Questions and Replies

Reply:

a) As indicated in my reply, the Department is finalising the Sector Strategy for Employment of Social Service Professionals in collaboration with provincial departments of social development and other key departments in the social cluster such as Basic Education, Correctional Services and the private sector. The funding bid for the Strategy has been submitted to the National Treasury for consideration in the upcoming Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement.

b) To date, the Strategy has been widely consulted with key structures and will be tabled for Cabinet consideration in the current financial year.

Reply:

1. (a) As guided by national legislation on whistle blowing, the Protected Disclosures Act (Act No. 26 of 2000), the Department and its public entities encourage the public and employees to report all suspected cases of fraud and corruption on available platforms such as the SAPS Crime Stop and the Public Service Commission’s Whistle Blower and Corruption Hotline.

This is to avoid duplication and to ensure suspected cases are reported to relevant law enforcement agencies that have the necessary resources to investigate such cases.

(b) (c)

	Number of reported cases since 2013	Nature of complaint(s)
Social Development	24	NPO corruption, poor governance, conflict in the organisation, fraud, and theft/hijacking of the organisation
National Development Agency	7	Civil society organisations not receiving their training certificates
SASSA	3 262	Fraud and corruption involving social grants

2. (a) reported cases are referred to law enforcement agencies for further investigation and prosecution, where there is enough evidence to do so.

(b) refer to 1 (b) (c)

(c) refer to 2 (a)

Reply:

The Department of Social Development has not opened any bank account with the United States African Development Foundation (USADF).

In relation to (a) this question is not applicable as no bank account has been opened.

In relation to (i) (aa) this question is not applicable as no bank account has been opened.

In relation to (i) (bb), this question is not applicable as no bank account has been opened.

In relation to (b), this question is not applicable as no bank account has been opened.

Reply:

a) (i) In September 2020, the Department of Social Development engaged in a three-year (202-2023) contractual agreement with LSM Communications through a competitive bidding process. The service level agreement encompasses a range of crucial services, including editing, design, layout, printing, finishing, packaging, labelling, and the timely delivery of essential documents such as the DSD Strategic Plan, Annual Performance Plans, Operational Plans, Annual Reports, and CDA Annual reports and the quarterly Social Budget Bulletin.

The rationale behind opting for a multiyear printing contract was rooted in the Department's historical practice of separately commissioning these materials from different service providers. This approach presented several challenges, including difficulties in maintaining uniformity in the visual presentation of these documents, in line with the Department's branding guidelines and guidelines on compilation of strategic plans and APPs. Additionally, it often led to delays in the procurement process due to the Department's limited internal capacity.

By adopting a multiyear contract with LSM Communications, the Department has successfully mitigated the risk of potential delays and inconsistencies in meeting critical deadlines for tabling these strategic documents. The arrangement has not only streamlined the process but also ensured a consistent and timely production of these materials. Furthermore, it has saved the department from the year-in year out cost escalation that comes with inflation adjustment, hence the price is fixed for the duration of the contract.

(ii) (aa) (b) (bb) (c) (cc) (i) (ii) for DSD Refer to the table below:

Financial Year	Total Amount in Rands	Names of suppliers	Total number of copies
(aa) 2020-2021	R372 612,54	LSM COMMUNICATIONS	100 X printed copies 1 X electronic flip book, 3 X Large font, 20 X Braille
(bb) 2021-2022	R372 612,54	LSM COMMUNICATIONS	100 X printed copies 1 X electronic flip book, 3 X Large font, 20 X Braille
(cc) 2022-2023(Yet to be printed by the same Service Provider for the same amount	R372 612,54	LSM COMMUNICATIONS	100 X printed copies 1 X electronic flip book, 3 X Large font, 20 X Braille

(ii) (aa) (b) (bb) (c) (cc) (i) (ii) for the Central Drug Authority refer to the table below:

CDA Financial Year	Total Amount in Rands	Names of suppliers	Total number of copies
(aa) 2020-2021	R372 612,54	LSM COMMUNICATIONS	100 X printed copies 1 X electronic flip book, 3 X Large font, 20 X Braille
(bb) 2021-2022	R372 612,54	LSM COMMUNICATIONS	100 X printed copies 1 X electronic flip book, 3 X Large font, 20 X Braille
(cc) 2022-2023 Not yet printed and will be printed separately by the CDA since it is not part of the existing contract	Not yet printed and will be printed separately by the CDA since it is not part of the existing contract	Not yet printed and will be printed separately by the CDA since it is not part of the existing contract	Not yet printed and will be printed separately by the CDA since it is not part of the existing contract

(ii) (aa) (b) (bb) (c) (cc) (i) (ii) for SASSA refer to the table below:

Financial year	Total Amount in Rands	Names of suppliers	Total number copies printed
2020-21	R296 457.11	45th Media	1000 A4 copies. 1 A3 (large font size). Braille Copy 5 CDs.
2021-22	R237 971.17	45th Media	1000 A4 copies. 1 A3 (large font size). Braille Copy 5 CDs.
2022-23	R203 821.40	Shereno Printers	1000 A4 copies. 1 A3 (large font size). Braille Copy 5 CDs.

(ii) (aa) (b) (bb) (c) (cc) (i) (ii) for NDA refer to the table below:

Financial year	Total Amount in Rands	Names of suppliers	Total number copies printed
2020-21	R147 501-00	Atlarela Consulting	300
2021-22	R78 699-00	Add Markable	300
2022-23			The plan is to print 250 copies

Reply:

(a) Like their global counterparts, South African young people are increasingly using download sites to access video entertainment and social media sites as tools for communication and a source of news and information. Mobile data continues to be the most used means through which South African young people access the internet. Social network platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and twitter have become an integral part of everyday life with over 60% using social media as their primary source of information.

The current audio-visual platform caters to all South Africans, with specific focus on young people. Key features such as video-on-demand, live streaming, podcasts and children’s corner are all targeted at young people.

(b) Yes, the platform is interactive and participatory by enabling users to provide suggestions to ensure meaningful engagement and fresh content.

Reply:

a) For the period under review, the Department provided treatment services to 5 966 children. This number only relates information on children who received treatment services through public treatment centres as guided by the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse.

The actual number is likely to be higher given the prevalence of illegal drugs in South Africa (Act No. 70 of 2008). The Department does not have information on children who receive treatment services from other treatment facilities, including privately-owned rehabilitation centres.

b) The following are the number of children who received treatment services in the past three years, per province:

Province	Financial Years	Children who Received Treatment Services
Eastern Cape	2020/2023	259
Free State Province	2020/2023	51
Gauteng	2020/2023	1889
Kwazulu-Natal	2020/2023	214
Limpopo	2020/2023	150
Mpumalanga	2020/2023	112
North West	2020/2023	156
Northern Cape	2020/2023	52
Western Cape	2020/2023	3 083

Reply:

(1). The COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (cSRD) operates differently to other grants in that applicants are assessed every month to determine if they meet the qualifying criteria. The estimated time a client has to wait each month for his grant to be assessed is 3 weeks or less (depending on the turnaround time for receipt of all databases).

The various databases from other organisations, which are used for the verification of clients are received from the 8th of each month. SASSA is only able to complete the verification process of all clients following receipt of all various databases which is usually by the 3rd week of the specific month. The approved clients are then paid in the following week.

(2). Given the ongoing vulnerability of the beneficiaries to hunger and poverty because of continuing high unemployment and the escalating food prices, the Department is proposing the extension of the cSRD until end of 2025/26 financial year, this will allow the Department to finalize the Basic Income Support (BIS) policy on a more permanent and sustainable intervention. DSD is intending to approach Cabinet to seek approval to publish the draft BIS policy for public comments in the current financial year.

 

Reply:

All September 2023 payments to social grants recipients were made.

a) Postbank has assured the Department that they have implemented the following measures in relation to the October 2023 social grants payments preparations.

• Enhanced monitoring mechanisms to track the payment process in real-time.
• Strengthened their technical infrastructure to handle higher transaction volumes, ensuring swift and uninterrupted disbursements.
• Engaged specialists for a comprehensive review of their system and to continuously rectify any vulnerabilities.

(b) The new payment system was tested in accordance with acceptable industry system testing protocols including Component Integration Testing (CIT), System Integration Testing (SIT) and Industry Testing prior to system go-live.

National Assembly written Reply: 3106 of 2023

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

a) The National and Provincial Departments allocate funds to NGOs that render prevention and support services to survivors of violence and crime, including gender-based violence as guided by Pillar 4 of the National Strategic Plan on GBVF. These are inclusive of those rendering immediate response services, shelter ss well as psycho-social support services.

In addition, the department has formed strategic partnerships with a number of funders such as the Global Fund, NEDLAC, Solidarity Fund, European Union, SANAC and the HWSETA. These partners availed resources for the recruitment, training and appointment of the different cadres such as volunteers, social workers and coordinators to provide and increase provision of psycho-social support services across the country. Refer to the table below for the budget allocation for implementation of Pillar 4: Response, Care, Support and Healing:

ITEMS	AMOUNT APPROX.
Criminal and Asset Recovery Account (CARA)	R 100 MIL
Global Fund/NACOSA	R 19.6 Mil
VEP Good and Services	R 16 Mil
GBVF Ambassadors HWSETA	R 4,3 Mil
Transfer Payments to National NGOs	R 4.2 Mil
Overall	R 144,1 Mil

b) There are many successes, including:

• Intersectoral Shelter Policy and Policy on Provision of Psycho-Social Support Services). Both policies are meant to standardise and strengthening services offered to victims of Gender Based Violence and Femicide. All nine provinces were reached through capacity building on both policies targeting different stakeholders including those from the JCPS Cluster.

• In partnership with the HWSETA, DSD secured a budget of 4.3 mil for the appointment and capacity building of GBVF ambassadors deployed in the thirty (30) National GBVF hotspots found in six (6) provinces which are (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, and North West)

• Ensured increased capacity in response, care, support and healing services through the facilitation of the establishment of shelters for abused women as part of response and prevention interventions that address socio-economic needs of women within shelters in the Free State (QwaQwa, Sasolburg and Koffiefontein).

• A partnership has been established between the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to identify public facilities that are re-purposed for use as shelters for GBV survivors. To date, a total of 95 public facilities have been earmarked for this purpose.

• Provided funding to 332 NGOs rendering psychosocial support services through transfer payments and CARA funding.

