Questions and Replies

Reply:

a) The total number of food parcels distributed by SASSA and DSD in the City of Ekurhuleni since 26 March 2020 is 73 089 as reflected below, 2 929 by SASSA and 70 160by DSD.

b) Breakdown per ward of SASSA food parcels distributed is detailed in the table below:

Local Office Name	Number of parcels = 2929	Ward Number(s) or Local Office
Germiston	9	W33=1,W35=1, W38=1, W40=1, W41=1, W42=2, W45=2
Benoni	12	Benoni/Daveyton
Tsakane	30	Tsakane
Vosloorus	43	W44=16, W46=11, W47=9, W107=7
Thokoza	118	W40=8, W47=6, W50=13, W54=14, W56=19, W58=21, W60=18, W109=19
Benoni	24	Benoni/Daveyton
Germiston	27	W21=4, W41=4, W43=12, W93=7,
Tsakane	86	W84=86
Thokoza	66	W40=1, W45=1, W48=11, W49=4, W50=2, W51=12, W56=6, W57=5, W60=24
Benoni	19	Benoni/Daveyton
Tembisa	50	W91=5, W13=9, W6=23, W104=7, W10=6
Germiston	27	W35=19 , W42=3, W93=5
Germiston	18	W34=1 , W35=13 , W41=3, W45=1
Benoni	30	Benoni/Daveyton
Springs	44	Springs
Kwa-Thema	62	Kwa-Thema
Thokoza	115	W37=4, W40=5, W48=9, W50=7, W51=10, W52=6, W53=6, W54=8, W57=9, W58=12, W60=7  (Thokoza)
Tembisa	40	W1=6, W91=8, W104=4, W5=22
Germiston	28	W21=14 , W34=3, W35=7, W36=2, W45=1, W32=1
Benoni	38	Benoni/Daveyton
Vosloorus	135	W35=1, W41=3, W43=4, W44=39,W45=25, W46=2,W48=10,W47=2, W50=2,W58=1,W60=1, W64=3, W95=22   (Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe)
Tsakane	22	W83=5, W82=7, W81=10,
Springs	16	W75=16
Kwa-Thema	11	W75=11
Duduza	21	W86=9, W87=7, W89=5
Vosloorus	72	Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe
Tembisa	37	W104=23, W14=4, W91=2, W13=4, W5=3, W7=1
Tembisa	47	W6=34, W14=5, W2=1, W11=1, W10=2, W102=1, W91=1, W1=1, W10=1
Thokoza	130	W37=3, W40=3, W48=9, W49=24,W50=24, W51=1,W52=20,W53=2, W54=6,W55=1,W56=4, W57=4, W58=2, W60=13, W61=7, W63=1, W103=2, W107=4
Germiston	42	W21=10, W33=13, W34=10, W35=3, W40=1, W42=2, W53=1, W93=2
Benoni	21	W24=1, W25=2, W28=1, W29=1, W31=2, W68=2, W69=4, W70=3, W90=1, Benoni/Daveyton
Germiston	35	W21=12, W35=3, W38=1, W40=16, W93=2, W99=1
Tembisa	73	W2=3, W11=4, W14=20, W6=10, W12=9, W19=2, W90=2, W104=17, W5=3, W3=3, W9=2  (Tembisa)
Duduza	6	Duduza/Nigel
Tsakane	39	Tsakane
Kwa-Thema	17	W78=7, W79=10
Springs	37	Springs
Benoni	46	W24=1, W28=3, W29=9, W30=3, W31=5, W65=3, W66=1, W69=14, Benoni/Daveyton/Actonville
Vosloorus	62	Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe
Vosloorus	130	W95=31, W107=22, W41=8, W47=4, W45=10, W65=5, W63=1, W62=1, W61=1, (Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe)
Tembisa	61	W9=14, W5=4, W11=2, W91=17, W3=3, W6=3, W2=3, W1=6, W14=1, W4=4, W12=1, w9=3
Thokoza	139	W47=1, W48=5, W49=5, W50=40, W52=7, W55=7, W58=16, W63=45, W95=1, W103=1, W107=11   (Thokoza)
Germiston	27	W21=8, W34=3, W35=5, W38=1, W40=3, W41=2, W42=1, W93=1, (Germiston/Reiger Park/Primrose)
Duduza	7	Duduza/Nigel
Kwa-Thema	8	Kwa-Thema
Springs	18	Springs
Tsakane	21	Tsakane
Benoni	35	W24=4, W35=2, W28=3, W29=2, W30=10, W65=6, W69=4, W71=2, W92=1, W125=1
Thokoza	57	W56=57
Vosloorus	71	W61=50, W62=21
Vosloorus	54	W95=54
Germiston	37	W15=1, W19=1, W21=3, W32=3, W34=5, W35=2, W39=2, W40=4, W41=1, W42=1, W53=1, W93=2, W99=4, (Germiston/Primrose/Reiger Park/Boksburg)
Germiston	39	W32=1, W35=14, W40=15, W41=1, (Germiston/Primrose/Reiger Park/Boksburg)
Benoni	26	Benoni/Daveyton/Actonville
Benoni	60	W24=1, W25=1, W28=5, W29=5, W30=23, W31=1, W32=1, W65=8, W69=14, Benoni/Daveyton/Actonville
Germiston	9	W18=1, W21=2, W33=1, W35=2, W34=1, W40=2
Thokoza	40	Thokoza/Katlehong/Palm Ridge
Thokoza	50	Thokoza/Katlehong
Thokoza	50	Thokoza/Katlehong/Palm Ridge
Thokoza	50	Eden Park/Thokoza
Thokoza	52	Eden Park/Thokoza
Vosloorus	49	Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe
Vosloorus	84	Vosloorus/Zonkezizwe

Total number of food parcels delivered	Ward Number(s)
883	1	3	4	5
7853	2	6	7	9	10	11
323	8
200	11
93	12
404	13	66
27	14
745	15	16	17	90	106
158	15	91
68	17
446	18	19
769	21	20
353	21	33
430	22	32	73
50	22
99	23
766	24	110	108
511	25	96	100
1205	25
598	25
5895	26	69
136	27	28	29
935	30
442	33	93	34
1040	33
885	34
552	35
2745	36	35	93
332	36
50	37
173	39	35
441	40	41
940	40
883	41	95
2554	41
25	42
1998	43
3485	44	64	45	94	102	47
33	49
1836	52	50	51	56	59
372	53
200	54
358	57
1441	58	111
102	60
1481	61	62
600	62
1052	68	67	70	26	65
254	69
21	70
110	71
554	72	75
250	76
793	77	80
498	78	77	112
319	78	109
684	79
3479	81	85	84	83	86
755	82
1246	84	87	98
919	88	104
1657	89	49	103	102	94	52	58	57	40
7568	89	57	55	63	58	40	49	46	48
871	92
439	93
123	94
891	95
394	97	105	74
912	99
50	101
200	107
206	110
70 160	Total Number of Food Parcels Distributed from April 2020- July 2020

National Assembly written Reply: 1350 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

1. (a) The Department has not yet been invoiced for the applicant’s costs.

(b) The impact on the department will be that the legal costs are not budgeted for.

(2)  (a) No;

(b) The applicants launched an urgent court application based on internal document which were still being consulted. The department did engage the applicants but did not agree on the material facts. The applicants wanted to prevent the Minister from issuing directions of which she is empowered by the Constitution and by the relevant Disaster Management Act. The court had to pronounce on these fundamental issues and ordered that theMinister is entitled to issue directions in this regard and further that the applicants be afforded an opportunity to look at the final draft directions three days before gazetting.

