disabled and vulnerable in the country. In fact, more and more people are queuing for social assistance outside SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, offices, with an estimated 18,8 million possible recipients by April next year dependent on grants.
Despite this glaring reality, the budget and annual performance plan before us today does not portray a government that is willing to reduce poverty, unemployment or inequality.
Let me explain. Over the next three years, the social grants budget will decrease by R36 billion, resulting in a decrease in income for millions of South Africans.
The programmes that will be most severely affected are: Programme 2: Social Assistance, which is the provision of social grant assistance to qualifying beneficiaries, that shows a decline from R220,6 billion allocated in 2020-21 to R195,5 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. This is a staggering budget decrease of R25,9 billion. This includes the child support programme which is cut by R14,5 billion. This
reduction will plummet many vulnerable children further into poverty and desperation.
Programme 4: Welfare Services is reduced from R1,8 billion in the 2020-21 budget to R1,3 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. These reductions in allocations can be seen in the Children, social crime prevention and victim empowerment, and social worker scholarship subprogrammes. These declines in real terms will be -27,12%, -58,43%, and -85,75% respectively. This is despite the fact that South Africa has one of the highest gender-based violence, GBV, rates in the world, with a femicide rate that is reportedly five times higher than the global average.
Additionally, the recent crime statistics released by the SA Police Service revealed a 5% increase in reported sexual offences between October and December 2020. With these massive budget cuts in programmes, is the South African government serious about curbing the scourge of GBV and femicide?
Furthermore, Minister, have these social protection programmes made an impact in the country? If so, could you please indicate to the House how and where it has managed to reduce
the suffering of vulnerable children and those with disabilities?
Furthermore, the Auditor-General’s, AG’s, report indicates escalating fraud and corruption in the payment of social grants, particularly fraudulent activities in the Sassa card system, by government officials.
Additionally, the AG reports a number of network security- linked control weaknesses that could compromise the integrity of its systems and data. This report identified payments of the R350 grant to over 67 000 beneficiaries that required further investigation. This included people already working in government, current recipients of Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF, payments, beneficiaries of other social grants and government pensions. Minister, when will you see to it that your department takes action against those employees who have exploited funds meant for the poor and vulnerable?
House Chairperson, Sassa distributed just under 147 000 food parcels during lockdown last year. However, many of these food parcels did not reach the intended recipients. The fraud and corruption of food parcel distribution was highlighted in the AG’s report as follows: Inadequate planning and co-ordination;
inadequate controls over distribution of food parcels; inadequate controls in the manual processes followed, inadequate planning, guidance and record keeping, inadequate monitoring and reporting on food parcel distribution, poor planning of procurement processes, possible collusive bidding, and unfair evaluation during quotation processes. With so many findings, Minister, it is not surprising that the department is dysfunctional.
The early childhood development, ECD, grant is a direct grant allocation to the Department of Social Development and is aimed at supporting government’s prioritisation of ECD. It is aimed at improving access to early childhood programmes, as well as ensuring adequate infrastructure at these centres.
However, we have sadly witnessed many of these centres closing down due to a loss of income and assistance. The late and nonpayment of the Presidential Employment Stimulus fund, which was supposed to be paid by the 31st of March, has seen only
8% of ECD practitioners paid. Minister, will these ECD practitioners be paid before we see more loss of livelihoods?
The country’s foster care crisis is an additional reason to be
concerned. The foster care system has been under a tremendous
strain since the early 2000s when orphan rates began snowballing. In 2019, there were approximately
386 000 children in foster care and approximately
84 715 unprocessed foster care orders by 26 November 2019.
With no tangible solution to the mounting foster care backlogs, and additionally, the cuts to the social worker scholarship subprogramme of -85,75%, with approximately
5 000 social worker graduates who still remain unemployed, there seems to be no immediate solution to this heartbreaking crisis.
It is no secret that South Africa is in an economic crisis due to corruption, mismanagement and lately the COVID-19 pandemic. As the challenges of fiscal resources increase, the department’s capacity to implement policies, reduce poverty and create unemployment opportunities will continue to be impacted negatively.
Recently, media reported of 1 768 post office employees,
105 prisoners and foreign nationals that have been illegally cashing in on the social grants, amounting to millions of rand. Additionally, 4 726 grants were transacted outside of South Africa.
With 4,1 million elderly people, 900 000 people living with disabilities and 13,8 million children depending on social assistance, the Department of Social Development and Sassa have no tangible plan to stop the poverty and hunger as it sadly becomes entrenched in every city, every suburb and every community around the country.
The Department of Social Development’s primary ... [Inaudible.] ... reduction of poverty, unemployment and inequality. As long as there are these glaring inadequacies, corruption and maladministration in this department, vulnerable South Africans will continue to suffer. I thank you.
Mr I NTSUBE: Hon House Chairperson, hon Chief Whip of the Council, hon Minister and Deputy Minister, today marks 19 years with the departure of our greatest revolutionary Peter Mokaba, indeed a life well lived. Hon House Chair, the ANC rises in support of the Budget Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development. Hon Chairperson, Covid-19 further exposed the deep socioeconomic visas that exit globally. In our country these visas are deeply connected to race, class and gender. They continue to be seen in the rising levels of poverty, unemployment and the deepening levels of inequality.
This past week the Statistician General released a quarterly labour force survey for quarter 1 of 2021 which shows an increase in unemployment particularly amongst the youth with those between the ages of 15 and 24 at 63% and those between
24 and 34 at 41%. This disheartening fact deep socioeconomic fiascos and quarterly surveys of the Statistician General is their incorrectness to the promotion and preservation of dignity of our people.
The work that we collectively do with the department and its entities has to be premised on promotion and preservation the dignity of our people, deepening forward process to deliver the department’s mandate and progressively moving towards an outcome-based approach. All of these are important because it will enable collective assessment of the impact that is being made by this department.
Deepening social assistance means that we must deepen our collective efforts that continue to empower people to lead themselves out of poverty and create the sustainable social safety net for the poor and the most vulnerable. We should always be ceased with the responsibility of ensuring that we always lift centrality of our people in all of the work that we do.
Deepening social assistance to advance the mandate of the department and entities includes accelerating to the pace of responding to the deep socioeconomic fiascos that the mandate of the department has to respond to. This includes creating path ways that will lead to socioeconomic pathways for socioeconomic uplifting beneficiaries.
Hon Minister we welcome the forefront response initiated by the department’s entity throughout the lockdown period. This response was in the form of food parcels, cash vouchers and the R350 Social Relief Grant which stressed in alleviating hunger. We are grateful that empirical evidence from the research illustrates the impacts of the grants in slowing down the levels of malnutrition and hunger.
Poverty would have been at a much higher level had it not been for the R350 Social Relief Grant, as little as it may seem, it had a major impact on the lives of our people. Hon Chair, we are deeply disturbed by the annual decline of the budget of the National Development Agency, NDA. This worry because of the mandate of the NDA has contributing income generating projects that assist in creation of alternative or complimentary streams of employment for poor households.
Hon Chair, this budget illustrates the measure that are going to be implemented in the provision of support to beneficiaries of the protection system. This will comprise of connecting beneficiary employment opportunities, skills development, bursaries, internship programmes and entrepreneurial programmes such as forming co-operatives or small businesses.
We commend the measures in place that will enable evaluation to be determined to the extent of impact. This is particularly significant in the efforts to link the poor, marginalised and the vulnerable to public employment opportunities. SA Social Security Agency Sassa continues to link grant beneficiaries to socioeconomic opportunities. One such way is through the existing relations between the department and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, Nasfas.
The Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP continues to create opportunities. In this current financial year, over 26 000 EPWP work opportunities will be created through the Department of Social Development programmes. Furthermore, 20 000 protection beneficiaries will be linked to the livelihood opportunities. Hon House Chair, we are cognisant of the challenges that come with the lack of social security coverage for the majority of the population between the ages of 19 and
59. It is in this regard that we welcome the attempt of the revived attention that is being given to the introduction of the Basic Income Grant.
We urge the nation to continue engaging in consultation processes on the policy for income support grant from 18 and 59-year olds who are unemployed. We are also concerned about the lack of contributory social coverage of the informal sector and atypical work of the majority of women during pregnancy. We welcome the work done by the department in this regard and we are engaging the policy development processes.
We note that the White Paper on Social Welfare and Comprehensive Social Security will be finalised in this financial year administration. We look forward in engaging this White Paper on Social Security as it will extend the social assistance coverage and introduce social insurance for all workers in an informal and formal sectors.