• Successfully appointed permanently over 200 Social Workers across all nine provinces to deal specifically with GBV cases. Through the Global Fund, the Department was able to deploy on contract 65 Social Workers dealing with GBV cases in the 30 National GBVF hotspots. The Department has also capacitated frontline workers including those from the NGOs in all nine provinces on GBV-related matters.

Reply:

1. (a) i and ii and (b) See Annexure 1

2. (a) i and ii and (b) See Annexure 2 (limited by the POPI Act we have as such provided office contact details of the various positions in the different offices)

3. (a) i and ii See Annexure 3

(b) There is progress currently in filling of vacancies across all regions in adherence with HR processes. Positions are advertised and filled as determined by the Critical Post Committee (CPC) within the limited available budget.

4. (a) and (b) refer to the table below:

EC Region payment trends
	202309
Methods of payment	Sum of Number Of Beneficiaries	Sum Amount
ABSA BANK	86,153	R153,674,039.00
ACCESS BANK (SOUTH AFRICA	3,461	R7,262,323.00
AFRICAN BANK	13,285	R23,285,919.00
BIDVEST BANK	5,897	R9,656,835.00
CAPITEC BANK	373,155	R561,245,938.00
DISCOVERY BANK	22	R38,179.00
FINBOND MUTUAL	5,646	R11,303,171.00
FINBOND NET1	208	R360,921.00
FIRSTRAND BANK	141,267	R261,672,748.00
GRINDROD BANK	186,623	R303,855,833.00
INVESTEC BANK LTD	4	R7,980.00
ITHALA	57	R113,380.00
NEDBANK LIMITED	94,238	R165,479,761.00
POSTBANK	730,238	R1,088,461,320.00
IGPS	726,294	R1,081,926,187.00
MZANSI	3,944	R6,535,133.00
STANDARD SA	90,869	R164,139,097.00
TYMEBANK	8,751	R12,429,224.00
Grand Total	1,739,874	R2,762,986,668.00

Reply:

a) It is important to put the backlog into context. The current medical assessment backlog in the Western Cape comprises of persons who wish to apply for a disability-related grant for the first time, applications that have been previously rejected and or persons who were granted temporary Disability Grant (TDG).

To address the shortage of assessment doctors, SASSA WC has since inception, entered into Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) with all districts of the Provincial Department of Health for the provision of medical assessment services. The implementation of the SLA Provincial is hampered by the shortage of doctors and other health practitioners who can perform proper medical assessments.

b) In July this year, SASSA embarked on a procurement process for Independent Health Practitioners. An advert for a three (3) year tender was issued with a closing date of 14th July 2023. SASSA WC is in the process of issuing award letters to fourteen (14) successful bidders. The appointed doctors will be provided with schedules to speed up medical assessments, with specific focus on areas where the need for medical assessments remain high.

Reply:

The Child Support Grant was introduced specifically to ensure the best interest of the child at all times and to address child poverty, including malnutrition and stunting. The person who receives the CSG must be the primary caregiver of the child.

We encourage members of the public to report cases of the abuse of the CSG SASSA and social workers who will investigate and based on the findings, the grant may then be transferred to a new primary caregiver.

The Department has developed draft policies on integration of children’s grants with other services and maternal support. The two draft policies emphasise the need of building linkages between children’s grants and other developmental services for children amongst others education, health and early childhood development. We are currently preparing to initiate Cabinet approval processes for the policy, which will be followed by amendment of relevant legislation to enable the Department to share data with the Department of Health and Basic Education, amongst others. In this manner, the Department will be empowered to monitor and track health indicators including the prevention of stunting.

Reply:

1. As the Honourable Member is aware, the Department has facilitated a number of meetings between the identified communities, including Mitchells Plain and potential funders such as the World Food Programme and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA), with the view to support socio-economic projects targeting women, youth and persons with disabilities.

These projects identified for potential funding by development agencies that we work closely with include the peanut butter manufacturing cooperative in KwaZulu-Natal and the group of women interested in textile at Mitchells Plain. The partner organisations have taken keen interest in these projects as they have a huge potential to create sustainable job opportunities and to economically empower both women and youth.

2. Yes, during the Women’s Month I partnered with the National House of Traditional and Kho-San Leaders (NHTKL) focusing on youth and women empowerment programmes at Magadimana Ntweng Traditional Authority in Limpopo Province. We are looking at implementing a number of youth and women empowerment projects in the area.

Reply:

a) In line with Section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Social Assistance Act makes provision for all eligible persons to receive the necessary support in the form of social grants. SASSA has a national footprint, and any homeless person can approach the Agency personally to apply for social assistance. Non-Profit Organisations supporting homeless people could also direct them to SASSA offices for assistance.

The Department is in the process of establishing a Joint Technical Working Team, comprising of the Department of Home Affairs and SASSA to deal with identity documents challenges for social grant beneficiaries, including people living and working on the streets. A 2-year strategy is being developed that will enable the three institutions to work jointly to expedite birth registration and or ID applications of all beneficiaries on the alternative identity system.

b) The process of developing the policy on homeless has commenced guided by the diagnostic study on homelessness. The Draft Policy is envisaged to be in place by the end of the current financial year (2023/24). The consultation process will commence during 2024/2025.

Reply:

a) The Postbank currently provides banking accounts and cards to approximately 5.3 million SASSA beneficiaries. All the cards that are affected by the December deadline will be replaced as part of the Card Replacement Project Plan. The number of beneficiaries fluctuates on a daily basis as many beneficiaries have opted to migrate to other banks.

i) and (ii) Postbank has not provided details at the time of responding to this question.

b) Postbank has a phased-in Card Replacement Project Plan as follows:

• Phase 1: will focuses on SASSA regions with the largest number of beneficiaries (KZN, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga), which account for 76% of the SASSA customer base.

• Phase 2: will focus on SASSA regions with the least number of beneficiaries (Western Cape, North West, Free State and Northern Cape), which account for 24% of the SASSA customer base

• As a contingency measure, Postbank is engaging with VISA and the South African Reserve Bank to extend the validity of cards as a contingency in the event cards cannot be distributed to all customers within the said deadline.

Reply:

1. SASSA suspended outreach programmes during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the national state of disaster regulations. Subsequent to the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, SASSA gradually commenced with restoring all direct client services. To date, the Integrated Community Registration Outreach Programme (ICROP) is being implemented by local offices in all nine provinces.

2. Refer to Annexure A

(a) The government wide cuts to the Compensation of Employees (COE) budgets across Government has adversely the filing positions within SASSA. SASSA continues to prioritise the filling of funded posts, with specific focus on front- line staff (based at local offices) with the limited resources allocated each financial year. SASSA is also looking at innovative ways (including digitisation of certain functions) to reduce the demand for direct interaction with clients. In addition to this, it is important for the Honourable to note:

• Currently there are 7 433 posts filled. Of this number, 4 994 (67%) of the are based at local office layer, which forms part of the front-line staff;

• Filling of some of the posts has been put on hold due to the Business Process Re-Engineering currently underway. This might result in the adoption of a new organisational structure in line with the strategic plan.

• The National Treasury’s Cost Containment Circular directs all departments and agencies, SASSA included, to absorb the wage bills from their respective allocation of the Compensation of Employees budget.

(b) Refer to (a) and (b) above.

(c) Refer to 1 above. The implementation of ICROP is ongoing and SASSA utilises local media, including community radio stations and tribal councils to inform local communities.

• Breakdown of the filling of posts within the Local Offices in each SASSA Regional Office:

REGION	2020/2021 FY	2021/2022 FY	2022/2023 FY	2023/2024 FY
	FILLED LOCAL OFFICE POSTS	APPROVED FUNDED VACANCIES - LOCAL OFFICE	TERMINATIONS	FILLED LOCAL OFFICE POSTS	APPROVED FUNDED VACANCIES - LOCAL OFFICE	TERMINATIONS	FILLED LOCAL OFFICE POSTS	APPROVED FUNDED VACANCIES - LOCAL OFFICE	TERMINATIONS	FILLED LOCAL OFFICE POSTS	APPROVED FUNDED VACANCIES - LOCAL OFFICE	RECOMMEDED (STILL TO BE APPROVED)	TERMINATIONS
EC	875	14	47	885	12	32	885	5	35	867	3	11	12
FS	336	4	10	306	10	15	311	2	10	302	2	6	4
GP	644	13	16	624	5	19	611	4	18	603	3	8	7
KZN	1148	22	52	1112	45	26	1102	4	25	1095	3	17	8
LP	629	16	29	604	12	21	581	5	24	575	4	13	4
MP	343	6	9	350	14	4	343	6	8	340	4	6	4
NW	464	14	12	453	4	10	437	1	25	434	3	7	2
NC	281	7	7	280	14	11	273	10	12	271	4	3	2
WC	569	16	24	535	10	11	518	9	18	507	7	3	11
Grand Total	5289	112	206	5149	126	149	5061	46	175	4994	33	74	54

(b) All services have been restored post COVID.

(c) The schedule for community outreaches are planned with key local stakeholders through the various local stakeholder forums; who also assists with informing the communities on the planned activities. SASSA also conducts “loud hailing” before the outreach.

Reply:

a) The matter is currently receiving attention from myself and the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies to ensure there is no recurrence. To date, all failed transactions have been corrected.

b) The matter related to compensation, if any, will be discussed as part of the Service Level Agreement between SASSA and Postbank. I therefore, do not want to pre-empt the outcome of this process at this stage.

 

Reply:

a) There are approximately 5.3 million cards due for replacement by 31 December 2023.