Reply:

a) SASSA is currently finalising all payments for applications approved for May 2020. Of the 4 424 720applications approved for payment in May, a total of 3 429 810 had been paid by 8 July 2020. The delay in paying the remainder was as a result of approximately 1 million additional applications being approved, after SASSA reconsidered all previously declined applications against the refreshed database received from UIF. These clients received new SMS messages requesting them to provide their banking details. SASSA will pay them as soon as wereceive theapplicant’s bank details, and National Treasury completes their accounts verification.

SASSA will request Post Bank to open accounts for those clients who have not provided their banking preferences after a period of 5 days from the date messages are sent to them.

b) Validations for the 938 554 applications received in June, as well as the 6 534 754 applications received in May will commence as from 15 July. Every application will be re-validated on a monthly basis to confirm that the applicant still qualifies to receive the grant, as circumstances could have changed in the interim. The payments for all those approved will be extracted and disbursed before end July. The July payments will then follow the same process and be disbursed by mid-August, with August payments being disbursed by end August. The payments will then be current, with payments for September and October being made in the month, for the month.

Reply:

a) Number of officials suspended and dismissed because of different kinds of disciplinary sanctions

In response to the above mentioned question, a table as well as the graph were used in order to summarise the number of SASSA employees that have been suspended and dismissed for defrauding the Agency over the last 5 financial years

Table1: Different types of disciplinary sanctions per Region for a period of 5 years

Province	Number of employees on precautionary suspension	Number of employees suspended without pay as per disciplinary enquiry sanction/outcome	Number of employees dismissed for fraud	Grand totals per Regions
Eastern Cape	17	0	16	33
Free State	2	3	4	9
Gauteng	5	1	4	10
KwaZulu Natal	111	7	25	143
Limpopo	3	5	16	24
Mpumalanga	7	8	2	17
North West	6	0	7	13
Northern Cape	0	2	1	3
Western Cape	5	0	1	6
Total	156	26	76	258

For further ease of reference, the following graph was used to also depict the different types of disciplinary sanctions per Region for a period of 5 years.

Graph 1:Different types of disciplinary sanctions per Region for a period of 5 years see the link:

https://pmg.org.za/files/RNW1895_-_Suspension_and_Dismissal_Table.pdf

Analysis of the above mentioned Table and the Graph

• A total number of 156, 26 and 76 cases were recoded in the last five financial years for precautionary suspension, suspension without pay and dismissals for fraud respectively;
• A grand total of 258 cases were recorded in the last five years in all Regions
• KwaZulu Natal recorded the highest numbers in precautionary and dismissal categories. Overall KZN accounts for 55% which is the highest as compared to other Regions
• On the other hand Northern Cape and Western Cape recorded the lowest cases which accounts for 1.6% and 2.3% respectively
• When it comes to suspension without pay, Mpumalanga recorded the highest number namely 8 followed by KZN with 7 cases
• Both Limpopo and Eastern Cape recorded a total number of 16 cases in the category of employees dismissed for fraud. It is pleasing to note the firm stance taken by both Regions to ensure behavioral changes when it comes to fraud
• It should be noted that there were no relataed cases recorded at Head Office

(a) ii. Amount of money lost through fraud

The total amount of money lost through fraud over the past 5 financial years is approximately R282, 476,193.

(b) Measures in place to prevent fraud at SASSA

SASSA has a Fraud Prevention Strategy that is premised on four key pillars, namely Prevention, Detection, Investigation and Resolution.

The following Fraud prevention measures and mechanisms are being implemented by SASSA:

(b)1 Policies and Procedures

The Agency has developed and is implementing various policies and procedures in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and supporting Treasury Regulations, to which all employees and other stakeholders are required to comply. This creates an environment which is conducive for good corporate governance and the prevention of fraud.

(b)2 Internal controls and compliance

Management regularly identifies significant fraud risks and implements process level controls, systems and procedures to identify and prevent fraud and corruption. Types of controls typically include:

• Authorisation controls (approval of expenditure or grants)
• Supervisory controls (supervising day-to-day operations)
• Process controls
• System controls
• Financial controls.

A major control that was implemented since August 2019 is bank account verification to ensure that grant money is paid into the bank account of the rightful grant beneficiary.

SASSA is piloting a biometrics solution for staff who access the grants system in order to ensure that transactions are performed by authorised persons.

(b)3 Fraud Risk Identification and Assessment

Fraud risk identification and assessment is conducted at least annually in order to identify the inherent exposures to fraud within the current operating systems and procedures.

(b)4 Fraud awareness

The Agency conducts fraud and corruption awareness sessions and training for SASSA employees and the public in order to assist in the prevention, detection and reporting of fraud and corruption.

Line managers also share information on fraud prevention measures with employees under their supervision.

(b)5 Code of Conduct and Ethics

SASSA has a Code of Conduct that has been shared with all the employees. The Code is aimed at creating an ethical organization culture, which is essential for fraud prevention.

(b)6 Disciplinary Code and Procedures

The Agency’s Disciplinary Code establishes standards for the conduct of all employees and the relevant disciplinary procedures to be adopted for breaches of the code. Consistent and effective dealing with identified instances of misconduct through fraud and corruption serves to enforce Fraud Prevention, by acting as a deterrent to other employees.

(b)7 Employee Screening

SASSA screens employees during the recruitment process.

(b)8 Communication

SASSA uses various tools to communicate with internal and external stakeholders about some of the anti-fraud awareness messages. The appropriate communication of anti-fraud measures and their results is essential to build trust in the social security system.

(b)9 Partnerships with stakeholders

SASSA is working closely with stakeholders in the banking sector such as the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, SA Reserve Bank, SA Post Office, National Treasury, Banking Association of South Africa, Payment Association of South Africa and various commercial banks in order to prevent fraud targeting social grants money.

SASSA has been sharing data with other government entities in order to validate information supplied by grant applicants to prevent and minimise inclusion errors and fraud.

The Agency also works closely with law enforcement agencies in detecting and combating fraud.

(b)10 Detection

Combined assurance (management, internal and external assurance providers) measures are also being employed to detect fraud and corruption within the Agency. The Internal Audit function plays a vital role in the detection of fraud and corruption. The external audit function is an important control in the detection of fraud. Various controls are also implemented in order to correct the controls weaknesses identified by the Auditor General of South Africa.

SASSA also acts on fraud and corruption cases that are reported through the following mechanisms:

(a) Public Service Commission (PSC) Fraud Hotline

(b) SASSA General Customer Care Contact Centre

(c) Whistle Blowing.

Pro-active fraud detection reviews, utilising data analytics are conducted regularly within business units with a high risk of fraud and error based on historic instances or other risk factors. This acts as an important mechanism in the detection of incidences of fraud and corruption.A critical component of detecting fraud is mutual sharing of data between SASSA, SAPO and other entities.

Reply:

a) All active grants are systematically checked against the Department of Home Affairs on a monthly basis, before payments are extracted for payment in the following month. All deaths which are registered with the Department of Home Affairs at the time of the monthly check result in the immediate cancellation of the grant.

b) Regulation 27(2) to the Social Assistance Act, Act 13 of 2004, makes provision for SASSA to review a social grant

“(a) at any time where it has reason to believe that changes in the beneficiary’s financial circumstances may have occurred;

(b) on expiry of the validity of the identity document of a beneficiary, if the beneficiary is a refugee; or

(c) in case of a foster child grant, on expiry of the court order.”

In addition, Regulation 27(8) makes provision for the review of permanent disability grants when there is reason to believe that changes to the medical condition could have occurred.