In conclusion, hon Chair, all of the above-mentioned are important as the work of the department will increasingly shift towards the locking of human capabilities into activities, driving sustainable livelihoods, putting transversal partnerships and taking stock of our people. The
ANC supports this Budget Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development. Thank you very much, hon House Chair.
Ms S MANI-LUSITHI (EASTERN CAPE – MEC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT):
Hon Chairperson, greetings to yourself, the hon members, the Minister, the Deputy Minister, our social partners and all ladies and gentlemen that have joined us on the various platforms.
Hon Chair, I rise here on behalf of the Eastern Cape government to support and affirm the budget as outlined by the hon Minister, Lindiwe Zulu.
The Minister’s Budget Vote is tabled during a difficult time as the country is facing an eminent third wave of the global pandemic, that has changed the face of the earth and has disrupted our economy. Our plan this financial year is within an environment of the emergence and the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and tightening of the belt by our government. This has meant that we need to reprioritise our budgeting and spending as government. This reality aggravated by a shrinking economy, has further aggravated our socio- economic conditions in the country and the province. The demand for developmental social welfare services has increased
immensely, amid this socioeconomic challenge cause by the pandemic. The allocation of the seven billion, four hundred and sixty-six million, nine hundred and one rand by the Minister ...
IsiXhosa:
... iza kuncedisana nokugxotha ikati elele eziko kumakhaya amaninzi eMzantsi Afrika.
English:
To this end, as the Department of Social Development in Eastern Cape in celebrating Mama Charlotte Maxeke, on 1 June at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Local Municipality, we launched a year-long activist campaign called Sisonke Sizophumelela Campaign. The theme for the campaign is: Accelerating Service Delivery and Providing Social Security for the Vulnerable in the Year of Charlotte Maxeke.
Through the launch, the department began a process of assuming a more activist and a family oriented approach in reinforcing the mandate of the National Development Plan through our, Sisonke Sizophumelela Campaign.
This campaign is primarily aimed at government and civic society deliberately intervening, on the threatened livelihoods and vulnerability of individuals and families that have been directly affected by COVID-19. The Campaign is an
En-Mass and Viral Advocacy Integrated Outreach Programme, detailing a delivery of developmental interventions by the department, aimed at the emotional support and an enhancement of the social functioning levels of the vulnerable groups of people in the Eastern Cape.
The launch of the campaign also coincided with the launch of our child protection month and as result, the department launched an Iindlezane Project, which is co-ordinated and regulated community and family-based tool of safety parents, that will provide temporary safe care to children of care and protection. This is piloted in 160 parents across the province this financial year.
Hon Chair, the Minister’s budget speech has done exceptionally well to capture the spirit of Mama Charlotte Maxeke, and that is visible in the priorities of the budget. It also provides a framework and a guide that aligns our policies, programmes, and our service deliverables towards realising social
transformation, as we navigate the difficult times presented by the COVID 19.
Hon Chair, the department acknowledges that several multipart social ills continue to confront our province. These include high levels of poverty; youth unemployment, vulnerability, rising social distress in families and communities, high levels of substance abuse, high levels of gender-based violence and deep-seated structural inequalities. In the execution of the mandate of the department, we dare not fail to address and to improve the livelihoods of the poor and the most vulnerable.
One of the key priority areas of the Sixth Administration includes building a capable, ethical and developmental state, which marks a significant and radical shift from a welfare orientated stance to a more developmental approach. This, therefore, means strengthening community development services towards sustainable livelihoods. In advocating for the shift efforts will be made to ensure a strengthened, community centred and participatory approach to integrated service delivery, within the broader mandate of the Social Development Portfolio.
Hon members the central theme of Minister Lindiwe Zulu’s speech is well captured when she says, I quote:
In the same light, we expect that citizens also take responsibility by becoming resilient to enable themselves to acquire the necessary skills, which would enable them to contribute towards economic development. The balanced rights-responsibilities approach is indispensable to building a productive, caring and sustainable society.
Consistently with this statement the Department of Social Development in the Eastern Cape, we will intensify the implementation of the Family-Based Model in all our interventions across the districts.
Hon members, the Political-Policy Imperative for the 2020-2024 Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF are anchored in the National Development Plan’s, NDP vision which seeks to establish and responsive social protection system. In this regard, we want to ensure that families, as the cornerstone of a developmental society are given the opportunity and support to be self-reliant and able to care for and develop their children.
COVID-19 has unfortunately disrupted a critical service of the department, and that is the provision of support to early childhood development centres and this led to the disruption of the process of development of our children.
We welcome 6 000 of the Early Childhood Development, ECD Conditional Grant for the 2021-22 financial year, it proves that when we talk increase of the accessibility of ECD services in all communities of South African children we mean it. This will indeed go a long way in subsidising children from poor households.
Hon members, ... [Inaudible] ... women, we welcome the intervention and the commitment by the department as led by
the Minister, through the National Development Agency, NDA, to
strengthen our gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF- focused partnerships with civil society organisations that
render services to victims of gender-based violence. We welcome the R85,7 million worth of funding has been approved
for the qualifying 312 civil society organisations across all provinces. This will go a long a way in fighting the scourge of gender-based violence.
The Department of Social Development has a rich history of implementing partnerships with non-profit organisations, NPOs which impacted positively in the development and empowerment of vulnerable groups in our communities, thus contributing to the improved quality of life. We therefore welcome the R33
million which has been allocated to support NPOs and the more
than R7 billion that will be directed to provinces.
We wish to recommit ourselves to strengthening our institutional capacity building services to all funded non-
profit organisations to enhance quality service delivery, good governance, performance outcomes, accountability and
sustainability of these organisations. The department will also provide developmental and integrated services that
facilitate the promotion of the social wellbeing and the
socioeconomic empowerment of Persons with disabilities.
Furthermore, the department has increased its efforts in ensuring the payment of NPOs and ensuring a reduced turnaround
time. We are pleased to say that the system we rolled out last year has been effective in ensuring that NPOs are paid on time.
Minister, we are increasing the rigour significantly around performance management, to ensure that we achieve better use of our resources and value-for-money, as we continue to deliver our services in a developmental approach instead of a welfare one.
In conclusion, I want to recommit and assure the people of the
Eastern Cape that, the Social Development Portfolio which includes our agencies SA Social Security Agency, Sassa and
National Development Agency, NDA and all our stakeholders, we will continue to strive for the betterment of their lives and
the realisation of a more sustainable society. I thank you, hon Chair.
Ms S A LUTHULI: Chair, the EFF rejects the proposed Budget Vote 19 - Social Development. The unemployment rate in South Africa has been persistently high over time, hovering above 20% over last decade. South Africa’s unemployment rate rose to 32,5% in 2020 from 30,8%. It has been noted that covid-19 has contributed to rising poverty and deepening inequality with South Africa’s economy.
The insult of this department regarding the R350 special covid-19 social relief of distress grant for our poor people
has put their lives in more dangerous situations when it comes
to being infected with this virus. It does not make sense that such an important department has so much cuts in its budgets.
The largest contributor to the budget decline is the budget cuts on the social relief of distress subprogramme from R17 976 billion to R2 535 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. This grant provides temporary income support, food parcels and other forms of relief to people experiencing undue hardship.
What are the reasons for the huge budget cuts of this department?
According to the second Children’s Amendment Act, public service social workers are expected to render adoption services. Your department indicates that capacity to empower social workers to render the adoption services’ aim is to capacitate the nine provinces, so that they all render uniform and standardised service. Will these social workers exclusively deal with adoption services?
Minister, your department admits that, given the high levels of violence in the South African societies, there is a need to ensure that individuals, families and communities are empowered and made resilient through continuous educational and awareness campaigns, but nothing is being done.
IsiZulu:
Lesi sabelomali esiyingcosana kanye nodlame olubhekene nabantu besifazane ikakhulukazi labo abaphila nokukhubazeka ikakhulukazi Kwazulu-Natal, sizolekelela kanjani ukuqwashisa imiphakathi.
Siyi-EFF kade saqala siphakamisa udaba losonhlakahle ukuthi kumele isikole nesikole, ikakhulukazi emakhaya, kubekhona usonhlalakahle ukuze akwazi ukubhekana nokuhlumezeka kwabantwana ezikoleni.
I-KwaZulu-Natal ingezinye yezindawo enezindawo eziningi ezifana no ... nemizi ebhekelelwe ngabantwana ngenxa yokuthi abazali bashona kepha abalutholi usizo emnyangweni wakho.