(i) The regional breakdown is as per table below:

PROVINCE	Beneficiary Volume
KWAZULU NATAL	1 120 702
GAUTENG	975 063
EASTERN CAPE	745 994
LIMPOPO	717 656
MPUMALANGA	490 188
WESTERN CAPE	484 131
NORTH WEST	331 618
FREE STATE	323 604
NORTHERN CAPE	110 542
GRAND TOTAL	5 299 499

(ii) The table below illustrates the grant type affected by the December deadline:

PROVINCE	Care Dependency Grant (CDG)	Child Support Grant (CSG)	Foster Child Grant	Combination of CDG & FCG	Disability Grant	Old Age Grant	War Veteran Grant	Grand Total
KWAZULU NATAL	11 634	712 022	8 945	204	72 710	265 839	1	1 071 355
GAUTENG	9 331	648 802	10 966	210	41 916	315 252	2	1 026 479
EASTERN CAPE	7 677	488 694	16 082	378	58 151	226 837		797 819
LIMPOPO	5 339	427 652	10 068	143	34 113	222 683		699 998
MPUMALANGA	5 057	338 979	6 671	125	34 974	138 790		524 596
WESTERN CAPE	5 682	311 996	5 695	187	36 214	148 245	2	508 021
NORTH WEST	2 482	189 266	4 662	89	17 181	101 027	1	314 708
FREE STATE	3 463	211 542	5 522	160	26 261	94 629		341 577
NORTHERN CAPE	1 311	65 481	1 610	80	9 794	30 022	1	108 299
Grand Total	51 976	3 394 434	70 221	1 576	331 314	1 543 324	7	5 392 852

b) Work is currently underway to meet the December deadline and Postbank will make necessary information available to the public.

c) Refer to (b) above.

d) I cannot pre-empt the outcome of a procurement process of the Postbank. This is an administrative process that does not involve the Executive Athority.

e) Refer to (d) above.

Reply:

1.(a) The system glitch, which resulted in payment delays affected approximately six hundred thousand (3%) of social grants beneficiaries who access their monies through the Postbank.

(i) The system glitch affected Postbank clients randomly across all the provinces. At the time of responding to this question, Postbank was conducting a proper analysis of province-specific data.

(ii) The system glitch occurred predominantly on the first day of September payment cycle, which is the pay day for the payment of Old Age Grant.

(b) and (c) The glitch within the Postbank banking system was caused by the concentrated load capacity challenge resulting in intermittent timeouts, further complicated by a failure in the auto reversal process.

(d) Postbank reported there were various attempts to defraud the system. At the time of responding to this question, we did not receive any detailed information on this matter.

(e)Matters related to penalties, if any, are covered in the Service Level Agreement between SASSA and Postbank and will be discussed at the appropriate time.

(f) As I have mentioned on many occasions, SASSA clients have the right to choose any bank into which their money will be paid, including Postbank. All clients’ requests to change bank account details are initiated by the client and processed as quickly as possible. SASSA has put in place additional resources to accommodate the increased demand for alternative banks.

(2) neither SASSA nor the Department has any direct dealings with retailers. Retailers are places where clients purchase goods and/ or exchange funds. SASSA continues to conduct beneficiary education that they do not have to withdraw their money as they can use their cards to transact like any other ordinary bank card.

(3) Yes, SASSA uses this platform to communicate directly with beneficiaries on matters related to the administration of grants. However, with regard to the system glitch SASSA could not use this platform as it does not have access to beneficiary bank accounts.

Reply:

The Department of Basic Education leads the implementation of Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) working in collaboration with other relevant government departments, including DSD. This is an integrated programme with a number of interventions aimed at prevention and early intervention services for vulnerable children.

RISIHA, a community-based prevention programme works closely with local schools and assist in early identification of children in need of care and support services and complements other government interventions such as Safety Ambassadors at schools.

Reply:

a) For the period under review, approximately 701 suspected cases of fraud cases were detected, investigated, involving 40 SASSA who were implicated to the potential loss of R50 515 541.34. It is important to note that this figure represents a cumulative potential loss documented for the said period involving various other parties not limited to SASSA officials.

These cases ranged from fraudulent collection of grant funds intended for deceased individuals, the submission of disability grant applications with falsified medical information, and the illicit collection of child support grants.

Of the total suspected cases of fraud detected for the period in question, 698 were finalised while 3 are still under investigation. A total of 37 cases were referred to law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation and prosecution.

The notable surge in detection of fraudulent cases can be attributed to SASSA’s anti-corruption strategy.

b) Disciplinary processes in the public service are guided by Chapter 7 of the SMS Handbook (March 2021) as well as the Disciplinary Code (Resolution 1 of 2003). Several sanctions may be issued such as warning letters, suspension, demotion etc. However; the regulations preclude financial recovery of a loss which occurred as a result of fraud that may have arisen through the conduct of the official.

c) The table below provides information on consequence management:

REGION	NUMBER OF CASES	CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMEMENT MEASURES IMPLEMENTED AGAINST IMPLICATED OFFICIALS AND SANCTIONS
Eastern Cape	19	4 x Withdrawn 3 x Pending 1 x Not Guilty 1 x Demotion + Final Written Warning 2 x Suspension without pay + Final Written Warning 8 x Written Warning
Free State	3	2 x Pending 1 x Written Warning + Referral to Employee Assistance Programme
Gauteng	3	2 x Dismissal 1 x Written Warning (Informal discipline)
KwaZulu Natal	15	10 x Pending 2 x Final Written Warning 1 x Dismissal 1 x Written Warning 1 x Not Guilty
Limpopo	10	1 x Withdrawn 5 x Suspension without pay + Final Written Warning 1 x Dismissal 1 x Demotion + Final Written Warning 1 x Not Guilty 1 x Resigned
Mpumalanga	17	1 x Written warning 9 x Final Written Warning 7x pending
North West	5	1 x Withdrawn 1 x Written Warning 2 x Financial Written Warning + Counseling 1 x Suspension without pay + Final Written Warning
Northern Cape	2	2 x Suspension without pay + Final Written Warning
Western Cape	10	1 x Written Warning 9 x Pending

Disciplinary actions were instituted against 74 officials, and 10 officials. Sanctions vary from written warning to dismissal. A total number of 62 cases have been finalised and 22 are in progress. It should also be noted that some fraud cases are being investigated or handled by external or third parties like SIU, Public Protector, National Treasury and SAPS.

Reply:

(a) There are 28 social workers appointed in the first Quarter (01 April – 31 June 2023).

(b) The current total number of social workers employed across government is 17 571.

 

Reply:

a) Teenage pregnancy is a crosscutting issue that no single department or entity can resolve on its own. Government has developed the Integrated School Health Programme (ISHP) championed by the Departments of Basic Education and Health. As part of the multisectoral strategy, DSD developed its own social behaviour change and prevention programme, which is implemented in schools across all 52 districts. The programme brings together all key partners—family, community, NGOs and faith-based organisations to comprehensively address this matter.

b) The services that the Department renders are guided by the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Departments of Health and Basic Education. Services include social workers collaborating with educators to identification and early interventions for learners in need of care and support and attending to referrals made by School Health Teams or School Based Support Teams.

Specific interventions include the implementation of Social and Behaviour Change programmes in schools, such as, You Only Live Once (YOLO) and ChommY that are school-based programmes. These programmes seek to create a safe and enabling environment in which young people can safely engage in discussion about HIV prevention and teenage pregnancy, and where positive values and quality decisions related to the sexuality of young people can emerge.

Information sharing, communication and awareness-facilitating dialogues with children and parents (in and out of school) through the Families Matter Programme, school debates on teenage pregnancy and its implications, as well as what could be done to curb teenage pregnancy.

National Assembly written Reply: 2580 of 2023

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) play a vital role in the provision of services uplift communities throughout the country. The advantage of working with NGOs is that they have a wider reach and respond directly to the needs of communities in which they operate.

Due to financial constraints, the Department of Social Development can only provide financial support to a limited number of NGOs. Currently, the Department spends over 7 billion in financial support to NGOs across the country. While this is not enough to meet the growing need for funding on the ground, it keeps many NGOs running and enables them to continue providing the much-needed services in their communities.

The Department also provides capacity building and grant funding to NGOs through the National Development Agency (NDA). Through strategic partnerships with development agencies and private sector, the Department mobilises resources to support NGOs.

 

National Assembly written Reply: 2544 of 2023

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. No, the Department of Social Development does not maintain a database of persons with disabilities in need of assistive devices, including wheelchairs because that is the primary mandate of the Department of Health as per the National Rehabilitation Policy. However, the Department provides a collaborative process through its social workers, auxiliary social workers and supported NGOs that render social work and support services to vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities.
2. No, refer to the reply above. The Department funds and supports NGOs providing social work and support services to persons with disabilities.
3. As guided by the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Department collaborates with other departments, including the Departments of Health, Basic Education and Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities to ensure a whole-of-Government and society approach to disability mainstreaming.

National Assembly written Reply: 2630 of 2023

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. (a) The tool will contribute towards strengthening child protection system as data collected will enable the Department to identify current strengths, opportunities, gaps and limitations on the protection processes or mechanisms undertaken. The tool act as a yardstick as it measures if the desired outcomes of the intersectoral protocol have been achieved.

b) The tool will improve monitoring and evaluation of services rendered whilst also standardising reporting on the different pillars of the monitoring tool. The outcomes and impact of the monitoring tool is measured through the analysis of the provincial reports submitted by provinces on quarterly basis.

c) The Children’s Act 38/2005, section 4 and 5, promotes the Intersectoral collaboration in rendering Child Protection Services, in an integrated, coordinated, and uniform manner.

d) Social Development is the lead department for the child protection system, and other departments such as the Departments of Health, Department of Basic Education, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, South African Police Service, Department of Home Affairs. The civil society organisations are represented by the Designated Child Protection Organisations, etc., which provide services to children and families which directly influence their protection.

e) Currently, the tool is paper-based and accessible to all the child protection stakeholders who are expected to report on it on a quarterly basis for all services rendered to children.

f) All key stakeholders in the child protection field were consulted, as well as during the development of the monitoring tool, and they were also involved when the tool was piloted in three (3) provinces, i.e., Gauteng, Eastern Cape, and Free State respectively.

(g) The consultations included the National and provincial Designated Child Protection Organisations such as CWSA (Child Welfare South Africa), Childline SA, Tutela, SAVF (Suid Afrikaanse Vroue Fedarasie), and ACVV (Afrikaanse Christelike Vrouevereniging) to name a few.

(2) Yes, the monitoring tool is fully operational and forms part of the Annual Performance Plan where all the nine (9) provinces are expected to report on a quarterly basis.In addition, the national department of Social Development is conducting the capacity-building on both the intersectoral protocol and its monitoring tool in order to strengthen case management and data collection on services, as well as accountability amongst all stakeholders within the child protection field.