The above reviews are all done to ensure that the beneficiary continues to qualify for the grant over time. There is not a set period for reviews provided for in legislation, so the discretion is with SASSA. Since we do not have the resources or capacity to review all grants annually, a policy to give effect to Regulation 27 has been developed and is implemented. In terms of this policy, the reviews are prioritised in terms of grants where the beneficiary information is likely to change, for example, financial reviews are done for clients who declared income on application which either affects the amount of the grant they receive, or is near the threshold limit.

Similarly, medical reviews for permanent disability grants are done in accordance with the recommendation of the assessing doctor, who is best placed to indicate if, and over what time frame, a change in the medical condition is likely to occur.

Reply:

The Department is part of the National Food and Nutrition Security Co-ordinating Committee and is a lead department working on the Strategic Objective 3 together with the Department of Basic Education, Health; Home Affairs; Provinces and local government; Civil Society; Development Partners.

Strategic Objective 3

NFNSP Strategic Objective	Rationale
Strategic Objective 3. Expand targeted social protection measures and sustainable livelihood programmes	Social protection and sustainable livelihoods are essential for access to safe and nutritious food safe water, sanitation and health care.

Working with the Department of Health infants born in public & private health facilities are registered within 30 days in population register. This is intended to ensure that eligible children receive the Child Support Grant on time.

DSD amongst other things responsible to improve the child grant registration system. This is intended to ensure that eligible children are registered for Child Support Grant.

DSD is also developing an integrated social protection information system to improve access to social assistance programmes.

Under strategic objective 3, we also expandingthe network of feeding and food distribution centres. This include the National School Nutrition Programme implemented by Department of Basic Education, children (0-4 years) provided with food through ECDs and DSD centre based nutrition programmes.

 

Reply:

National Assembly written Reply: 1195 of 2020

(a) Company	(b) Affiliates	(i)(aa)(bb)(aaa)(bbb)	(ii)(aa)	(bb)
The Department of Social Development procured sanitizers for the officials from ECD Projects for the amount of R1379.50	N/A	N/A	Mr. Edward Schierhout	N/A

Reply:

All social grant beneficiaries receive their social grants in a bank account, whether this is their own personal account, or the SASSA card account. Once the money is available in the account, the beneficiary can withdraw the money at any time, everywhere in the country. There is no requirement for the beneficiaries to withdraw the money on the same day, or to withdraw all the cash at once.

Much of the communication SASSA has been doing is to have beneficiaries of social grants understand that there is no need for them to queue to withdraw cash, but that they can use their cards to pay for goods (the SASSA card is a fully functional debit card); that they can withdraw smaller amounts as and when they need this, or that they can go later in the month, when the queues are not as long.

The support of Honourable members in reinforcing this message will assist in changing beneficiary behaviours.

Reply:

Mothers with new born babies have been able to apply for the child support grant at SASSA local offices. The need for the care giver to register babies as soon after birth as possible has been emphasized in all communication, as research has shown that the positive benefits of the grant are significantly higher the earlier the grant is paid.

However, under Level 5 lockdown restrictions, SASSA local offices were closed. With the easing of restrictions under level 4, SASSA has progressively re-opened its local offices as from Monday 11 May 2020. The categories of clients who may be assisted under level 4 include mothers of new born babies.

The application service has continued under level 3 without any restriction on the age of the child, although mothers of new born babies are encouraged to apply as soon after the birth as possible.

In order to maintain social distancing and to limit the numbers of citizens who report to the local offices for a service, SASSA has designated specific days for specific grant types. Applications for grants for older persons are done on Mondays and Tuesdays, while applications for child support and foster child grants are attended to on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fridays will be used to complete work which could not be attended to before the lockdown, as well as any overflow from the previous days in the week.

SASSA is also currently working on accepting on-line applications for the above grant types. This will make it easier for mothers with very small babies to lodge applications without having to go to the local offices to do so in person. This functionality should be available in the course of July 2020 and would just provide an additional channel for applications, in addition to the face to face applications at local offices.

Reply:

I would like to inform the Honourable Member that the target of 55 000 projected in the National Development Plan, which you are referring to relates to social service professionals, not only social workers.

1. With regard to social workers, the Department has developed the Supply and Demand Model during the 2016/17 financial year. The model projects that in 2017, the country had 32 261 social service practitioners of which 18 733 were social workers

2. In terms of the model, universities are projected to supply the sector with social work graduates at an estimated rate of 23% between 2017 and 2030. This amounts to 3 600 social work graduates who are eligible for employment in the social development sector on an annual basis. There are currently 16 140 social work students registered for the Bachelor of Social Work degree in various universities.

3 Using the same model projections for the 2019-2024 MTSF it means that the social sectorwill have 43 577 social workers employed by 2023/24. Then in 2024 – 2030 MTSF the social development sector would have 65 177 social workers employed by 2030.

4. The model also projected a shortfall towards achieving the NDP target. In this regard, in 2017, the social development sector had a gap (shortage) of 9 167 social workers for the 2017 – 2019 MTSF period. The implication therefore is that for 2020 – 2024 MTSF period the gap would be 8 494 and for 2025 – 30 MTSF period it would be 7 456 social workers.

5. On an annual basis for the three MTSF cycles, social development sector required 1 833 for the 2017 – 2019 MTSF period, and will require 1698 for the 2020 – 24 and 1 491 for the 2025 – 2030 MTSF periods. Should the public service employ social workers and other social service practitioners at the projected rate, then the National Development Plan target of 55 000 is achievable by 2030.

6.The Department of Social Development is the main employer of social workers in the country.

There are currently 16 926 social workers employed by the Departments at both national and provincial departments. The employment rate by the Department will therefore be informed by the Sector Human Resource Plan and organisational structures of both National and Provincial Departments of Social Development.The project is included in the Sector Human Resource Plan for 2020/21

National Assembly written Reply: 1241 of 2020

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

(1) (a) Yes.The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 makes provision for an Alternative Care Programme which is inclusive of places of safety, foster care, child and youth care centres (residential care) for vulnerable children. Whilst in alternative care, these children must be provided with a plethora of services which includes among others, the provision of independent living programs. These services are designed to help children and young persons’ transition from alternative care to living independently as productive citizens through structured life skills and educational programmes.

There are transitional and independent living plans based on assessment conducted which focus on assessment of life skills in preparation for life skills training, basic education skills and other skills in preparation for post-secondary education. The assessment of skills is a critical step in designing an individualized independent living plan for any child which is to be reviewed after every six months. These plans indicate steps the child will take to meet his/her goal as well as to outline the task the child will undertake to meet specific challenges identified on his/her personal independent living assessment. The plan must be developed 90 days prior to the date the young person will be discharged from alternative care system at the age of 18 years or older.

There are important considerations when developing the plan. The plan must be based on the child’s strengths and needs with clearly outlined goals and objectives; identification and linking of the child with community services to turn to if he/she need assistance; connecting the child with the adult mentor in the community for mentorship, provision of support, advocacy and assistance with personal, academic and career development.

(b) Yes, Provincial departments are subsidising NGOs to provide services to children to remain in alternative care beyond the age of 18yrs in terms of Section 176(1). Children’s Act, Act 38/2005 makes provision that children turning 18 and are still busy with school can remain in a Child and Youth Care Centre until the age of 21 if they need to complete grade 12, should they prefer to. The court orders are extended in terms of Section 176 whilst the youth is still in school but once they have completed school (Grade 12) they are discharged in terms of Section 175.