Endaweni yaseNdwedwe KwaZulu-Natal ngaphansi kwesifunda Ilembe, iposi kade lasha ngakhoke abantu abekade besebenzisa leli posi laseNdwedwe sebesebenzisa iposi lase-Verulam elingaphansi kweTheku, lokhu kwenza ukuthi bagibele ngezimali ezishisiwe baphinde bangalutholi usizo ngoba leliya posi lase- Verulam liyagcwala kakhulu futhi nalapho umnyango wakho awubasizi abantu baseNdwedwe.
E-KwaZulu Natal sibekile ukuthi kunamaposi amaningi afana no- Scottburgh, ase-south coast afana noMzinto kanye nayo le ese-
Verulam abonakala ukuthi anezibalo zabantu abazithathayo ngosuku ayingcosana, ukuthi abantu sebefikile bezolanda izibonelelo zabo zibuyiselwa emuva ngoba ... [Inaudible.] ...
ILUNGU ELIHLONIPHEKILE: Awu, Madlanduna!
Nk S A LUTHULI: ... sekuthiwa sebesificile isibalo obekufuneka kufikwe kuso. Asinazo izindawo zokufihla ikhanda eziphephile lapho okuthi labo abahlukumezekile emakhaya, ikakhulukazi ngokocansi, nabesifazane nabantwana, ukuthi noma sebewavulile amacala baphoqeleke ukuba babuyele beyohlala emakhaya abo lapho kukhona abantu abasuke bebahlukumezile.
Futhi abalutholi usizo emnyangweni wakho. Yizozonke lezi zizathu esizibikayo Ngqongqoshe ezenza, siyi-EFF, sisichithe lesi sabelomali. Siyabonga
Ms M MOSUPYOE (GAUTENG – MEC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT): Madam
Deputy Chairperson, Minister of Social Development, hon Zulu, Deputy Minister of Social Development, hon Bogopane Zulu, chairperson and members of the portfolio committee, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
Hon Deputy Chair, we are gathered here today in a month wherein we commemorate the youth of 1976. The South African Students Movement, SASM, that was one of the first organisations of black high school students, played an important role in the 1976 uprising together with other student activists who were linked to the ANC. The mobilisation for the 1976 protest called on communities to support students and linked the student struggle to the struggle for national liberation.
In this period other formations were involved; Fatima Meer and Winnie Mandela were among women that established the Black Women’s Federation and Black Parents' Association. This is a reminder that the role of women in our struggle for liberation was tremendous, and that 1976 happened because different organisations came together to fight against imperialism.
I contend Madam Deputy Chair that, 1976 is a reminder that we can and must eradicate all social ills that our communities are faced with, more especially gender-based violence, violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, LGBTQIA+, homelessness, hunger, inequality, and poverty. The Gauteng Department of Social Development overall budget of the department remains steady at
R5,8 billion. However, the budget allocation was reduced as part of fiscal consolidation over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF.
It is acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on the health, economic and social systems in the province. The pandemic forced the department to explore innovative, technological approaches to enable it to render its services. In mitigating the challenges raised during the COVID-19 pandemic, the department’s 2021-2022 interventions would place emphasis on strengthening and intensifying its mode of communication with service recipients and communities to include increased radio interviews, messaging of department services, television, branding and printing. This is in the vein of reaching as many people as we give sense to. In addition, the department’s interaction on social media platforms on facebook and twitter would be further heightened to increase our reach in communities. Our programmes for 2021- 2022 are therefore geared towards responding to the life cycle needs of communities, from childhood to old age.
Hon members, the Department of Social Development in Gauteng was privileged to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Child Protection Week, under the theme: “Let us protect
children during COVID-19 and beyond.” When thinking about this year’s Child Protection Week we were taken back to a novel by Charles Dickens, the novel’s name is Oliver Twist. This is a story of a little boy that is born in London under severe poverty and homelessness. Because the government of the day had harsh laws, founded on the belief and false belief for that matter, that poor people just need to work harder, not considering how social structures may contribute to their poor living conditions. Little Oliver found himself in a life of crime as a means of survival. We must continue to work hard as government and our stakeholders to protect our children before they are trapped in a life of crime and substance abuse, so that they do not become like little Oliver.
Chairperson, in responding to Priority 4 in our programme, Safety, Social Cohesion and Food Security, the department plays a significant role in promoting the development of children in the early stages of their growth. The department will continue to champion the provision of early childhood development, ECD programme in its partial care sites, prioritising children from 0 to 5 years of age. The registration and funding of ECD centres and the construction of ECDs as part of the department’s Social Infrastructure Programme. The Gauteng Department of Social Development budget
for new infrastructure in the 2021-22 financial year, includes construction of Bantubonke ECD, Bekkarsdal Social Integrated Facility, Khutsong Social Integrated Facility and Tembisa Inpatient Substance Abuse Centre.
The COVID-19 pandemic placed families in distress, made children and households more vulnerable and exacerbated social ills in our communities, namely homelessness. The department developed the Gauteng Intervention Plan on Homelessness, involving stakeholders from various sectors working towards responding effectively to homelessness in the province. Whilst the department faced notable challenges, it continues in its pursuit of developing a homelessness strategy which includes an extensive exit plan for its beneficiaries. This exit plan will ultimately revive the self-worth and dignity of beneficiaries of homeless shelters.
The persistence of poverty, unemployment and inequality remain the biggest challenge in our society. We commit to continue contributing towards improved quality of life for our communities through the provision of accessible, integrated, comprehensive, sustainable, and developmental social services. In contributing to these mandates, the provincial antipoverty strategy serves as a guiding framework, not only to provide a
cushion of support to the poor and the vulnerable, but as an important step towards integration and alignment of our provincial socioeconomic interventions.
As we commemorate Youth Day on 16 June, youth development remains one of the key focus in the province. The department continuously strives to have dialogues with the youth, hear their voices and drive programmes that are responsive to their challenges aimed at skills development, income generation and sustainable livelihoods.
In as much as we strive to contribute to the eradication of poverty and uplift our youth, we are equally confronted by the continuous shocking incidents of gender -based violence. For us, this poses as one of the biggest threats to our democracy, as it condemns women and children to a life of fear. The department will continue to facilitate interdepartmental and intergovernmental work to intensify efforts to mitigate violence against women and children including the LGBTIQA+ community. Of equal importance is not forgetting the boy child, hence the Men and Boys Programme Championing for Change is one of the key innovative interventions being implemented.
Through the compensation of employees’ budget, the department will further appoint additional personnel to enhance the monitoring of NPOs, community development practitioners and recruitment of additional staff at secure care centres. In addition, it will work towards the absorption of social work graduates who completed studies through the departmental scholarship programme.
In realising its commitments, vision and the intended impact, the department works in collaboration with different sectors of the society such as the non-profit organisations, NPOs.
Strengthening of NPOs and the cooperatives remains essential as these institutions serve as an extension of the department’s mandate, in rendering services to communities across the province.
In conclusion Madam Deputy Chair, I would like to give assurance that the Social Development Sector remains committed in its pursuit of improving the lives of the most vulnerable in our communities. Thank you very much Madam Deputy Chair.
Mr G BOSMAN (WESTERN CAPE- CHAIRPERSON STANDING COMMITTEE ON
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT): Hon House Chairperson, thank you very much to you and good evening to you, Minister and colleagues.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Did you again, hon Bosman, address me as the Chairperson? I am the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP. I know that the former speaker said, Deputy Speaker, but I am the Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP.
Mr G BOSMAN (WESTERN CAPE- CHAIRPERSON STANDING COMMITTEE ON
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT): Thank you very much for correcting me again, Deputy Chairperson. As I’m speaking to you today, Deputy House Chairperson, there are vulnerable, desperate and destitute people across this country, waiting for our national government to fulfil the most basic of needs and its need to dignity. As we are engaging today, we must be mindful of the humanitarian crisis that are facing many of us as a result of the incompetence of the SA Social Security Agency, SASSA, and the lack of political will displayed by our political head at the Department of Social Development in Pretoria.