National Assembly written Reply: 2673 of 2023

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

a) As the Honourable Member is aware, the legislative making process is guided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. One of the key activities in the legislative making process is public consultation/ hearings that are conducted by the relevant Portfolio Committee across the country to solicit public inputs on a matter of national interest. This is called participatory democracy. Costs associated with public hearings are borne by Parliament through the relevant Parliamentary Committee, which in this case is the Portfolio Committee on Social Development. Given the foregoing, the Secretariat of the Portfolio Committee or relevant function within Parliament is better placed to respond to this question.

b) Refer to (a)

Reply:

(a)The delays were occasioned by a number of reasons, including the finalisation of the organisational structure, the national macro organisation of the state process which resulted in the transfer of function from the Department of Social Development e.g. the transfer of disability and early childhood development as well as the change management readiness survey.

(b) Plans are underway to fill the position in the second quarter of the current financial year.

 

Reply:

1. Currently, SASSA is notifying all grants beneficiaries of the card expiration date. In addition, beneficiaries are informed of their right to either renew their cards or open an account at any bank of their choice. The target is to ensure the renewal of cards that are due to expire at the end of December 2023 to avoid inconvenience.

2. Yes, Postbank team has prepared a SASSA Card Replacement Distribution Plan. This will serve as a framework upon which the card replacement program roll-out will be undertaken throughout the country.

3. The SASSA Card Replacement Distribution Plan seeks to mitigate such challenges and ensure timely information is shared with the public within a reasonable period of time. This will allow all beneficiaries enough time to collect their cards before 31 December 2023. Postbank plans to allocate approximately 2000 employees to card the replacement activities.

4. Postbank will communicate the introduction of the new card following consultations with the South African Reserve Bank and the industry. Beneficiaries will be notified on time to utilize identified channels in a staggered approach to replace their gold card. All the gold cards will be replaced with black cards and this will be communicated to the public. All efforts are currently being made to ensure that Postbank is ready to issue the cards before December 2023.  

Reply:

1. The department advertised bid for provision of physical security services at various facilities of the Department of Social Development in five (5) districts for a period of thirty-six (36) months. The bid was advertised in the Government tender bulletin, Departmental website and National Treasury on the 16th of September 2022 and closed on the 14 October 2022.

One hundred and ninety-eight (198) Bid documents were received from the Supply Chain Management.

The following process were undertaken as per Terms of Reference used to advertise the bid:

Phase 1:

• One Hundred and ninety-eight (198) documents were evaluated pre-qualification criteria as stated in the terms of reference.
• Eight (08) bidders were disqualified.
• One Hundred and ninety (190) bidders qualified for second phase.

Phase 2:

• Ninety-eight (98) bid documents were disqualified on Administrative Compliance
• Ninety-two (92) bid documents qualified for third phase of evaluation being Functionality.

Phase 3:

• Thirty-four (34) bidders were disqualified on functionality for not scoring a minimum of sixty (60) points.
• Fifty-eight (58) bidders qualified for fourth phase being site inspection.

Phase 4.

• Fifty-eight (58) bidders were inspected, and Twelve (12) bidders were disqualified.
• Forty-six (46) bidders qualified for the next phase being vetting by State Security Agency

Phase 5:

• Forty-six (46) bidders were submitted to State Security Agency and two (2) service providers were disqualified based on the vetting report.

Phase 6:

• Twenty (20) companies were disqualified based on the non-declaration of interest as per Standard Bidding Document 4 and under quoting based Psira Illustrative pricing Schedule.

Phase 7

• Twenty-four (24) companies were considered compliant in all evaluations stages and were further evaluated on price and BBB-EE.
• The Bid Adjudication recommended the highest point scorer with 100.00 points on all sites, to be appointed based on the proven capacity including available patrol vehicles and valid firearms.
• The BAC further recommended that department negotiate with other high point scorers as per their ranking, for allocation of the remaining sites which the highest point scorer would not be able to manage.
• The department negotiated and finalized appointment of eleven (11) service providers to provide security services in all the departmental offices across the province.
• The following are the names of all appointed companies:
• Gija Security Services
• Tubatse Security Services
• Leledu Security Services
• MC Tee Holdings
• Papa Mike Protection Services
• Ompwa Trading Enterprise
• Bravospan 90cc
• Petkay Trading Enterprise
• Vhutaka General Trading
• Nkari Security and Projects
• Marebole Security Solutions

(2) The department can confirm that all the bidders did declare their interest as per requirement in the Standard Bidding Document 4 section 2.3 which asks “Does the bidder or any of its directors / trustees / shareholders / members / partners or any person having a controlling interest in the enterprise have any interest in any other related enterprise whether or not they are bidding for this contract?”

The service providers further provided details of the companies they declared interest in. These declarations were noted by both the Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication committees. None of the companies indicated their matrimonial connection during the bidding process.

(3) The Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication Committee members did not declare any conflict of interest at any point during the evaluation and adjudication of the bid.

The service providers made the following declarations in their Standard Bidding Document 4, section 3 which reads as follows:

I, the undersigned, (name)…………………………. in submitting the accompanying bid, do hereby make the following statements that I certify to be true and complete in every respect:

I have read and I understand the contents of this disclosure;

I understand that the accompanying bid will be disqualified if this disclosure is found not to be true and complete in every respect;

The bidder has arrived at the accompanying bid independently from, and without consultation, communication, agreement or arrangement with any competitor. However, communication between partners in a joint venture or consortium[1] will not be construed as collusive bidding.

In addition, there have been no consultations, communications, agreements or arrangements with any competitor regarding the quality, quantity, specifications, prices, including methods, factors or formulas used to calculate prices, market allocation, the intention or decision to submit or not to submit the bid, bidding with the intention not to win the bid and conditions or delivery particulars of the products or services to which this bid invitation relates.

The terms of the accompanying bid have not been, and will not be, disclosed by the bidder, directly or indirectly, to any competitor, prior to the date and time of the official bid opening or of the awarding of the contract.

There have been no consultations, communications, agreements or arrangements made by the bidder with any official of the procuring institution in relation to this procurement process prior to and during the bidding process except to provide clarification on the bid submitted where so required by the institution; and the bidder was not involved in the drafting of the specifications or terms of reference for this bid.

I am aware that, in addition and without prejudice to any other remedy provided to combat any restrictive practices related to bids and contracts, bids that are suspicious will be reported to the Competition Commission for investigation and possible imposition of administrative penalties in terms of section 59 of the Competition Act No 89 of 1998 and or may be reported to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for criminal investigation and or may be restricted from conducting business with the public sector for a period not exceeding ten (10) years in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act No 12 of 2004 or any other applicable legislation.

I CERTIFY THAT THE INFORMATION FURNISHED IN PARAGRAPHS 1, 2 and 3 ABOVE IS CORRECT. I ACCEPT THAT THE STATE MAY REJECT THE BID OR ACT AGAINST ME IN TERMS OF PARAGRAPH 6 OF PFMA SCM INSTRUCTION 03 OF 2021/22 ON PREVENTING AND COMBATING ABUSE IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SHOULD THIS DECLARATION PROVE TO BE FALSE.

The department took note of the declarations made by the companies and recorded them as such in the report. All These companies were evaluated and adjudicated as separate entities which conducts their business as such. Site inspections were conducted in their listed addresses and their capacity (vehicles, firearms, tools etc) individually assessed. The department did not have the basis to disqualify them from the bidding process.

1. ↑

Reply:

a) The department of social development through SASSA provide grants to most vulnerable individuals in our country. There are different types of grants that are provided to vulnerable and poor individuals. In 2018/19 financial year the department planned to link abled bodied and young beneficiaries of child support grants (mothers of the children receiving grants) at the time of planning there were over 11million child support grant recipients. Currently there over 13.1million child support grants. The plan to link two percentage (2%) was preceded by the development of a framework to guide provinces. The linking programme started in the 2021/2022 financial year with only 20 000 grant beneficiaries linked to sustainable livelihoods.

b) The linking of 2% grant beneficiaries was meant to link only child support grants of which there just over 11million at the time of planning. The linking programme entails identifying young mothers and providing them with skills for employability, establishing projects and creating small businesses for them to depend on. Department intends to implement the Project on Linking in a gradual form taking into cognizance the amount of work that precedes the linking exercise such as identification of grant recipients, profiling of grant recipients, dialoguing to determine interests and skills possessed by mothers grant recipients, identification of opportunities where they can be linked, etc. The department set a 2% target based on the available resources the department has at their disposal. The Department believes that 2% is an affordable and achievable target. The target will be gradually increased based on the achievement of current target.

Reply:

The department developed a framework for linking social grant beneficiaries to sustainable livelihoods and economic opportunities in provinces through sustainable livelihoods programmes.

a) (i) (ii).The department has linked 49 449 persons that receive a social grant to economic and employment opportunities. The linking data is not disaggregated according to the permanent or temporary opportunities but only economic or sustainable livelihoods opportunities. Since 1 January 2019 the department of Social Development have managed to link 49 449 persons receiving social grants to Sustainable Livelihoods opportunities as follows:

PERSONS LINKED TO ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

Province	Linked to economic opportunities	Type of linkages
Eastern Cape	6 262	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Free State	2 348	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Gauteng	25 900	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Kwa Zulu Natal	976	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Limpopo	848	Skills, employment, cooperatives
NDA	2300	Volunteerism
Mpumalanga	18	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Northern Cape	848	Skills, employment, cooperatives
North West	329	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Western Cape	9620	Skills, employment, cooperatives
Total	49 449

b) The department link persons and households that receive a social grant, to economic and sustainable livelihoods in all nine provinces. Since 1 January 2019 the department of social development and its entities have managed to link an average of 12 362 households to sustainable Livelihoods opportunities.

SASSA

(a) (i) and (ii)

SASSA has a target on its Annual Performance Plan to link beneficiaries to economic and developmental opportunities. Activities which support this target include sharing details of children who are in grade 12 and are benefiting from social grants with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. This ensures that the children on the social grant system are first in line for financial aid, to enable them to study further. It is believed that education will enable these young people to break the cycle of inter-generational poverty and dependence on social grants.

Another initiative which SASSA is engaged with is to collaborate with the Project Office in the Presidency which is responsible to implement the Presidential Youth Employment Programme. SASSA assisted in sending SMS notifications to all the young people aged 18 to 35 years who had applied for the social relief of distress grant of R350 to alert them of the youth.mobi website. This website contains information of multiple work opportunities in both the public and private sector, where young people can get information to follow up if they feel they are suited.