(2)Table below indicates the number of residents over the age of 18 years who are currently residing in CYCCs in each province:

Province	Beyond 18yrs
Free State	59
North West	53
Gauteng	138
Eastern Cape	45
Western Cape	CYCC =71 & DSD CYCC =52
Limpopo	34
KZN	72
Northern Cape	3
Mpumalanga	64

(3)Table below outlines relevant details of residents over the age of 18 years utilising the same living, bedroom and bathroom facilities as residents who are under the age of 18 years:

Province	Response
Free State	All Residents are treated as children in the Youth Care Centre and therefore they all utilize the same facilities and abide by the same rules and standards that are expected from the younger children. The 18 year old youths are given a conduct contract to sign with the extension of their Section 176 order and they are fully aware that they are expected to conduct themselves like the children in the youth care centre for their duration of time in the Youth Care Centre, no exceptions to the rules is allowed.
North West	CYCCs differ in terms of their models. SOS is a household or family type of care and young person’s stay with others like typical siblings would. Other CYCCs resemble dormitories type where care givers are assigned to care for a particular number of children andare classified according to age. Mainly they reside together with others to foster sense of belonging.
Gauteng	No, children are placed as per their age group, and there is supervision at all times as per the Norms and standards.
Eastern Cape	This varies from one CYCC to another as it is determined by the number of those over 18, available infrastructure and equipment. However, those who move easily and quicker out of the centre create an opportunity for the long term placements. In some centres they are sharing with 14 year olds and above, in others they have their own bedrooms only sharing a communal kitchen, living room and bathroom which promotes the desired level of independence. Some where possible are allocated a room in the same block as the Child and Youth Care Workers / Caregivers.
Western Cape	CYCCs are responsible for the living arrangements of all residents within their care. Some CYCCs have independent living cottages on the premises, while others have dedicated rooms for those 18 and above. If they have a dedicated room they do share the living room and bathroom with other residents. In terms of DSD own centres, the residents are placed in separate rooms and where sufficient numbers in a separate unit.
Limpopo	Living arrangement is done according to age group and over 18 years do not share bedrooms with the under 18 years. However, they utilize the same living and bathroom under the supervision of carers. The children shower at specific times according to their ages and under the supervision of carers.
KZN	Residents are allocated cottage and are housed according to their age groups and gender. Youth aged 16yrs and over are grouped together. At some facilities those young people who are in matric have single rooms and other facilities have separate quarters for over 18 years. Each young person has his/her own bed and living space. Ablution facilities and living rooms are shared.
Northern Cape	1= has own room as he is also in matric 1=Shares room with 17-18yrs age group 1=There is only one room in the CYCC for all children, the child shares with other children.
Mpumalanga	In all the districts CYCCs children over the age of 18 reside in the senior sections for boys and girls separately. In those centres where there are dormitories 18 year olds will share amongst each other. Where there are houses a specific house will accommodate the 18 yearsand above and there will be a house for boys and house for girls. In some CYCCs they rent a flat for them outside the premises of the centre and assist them in getting employment and sponsors for them until they are solely independent which is the maximum age of 23 though the number is not very high.

(4)Table below illustrates the age of the oldest resident currently staying in a CYCC:

Province	Response
Free State	20 years
North West	20years
Gauteng	21 years.
Eastern Cape	21 years old.
Western Cape	21 years old.
Limpopo	20 years
KZN	22 years
Northern Cape	19 years
Mpumalanga	23 years

Reply:

 

1. (a) No tender was awarded

(b) Not applicable

(c) Not applicable

2. Not applicable

3. (a) Tenders were awarded to Prosense, Vodacom and Govchat.

3. (b)

• SASSA varied Prosense’s existing contract with R2, 9 million.
• Vodacom was awarded R15 million for thetender through the existing National Treasury RT15 contract (RT15 is a Government Transversal contract to Supply and deliver mobile communication services to the State during the lockdown period 27 March to 16 April 2020)
• Govchat services are rendered for free to SASSA

4. Yes, the standard procurement processes were followed.

5. - Prosense was appointed to build the APIS(Application Programming Interface system)for data validation and to develop website for Special SRD Grant (Social Relief of Distress Grant)

• Vodacom was appointed to develop USSD platform (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)for SRD Applications

• Govchat was appointed to develop the Special SRD Application Platform for free

Reply:

1. As the President Ramaphosa’s announcement the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant will be paid over a period of 6 months until the end of October 2020.

2. Applications are still being accepted through the Whatsapp channel (082 046 8553) and through the SASSA website (https://srd.sassa.gov.za). Of the total of 7 549 842 applications received to date, 6 534 754 were received in May; 938 554 for June and 31 534 for July (to 8 July 2020).

3. There have been no fraudulent activities picked up to date. There are a number of checks and balances built into the application and validation processes, which should ensure that only genuinely qualifying citizens benefit from this grant. In addition, the Auditor General is auditing all the application process and decisions and any anomalies identified will be investigated.

Reply:

(a)

Province	Date of employment
Northern Cape	1 June 2020
Eastern Cape	1 June 2020
Western Cape	Province chose to use existing employees-not participate in project.
Limpopo	1 June 2020
Free State	1 June 2020
Mpumalanga	1 July 2020
North West	1 June and 1 July 2020
Gauteng	1 July and 16 July 2020
Kwa-Zulu Natal	1 June and 1 July 2020

(b) Social Workers have been employed for a period of three (3) months with a monthly remuneration of R6,000.00. It is important for the honourable Member to note that the Provincial Department of Social Development in the Western Cape refused to participate in this programme.

Reply:

1. No, The SASSA CEO was appointed before my deployment in this portfolio.

According to the available records the recommendation to appoint the CEO of SASSA was made by an interview panel chaired by Ms Shabangu, the former Minister of Social Development. The interviewing panel comprised:

Mr T Nxesi, former Minister of Public Works,

Mrs A Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education; and

Mr V Madonsela, former Director-General: Justice and Constitutional Development.

Furthermore, concurrence was obtainedfrom Cabinet for the intended appointment of the CEO.

(2) According to the available records the below:

2 (a)(i) 18 December 2018.

(a)(ii) National Department of Social Development, HSRC Building, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria.

(2)(b) According to the available records the following were candidates: Ms SD Ntukwana, Ms BJ Memela-Khambula and Mr AS Mahlangu

(3) As Indicated above, the CEO appointed was before my deployment to the portfolio and therefore I am referring to the details.

(4)(a) The determining factors for the salary include amongst others, the level of responsibility, accountability and leadership capabilities, equivalent to that of a National Head of Department.

(4)(b)(i) SMS salary level 16 was used for the CEO’s salary (R 1 880 736.00 per annum).

(4)(b)(ii) 1 April 2019, with the cost of living adjustment.

(4)(b)(iii) Awarding of a total cost to employer package of R 2 650 000.00 per annum was offeredin line to the preferred candidate.

Reply:

a) On a monthly basis for the period prior to lockdown, approximately 0,5% of all grants paid are not collected.

The table below shows the number of SASSA accounts credited every month, the number of grants collected and the number not collected for the month prior to lockdown, and the months after lockdown.

Transfers into SASSA Card
Month	Number of SASSA cards Credited	Number of Grants collected	Number of grants not collected	% Not collected
Mar-20	8,066,894	8,028,568	38,326	0.5
Apr-20	8,100,671	7,993,672	106,999	1.3
May-20	8,109,539	8,061,907	47,632	0.6
Jun-20	8,144,519	8,101,019	43,500	0.5

 

b) The increase in the number of uncollected grants in April was due to level 5 lockdown, where many beneficiaries were reluctant to leave their homes to access the grants.