We have seen chaos in the attempt to pay out funds to our recipients of social grants and to those most vulnerable, especially the pay out of R350 Social Relief of Distress, SRD, grant. As much as provinces have been trying to support the most vulnerable, I want to again remind this House that SASSA and the national government are the lead agencies trying to providing social support to the most vulnerable. Yet despite
this, Minister Zulu is more preoccupied with grandstanding and standing by whilst the most vulnerable citizens are being water pumped.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, as we are still behind in the national rollout vaccination programme, we have Early Childhood Development, ECD, centres, waiting for the disbursement of the ECD Stimulus Fund. The provinces are ready, but again, Pretoria has delayed, frustrated and messed up the verification process. This means that money cannot be paid out. What more can we do, and what more can be important in making sure that those hardworking Early Childhood Development practitioners receive a little funding to save themselves and their families?
A small stipend for the selfless worthwhile youth to protect the most vulnerable and the citizens. Deputy Chairperson, we live in the country run by cadres that are so intent on looting, that more than R15 billion has been stolen during the national state of the emergency, R15 billion that could have been used to feed the hungry, support the vulnerable and pay our ECD practitioners. Deputy Chairperson, we have a National Social Security Agency that encourages hungry residents to
start a business with R350, but it does not inform them on the role of the National Development Agency.
Through you, Deputy Chairperson, I would like to ask the Minister, where is the National Development Agency during this pandemic? The little money appropriate for Social Development sector is a slap in the face on the elderly, the poor, our foster children, and we must reject this budget. Also, I want to say that, the Western Cape Provincial Parliament does not support the budget that takes money away from those who depend on social grants, not just to stay alive and feed their families and their extended families.
In contrast of the disdain shown by our people, we must surely highlight some of the successes that the Western Cape has done, because we gave hope to South Africans, and they must surely know that it is time for change. If COVID-19 has shown us anything, it is that we cannot continue to play rational
... [Inaudible. ... of our people, and that they must vote for the government that delivers excellence. In the Western Cape, our approach shows that the Department of Social Development can provide for the cradle to be grey.
Although this department sees the total receipt decreasing by just over R29 million, they still maintain a level of service that cannot be compared to the other eight provinces in our country. This decrease is part of result of the national government, that does not satisfy its ... [Inaudible. ...
Instead of cutting waste and vanity projects, they shamelessly cut the Early Childhood Development Grants allocation to provinces. It should be born in mind, that these department’s core functions include providing a social welfare service to the poor and vulnerable, and partnership with stakeholders in civil society, and to provide the community development service that provides sustainable development programmes to facilitate empowerment.
But, that is not our national government does. Even with the reduced allocation, the Western Cape Department of Social Development has been able through innovation, hard work and shared dedication worked exceptionally hard, to provide the response to our ECD sector during COVID-19. The budget allocation that we have made available in the Western Cape, is an increased support of the Early Childhood Development, at a time where there’s massive uncertainties on the move of ECD from the Department of Social Development to the Department of Basic Education.
This has been accompanied by the flawed public participation process around the Children Amendment Bill, a clear display that the ANC’s best efforts to fail at the most parts of service delivery. Deputy Chairperson, young people from the large parts of the people of the Western Cape and the Department of Social Development in this province, has made that a priority. About 2,4 million young people between the ages of 15 and 34 living in the Western Cape, it is only right that the Department of Social Development focuses on the pathologies that affects this group of citizens.
These pathologies include substance abuse and gang-related violence. We thus welcome our provincial government’s focus and allocation on programmes dealing with violence, substance abuses and social issues which seeks to help the people of the Western Cape to fall victims to these. All we ask from the national, is a little bit to more money, to make these programmes work better. As this House knows, the department has started two responsibilities, and it has a big responsibility in ensuring that young people in conduct and law are supported, trained and rehabilitated.
A large part of this work is done through the department’s
child and youth care facilities, a service that has now been
successful insourced, after the ANC-run Bosasa crumbled under the weight of corruption and theft. Child care and child protection remained a constant focus for this department, but the allocation from national is just paltry. In contrast to that, the provincial equitable share in the Western Cape sees the Social Worker Empowerment Grant allocation coming in just over R15 million, now that’s how you show that you care, by providing social workers to help young people.
The gender-based violence, GBV, scourge in our country is a stain on our conscious, and we know that it doesn’t just have an emotional and physical impact on victims, but it also has a ripple effect on government standing on core services such as health, policing and social development. Also, it has got a massive effect on the welfare of children. We note the commitments made by President Ramaphosa on the impact of gender-based violence on the economy, and we are grateful that the President is able to pay some lip service to this, but we really need more action and some money.
The meagre amount allocated by national government mitigate the effects of HIV, gender-based violence and substance abuse, is a drop in an ocean to compare the to the magnitude of the gender-based problem in our country, especially paltry, Deputy
Chairperson, considering that there are no real programmes in the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. The Social Development sector has to pick up the pieces. The only real item in the fight against GBV is the proposed National Council on GBV and Femicide, the orbit of work being proposed, because nothing of substance has been done to mitigate the GBV effect and supporting victims in this regard.
In contrast, the Western Cape Department of Social Development has provided an additional R20 million to sustain the employment of social workers, particularly in areas of high prevalence of gender-based violence and substance abuse.
Unlike national government, this Western Cape government, does not spend the money, time and energy on continuous talking around gender-based violence that leads nowhere. Our commitment is backed by 60 rural-based shelters for victims of gender-based violence, which means that the Western Cape has a highest number of dedicated shelters for victims of gender- based violence and victims of hate crime.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, during this dark year, many of our citizens have lost their jobs and livelihoods. The poor and the vulnerable, are being the hardest hit as a result of this. The need for food relief programmes have intensified, not just
in our province, but across the country. Although our provincial department has stepped in and has provided some space, we still need more support for the influx of hungry citizens to come from the agencies that have the budgets and the manpower to do this, and that includes SASSA.
The food relief programmes supported by our Department of Social Development because of ... [Inaudible. ... in our province, has been aimed at feeding the most vulnerable, including the allocations of the distribution centres and the communities, on nutrition and blanket programme, we are able to feed more, but the year ahead is going to be even more difficult with many more people living below the poverty line. We note physical spaces is part of constrain, and we are putting added pressure on the human capital under this department.
So, I want to say thank you, to the hardworking social workers and Early Childhood Development practitioners, who stepped in where government fails. I also want to say thank you to the non-government organisation, NGO, sector, that is the crunch holding up on social security sector in this country. Deputy House Chairperson, I thank you.
Ms C N RAKGOALE (LIMPOPO – MEC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT):
Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Minister of Social Development, uMama Lindiwe Zulu, the Deputy Minister, Mme Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, members of the Select Committee on Social Services and Health, members of the executive council, MECs, for Social Development who also joined this sitting, is my pleasure to be part of today’s National Council of Provinces debate on Vote 19 of the Department of Social Development. The year 2021, has been declared the year of Charlotte Manye Maxeke. Maxeke was among the freedom fighters who wanted to see the total emancipation of women and realisation of truly democratic South Africa. She wanted to see that our people are serviced irrespective of race, culture and gender.
On the 3rd of this month I was fortunate to be delegated by hon Premier, Stanley Mathabatha, to launch the June Youth Month at Ramokgopa in Botlokwa where she hails from. We precedent the launch by paying a special visit to the family of this heroin. In April this year, we also celebrated the lives of Solomon Mahlangu, Chris Hani, A P Mda and Collins Chabane. These are among many comrades who fought for the liberation of our people from the hands of the dark apartheid system and its injustices. The 16 of June 2021, will mark the
45th anniversary of the Student Uprising in Soweto. This year the commemoration is celebrated under the theme “Growing youth employment for an inclusive and transformed society.” This time demands and direct all government departments and private sector to redouble their efforts in creating job opportunities for young people. The realisation of this goal will really ease the social protection pressure on the Department of Social Development.
As the situation stands the majority of South Africans, especially those in rural provinces, such as Limpopo are largely dependent on the government social grants which are mainly within the Department of Social Development. These grants are, in fact, the main source income for about
18 million people across the country and in Limpopo half of the population depends on the provision of social grants. We, therefore, strongly believe that the department’s budget of R205 billion as presented by the Minister of Social Development, hon Lindiwe Zulu, will go a long way in mitigating the effects of poverty that some of our people are currently enduring. Guided by this reality we are, indeed, delighted that the sixth administration as led by our President Cyril Ramaphosa is determined to ensure that no
South African, especially the vulnerable groups of our society, go to bed on an empty stomach.