GENERAL

The Department and its Agencies (SASSA and NDA) with the support from FinMark Trust (FMT), an independent trust, are piloting the “Generating Better Livelihoods for Grant Recipients” project in line with the Department’s Framework on Linking Social Protection Beneficiaries to Sustainable Livelihoods Opportunities. The project aims to develop pathways for social grant recipients to attain sustainable livelihood opportunities through employment, skills development and/or entrepreneurship. The project’s primary target is child support grant; However, the support will not be limited to this target group. It will be extended to other household members including the beneficiaries of the Covid-19 SRD grant.

Reply:

Cash transfers are effective in addressing negative coping strategies such as poor diets or debts. The distribution of cash allowances boosts the local economy especially on market days. Cash can link with existing social protection systems or build the blocks for future longer-term assistance from the outset. Cash transfer programmes such as the R350 SRD grant have been shown to have many benefits, including reducing dire poverty, increasing school enrolment, and improving nutrition.

The Department has completed and consulted on the draft policy on Basic Income Support, as a pathway to address the long-term income needs of vulnerable working age individuals. We are now refining the draft based on the constructive input we have received from various stakeholders, with a view to taking the draft policy through the Cabinet process, in the hope that it will get the necessary support and fiscal commitment to enable its approval for implementation. Given the fact that such a policy, if approved, would require legislative amendments, the Department is seeking to petition Cabinet to extend the R350 SRD provision for a further two years to ensure continuation of the much needed income support, until the more permanent BIS policy can be implemented.

Reply:

Responses were received from 5 provinces namely Western Cape, Northern Cape; Free State, Eastern Cape and Gauteng. The responses to the questions posed are presented in a tabular form below, presenting provincial and national response.

1. The total number of child-headed households (a) in each province and (b) nationally;

Provincial responses	National response
Province	1 (a)	1 (b)
Western Cape	1(a) Between 2019 and 2022-23 financial year, there were 28 child-headed households (CHH) in the (b) no respond Western Cape Province, with a total of 54 children living within those homes.	Nationally, there are 236 child headed households
Northern Cape	1(a) No child-headed households were reported to the DSD Northern Cape since 1 January 2019.
Eastern Cape	1(a)Total number of Child Headed Household each year since 1 January 2019 is as follows:   2019/2020: 2020/21: 88 2021/22: 25 2022/23: 52
Free State	1(a) From 2019 to March 2022, children found alone in child headed households were found in need of care and protection. After assessments done where the eldest child was found not competent to take responsibility of the household, the children were placed under Foster Care. Since April 2022 to date 15 children in 7 child headed households were reported in the province. The Department in the process of appointing the adult supervisors for them.
Gauteng	1(a)Since 1 January 2019 Gauteng Department of Social Development have recorded a total of 17 child headed households to date. (ii)In addition, in cases of Child Headed Households, the social worker usually evaluates the risks and remove the children to alternative care placements through statutory interventions.
Mpumalanga	No response
Kwazulu-Natal	No response
North West	No response
Limpopo	No response

2 (a) The distribution for each age group in child-headed households and (b) average time that each age group has been part of a child-headed household (i) in each province and (ii) nationally is as follows:

Provincial responses	National response
Province	2 (a)	2 (b)(i)	2 (a)(ii)
Western Cape	The distribution for the age group for the child headed household is between 16 and 18 years of age.	No response were provided on the average time that each age group for been part of child headed households.	Nationally, the distribution for age group in child headed households is defined according to the Children’s Act no 38 of 2005; section 137 which is between 16 to 18 years. Nationally, the average that each group has been part of a child headed households depends on the circumstances of the households after the investigations and individual assessment has been conducted by the social worker which will then informs the interventions. Section 137 of the Children’s Act no 38 of 2005 stipulates the conditions under which a child- headed households should be recognised. It provides that a provincial head of social development may recognise a household as child headed household if: the parent, guardian or caregiver is terminally ill, has died or has abandoned the children in the household; no adult family member is available to provide care for children in the households. a child over the age of 16 years has assumed the role of caregiver in respect of the children in the household; and it is in the best interest of the children in the household.
Northern Cape	2 (a) not applicable for Northern Cape DSD.	2(b)(i) No response provided.
Eastern Cape	2.(a) The distribution for each age group is between 5 to 21 years	2(b)(i) Average time that each group has been part of Child Headed Household is between 2 to 3 Years.
Free State	2.(a) The distribution age group of these children are mostly between 10 to 16 years.	2(b)(i) average time that each age group has been part of a child-headed household in Free State Province is that a child remains within the household until the age turn 18 years.
Gauteng	2(a) Distribution of age group per Year are as follows: 2019/2020 0-6 years = 0 7 – 12 years =0 13- 17=0 2020/2021 0-6 years = 0 7 – 12 years =1 13- 17 years =2 2021/2022 0-6 years = 0 7 – 12 years =2 13- 17 years =2 2022/2023 0-6 years = 0 7 – 12 years =4 13- 17 years =2 2023 to date 0-6 years = 0 7 – 12 years =2 13- 17 years =2	2(b)(i) There was no response provided on the average time that each age group has been part of a child headed household.
Mpumalanga	No response
Kwazulu-Natal	No response
North West	No response
Limpopo	No response

3. The department track and/or monitor child-headed households and (b) offers the following programmes / or assistance to childheaded households (i) in each province and (ii) nationally;

Provincial responses	National response
Province	3 (a)	3 (b)(i)	3 (i)&(ii)
Western Cape	CHH are tracked through reports of the funded Prevention and Early intervention organisations and designated child protection organisations that provide support to children in child-headed households.	Prevention and Early intervention programmes are offered to child -headed households	Nationally, the department developed Children’s Act Monitoring System which aimed at monitoring and tracking data for child headed households in the provinces. In addition, the department track and monitor through quarterly reports received from the provinces.
Northern Cape	3(a) No responds were provided.	3(b)(i) When the child-headed household is reported and declared, the dsd provincial office contact the district office to provide support and provide progress report.	3(b)(ii) Nationally, the Department is implementing a community-based prevention and early intervention programme (Risiha) to ensure care and protection of vulnerable children including child headed households through the provision of core package of services in all nine (9) provinces. The programmes are designed to support and sustain families; and to prevent removal of children from their home environment and communities. The Risiha programme consists of seven (7) interrelated service areas which aim to address the holistic needs of child headed households emanating from the high level of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion in the country. The programme is implemented within the Drop-in Centres by various Social Service Practitioners. The seven interrelated core services for Risiha Programme are as follows: Food and Nutrition: Provide a safety net for child headed households including other vulnerable children within their communities and where they can access food when the food provision in their family is insecure or where the child is at risk of stunting and malnutrition. Improve children’s food security & nutrition intake by ensuring access to community nutrition opportunities (cooked meals, food parcels), promote adequate nutrition, and track children’s growth to identify stunting. Psychosocial support: Improving children’s mental health by the early identification of children in emotional and psychological distress, extend the implementation of evidence-based social behavioural change programmes, sensitise families on children’s participation in a family matter and promote access to sport & recreation. Educational support: to increase access to and attendance of schools through for example, supporting children to overcome obstacles to attendance – such as lack of school uniform, transport, lack of parental support for schooling and to support children in their educational performance. Economic Strengthening: aims at supporting and increasing the economic base of households through facilitating access to social security grants, entrepreneurial and other economic strengthening activities. Child care and protection: prevention of child abuse, neglect and exploitation and creating an enabling environment within the home, community and accessible services that will support parents to look after their children. Health promotion: Improve children’s health through better access to health care, promote and support access to sexual reproductive health services for girls and boys, and the early identification and support to children with disabilities, promote and support good WASH habits. HIV and AIDS services: Reducing children’s risk of contracting HIV by improved HIV awareness and sexuality education, promoting known HIV status of children, support ART uptake and adherence and mitigating sexual and substance risk-taking behaviour of adolescents. A drop-in centre is a non- residential community-based facility providing basic services aimed at meeting the emotional, physical, and social development needs of vulnerable children. The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 makes a provision for drop-in centres to ensure the care and safety of children whilst accessing services in these facilities and the quality of services and programmes provided. The National Department of Social Development has a National Register for Drop-in Centres which has data on registered and unregistered drop-in centres in all nine provinces. As of March 2023, the total number of drop-in centres in the country was 1201 and the total number of children accessing services in drop-in centres was: 180 426. In addition, the Children ‘s Act provide other alternative placement of child headed households if they are found to in need of care and protection through, foster care, cluster foster care scheme, child and youth care centres and adoption.
Eastern Cape	3. (a)They are tracked through door-to-door visits which are randomly done by Child and Youth Care Workers and are monitored through home or family visits that are done daily to the identified families.	3(b)(i) Child -headed households receive assistance with school uniform, stationery, toiletries, dignity packs, clothing, and food parcels according to their needs through the Risiha Programme.
Free State	3(a) Monitoring is done by social workers. Where available Auxiliary Assessments are done to determine if the situation is still in the best interest of the child/ren.	3(b) (i) The child -headed households receive the following assistance: psycho- social support, educational programme and life skills development
Gauteng	3(a) No response were provided.	3(b)(i) The department provide statutory interventions to child headed households; provision of foods parcels and psychosocial support services.
Mpumalanga	No response
Kwazulu-Natal	No response
North West	No response
Limpopo	No response

4.The reasons children end up in child-headed households are as follows:

Province	Response
Western Cape	(4) Section 137 of the Children’s Act No. 38 of 2005 stipulates that a provincial head of social development. may recognize a household as a child-headed household if: the parent, guardian or caregiver of the household is terminally ill, has died or has abandoned the children in the household; no adult family member is available to care for children in the household. a child over the age of 16 years has assumed the role of caregiver in respect of the children in the household. Child-headed households have become increasingly. common because of rapid urbanization, poverty, migration, and changes in residential patterns.
Northern Cape	Death of parents Parents being untraceable. Substance Abuse GBV/Domestic Violence Poverty Unemployment
Eastern Cape	Increased death rates due to chronic illnesses due to HIV and Aids and Covid-19 pandemic. Weakened state of traditional family safety nets in taking care of orphaned children.
Free State	Parents / adult care givers deceased or due to illness not in the position to care for the children.
Gauteng	Parents working far from homes. death of parents Parents terminally ill or unable to take care of children due to health conditions.
Mpumalanga	No response
Kwazulu-Natal	No response
North West	No response
Limpopo	No response

Reply:

1. (aa) Minister

(a)Destination	(b)(i) Accommodation cost	(ii) Travel cost (Flights)	(iii) Other costs (S & T, Incidental, DIRCO Expenditure: Road Transport,)
16th international inter-ministerial conference on South Africa cooperation in Pop Dev 30 August – 05 September 2019 Tunis, Tunisia	R 14 594.63	R 31 300.00	R 13 353.15
The Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Development (ICPD25) 10 -14 November 2019 Nairobi, Kenya	R 43 995.94	R 27 268.97	R 154 424.72
Global Entrepreneurship Congress 27 – 30 March 2022 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia	R 39 475.14	R 137 885.00	R 52 186.29
SheDecides+5 Event and Nexus High-level Roundtable. 19 – 20 May 2022 Brussels, Belgium	R 56 400.00	R 82 543.00	R 59 727.84
3rd session of the specialized technical committee (STC) on health population and drug control. 12 – 13 September 2022 Geneva, Switzerland	R 29 226.89	R 150 862.00	R 86 250.35
Meeting with Maryland sister state committee members and Co-Host Side event on driving entrepreneurship agenda for Africa on the margins of the 77th United Nations General Assembly 18 – 23 September 2022 New York, USA	R 42 519.88 (this is for the Washington trip that happened at the same time as New York) R 133 751.04 (this amount is for the New York leg of the USA trip)	R 9 827.00
High-level commission on the Nairobi summit 7 – 12 November 2022 Zanzibar, Tanzania	The Minister’s Travel arrangements were sponsored and paid for by UNFPA.