The decrease in the number of uncollected grants in May and June is believed to be as a result of the relaxation of lockdown rules.

c) SASSA experiences non-collection of grants on monthly basis. The table belowindicates the top three(3) regions that experienced the highest number of decline in the collection of grants from March 2020 (before Covid-19 and lockdown) and April to June 2020 (during lockdown)

In April the high decline is caused by the total shutdown due to level 5 lockdown, beneficiaries were afraid to leave their homes to collect their grants

In May, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng remained with the highest number of grants not collected even though the number declined. Western Cape is the third highest due to the increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases.

In June,the above provinces remained the highest but the overall number of grants not collected has reduced.

Reply:

a) The Technical Committee for SASSA was appointed by the previous Minister of Social Development to assist SASSA in implementing the Constitutional Court judgement of 23rd March 2018 and to advice on business model review of SASSA.

Various Constitutional Court judgements in the course of 2017 made it clear that there were challenges with the existing contract with service providers for cash payment, without which SASSA would not be able to execute its mandate and the extra capacity for a period of time was required.

b) The Technical Committeewas appointed from May 2018 until October 2018

c) The members of the Technical Committee were paid as follows:

Name of Committee Member	Total Amount Paid
Ms.Dipuo Peters	R468,503.05
Ms ManokoNchwe	R449,040.00
Ms.Totsie Memela	R235,592.00
Mr.SelwynJehoma	R383,466.00
Ms.ZodwaManase	R348,580.00
Mr.SiphoShezi	R649,650.00

d) The Terms of Reference is attached for ease of reference

e) The six reports from the Technical Committee are attached for ease of reference

• The project recommendations identified in the reports were implemented

• Governance and Institutional Review is underway. The new Chief Executive Officer had to be appointed to drive the review.

• The Agency is in the process of developing a business case for replacement of SOCPEN and also evaluating options and approach to replace the system depending on availability of budgetary resources.

Reply:

1. Yes, theDepartment (DSD) does not need to pre-approve plans to enable nongovernmental organisations to provide food relief to citizens in need. The DSD was rather seeking to better coordinate all food distribution activities and ensure vulnerable people receive food in a dignified manner in partnership with individuals and organizations involved in food distribution.

The permission of take away and/or disposable containers is acceptable for soup and food kitchens that can provide the specified take-away containers.

The measures introduced by DSD are not prohibitive but intended to protect the health and well-being of our people. Health inspectors had warned the food programme against use of inappropriate materials, hence the Department had provided cutlery and crockery in the centres. The take away provision was to enable centres to not have congestion whilst we striving for social distancing during the COVID-19 period.

2. No, the homeless persons are supported by the shelters and in the case where they do not have IDs and addresses our officials use their names to identify and register them. A portfolio of evidence is part of accounting for resources distributed by government and the soupkitchens and food parcel distributors providingfood to the homeless without addresses do still register the recipients using their names, surname and the centre or area they come from.

Reply:

Yes, The Department is still issuing the food parcels that were distributed at the beginning of the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus to indigent persons and those whose income was affected;

From the beginning of Covid-19 response till the end of Quarter 1 (April - June), the programme has distributed a total of 800 968 food parcels to about 4 004 840persons.

The programme reach in each month is as follows:

March food parcel distribution to households per province
Province	Food parcels distributed	Estimated number of people reached (5/household)
Eastern Cape	0	0
Free State	0	0
Gauteng	807	4 035
Kwa Zulu Natal	0	0
Limpopo	0	0
Mpumalanga	0	0
Northern Cape	0	0
North West	0	0
Western Cape	16 788	83 940
Total	17 595	87 975

April food parcel distribution to households per province
PROVINCE	Food Parcels Distributed	Estimated number of people reached (5/Household)
Eastern Cape	8 054	40 270
Free State	14 732	73 660
Gauteng	58 944	294 720
Kwa Zulu Natal	20 156	100 780
Limpopo	36 772	183 860
Mpumalanga	27 817	139 085
Northern Cape	25 554	127 770
North West	18 396	91 980
Western Cape	44 518	222 590
Total	254 943	1 274 715

May food parcel distribution to households per province
Province	Food Parcels Distributed	Estimated number of people reached (5/Household)
Eastern Cape	23 415	117 075
Free State	33 020	165100
Gauteng	106 598	532 990
Kwa Zulu Natal	12 120	60 600
Limpopo	52 692	263 460
Mpumalanga	56 212	281 060
Northern Cape	24 672	123 360
North West	7 638	38 190
Western Cape	22 780	113 900
Total	339 147	1 695 735

June food parcel distribution to households per province
Province	Food Parcels Distributed	Estimated number of people reached (5/Household)
Eastern Cape	860	4 300
Free State	860	4 300
Gauteng	129 190	645 950
Kwa Zulu Natal	18 184	90 920
Limpopo	18 245	91 225
Mpumalanga	860	4 300
Northern Cape	860	4 300
North West	860	4 300
Western Cape	860	4 300
Total	170 779	853 895

Reply:

The HIV pandemic has over the years taught us that biomedical approaches alone are not able to prevent and stem out the spread of new infections, hence a multi-sectoral approach is required to respond to the epidemic.

a) In 2008, UNAIDS noted that new HIV infections were not declining in most countries including South Africa, but continued to increase rapidly. This therefore prompted UNAIDS to call uponall countries to engage in a ‘know your epidemic, know your response’ exercise to allow governments to understand the drivers of the epidemic in order to base HIV prevention efforts on evidence and not on perceptions.The Human Science Research Council (HSRC) therefore conducted a study called Know Your Epidemic, Know Your Response in 2011 for South Africa. This study found that HIV is more than a health issue but a developmental issue because factors that fuel HIV&AIDS are due to human behaviour as well as social and structural in nature andtherefore a social approach was required in addressing these factors. This assisted South Africa to develop the National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs and TB (NSP) 2012-2016 which mandated the Department of Social Development (DSD) to lead the goal on addressing social and structural drivers of HIV because DSD’s mandate and commitment is on social transformation and we focus mainly on facilitating human development and improving the quality of lives of people by addressing the social and structural barriers to this quality of life.

DSD therefore developed a Compendium of Social and Behaviour Change programmes using the social ecology approachwhich aims at addressing all levels of society, including the individual, interpersonal relationships, family, communities, and systems. The social ecology model has enabled DSD to develop (1) social and behaviour change programmes that seek to address risky behaviours with a view to motivate behaviour change within individuals and social units by use of a range of educational, counseling, motivational, peer-group, skills-building approaches, and community normative approaches which are delivered in small interactive groups; as well as (2) incorporate structural strategies that already exist in the Department (such as social grants, poverty alleviation programmes) which seek to change the context that contributes to individuals’ vulnerability and risk to HIV. The following are the compendium of social and behaviour change programmes which DSD has developed: YOLO, ChommY, Families Matter programme, Men Championing Change programme, Boys Championing Change programme, Community Capacity Enhancement programme and Traditional Leaders programme. These programmes are implemented alongside DSD’s existing programmes that target the structural drivers of the pandemic e.g. social grants and food security programmes. These programmes target different target groups within the social ecology model.

b) The Department partnered with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 2011. This partnership assisted the Department to establish a Government Capacity Building and Support Program (GCBS) which aims at strengthening the capacity of the Department of Social Development to respond to HIV&AIDS. The GCBS programme assisted in training Social Services Professionals (SSPs) on the compendium of social and behaviour change programmes in the country. A Train-the-Trainer approach was adopted for each programme and this has ensured that each province has a pool of SSPs that are able to cascade and roll-out the trainings in each district.To-date, a total number of 1 694 SSPs were trained on the social and behaviour change programmes since 2017. The Department also partnered with the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) to roll-out the training of Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) on the compendium of social and behaviour change programmes.SANAC has to-date trained 557 SSPs in all 9 provinces since 2016. The Department had planned to train a further 300 SSPs for this financial year 2020/21, however this has been reviewed to 100 SSPs due to the lockdown restrictions since the trainings are face-to-face with interactive exercises and role-modelling. These trainings will commence in November 2020. Each SSP will be trained on each of the seven (7) social and behaviour change programmes mentioned under (a) above. Each training comprises a minimum of 4 days. This means that each SSP requires a total number of 28 days to complete the entire Compendium of Social and Behaviour Change programmes.