Hon Deputy Chairperson, we are very pleased that President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared gender-based violence and femicide as a second pandemic to coronavirus disease 2019, Covid-19. We also take comfort in the fact that within the context of national strategic plan on gender-based violence and femicide, the department is strengthening the prevention and response mechanism to reduce the spread of gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF. The scourge of gender-based violence and femicide as well as bullying amongst learners has taken a spike. The country is still reeling the shock after Lufuno Mavhunga, a learner from Mbilwi Secondary School in the Vhembe District, committed suicide when a video of being attacked by a fellow learner went viral on social media. This prompted us to redouble our awareness campaign on gender-based violence and bullying.
In the same breath Parliament’s public hearings into Children Amendment Bill kick started in the same district on Sunday where a number of stakeholders and individual community members came to make inputs in the important parliamentary process. The committee is currently traversing the province to
allow ordinary people, opportunity people to make their voices and to enable Parliament to strengthen the law in relation to the protection of the rights of children. However, we are also seeing the wheels of justice starting to turn in favour of eradicating child abuse and infanticide. The Limpopo High Court recently sentenced former lawyer, Lucas Phasha, to four life sentences for brutally killing his own four children. We welcome this lengthy jail term handed down and we believe it will serve as a deterrent to would-be abusers of women and children.
Four other criminals were sentenced to life imprisonment for raping minors and elderly persons in various unrelated incidents in the province. The trail of the alleged murder of Capricorn Technical and Vocational Education and Training, TVET, student, Precious Ramabulana in 2019, has also resumed in the Limpopo High Court and we’re monitoring the proceedings very closely. Delivering his state of the nation address on the 11th of February this year President Cyril Ramaphosa said, as I quote:
Gender-based violence, GBV, will only end when everyone take responsibility for doing so in their homes, in their
communities, in their workplaces, in their places of worship and in their schools.
We further equally believe that the Amendment of the Older Persons Bill which aims to strengthen the co-ordination and monitoring mechanisms of the services that are rendered to older persons and Fundraising Amendment Bill through which we seek to consolidate various relief funds which also will also go a long way in further ensuring that we create sustainable and self-reliant society ... [Inaudible.] ... abuse or even older persons.
Hon members, the funding of nonprofit organisations in the role as an extension of the service delivery of our social development services is also having a positive impact as they assist us through the victim support programmes among other things. At the provincial level we were able to set aside R2,6 million for provision of school uniforms for identified vulnerable children. This initiative is intended to benefit orphans and vulnerable children in our five districts in the province. In an endeavour to contribute to empowerment initiatives the department has adopted the new approach for the provision of school uniform by utilising nonprofit organisations, NPOs, and co-operatives in the localities
within where beneficiaries reside. This approach will contribute towards creating job opportunities and also respond to the call by President Ramaphosa to empower the youth, women and persons with disabilities.
As the country still grappling with mitigating the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department of Social Development is continuing with its interventions to ensure that all those impacted and affected by the deadly pandemic get all the necessary support. Our social workers are working tirelessly to provide type of social support and we’re happy to say that the majority of the 6,5 million beneficiaries of Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress, SRD, grants were able to utilise the grants for its intended purposes. Thousands of households that have been identified as food insecure by our community development practitioners and social workers were also assisted and provided with food parcels, we wish to also appreciate all role-players including the business sector for the immense contribution of food parcels and other necessities for the less privileged and the homeless.
The vaccination of older persons is also continuing smoothly, as the ANC-led government seeks to save lives. One of the old age homes that have benefited in Limpopo is the government-run
Sekutupu Old Age Home, the program is this week concentrated in the Waterberg District, targeting eight old age homes both private and public. This particular district has seen a spike of Covid-19 cases in the past few weeks including cluster outbreaks and unfortunately we have lost some elderly persons due to the pandemic. May their souls rest peace! We strongly believe that the Department of Social Development’s contribution to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Covid-
19 vaccination roll-out programme will ensure that we help identify qualifying vaccination candidates from our databases and render the relevant psychosocial support services. We are pleased with the roll-out of Phase 2 and the positive uptake of the vaccines, especially by our elders.
Allow me to indicate that Children Protection Week which we commemorated from the 30th of May to the 6th of June 2021, allowed us to reflect on the stress that government has made in protecting the rights of children. It is our wish that the same efforts must be extended for 365 days to drive home the message that children must be protected at all costs. Sadly, during this week one of observations in Limpopo two children aged 12 years and 11 months were brutally killed in two separate incidents by the vary people who are supposed to care and protect them. In Xitsonga we say ...
Xitsonga:
... n’wana a hi wa un’we ...
English:
... meaning that the child doesn’t belong to only one parent, all of us has got a responsibility. We must all draw wisdom from the words South Africa ... [Inaudible.] ... democratic President Ntate Nelson Mandela who once said, as I quote:
Our children are our future, and one of the basic responsibilities is to care for them in the best and most compassionate manner possible.
Ntate Mandela also said, as I quote:
The true character of society is revealed in how it treats its children.
All South Africans must refuse to be a society that has a total disregard for the rights of children. In conclusion, Deputy Chairperson, we also want to applaud the Department of Social Development at a national level for having set aside R1 billion in order to increase accessibility of early childhood development, ECD, services in all communities. As
the Department of Social Development in Limpopo, we support the Budget Vote 19 as presented by our Minister, Mme Lindiwe Zulu. I thank you.
Xitsonga:
Ndza khensa.
Tshivenda:
Ndo livhuwa.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms S E Lucas): Thank you
very much. The next speaker who will continue the debate is the hon Adriaan de Bruyn of the FF Plus. Hon De Bruyn? If hon De Bruyn ...
Mr S F DU TOIT: Hon Chair, hon De Bruyn is experiencing difficulties with load shedding. I did communicate to the Table that he will not be taking part.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP (Ms S E Lucas): Thank you,
hon Du Toit. As you can see, the candlelight is making me shine so much, I understand that. Hon L L Ntshalintshali, the MEC of Social Development for Mpumalanga. Over to you, hon Lindiwe.
Ms L L NTSHALINTSHALI (Mpumalanga): Deputy Chair, I want to appreciate ... the opportunity that has been given to us to come here today to debate on these matters. Let me also start by greeting your good self and the Chair of the National Council of Provinces. Let me also greet the Minister of Social Development and the Deputy Minister of Social Development, as well as the Minister of Police and his Deputy who were here. I also want to greet all MECs from our provinces that are here today, and I also greet our Chief Whip of the NCOP and all our delegates that are in the House.
We must say that as South Africans we have come back from a difficult era. We are here today debating the budget speech of Social Development. As the Mpumalanga province and our citizens, we wish to support Budget Vote No 19 that has been delivered by the hon Minister. We also want to conscientise
... and also talk to our people ... that this pandemic has been a difficult one. It has not been seen since 100 years ago when there was the Spanish flu. As a country, we were affected by COVID-19. Hence, as a department we were severely affected.
We must say that the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 affected all provinces. As provinces, we had to reprioritise our own programmes. We had to make sure that we respond to COVID-19
and all our provincial departments had to refocus ... programmatic support to respond to this pandemic.
Therefore, hon Deputy Chair of the NCOP, we want our hon members from the opposition not to grandstand on these social matters because it is ... the economic meltdown, it is ... the hard lockdown that we as a department experienced the budget cut-offs. We must not grandstand and say it is due to negligence. We are saying ... the hard lockdown ... [Inaudible.] ... people could not go out to work. It’s a reality. They experienced job losses. It’s a reality. Some had to go to work on half ... or ... shift system. Seated here today, we are not in Cape Town with your good selves. All of us are working from home because we are still dealing with the impact of COVID-19. Now we are entering the third wave. It’s a reality. That kills business. That kills the economy.
Therefore, as government we are also not spared in terms of the challenges that we are experiencing in terms of the budget cut-offs.
However, as Mpumalanga we want to fully support the budget as presented by the hon Minister of Social Development and also say that the allocations that are coming to our provinces are going to assist us. We knew very well, even a year ago, that
as we reprioritise, the economy and the country will never recover in a year or two. It will take some time. That is why we are not surprised because, as the Minister presented the budget ... the focus over the three-year period ... where we are going to be seeing some budget cuts. It is a reality that we are faced with and it’s not because we cannot manage or govern. The reality is that there is an economic decline.
We have provided our people with some relief. That is why we don’t want to say that the R350 social relief grant our people are receiving is an insult. It will never be an insult to other communities because there are really needy people, House
... My apologies, Deputy Chair of the NCOP ... which ... It puts something on the table because some of these community members are really unemployed. There is no money to buy anything. So that money goes a long way.