1. (bb) Deputy Minister

(a)Destination	(b)(i) Accommodation cost	(ii) Travel cost	(iii) Other costs (S & T, Incidental, DIRCO Expenditure: Road Transport,)
The 3rd Session of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Health, Population, and Drug Control, 26 July - 04 August 2019 Cairo, Egypt	R 7330.69	R 95 990.00	R 30 063.12
24th International AIDS Conference from 26 July- 04 August 2022 Montreal, Canada	R 496 600.00	R 98 841.00	-
15th Conference of State to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 14-22 June 2022. New York	R 1 193 149.00	R 111 700.00	R 561 094.56
TOTAL

(2)

	Domestic Travel
Minister	R 910 240.
Deputy Minister	R 270 428.00

Reply:

DSD

The National Department of Social Development made provisions in terms of the allocation of its procurement spend in terms of the following procurement spend categories:

• Black Owned businesses
• Women-owned businesses
• Youth-owned businesses
• Businesses in Rural or Township areas
• Businesses owned by persons living with disabilities

The table below depicts the percentage spent and the rand value for the 2022/23 financial year for each of the categories indicated above.

Year	Total spend	Black Owned	Women Owned	Youth Owned	Disability	Rural/Township
21/22	R358,75	146,620 000	R71,830 000	R24, 100 000	R510 000	R10 530 000
		40,9%	20%	6,7%	0,1%	2,9%
22/23	R383,2 Mil	R150,770 000	R 103,620 000	R 16,850 000	R 400 000	R 10,590 000
		39,3%	27%	4,3%	0,1%	2,8%
23/24	31,86 Mil	R9,830 000	R5,150 000	R1, 730 000	R120 000	R2,710 000
		30,8%	16,1%	5,4%	0,4%	8,5%

NB for 2023/24 the amounts included are up to 13 June 2023.

SASSA

SASSA did not make provision for procurement allocation in respect of the three (3) categories as specified in the above question, NAPQ 1707 of 2023. However, the below figures depict the total expenditure towards the below designated groups. The total percentage spent for the designated groups in the 2022/2023 Financial Year is nine percent (9%).

Please note that National Treasury Practice Note Number SCM 2 of 2006, on the prohibition of set-asides was only repealed with effect from 16 January 2023, to align with Regulations, 2022. 

(i) Total SMME/ EME expenditure is R 334,206,197.88

(ii) National Treasury Central Supplier Database does not make provision for Cooperatives as a category.

(iii) Total Township enterprise expenditure is R 281,214,251.33

(iv) Total rural expenditure is R 22,698,907.28

NDA

b) The procurement percentage allocation was against a total of R 26 574 444 and R 30 234 710 for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years respectively. It is broken down as follows:

(i) R 23 908 290 and R 22 421 761 were allocated towards Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises which constitute 79,1% and 84,4% for the aa) 2021-22 and bb) 2022-23 financial years respectively.

(ii) R 124 942 and R 10 735 were allocated towards Cooperatives which constitutes 0,4% and 0,04% for the aa) 2021-22 and bb) 2022-23 financial years respectively.

(iii) R 845 319 and R 1 977 836 was allocated towards Township Enterprises which constitutes 2,8% and 7,4% for the aa) 2021-22 and bb) 2022-23 financial years respectively; and

(iv) R 504 377 and R 723 234 were allocated towards Rural Enterprises which constitutes 1,7% and 2,7% for the aa) 2021-22 and bb) 2022-23 financial years respectively.

The table below provides a detailed breakdown of the procurement spend per category for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years.

 

Reply:

a) The illegal money-lending business is prevalent and has been detected across the provinces. The following are some of the instances of arrests of people who were found in possession of several SASSA cards. The table below shows a breakdown of the successes achieved to date:

TABLE 1: BREAKDOWN OF CASESREGARDING POSSESSION OF SASSA CARD(S)

NO	DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES	NUMBER OF SASSA/ POSTBANK CARDS	DATE OF ARREST/ SENTENCING
1.	KwaZulu Natal: On 11 October 2020, SAPS arrested two suspects in a Pietermaritzburg operation and seized 495 SAPO/SASSA cards.	495	11th October 2020
2.	KwaZulu-Natal: Three (3) suspected moneylenders were arrested in KwaZulu-Natal with 50 SAPO/SASSA cards, 20 SAPO EasyPay cards and R34,000 cash in Umkomaas.	50	03rd June 2022
3.	Western Cape: On 09t February 2021, the Cape ‘fraud syndicate’ was busted after 49 SAPO/SASSA cards were found hidden in a chocolate box. The suspects were arrested in Mitchells Plain and Bo-Kaap by members of the Special Operations Team. Further investigation of the suspects led the Special Operations team members to an address in Albow Gardens in Rugby where a further 191 SAPO/SASSA cards were seized.	240	09th February 2021
4.	Western Cape: One (1) suspected moneylender was arrested in Malmesbury, for possession of SAPO/SASSA cards.	40	27th June 2022
5.	Gauteng: On 01 May 2020 police arrested seven suspects in Tshwane with 91 SAPO/SASSA cards and nearly R191 671 in cash.	91	1st May 2020
6.	Gauteng: 31 suspected moneylenders were arrested in Springs, Gauteng with 256 SAPO/SASSA cards and 151 various bank cards. The suspects were found in possession of R100, 000 in cash.	256 and 151 various bank cards.	04th August 2022
7.	Gauteng: Five (5) suspected moneylenders were arrested in Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng with 1 X SAPO/SASSA card and 6 various bank cards. The suspects were found in possession of R36,270.00 in cash.	One (1) and 6 various bank cards.	02nd November 2022
8.	Gauteng: Five suspects were arrested in Brixton, Gauteng for being in possession of 250 SAPO/SASSA cards.	250	21st June 2023
9.	Eastern Cape: During May 2023, a multi-disciplinary team comprising of stakeholders focusing on loan sharks, led by the National Credit Regulator, involving SASSA, Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and South African Police Services (SAPS) conducted an operation targeting loan sharks, with the sole aim of preventing illegal withholding of banking cards and identity documents. The operation led to the arrest of 17 suspects and the seizing of 106 SAPO/SASSA cards with cash of R401 800.00. Similar operations will be conducted nationally.	106	1st to 5th May 2023

b) As on record, the SASSA/SAPO card is owned and managed by the South African Postbank according to the South African Reserve Bank designation.

SASSA has no control over beneficiaries who encumber their grants nor does SASSA condone this act.

The practice of beneficiaries giving loan sharks and or loan sharks taking beneficiary cards is a contravention of Section 20 of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 which states “a grant may not be transferred, ceded, pledged or in any other way encumbered or disposed of unless the Minister on good grounds in writing consents thereto”, and also read in conjunction with Section 133, Section 90(2) (l) and Section 91(b) of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005.

This matter is regulated by section 35 of the Act, which prohibits credit providers and other persons conducting and marketing credit provider services within areas of Agency Offices and pay points. Section 35 of the Act (1) subject to the provisions of section 10(1) and (2) of the Act states;

a) a person must not market or offer any form of credit , whether or not that person is registered as a credit provider, within any Agency offices or pay-point for the purpose of soliciting or enticing a beneficiary to engage in any form of credit granting, funeral scheme or life insurance scheme; b) the card must not be ceded, pledged or retained to secure a loan, repayment of loan debt or payment of a funeral or insurance premium.

Specifically in response to the question, an ongoing collaborative effort led by the National Credit Regulator in the main, involving the SAPS, Postbank and SASSA has culminated in several arrests of suspected loan sharks who were found in possession of SASSA cards (as detailed under paragraph number (a)/ or above). Additional measures, in the form of programmes, are detailed herein under.

c) Besides efforts of participating in a multidisciplinary enforcement mechanism as indicated above (paragraph b), SASSA continuously communicates with social grants beneficiaries through various channels to discourage them from dealing with loan sharks. There are ongoing media awareness campaigns directed at all social grant beneficiaries not to hand over their SAPO/SASSA cards to anyone.

SASSA also conducts awareness sessions among its employees so that they can share the information with grant beneficiaries and the broader public.

In tandem with the above, measures to combat the phenomenon of loan sharks preying on social grant beneficiaries and to prevent this type of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Social Assistance Act, SASSA takes concerted steps to coordinate and approach this task under the leadership of the National Credit Regulator, with the involvement of stakeholders, such as, Postbank and SAPS, among others, to appraise them of the gravity of the money lending activities and request that stiff sentences, within the ambit of the law, are meted out by the courts.

Reply:

Children’s Services

The contracted consultant is required to transfer its skills to the staff.

a) The contracted consultant will provide mentorship and training on how to conduct research to two (2) early career staff within the department.

b) The mentorship and training indicated in (a) will be conducted for a period of eight (8) months.

c) Two (2) staff members from the Department of Social Development will benefit from this process.