c) These seven (7)social and behaviour change programmes, mentioned above under (a), are implemented together as a package within the same given community, in an integrated manner. Each programme has a Facilitator’s Manual and a Participant’s Manual. The implementation of these programmes is complemented by other DSD existing programmes such as the KeMoja programme. TheDepartment is currently funding 17 NPOs in the country, since 2016, to implement the compendium of social and behaviour change programmes in 30 Districts which have the highest rate of new HIV infections. The NPOs have appointed SSPs that implement the programmes using different approaches which include interactive group facilitated workshops for the different target groups, as well as facilitated community dialogues which include YOLO Jam Sessions, Community Capacity Enhancement sessions, Boys Assemblies, Men’s Lounges, National and District Men’s Parliaments.

d) Implementation of these social and behaviour change programmes commenced in 2016 and is still continuing in all 9 provinces in the 30 districts in the country. Due to budgetary constraints, the Department is not able to expand the implementation of the programmes to all 52 districts.

e) The entire budget for the training and implementation of the social and behaviour change programmes for the 2020/21 financial year is R93m. This budget is for all nine (9) provinces and it is not enough to cater for all 52 Districts.

Reply:

The budget for the Social Relief of Distress Grant in the current financial year department initially received is R3.4 billion for the roll-out of the COVID-19 Special Social Relief of Distress Grant. Following the Supplementary Budget allocations, the available amount has been increased to R11 billion. No additional administrative budget was provided, and SASSA has re-prioritised within the existing budget to be able to fund the development of the system, the communication channels and other administrative costs associated with the roll out of this grant.

Reply:

1. All clients seeking to apply for disability related grants are booked at SASSA Local Offices using the Electronic Medical Assessment Statistical Template. Such clients are booked for an assessment at a particular assessment site on a particular date and there is no differentiation between new and existing beneficiaries. Thebooking is to assist the Agency to monitor service demands and monitor the time it takes for clients before they are assessed. As at 29 June 2020, status is as below:

Region	Assessments
Eastern Cape	835
Free State	309
Gauteng	2 553
KwaZulu-Natal	1 632
Limpopo	1 664
Mpumalanga	1 165
Northern Cape	359
North West	4 574
Western Cape	4 945
Total	19 053

2. SASSA strives to ensure that all clients booked are assessed within a month and clients waiting for more than a month are referred to as backlogs.Programme managers are required to come up with innovative measures to address backlogs and avoid the emergence of backlogs. The current numbers have been exacerbated as a result of the lockdown and closure of SASSA Local Offices under level 5; as well as the limited resources at local offices during levels 4 and 3.

3. SASSA implements a hybrid model for disability management, which relies on both contracted medical officers as well as medical officers from Department of Health. The numbers of doctors provided by Department of Health is not a fixed number – it depends on resources available within the various assessment sites.

The total number of doctors contracted directly by SASSA is 475 nationally. The number per province is indicated below:

Region	Contracted doctors
Eastern Cape	28
Free State	44
Gauteng	52
KwaZulu-Natal	134
Limpopo	72
Mpumalanga	27
Northern Cape	80
North West	28
Western Cape	10
Total	475

4. All requests for assessments are captured on the Electronic Medical Assessment Template (EMAST) which flags all clients waiting more than 30 days for an assessment from the date of booking. In such situations programme managers are expected to either add a resource in the form of a doctor, another assessment day within that week or recruit either doctor from other further areas and in certain instance ask for services of doctors from neighbouring provinces.

The backlog has been exacerbated as a result of the lockdown. Limited disability related services at Local Offices have resumed under Level 3 lockdown. A strategy has been developed to progressively resume with the assessment related activities as from 1 July 2020. The ability to provide these services does depend on the ability for assessments to be undertaken, as there is still limited access to health facilities.

The strategy prioritises the following categories of applicants in order of priority:

• Those who were assessed prior to lockdown but who were unable to complete the application process;
• Those who were booked for assessments but could not be seen as a result of the lockdown – these clients will be rebooked for assessments;
• Urgent new applications, where the assessment is already done by the health facility and only the application needs to be done;
• New applications in accordance with available capacity of assessing doctors.

The number of assessments booked per assessment schedule has been reduced to 20 from 40 to ensure compliance with the COVID-19 protocols related to sanitation, social distancing and hygiene.

A particular challenge exists in Western Cape, where the majority of the assessments are undertaken in health facilities. The ability of SASSA to accept new applicants for disability grants is there for seriously, negatively impacted by this. In order to address this, SASSA Western Cape has been granted authority to deviate from normal tender processes by National Treasury to appoint doctors in the George and Boland areas through a closed bidding process by approaching all doctors listed on the HPCSA database as a fairness measure.

Reply:

The content of the food parcels issued by SASSA in each province was standardised. The content of the food parcels is as follows:

Food item	Brand Name	Weight	Quantity
Maize Meal	Ace, white Star, Iwisa, Impala, Pitsana or equivalent in nutritional value.	12,5kg	1
Nutritional Supplement	Movite Porridge or approved substitute with equivalent in nutritional value.	1 kg	2
Cooking Oil	Sunflower cooking oil or equivalent in nutritional value.	750 ml	2
Pilchards	Glendryck, Saldhana, Lucky Star or equivalent in nutritional value.	400 g tins	6
Soya Mince	Imana, Knorrox, Top Class, Vitamince, Mealtime, Trojan or equivalent in nutritional value.	1 kg	3
Sugar	Huletts, Illovo, Selati or equivalent in nutritional value.	2,5 kg	1
Sugar Beans	Econo, Imbo, Plaza, Olympic or equivalent in nutritional value.	2 kg	1
Bread Flour	Golden Cloud, Sasko, Snowflake or equivalent in nutritional value.	2,5 kg	1
Tea Bags	Five Roses, Glen, Teaspoon Tips, Joko, Trinco, Rooibos or equivalent in nutritional value.	100 tea bags	2
Yeast	NCP, Anchor, Super bake or equivalent in nutritional value.	10 g	2
Peanut Butter	Skippy, Black Cat, Yum Yum or equivalent nutritional value.	800g	1
Milk	Full cream powder milk (must be “Real Diary” OR Full cream long life milk (1 box of 6 L).	1 kg 1 Box	1 6 L
Toothpaste	All brands acceptable (consider price).	100 g	2
Washing Soap(VI)	Sunlight Bar Soap or equivalent.	500g	2
Sanitary towels	All brands (consider price) 8 towels per pack.	Pack of 8	3

The services rendered by the contracted suppliers was to deliver food parcels on receipt of an order from SASSA.

The attached Annexure confirms the amount paid to each service provider for the provision of food parcels in the period of April and May. Payments made in June are not yet available, as the BAS system is not yet closed for the month of June.

Reply:

1. Yes, the funding is adequate for the 3,2 million beneficiaries referred to. However, it should be noted that the number of approved applications now stand at 4 424 720. The budget is adequate to cover these and the projected number of asylum seekers and special permit holders who are expected to apply. Should these numbers increase in line with projections done by SASSA, the funds allocated will not be sufficient.