As we are here today, we really support Budget Vote No 19 that has been delivered and we are saying, Minister, we are going to make sure that the national democratic revolution, as adopted by the ANC, to transform society and liberate the black ... and Africans in particular and deliver them from the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. We have also emphasised our focus on poor and vulnerable persons and
that we should regard ourselves as a department that has to deliver.
The introduction of the basic income grant has become an urgent consideration for the ANC-led government. To this end, the department has developed the basic income grant discussion document in which we say that we have started consultation and that we are developing targeting mechanisms to identify unemployed youth and also our older people in our population between the ages of 19 and 59 years. We will continue with the supplementary basic income grant processes at Nedlac because the reality is that there is an economic decline, there are no job opportunities and we need to have something on the table.
We are very grateful that various political parties in their different formations have come forward to support the re- opening of the basic income grant initiative so that we can create a safety net for the unemployed. This is a milestone.
We acknowledge the social protection programme for the vulnerable which includes programmes such as early childhood development. This programme will be moving from the Department of Social Development to the department of education. That is
one of the programmes that assists our kids at that developmental stage.
The Victim Empowerment Centres, the gender-based violence and femicide, the substance abuse ... there is a lot that these social protection programmes deal with because there are a lot of challenges and social ills within our society. Working together with our NPOs, our NGOs and our communities we will win this battle. The battle is not just about government providing, but also about communities and various sectors coming on board.
The South African democratic government calls on all sectors of the state to revisit policies and approaches to demonstrate commitment to the transformation and change towards a truly democratic society. Community development has been institutionalised in the Department of Social Development through a 1997 White Paper on Social Welfare. The White Paper provides the overall framework and instruments needed to transform the welfare services in our country towards a developmental system that facilitates the development of human capacity and self-reliance within a caring an enabling socioeconomic environment.
The Constitution mandates the Department of Social Development to provide leadership in social development issues both from the specific and sector-wide perspectives. A social development approach is characterised by two features, namely social protections and social investment. Hence we are saying, working with all the sectors and businesses, it is everybody’s business.
The social protection agenda includes safety nets of welfare services, and risk prevention through provision of cash transfers to the needy and most vulnerable groups. We have seen that cash transfers have been abused and we are happy, Minister, that you are putting in place systems which send the message that, where there is wrongdoing, there will be consequence management.
Social investment focusses on the building of capacity and strengthening of social networks which exist within our communities while addressing the immediate needs of our people whom we should be assisting.
As I conclude, I want to say that we support Budget Vote 19 that was delivered here today. We call on big business to come and assist us in the implementation of their corporate social
investment programmes in the communities where they mine, like in our case in Mpumalanga where they can contribute so that it’s everybody’s business that we deal with all social ills within our communities. Thank you.
The DEPUTY MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Minister of Social Development, Mme [Ms] Zulu, hon Ministers and Deputy Ministers present, hon members, hon MECs, distinguished guests and the rest of Mzansi [South Africa], good evening.
We’d like to, first of all, give thanks to the team Deputy Minister for their stress and half the time tears that they put in their work. We thank the Minister of Social Development for the unwavering support, the acting Director-General, Linton Mchunu, team Department of Social Development, all the non-profit organisations, NPOs, all community-based organizations and civil society in general, that continues to support social development in service delivery.
Allow me, Chairperson, to appreciate the fact that I need to also to give thanks and gratitude to God almighty who continues to make it possible for me to serve South Africa,
the ANC for the deployment and President Ramaphosa for his confidence in our abilities.
For us let’s just look at what the Bible, which is our blueprint, remind us that service is a real honour and indeed, a privilege; and when you’re given those responsibilities you owe it first and foremost to god and the people you need to serve.
When we look at South Africa’s children we continue, ourselves, as we’ve heard along all the speeches since the different debates started, that children in South Africa remain very vulnerable and as social development we are the custodian of the foster care system where, unfortunately, very painfully so, a lot of South African children find themselves in the foster care system when their parents are still alive due to a number of reasons that could have been prevented.
So, we would like to call on South Africans that are interested in the foster care system to please register on our different platforms as foster care parents so that we are able to implement the processes that’s going to ensure that they are able to qualify.
But we also want to say to South Africa, despite the budget cuts we will be digitizing our foster care system so that we are able to monitor, especially given the fact that we remain responsible at the High Court to meeting the court judgement.
Allow me, Chairperson, to also affirm, it is very true that for the first time social workers that are accredited in government, working for the state, will be able to provide adoption services as we improve services in that regard. As the custodian of the intercountry adoption register, but as well as responsible for adoption services, we want to ensure that we can go digital on that as well because that will increase and reduce half the time. Not only for adoptive parents but also for children who turn 18 and would like to access the details of their parents.
For other people we end up paying more than R300 000 just for being able to give a child a home. With social workers from the state we are improving that service and making sure that those who want to be adoptive parents don’t have to pay a lot of money to be able to give children a home.
But we also would like to improve our reporting systems so that South Africa remain fully aware of where our children
are, in which countries and reaffirm and confirm that we only participate and allow citizens that are outside of South Africa that are members of The Hague Convention only, to actually adopt South Africa’s children.
But we also want to confirm that our membership in the International Social Service enables us to fast-track intercountry adoptions while at the same time keep track of where our children are, that are adopted outside our borders.
The Minister already alluded to the transfer of Early Childhood Development, ECD, to basic education. But I wish to reaffirm, it’s not going to be ‘thank you, take, hamba [go]’, no, it’s going to be a process that’s not going to take not a year, not two years, not three years, because children’s rights are absolute rights and by virtue you don’t just dump them somewhere and walkaway.
We still calling on those running ECDs to please continue to register on our Vangasali campaign. We remain committed as social development to train our practitioners and we thank National Development Agency, NDA, for all of the different courses that they run for our practitioners, with the very special focus on the classroom practise because that enables
us to actually be assured that children are taught the curriculum that government has approved.
But above all, I would like to call on provinces to ensure that they spend to the last cent the conditional grants for ECD allocated to provinces.
It’s very important for us just to remind South Africa that social development is among the provinces that have the concurrent function and we set the norms and standards, make the policies, but we expect provinces, led by MECs, to implement our services to the best of their abilities. And I wish to express our sincere thanks to teams in the provinces, district offices, local service points, who continue to work tirelessly to provide the multiple services that social development require.
Deputy Chairperson, allow me to just remind South Africans that the rights of persons with disabilities has moved to the Presidency, however, the services to persons with disabilities remains with social development. We would like to confirm that before the end of this financial year. We will be able to actually launch the policy on respite care, taking into consideration the services that children with disabilities and
adults with severe and multiple disabilities need and the pressure the families find themselves in.
We also need to confirm that independent living remains a very critical service delivery point and in partnership with human settlements we have finalised the policy and we are looking forward to ensuring that persons with disabilities would also receive that, that they are entitled to. But not just receive a Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, house, but receive a fully accessible RDP house.
We remain committed to transforming the workshops for persons with disabilities that used to be self-help organizations to become cooperatives where persons with disabilities can actually ensure that their skills are showcased and they are able to live beyond the SA Social Security Agency, SASSA, disability grant.
HIV/Aids remains one of our biggest challenges, and in terms of the National Development Plan, NDP, we are supposed to get to zero new HIV infections by 2030.
We thank the national SA Aids Council for the extension of the national strategy plan where the national Department of Social
Development and its own concurrent functions are actually responsible for the implementation of the Hole 4, which is the Social and Structural Drivers. We remain committed to preventing HIV and we do that in a number of programmes of which today we will not go into the detail, except to indicate that we have the community care centres where we have now ensured that we have only have two outstanding in the province in Limpopo, that is under construction. And we thank the NPOs that continue to run the community care centres very successfully.
We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the people and the government of Germany through the German Development Bank, for them continuing to actually assist us as the department to look at programmes for orphaned and vulnerable children. We remain committed to changing the lives of these children, but also capacitating the organizations that provide such services.
Our social behavioural change remains our priority, a programme where we look at programmes such as ‘ke moja’, ‘families’ matters’, ‘men and boys championing change’, the rock leadership that continues to reaffirm the importance on the dignity of traditional leaders because without them, we
come and go as politicians, but they are the rock leaders that we, as the department, are currently training for five days throughout the country including the kings and queens, our tribal councils, iinduna, dikgosi le dikgosana, to make sure that they will be able to be meaningful partners.