Children’s Legislation

a) The consultant appointed to develop a costed Implementation Plan for the National Child Care and Protection Policy will transfer skills for data collection approaches, and processes for developing implementation plans to the project manager. The consultant will further transfer skills to identified officials through capacity building session workshop.

The consultant appointed to develop Regulations for the Children’s Amendment Act transferred skills for legislative drafting to different business Units through focus group sessions.

b) The workshop for skills transfer for the development of costed Implementation Plan will take one day. Skills transfer for the drafting of Regulations has been completed.

c) The total number of officials impacted for skills transfer on the development of a costed Implementation Plan is six (6). The total number of staff impacted for skills transfer for developing regulations is 70.

Services to Families

(a) The consultant appointed for the development of the policy on homelessness will transfer skills through workshops, meetings, project documents, and public consultations with the key stakeholders working closely with the project team. Skills transfer and methodology have been included in the terms of reference.

The skills to be transferred include data collection and analysis; facilitation skills; project management; policy development, writing, and analysis skills; stakeholder analysis, engagement, and management; literature review; etc

(b) This process will be linked to the duration of the contract, which in this case is one (1) year

(c) Close to 30 officials, from both the task team and the technical team, will benefit from this process by the end of the project and this includes officials from other key national departments, provinces, and officials from National DSD. Yes, this is linked to a & b

Recruitment and Retention Strategy for SSP’s

1. Skills transfer by consultants will be done through project team meetings, which are held after development of each deliverable for quality assurance purposes.
2. The process is ongoing during the design and development phases and conducted over a period of three sessions per project (there are currently two projects) and each is allocated one day for skills transfer purposes.
3. Three staff members will benefit from the skills transfer process (social work policy manager, social work policy developer and scholarship project coordinator).

Service Standards

(a) The consultant appointed to conduct a Readiness Assessment on the Implementation of the White Paper on Social Development will transfer skills to the project team through project engagement meetings on a continuous basis.

(b) The consultant will further transfer skills to identified officials within the national department of DSD through a training workshop. The workshop for skills transfer for the Readiness Assessment will take one day.

Four officials from the national department of DSD will be impacted.

(c) The consultant appointed for refining and editing the White Paper on Social Development will transfer skills to the project team on a continuous basis through project engagement meetings officials.

The consultant for refining and editing the White Paper on Social Development will further transfer skills to identified officials within the national department of DSD through a training workshop. The workshop for skills transfers for the Readiness Assessment will take one day.

Four officials from the national department of DSD will be impacted.

Reply:

(1)(a) A beneficiary can cancel the COVID SRD grant by logging onto the platform (https://srd.sassa.gov.za) which they used to apply for the grant, select the cancel option and follow the prompts for cancellation. The cancellation is not based on a month, but a permanent cancellation. If cancelled, the client will need to reapply for the grant, if they need it in future.

(1)(b)(i), (1)(b)(ii), (1)(b)(iii) The number of grants which were stopped due to cancellations received for the years under this enquiry are:

(i) 2021 – 341 896

(ii) 2022 – 435 432

(iii) 2023 – 211 814

It should be noted that despite canceling the grants, quite a number of clients re-instate their grants at a later period in the same year. In this regard, SASSA is not able to indicate which of the above numbers were reinstated again as their might have been multiple cancellations and re-instatements per client.

Given the aforementioned explanation, SASSA unfortunately cannot answer this question without a significant amount of analysis of tens of millions of records, which will take a considerable amount of time. Given that the grant is not permanent and a client can receive it one month, then stop for a month or two due to them receiving other forms of assistance, (as alluded to above) and then qualify again for a few months; the analysis of the data is further complicated.

1 (c) the number of cancellations which have been (i) received

(aa) April 2023 – 169 635

(bb) May 2023 – 181 867

(ii) Successfully cancelled for

(aa) April 2023 - 169 635

(bb) May 2023 - 181 867

(2) There is an option to cancel the grant for April and May 2023 on the website. As indicated in 1(a), a beneficiary can cancel the COVID SRD grant by logging onto the platform (https://srd.sassa.gov.za) which they used to apply for the grant, select the cancel option and follow the prompts for cancellation.

(3) As indicated it is possible for clients to cancel their grants. Despite this, unfortunately there is no way for SASSA to know if a client no longer needs the grant and wants to cancel it, unless they inform SASSA. The process to cancel the grant is as easy as the process to apply, if not easier, and remains the responsibility of the beneficiary to notify SASSA if their circumstances change.

It is very likely that the reason why clients who no longer need the grant can be because they are receiving income. This will be picked up when SASSA checks income on a monthly basis before approving the grant for that month. Hence the numbers for “declined”, may be skewed by those who should have cancelled their grant. However, given the current economic situation in the country, these numbers are likely to be small, even negligible.

Reply:

1. In order to contribute towards eradicating poverty, the NDA utilises Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) as a vehicle to implement programmes, aimed at meeting the most critical development needs of poor communities. By capacitation, empowerment and engagements with CSOs, the NDA enhances the ability of CSOs to deliver a myriad of developmental interventions to communities they are located in, aimed at reducing levels of poverty and creating sustainable communities. The NDA’s aim is to create a functional, efficient, and integrated CSO sector through cooperation and strategic partnerships within the sector, aimed at benefiting CSOs, with the ultimate beneficiaries being individuals served by the CSOs.

Furthermore, the NDA’s strategic plan provides for it to collaborate and coordinate with the Department of Social Development, the South African Social Security Agency as well as other government departments and entities, funding organisation’s and the private sector to contribute effectively towards poverty eradication in poor communities.

(2) (a) There was no specific criteria to identify these CSOs. However, the 24 783 CSOs are part of our database which was created through the following interventions and activities:

• Community Profiling;
• Walk-ins to the NDA offices country-wide;
• CSOs who have participated in NDA capacity building sessions and other events;
• CSOs who participate in government wide events such as Integrated Community Registration Outreach Programmes (ICROP); and
• Referrals from other departments and stakeholders.

(2) (b) Indeed, the first step is engagement with CSOs at a local level to identify developmental needs, possible interventions, referrals to other departments and supporting communities to develop community structures or formations to organise themselves.

The assessment process also includes classification of CSOs based on assessed needs as well as types and levels of interventions required to improve operations of the CSO.

3. There was no country-wide call for proposals by the NDA for grant funding, due to the limited budget allocated for grant funding, lest expectations be created in the sector. Instead, the NDA used programme formulation method to develop proposals for grant funding. Programme formulation is a grant making approach whereby the NDA engages communities in social facilitation with the view of creating grassroots structures that will ultimately be the mechanism for implementation of projects. The approach targets specific areas and sectors based on primary research on priority poverty pockets. The process is driven by the NDA staff in provinces, based on the assessment of the institutional capability and competencies of Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs in identified localities. The NDA Development Practitioners assume an active role in the conceptualization and planning of projects. The approach is used mainly for CSOs funded through NDA’s resources.

Notwithstanding the above mentioned, the country-wide call for proposals was used specifically in soliciting proposals to implement the following projects:

• The CARA Victim Empowerment Programme in the 2019/2020 financial year; and
• The Presidential Employment Stimulus Package (PESP) Volunteer Programme.

(4) (a) In the last four Financial Years, the NDA has grant-funded 289 CSOs enabling them to address poverty relief to the vulnerable and poor in communities. Through the funding, the NDA makes inroads in ridding the society of the dire effects of poverty, especially in areas where these CSOs operate. The grant funding programme focuses on assisting CSOs with seed funding that enables them to provide services to communities. The funding specifically targets CSOs that do not meet funding requirements of most funding institutions. NDA aims to unlock their potential for more funding and increase their sustainability.

As a result of the NDA Grant funding, the following was achived:

• Children within ECD Centres were able to access ECD services which meet the norms and standards of the sector. This increased their development prospects and provided an opportunity for caregivers to be involved in economic activities;

• Household food security has been improved through support to communal food gardens and small-holder farmers;

• Household income from the funded CSOs and Co-operatives involved in economic activities has been increased thereby increasing the asset base in their respective communities;

Through the grant funding programme the NDA created work opportunities. These work opportunities ensure that economically disadvantaged families have their quality of life improved through participation in the NDA supported community projects.

4) (b) A total budget of R50 173 746 in grant funding was disbursed to CSOs as per provincial and annual breakdown in the table below.

(4) (c) there is no amount still to be disbursed to CSOs except what is in the budget for the current financial year 2023/2024 i.e. R 9 396 829.

Reply:

1) The queue management project team is currently at the follow-up and evaluation stage of the project, post GO-LIVE. During this stage, the team is performing ongoing monitoring and system performance evaluation to provide support, additional training, and adjustments to local offices who have implemented the queue management system. This process will allow the team to establish the baseline in terms of current waiting times and be able to measure the effectiveness of the system.

However, it is important to note that a queue management system is about improving the efficiency of managing queues in the local office. These efficiencies mainly contribute to maintain order within the local office and may have a spill over effect on time spent in the office.

This collectively with other systems – such as the online application system (which reduces demand), the self-help kiosk that are to be rolled out later (to reduce the need for human interaction through self-service), express queues, as well as the ongoing capacitation offices with alternative energy supplier – are all part of the larger strategies to reduce times spent in queues.

(2) In 2022/23 SASSA did a pilot implementation of the system at approximately 23 offices and intends to extend this to another 27 offices in the current financial year. Different use-cases and scenarios are being evaluated. Part of this exercise will be a full costing for roll out at all the 422 local offices, however high-level costing suggest that it will cost approximately R52 million. This cost is for the hardware (computers, screens and printers) and consumables (paper, etc), thus the plan is to roll this out progressively over time within the existing baseline of the Agency.

Reply:

(1)(2)(3) The Department of Health monitors Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) cases through the National Health Information Management System. The member is advised to refer the question to the relevant Ministry of Health.

(4) South Africa has developed and implements an integrated and comprehensive National Food and Nutrition Security Plan for South Africa, which holistically addresses food and nutrition issues, focusing on the pre-conception period, the first 1000 days of life, Early Childhood Development, and appropriate feeding of vulnerable children in poor schools (quantile 1–3).

The Food Security and Nutrition Plan for South Africa reflects a common vision across government departments, with a unified goal, objectives, indicators and targets for monitoring progress. Under this plan various programmes under Strategic Objective 4, which relates to “Scaling up of high impact nutrition specific interventions targeting nutritionally vulnerable groups across the life cycle” are implemented.