2. It’s not possible to predict exactly how many foreign nationals will receive the grant. We do however know that in the country there are:

(a) 173 036 refugees, of which 2 288 have been approved as at 15 July 2020; and

(b) 188 296 asylum seekers,

(c) 178 615 Special Permit Holders from Zimbabwe,

(d) 25 382 Special Permit Holders from Lesotho,

(e) 1 686 Special Permit Holders from Angola;

who may qualify for the Special Covid SRD if they meet the other qualifying criteria.

In addition, the special relief grant has been approved for 115 670 permanent residents in South Africa (non- South African citizens who hold permanent residence status).

Reply:

The Department is not aware of this allegation. The Department did not issue any food parcels to the Premier for distribution to any community.

Reply:

The number of social workers currently employed by

(a)(i) The State is 14 599.

(a)(ii) The department does not have statistics of social workers employed in the private sector.

(b) Non-governmental organisations is 1 970

Reply:

(1) The Department of Social Development is not in the financial position to provide any additional financial support to registered ECD centres that remain closed under the state of national disaster as there is no budget specifically allocated for this purpose. However,on 9 May 2020, the Minister of Social Development issued Directions that “The Department must continue to subsidize the early childhood development centres during the state of national disaster” (See Government Notice 517 published in Government Gazette No 43300 of 9 May 2020). This Direction immediately waived the requirement that early childhood development programmes that already receive subsidy need to submit a new application for funding for the 2020/2021 financial while the national state of disaster is in place. The collective amount being paid annually towards this funding is R3.1 billion, targeting early childhood development programmes in poor communities in particular. This funding continues to be paid out to early childhood development centres through the nine provincial departments of social development, which is a provincial competency as contemplated in section 93(1) of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005. This is a significant step that is intended to buffer the impact of the measures implemented during the national state of disaster risk-adjusted lockdown.

(2) The Department is currently in discussion with the National Treasury to repurpose the current ECD infrastructure conditional grant towards supporting early childhood development programmes with personal protective equipment for personnel and staff. If successful, priority will be given to those unfunded registered ECD programmes serving poor communities as required in terms of section 93(4)(a) of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005; and unregistered ECD programmes serving poor communities will also be considered. It should be noted that provision of ECD programmes is private and NPOdriven, government only regulates and subsidise these programmes.

Reply:

1. The Integrated Programme of Action on Violence Against Women and Children (POA: VAWC) was approved by Cabinet and published on 18 September 2013.

2. The 2013-2018 Programme of Action on Violence Against Women and Children was reviewed by the Department of Monitoring and Evaluation in 2016 through a diagnostic review.

3. The Draft reviewed Programme of Action on Violence Against Women and Children is attached.

Reply:

Having a bank account is not a requirement for an application for the special relief grant. Where an applicant does have a bank account, the benefit, if approved, will be paid directly into his / her bank account.

However, where the applicant does not have a bank account, he /she will receive a money transfer through one of the banks which are supporting SASSA with the implementation of this grant. The applicant will indicate which the most convenient bank is for him / her and the money transfer will be sent to his/her mobile phone, once the necessary checks have been done to ensure that it is indeed a mobile phone belonging to that applicant. The money transfer may then be cashed at the ATM and the funds used as required.

Reply:

According to the Children’s Act 38 of 2005; Section 151 and 152, as well as Regulation 53 (1)(a)(b) gives the authority to the designated social worker or a police official to make a decision that is in the best interest of a child to effect removal of a child and places such a child in temporary safe care for the safety and well-being of the child. Such removal can either be by means of:

• A court order (Section 151) where there is evidence given by a designated Social Worker that a child is in need of care and protection. Upon presentation of such evidence before the presiding officer; the presiding officer issues an order authoring a designated Social Worker to remove a child toa temporary safe care while the matter is being investigated.

• Without a court order, which is an emergency removal situation through Section 152 and completion of Form 36 as prescribed in Regulation 53. Emergency removal is done in instances where there are reasonable grounds that the child is in need of care and protection and delays obtaining a court order for the removal and placing the child in temporary safe care may jeopardise the child’s safety and well-being.

The completed Form 36 must be submitted to the temporary safe care person or CYCC as soon as it is practical. The clerk of the children’s court must be informed about such a removal not later than the next court day.

Province	Year	Number of children taken away from their parents
Mpumalanga		Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/2017	27	68
	2017/2018	21	95
	2018/2019	46	88
Free State	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	402	24
	2017/18	432	48
	2018/19	296	70
Limpopo	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	0	245
	2017/18	0	243
	2018/19	0	258
North West	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	0	46
	2017/18	0	51
	2018/19	0	66
Gauteng	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	25	836
	2017/18	16	788
	2018/19	26	953
Western Cape	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	New indicator	1 883
	2017/18	4 694	1 793
	2018/19	8 266	1 949
Eastern Cape	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	0	849
	2017/18	0	653
	2018/19	37	517
Kwa-Zulu Natal	Year	Without a court order	With a court order
	2016/17	112	462
	2017/18	121	658
	2018/19	97	681
Total (eight provinces)		14,619	13,324

Northern Cape:

It is impossible to provide disaggregated data on the removal of children with or without court orders in the Northern Cape. It can be confirmed that the following number of children were removed in accordance with Section 151 and 152 of the Children’s Act, 38 of 2005.

Northern Cape	Year	Number of children removed with and without court orders
	2016/17	134
	2017/18	176
	2018/19	93
Total		403

Reply:

The National Development Agency Act 108 of 1998 (as amended) section 4(1) (d) gives the NDA duties and powers to “ create and maintain a database on civil society organisations, including, but not limited to, the scope and subject matter of their work and their geographical distribution, and share the information in that database with relevant organs of state and other stakeholders.” To this end the NDA has a database comprised of 15 858 CSOs that have been assessed and profiled. The CSOs that provided the volunteers were drawn from this database instead of the Municipalities’ existing Expanded Public Works Programme databases. Furthermore, the aim of using the NDA CSO database was to expand job opportunities to other young people who are not currently benefitting from any of government’s programs. The NDA does maintain strategic relationship with both the provincial and local governments in the implementation of its programmes.

Reply:

1. Whether her department purchased any goods and/or services below the amount of R500 000 connected to the Covid-19 pandemic; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what (a) is the name of each company from which the specified goods and/or services were purchased, (b) is the amount of each transaction and (c) was the service and/or product that each company rendered;

Yes, the Department did purchase goods and/or services below the amount of R500 000 connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.

(a)	(b)	(c)
Name of Company	Amount	Service/ Product rendered
EDS Projects	R 1,379.50	Hand sanitiser alcohol free for DSD officials
Time2go Transport and Logistics	R 116,000.00	Latex Powder Free disposable gloves for DSD officials
Time2go Transport and Logistics	R 196,000.00	Hand sanitiser 70% alcohol for DSD officials
Bioclin	R4,140.00	Surgical face masks
Lesole Facilities Management	R 299,700.00	30 000 Surgical face masks for daily visitors to DSD
302k Emporium	R 125,005.00	5000 cloth masks for DSD officials
Baltimore Media	R 38,822.85	Various items -Equipment for the COVID-19 isolation room
Democratic Cleaning Services	R 8,564.16	4 x sanitary refuse container - Medical waste removal
Amoka Solutions	R 478,818.60	Sanitising of the HSRC Building, Harlequins Office Park and GBV Centre on a monthly basis for three months
Sesla General Services	R33 474.00	Catering provided for training of social workers on COVID-19
Modifho-Fela	R34 960.00	Catering provided for training of Social Workers on COVID-19
Sizzling Catering	R15 870.00	Catering for training of social workers on COVID-19.
NICDAM	R313 030.00	Appointment of a facilitator for training of social workers on COVID-19.
Orion Hotels and Resorts	R182 183.00	Conference venue and facilities for the training of nurses and medical practitioners in the 9 Provinces
Maribelo	R61 755.00	Catering service provided.