We appreciate, obviously, the reduction of stigma through our village to village programme led by traditional leaders: community care enhancement programmes, ‘chomi’ for our 10 to 14-year-olds and ‘yolo’ for our 15 to 24-year-olds. These programmes remain very important weapons in our hands as the department to prepare South Africa’s future and ensure that South Africa would remain a country with the future.
We have finalized and launched the national drug masterplan which remains South Africa’s blueprint and we also have ensured that the central drug authority, was inaugurated by the Minister. We welcome Mme Mayathula-Khoza for leading the central drug authority and ensuring that South Africa’s drug policy is going to be led and be based on human rights basis.
Our fight and our recognition of our struggles with people who use drugs, we want to confirm that we have launched the South African network for people who use drugs because to us as
social development self-representation remains non-negotiable and it is time that we understand that people who use drugs must and have to have a say in programmes that affect them.
We committed, through the Presidential Joint Commission, to get to zero new Hepatitis C within our communities, especially those who are intravenous drug users and in partnership with the government of Egypt we will improve our services relating to Hepatitis C.
We hoping that we will be rolling out a number of harm reduction strategies as outlined in the drug masterplan. Because harm reduction remains a very, very important intervention in our fight against drugs.
We can confirm that, now, as said in the previous budgets, we have opened all our drug rehabilitation facilities and all our nine provinces have drug rehabilitation facilities; with the last drug rehab facility opened in the Free State and we still appreciate the undying spirit of Mme Charlotte Maxeke. And we hope this centre coming online will increase our bed capacity.
The one thing we’ve learned from covid is that we need to
improve nutrition, and we continue to rollout community
nutrition development centres and the budget for that has been evolved to provinces as the implementing arm of the concurrent function. We calling on provinces to ensure that we can increase these centres and ensure that the most vulnerable members of South Africa’s society are able to access these.
We will continue to rollout our One Garden One Household programme and ensuring that we can make agriculture cool and funky for young people because today we thank the NDA because they continue to help us to rollout the hydro-conics, the aero-conics and the aqua-conics. And for as long as it can put food on the table, we are ready as the Department of Social Development to try it out so that more young people can come on board and actually ensure that we are a food secure country.
Gender-based violence and femicide, GBVF, remains a headache for all of us. It’s no longer time for us to say ‘this one, that one’, but it is time for us to ensure that victims are actually supported and empowered. And we hope that Parliament would ensure that the Victim Empowerment Bill, that is before Parliament, is passed and we congratulate and thank the NA for passing the three Bills and we are looking forward to the NCOP’s concurrence in this regard.
Sheltering services remain a challenge. As the numbers go up we begin to experience challenges. We calling on South Africans to, first and foremost, support our shelters and the NPOs that run them on our behalf.
We thank the Department of Justice and government for continuing to ensure that social development accesses the Criminal Assets Recovery, CARA, and we thank the National Development Agency for having ensured the funds are distributed accordingly. We also thank the NPOs that received the funds and we hope they will use it for that which they have been funded for.
Sectoral work remains very important in our work as social development. We want to continue to say older are at the centre of our work. Covid has shown us that our 60-plus, our go-getters, our active agers, and all of us call on them to continue to register and for all of us to assist our older persons to register for covid vaccination. For us as social development they are an important, important, important partner because without our older persons the number of orphans and vulnerable children will be at the very, very high.
As we live healthy and as the Department of Health works tirelessly to increase our lifespan, we need to make sure that geriatric care is at the centre so that we actually understand the impact of ageing so that we can predetermine and plan programmes that will intervene in Alzheimer’s and dementia because as people we don’t understand these diseases. We also need to encourage a lot of young people to become gerontologists and for our universities to promote this course as the more we live longer the more we need experts that understand ageing, the process of ageing, the care that’s required, but that can also cost services to older persons so that we can enjoy our golden years.
Chairperson, as I conclude allow me to say, being given the opportunity to lead South Africa’s most vulnerable is indeed an honour and privilege. Having a team that’s committed to making the difference in South Africa remains a real privilege.
We give praise and honour to each and every South African who, through covid, has shown us that together we can do more.
We also thank South Africans for the partnership that they continue to show us, where we run short we thank you for your
understanding, where we excel we thank you for the feedback and where we are unable to reach we promise to do better next time.
At the end it’s not about what you have or even what you have accomplished, it’s about who you have lifted up, who you have made better, it’s about what you have given back; and this reminder comes from Denzel Washington, one of my favourite actors.
Deputy Chairperson, we present budget vote 19 and we looking forward to the partnership, the commitment of members in holding us accountable, but we also commit in developing monitoring and evaluation systems that are responsive to enable us, whether it’s through SASSA, NDA, the social council, the central drug authority, each and every entity, through the three spheres of government and through our most, most ward-based services, we remain committed to doing different. For our tagline says: Together creating, caring, self-sustainable communities. We remain committed to making sure that it happens and we thank the ANC for giving us the opportunity.
Thank you very much, Minister, for your leadership; and to team, we appreciate you. Thank you, Chairperson. [Applause.]
Mr M BARA: Thank you, Deputy Chair. Let me appreciate how you pronounce my name eloquently, yes, I’m Mbulelo. Deputy Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister and members of the House, it’s a great pleasure to participate in this particular debate wherein we kind of look at what could be done better in ensuring that we have a stronger and a department that responds to the challenges that we are confronted with. We are meeting at a time when there’s a lot of strain on the social grants budget for reasons beyond the control of the department, but also departmental factors. The coronavirus is one of the key reasons that we find ourselves in this situation, but budget cuts plays a significant role as well. However, there are other factors such as corruption and maladministration that also adds to this strain.
Unemployment has risen to 32,6% in the first quarter of 2021. The number of unemployed people increased by 8 000 to
7,2 million, employment fell by 28 000 to 15 million and the labour force went down by 20 000 to 22,2 million. The expanded definition of unemployment including people who have stopped looking for work was at 43,2% up from 42,6 in the prior
period. The youth unemployment rate measuring job seekers between 15 and 24 years old kicked a new record high of 63,3% according to the Statistics SA. This is now the situation, Deputy Chairperson, that we are confronted with. Deputy Chairperson, we are in trouble if we are not looking for solution on how to improve this situation we find ourselves in. We are in trouble if we are not really looking at how best we can rescue the Department of Social Development from those who steal from it through corruption and self-feeding mechanisms, while ordinary South Africans sleep with nothing on their table.
There are calls that I want to emphasise to the leadership of the Ministry, namely, the Minister, Deputy Minister and the director-general, DG. I want to call upon the Minister Zulu to have an investigation into the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, regarding the contract of R45,6 million that had been awarded to Kwasa Food Suppliers in the Eastern Cape. It was reported that that contract is on hold pending an investigation by the chief executive officer, CEO, of Sassa.
However, it will be great to get this from the Minister. We also want to call upon the Minister and the government to find ways and means to continue with the R350 Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress grant. We acknowledge that the R350 is not
enough, but living without it under this high unemployment rate will increase hunger for the high number of the poor and the unemployed in South Africa. This also speaks about the desperation that South Africans are facing that R350 a month is what they dependent on. Having said, that it is quite fundamentally important that the department quickly deals with investigations on 67 000 people who have illegally received these grants while not entitled to. It is highly criminal and inhumane for people taking what is entitled to the poor when they do not deserve it. The sooner these individuals are brought to book the better, Minister.
There have been allegations that the South African Post Offices are unable to perform in accordance with master service agreement and service level agreement. Furthermore, there has been allegations that SA Post Office, Sapo, card management is not compliant with banking standards. It is quite important that Sassa ensures that Sapo operates in accordance with master service agreement, MSA, and service level agreement, LSA. It is quite important, Minister, that the government continues to find ways and means to ensure that people get their grants the easiest way possibly. Grant recipients who queue from early hours of the morning and still do not get their grants at the end of the day is quite unfair
and unacceptable. It is quite important and critical that recommendations by the Auditor-General of South Africa to the Department of Social Development are taken up and addressed with immediate effect. One of the key issues raised by the Auditor-General of South Africa, Agsa, is updating data from Home Affairs, Unemployment Insurance Fund, SA Revenue Services and other government institutions. This will help addressing the issue of people double-dipping and thus rendering the department unable to serve the poor and needy South Africans.