This is to enable the country to address problems such as hunger, malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies that affect physical growth and cognitive development, especially among children, as directed by the National Food and Nutrition Security Policy.

The Department implements targeted social protection measures, which includes the provision of nutrition support services to the poor and vulnerable groups. Furthermore, social grants are paid in line with the social assistance act, 2004 (Act No. 13 of 2004) to alleviate the plight of most impoverished and vulnerable people in the country. More than 60 % expenditure on grants is used to buy food and this assist many households to not go to bed hungry.

DSD has Centre based feeding programmes most registered and funded as NPOs that support vulnerable groups through nutrition support and provide other psychosocial services as well. These includes Community Nutrition and Development Centres (CNDCs), Home Community Based Care Centres (HCBCs, Luncheon Clubs (LCs) etc.

Reply:

1. The NDA’s work to provide grant funding and capacity building for NPOs is limited by budget it receives from the National Treasury.

2. Yes. (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii) see Annexure A

Reply:

1. The said office had experienced capacity challenges as a result of high volumes of clients visiting due to carry overs from previous days. SASSA has since strengthened capacity and prioritised the Maponya Mall office to effectively address these issues.

1. (a) over 300 per day (b) 1500 weekly; and (c) 6 000 monthly

1. Yes. The Maponya Mall office uses a generator provided by the Centre Management. Though the generator is fully functional, load shedding has a negative impact on network connectivity which in turn results in losses in production time. SASSA Gauteng Region is currently looking at alternative load shedding back up power supply.

1. Yes. The office has (a) 3 security officers monitoring the safety of beneficiaries in the queues and CCTV cameras that have 24 hours recording capacity

(b) 30 minutes intervals

Reply:

(a) (b) (c)

Province	Number	Period of vacancy	Reasons for vacancies
KZN	107	4 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
WC	103	6-12 months	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
FS	101	8 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
EC	151	5 years	Moratorium on filling of posts (2019-Sept 2022) due to significant reduction on CoE budget
LP	44	12 Months	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
NC	158	1-2 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
MP	72	1-2 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
GP	365	1-2 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period
NW	178	1-2 years	Budget constraints (significant reduction on Compensation of Employees over the MTEF period

(d) Around 9 000.

Reply:

1. The DSDTV is due to be launch in the second quarter of the current financial year. It is important to clarify that the platform that I referred to during the Budget Vote 19 is DSDTV, and not DSTV.

1. Once officially launched, DSDTV will be accessible to the public on the online platform on www.dsdtv.org.za. This online platform is commonly known as Over the Top (OTT) platform, a media service in which streaming of content is offered directly to viewers via the internet with no support of cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms.

1. During the pilot phase, the Department will explore ways of monetising and zero rating the platform to cut down on data cost for the public.

1. It cost the Department R81 250 a month to set up, load information, design and maintain the platform.

1. There is no contractual agreement with DSTV. The platform will be piloted for a period of 12 months. Thereafter it will be evaluated before a final decision is taken on the way forward.

1. Financial constraints preclude the Department from entering into any arrangement with the SABC. The OTT platform provides Government with an invaluable opportunity to talk directly to its beneficiaries at a reduced cost. It also creates internal capacity and skills to produce DSD Portfolio-related content.

1. South African population.

1. The content will be sourced directly from the DSD Portfolio interventions and programmes and overseen by the Chief Directorate; Communication.

1. Refer to (h) above.

1. The content on the platform will focus on all areas of the DSD Portfolio.

1. Refer to (h) above.

Reply:

1. Yes, eligible children continue to receive the full value of the Foster Care Grant, as per Child Support Grant Top-Up Policy which was adopted by Cabinet in 2015. The Policy emphasised that all orphans already in the court ordered foster care will remain in the system and will not be affected by the introduction of the CSG Top-Up. This is because it is constitutionally regressive to take the provision away from children who are already receiving it.

1. No. The provision of the grant is only applicable to new applicants with effect from date when the provision came into operation.

1. (a) As of May 2023, there were 289 139 Foster Care Grant and 43 135 beneficiaries children on the Child Support Grant Top-Up beneficiaries nationally.

Reply:

1. (i) (ii) To date, 49 449 persons and 12 362 households receiving social grants have been linked to economic and employment opportunities. Not possible to provide detailed information at this stage as current data collection and analysis is not disaggregated accordingly to these categories.

The DSD Portfolio is working with the FinMark Trust on piloting the “Generating Better Livelihoods for Grant Recipients” initiative to link social grants beneficiaries to sustainable livelihoods opportunities through employment, skills development and social entrepreneurship. The project’s primary target is Child Support Grant and will be extended to other grant types.

Reply:

We are committed to preventing, detecting and eliminating fraud and corruption in the social assistance programme. In this regard, we have taken full advantage of new technologies to strengthen anti-corruption measures, starting with the digitisation of our service offering. These include interfaces with the databases of other government departments, including Home Affairs (Population Register) to validate information on identity, life status, employment status, as well as PERSAL and Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF).

In addition to measures alluded to above, SASSA implements the following internal anti-corruption controls:

• Validation of applicants’ information through interfaces with systems from other entities.
• Conditional approval of a grant-pending bank account verification. Payment is extracted only if the bank account details match those of the approved beneficiary.
• Local offices perform daily verification of transactions as a process for ensuring that all transactions processed on SOCPEN are supported by the relevant documents.
• Biometric validation of all transactions will be implemented as from 01 June 2023. This serves as a non-repudiation of all transactions performed on the system.
• Confirm and validate all large amounts, and where there is suspicion of fraud, the payment of grants must be immediately stopped through Post Bank, or a bank recall is done through the South African Reserve Bank.
• Monthly run of the Oracle list of personnel against SOCPEN, immediately before cut-off for payment extraction on a monthly basis. Any records found added, except for FCG, must be held over for confirmation of eligibility before payment is released, even if this only happens the following month.
• Run an Oracle list of SASSA personnel against SOCPEN before grant payment extraction to identify staff on SOCPEN.
• System prohibition of one staff member using the credentials of another staff member to log onto the system.

Another method of combating Child Support Grant (CSG) fraud has to do with the implementation of the whistleblowing mechanism wherein SASSA employees and members of the public are able to report allegations of Fraud.

These allegations are investigated internally, since SASSA has an internal investigation unit which is well capacitated and works in conjunction with the Law Enforcement Agencies.

Reply:

(a)(i)-(iv) read with (b)(ii)(aa)(bb) and (cc)

a SASSA does not have records of previous beneficiaries who have exited from the system due to age but remain in the school system, and therefore is not able to answer the question in the current form.

Table 1 below reflects the number of Child Support Grants (CSG) that lapsed due to the child turning 18 during the 2022/23 financial year.

TABLE: 1 TOTAL NUMBER OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO AGED OUT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT IN THE FY2022/23
Region	Female	Male	Grand Total
EC	56393	56661	113054
FS	20320	20437	40757
GP	53093	52030	105123
KZN	84149	83401	167550
LIM	48162	47783	95945
MP	31782	31771	63553
NC	8704	8716	17420
NW	24286	23995	48281
WC	27139	25966	53105
Grand Total	354028	350760	704788

a(i) Table 2, shows the number of CSG beneficiaries whose CSG lapsed, thereafter applied for COVID-19 SRD during the 2022/23 financial year.

TABLE: 2 TOTAL NUMBER OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO AGED OUT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT AND APPLIED FOR COVID-19 SRD
Province	Female	Male	Grand Total
EC	30002	28408	58410
FS	12236	11865	24101
GP	40731	34222	74953
KZN	53196	54586	107782
LIM	36403	34346	70749
MP	24056	23367	47423
NC	4674	4277	8951
NW	15213	14509	29722
WC	17055	13106	30161
Grand Total	233566	218686	452252

a(i&ii) Table 3 indicates the number of young adults who aged out of the CSG, applied and were approved for COVID-19 SRD during the 2022/23 financial year.

TABLE: 3 TOTAL NUMBER OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO AGED OUT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT AND WERE APPROVED FOR COVID-19 SRD
Province	Female	Male	Grand Total
EC	22,029	21,759	43,788
FS	9,203	9,238	18,441
GP	26,915	24,362	51,277
KZN	38,154	39,987	78,141
LIM	23,741	24,391	48,132
MP	16,249	16,871	33,120
NC	3,265	3,168	6,433
NW	11,219	11,219	22,438
WC	10,794	9,118	19,912
Grand Total	161,569	160,113	321,682

a(iii) Table 4 highlights the number of young adults who aged out of the CSG, applied and were approved for COVID-19 SRD during the 2022/23 financial year and, declined and appeal status for the COVID-19 SRD during the 2022/23 financial year.

TABLE 4 TOTAL NUMBER OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO AGED OUT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT AND WERE DECLINED FOR COVID-19 SRD
Province	Female	Male	Grand Total
EC	4,715	3,563	8,278
FS	1,563	1,273	2,836
GP	7,969	5,503	13,472
KZN	8,052	6,918	14,970
LIM	6,705	5,144	11,849
MP	4,431	3,634	8,065
NC	833	624	1,457
NW	2,105	1,655	3,760
WC	4,041	2,586	6,627
Grand Total	40,414	30,900	71,314

a(iv) Table 5 portrays the number of young adults who aged out of the CSG, appealed after being declined for COVID-19 SRD during the 2022/23 financial year and their appeals are still pending.

 

TABLE: 5 TOTAL NUMBER OF YOUNG ADULTS WHO AGED OUT OF THE CHILD SUPPORT GRANT AND ARE PENDING APPEAL FOR COVID-19 SRD
Province	Female	Male	Grand Total
EC	722	411	1,133
FS	264	190	454
GP	1,301	890	2,191
KZN	1,168	841	2,009
LIM	1,284	1,019	2,303
MP	851	677	1,528
NC	77	77	154
NW	358	261	619
WC	497	264	761
Grand Total	6,522	4,630	11,152

(b)(i) Due to the vastly different criteria between the COVID-19 SRD and the CSG, there is no direct link between the two provisions. Thus, a new application needs to be taken for the COVID-19 SRD following the lapsing of the CSG. However, the provision, is one of the easiest to apply for.

The Department and SASSA continue to engage in media campaigns from time-to-time to inform beneficiaries and the public about the application processes including eligibility requirements to promote the provision.