It is quite important for the Department of Social Development to continue empowering families and communities to educate them on calling on campaigns. This has to do with alerting youth on the dangers of gangsterism, low budgeting on expenditure for social crime prevention and victim empowerment. This is a worrying trend when the country is confronted with the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide and the high rate of substance abuse. As we ended the third way of coronavirus, it is clear that we are still going to be confronted with more hunger in South Africa. That is why the budget cuts at this point is unacceptable. We however need to be as diligent as we possibly can in spending the little that we have. We cannot afford to be talking about corruption and fruitless expenditure, we need action. Therefore,
Minister, I want to call upon you to make sure that in whatever way South Africans who rely mainly on the R350 for livelihoods that they do get that somehow. So, we must find a way to be of high assistance to them. I thank you so much, Deputy Chairperson.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Hon Nchabeleng? Can you unmute, please? Can you unmute yourself. [Interjections.] It will possibly help us if you switch off the video.
Mr M E NCHABELENG: Yes ... Okay ... [Inaudible.] ... I was going to say that my lighting is compromised here, Chairperson.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I understand.
Mr M E NCHABELENG: Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Ma’am
Lucas, Minister Lindiwe Zulu, Deputy Minister ... [Inaudible.]
... Bogopane-Zulu ... [Inaudible.] ... we are taking the debate forward by raising the bar under the theme, harnessing a functional, efficient, impact-driven and integrated social development ... [Inaudible.] ... its mandate.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Can the Table assist please? [Interjections.] Hon Nchabeleng, we are struggling to
... [Interjections.]
The CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: If you can try to speak directly into the mic and keep the position where it seems like it is working. Yeah! Please urge him to do that.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Thank you, Chairperson, if he is still on the platform we will request that he is advised to use the mic optimally but it seems that we have lost Nchabeleng. We know he is always one of the people that are experiencing problems particularly since we are all struggling with load shedding. We will just try for a minute or two and see whether he is coming back, if not, we will request the Minister to conclude the debate
Adv M PHINDELA – Secretary to the NCOP: Indeed, Deputy Chair, we have lost hon Nchabeleng, he doesn’t seem to be in the virtual House.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: Okay! We know he always has problems with his connectivity. In the past few days, we just got used to him being very present and now it is
happening again. So, hon Minister, will it be possible for you to conclude the debate?
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Yes, hon Deputy
Chairperson, it is possible for me to close the debate.
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I am sorry, my sister, you know with all this technology, we are trying but thank you very much. I think you can conclude the debate now. Thank you.
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Yeah! We are getting there, Chair, we are getting there, Deputy Chairperson because with technology we are all trying to adjust the best way we can and we are hoping that everyone in the near future will be able to easily connect. Firstly, Chairperson, I must thank you and appreciate those members who have supported our Budget Vote, we appreciate their wisdom and understanding of the important role and impact that this department plays in improving the quality of life of our people.
IsiZulu:
Abantu bakithi abantulayo bayazibuza bayaziphendula ngalaba ozakwethu abangahambisani nalesi sabelomali. Kepha-ke
umsebenzi walo mnyango ubalulekile ekuvikeleni nokuthuthukisa izimpilo zabo.
English:
A number of members raised the concern around the employment of social workers ...
IsiZulu:
... name ngivumelana nabo ngoba impela ngokwami ukubona osonhlalakahle kufuneka ngabe sinabo ezitaladini zaseNingizimu Afrika ...
English:
... from house to house, community to community, street to street, so that we are able to fight the social ills. And I agree that we do need to develop a solid and clear plan on this matter and my team will tomorrow be meeting with a number of government departments to take stock of how other departments have taken heed to Cabinet’s decision for all departments to absorb social workers but also to ensure that those who are not to do so as a matter of urgency.
Ideally, the department would want every district to have adequate social workers as a means of being proactive instead
of being reactive to prevent the rising social ills. This is also explicitly articulated in the National Development Plan, NDP. While working with the Council for Social Service Professionals and all other relevant stakeholders to ensure that each ward, each school, each street, has access to the much-needed services of social workers.
We also call upon the private sector to consider absorbing social workers even in their corporates. Hon Christians, you spoke at length about the budget reduction at the Department of Social Development portfolio and we also are concerned about the reduction but we are implementing a number of approaches to augment this reduction, working particularly with the private sector.
As a portfolio, we continue to play a critical role in providing food security interventions to the poorest in society through food parcels, food vouchers, cash, including meals through our Community Nutrition and Development Centres, CNDCs. We've also put in place adequate controls, necessary measures, to avoid corruption, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure and to improve our operating environment to ensure that we provide quality service to all our service recipients.
We also have ensured that we strengthen our system and collaboration with other government departments and agencies for the integration of our system to ensure that we have early detection measures within our administration data system. And hon, Gillion, indeed, the National Development Agency, NDA, mindful of the declining fiscus, however, we are strengthening our strategic partnership with other entities, government departments, the international donor community, and the private sector to augment our support for our programmes. The aim of leveraging these corporate social investments is to focus on critical pathways in the linking of grant beneficiaries to economic opportunities and creating social entrepreneurs, especially with the current job losses. On the SA Social Security Agency, Sassa and the SA Post Office, Sapo side of matters, we are working closely with the Minister of Communications and Digital Technology to ensure that we reduce the challenges experienced by our people and I'm confident we will find workable solutions and ensure that we deliver these services with dignity to our people.
Many members raised the concern about the extension of the Social Relief of Distress grant, SRD, R350 grant, and want to say that this grant has provided excellent lessons for us to use technologies, to expand services to millions of
beneficiaries within a short space of time. The system we have created has enabled us to strengthen our ability to deliver services in a swift and agile manner. All research gathered points to the significant impact this emergency support has made in the lives of our people and the families and has slowed down poverty significantly hence the numerous calls for the extension of this grant including a long-term solution for the provision of income support for ages 18 to 59-year old unemployed citizens through the basic income grant.
And I wish to thank all the members who were supporting the basic income grant because we believe that not only will this support our people but it will also put money in the hands of our people who in turn will go out and purchase local products because many of the people that we have been supporting through R350 have been buying food in the main and the food in the main is locally produced by South Africans.
I also wish to thank, particularly, the Deputy Minister, because if anyone did not catch all the areas that the Deputy Minister covered, the Deputy Minister covered adequately, all the areas that we deal with as the Department of Social Development. And one of the areas that I want to conclude on, Chairperson, is social behavioural change.
Social behavioural change is of importance to us across the board. It's not just about issues of violence against women and children. It is also about all aspects of behavioural change, and if we all collectively can assist our people in ensuring that we have programmes on the ground that respond to behavioural change, working together with the private sector, working together with civil society, I am sure that the behavioural change of South Africans in general, I normally say, it's about the South Africa we want.
Yes, but it is also about the South African who inhabits it who has to change the attitude so that we can see where we going towards the future. I wish, as I conclude, to remind all citizens again, that COVID-19 is here and therefore we must stick to all the protocols. And in particular, those who are gathering in places and dancing on tables and dancing everywhere without wearing masks, they must always understand the fact that as they leave the dancing places they're going back home to their parents, going back home to their grandparents and our call is that they must be sensitive not only to themselves but they must be sensitive to the people they live with. I thank you, Chair. [Applause.]
ILUNGU ELIHLONIPHEKILE: Yebo Ngqongqoshe! [Ubuwelewele.]
The DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON OF THE NCOP: I also want to commend you and your team on the great case you made for the basic income grant before that I had the privilege to listen to. Let me also continue to join those who have been ... [Inaudible.] I had been one of a privileged few that in my life is as a very young girl that could enjoy a tutelage in drama and drama majorettes and whatever that she was interested in, was an interesting person and someone that lived life to the fullest.
We want to join all of you in wishing her soul eternal peace and eternal rest because she was someone that I could look up to as a mentor and particularly as an ambassador for her province. That she tried to do whatever she can to make sure that she also transfers her skills to other young people and to make sure that she served the nation in the capacity that she did. So with that said and done, I wish to thank the Ministers, the two Ministers, Mr Cele and Ms Zulu, as well as the Deputy Ministers, hon Cassel Mathale and hon Bogopane- Zulu.
Today I was very lucky to be presiding in a House sitting where most of the people that I'd be working a long way within all my former deployments and even with Bogopane-Zulu before I've been deployed to any public office. So we want to thank you for availing ourselves to the debate and also for the respect and the reverence paid to the NCOP. We appreciate that.
To all the members, the special delegates and the permanent delegates, and to all the officials and everyone that were part of this plenary session of the NCOP, we want to express our appreciation. Thank you very much. The House stands adjourned.
Debate concluded.
The Council rose at 19:21
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