(2) Whether there was any deviation from the standard supply chain management procedures in the specified transactions; if so, (a) why and (b) what are the relevant details in each case;

	(a)(b)
Name of Company	Why and what the relevant details in each case
EDS Projects	Deviation- due to urgency, only one quotation was received.
Time2go Transport and Logistics	Deviation- due to urgency, only one quotation was received.
Time2go Transport and Logistics	Deviation- due to urgency, only one quotation was received
Bioclin	Deviation- due to urgency, only one quotation was received
Amoka Solutions	Deviation- due to urgency, only one quotation was sourcedfrom the cleaning company.
NICDAM	Deviation- due to urgency and it was during lockdown.
Maribelo	Deviation- due to urgency and it was during lockdown.
Orion Hotels and Resorts	Deviation- only hotels with video conferencing which were prepared to avail themselves to assist the Department during lockdown.
Sizzling Catering	Deviation- due to urgency and it was during lockdown.
Sesla General Services	Deviation- due to urgency and it was during lockdown.
Modifho-Fela	Deviation- due to urgency and it was during lockdown.

(3)What were the reasons that the goods and/or services were purchased from the specified companies;

 

All good and services received were to ensure that DSD complies with Covid-19 Regulations and were procured to safeguard staff and to ensure conducive work environment for staff to return to work.

• Sanitising of the HSRC Building, Harlequins Office Park and GBV Centre was an urgency as staff needed to return for duty.

• Sanitisers, masks, gloves, hand sanitising machines, various items in the examination room were urgently required to adhere to the COVID-19 regulations.

• Catering was provided for social workers during training and for war room and natjoint meetings held during lockdown.

• Emergency procurement of the facilitator was done as social workers had to be trained onCOVID-19.

(4) Whether she will make a statement on the matter?

At the right time, and when such a need arises, yes.

Reply:

(a)(i)According to the Department of Social Development’s prescripts homeless children are considered as street children. Therefore measures used to identify them are provided for in the Children’s Act 38/2005. For an example,section 191 (2)(k) makes provision for therapeutic intervention services for them.

Furthermore, section 150 (1) (c) makes room for street children to be found or identified as children in need of care and protection after the social worker has conducted the home investigation and recommended to Children’s Court that they be found children in need of care and protection.

(ii) Like any other child, street children are covered by section 28 of the Constitution of the Republic, 1996which guarantees right to education.

(b) Rendering services to street children is not easy because they have lived long on the street, have learnt street life and it may be difficult for them to live a normal life.

The department has developed Stabilization programme to assist the Child and Youth Care Centres to manage the behaviour of street children.

Furthermore the Department has developed Strategy and Guidelines on Drop in Centres to inform provision of services of Orphans and Vulnerable Children, which includes street children. The Department also developed a Strategy and Guidelines that inform various programmes for street children using the following levels of interventions: Prevention; Early Intervention; Statutory Services; Reunification and After Care.

At all levels, children are encouraged and motivated to attend school. It is compulsory for those who have been admitted in a child and youth care centre to attend school, therefore all of them do attend school once they are in a child and youth care centre.

The main challenge is that the street children are nomadic and most of the time they abscond from the intervention centres. They are used to uncontrolled environment.

Reply:

(1)(a) No, the Department did not conduct a formal feasibility study in respect of the employment of 1,809 Social Work graduates in view of the urgency to appoint and short duration of the contracts. The allocation of Social Work graduates was informed by the possible risk of the spread of the virus, the vastness and geographical spread of provinces, the population size and density of the province. It is too early to measure the impact.

(1)(b)(i) 1 June and 1 July 2020.

(1)(b)(ii) The Social Work graduates are reporting physically for work at respective district offices on a daily basis.

(1)(c) Social Work graduates have been employed on contract for 3 months additional to the post establishment of the Department. The screening and vetting is not conducted for short term contract appointments.

(2) Training in psychosocial support forms part of the studies towards obtaining the Social Work degree. Included in the study is the compulsory practical experience required to obtain the social work qualification.

(3)(a) The provinces are responsible for providing these social workers with tools of trade.

(3)(b) The induction will include amongst others the expectations, reporting lines and logistical arrangements. This would be done on the first day of assuming duty and would take approximately 2 to 3 hours.

(4)(a) Ratio of Social Work Supervisor to Social Workers

Province	Supervisor / SW Ratio
Eastern Cape	1: 14
Free State	1:9 & 1: 10
Gauteng	1:6 & 1: 10
Limpopo	1:8
Mpumalanga	1: 14
Northern Cape	1: 10
North West	1:13
KwaZulu-Natal	1:8
Western Cape	1 :6

(4)(b) The generic assessment tools available in government would be used.

Reply:

The Minister of Social Development is the principal custodian of the Children's Act 38 of 2005 and has a legal and political obligation to ensure that all early childhood development programmes and/or partial care facilities are regulated as provided for in this Act.

The Minister of Social Development has in terms of the Regulations published Directions issued in terms of Regulation 4 (5) and (10) of the Regulations made under Section 27 (2) of the Act: Measures to Prevent and Combat the Spread of COVID-19: Phased Return of Children to Early Childhood Development Programmes and Partial Care Facilities issued published by Government Notice No. 762 in Government Gazette No. 43520 of 10 July 2020, that in particular apply to early childhood development programmes and partial care facilities as part her and the Department of Social Development’s responsibilities to ensure compliance with the measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19 as set out in the Regulations.

Furthermore, the Department of Social Development has issued on 23 June 2020 detailed Standard operating procedures and guidelines for an early childhood development programme and/or partial care facility that provides an after-school service on measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19.

The department has further repurposed ECD infrastructure conditional grant allocation for 2020/21 which amounts to 61 million to support ECD programmes that operates in rural areas and townships; and serves poor children.

The Department of Social Development together with the provincial Departments of Social Development has a continued responsibility to monitor that early childhood development programmes and partial care facilities that have reopened continue to comply with the prescribed measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of COVID-19. This includes providing guidance and advice, as well as ensuring, when needed, that the required steps are taken when any of these programmes do not comply with the prescribed measures.

Reply:

a) The ECD programmes that qualify to receive PPEs are those both registered and unfunded; and unregistered ECD programmes that are located in poor communities and serve children from poor households

b) Funding has been repurposed from the existing conditional grant allocation and each provincial Department of Social Development will source from their local cooperatives and Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) for the procurement of PPEs

c) The procurement process will take 4-6 weeks and already started the process on 29 June 2020. Expected delivery is mid-August 2020.

Reply:

1. The initial allocation for the special relief grant of R350 per month from May to October 2020 was R3 457 696 700. Motivation was done to National treasury to indicate that this would not be sufficient. In the special adjustment budget of 24 June 2020, an additional amount of approximately R6 billion was provided for this relief grant.

(a)(i) An additional amount of approximately R6 billion was made available in the special adjustment budget for this grant. However, this is intended to cater for all who qualify, not only the asylum seekers and special permit holders.

(ii) No additional resources other than the current internal resources being used to implement the special relief grant have been made available.

(b) A total of R949 537 750 has been paid out to approved beneficiaries as at 30 June 2020

2. The Department of Social Development has amended the Directions to accommodate asylum seekers and special permit holders from Angola, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, as directed by the court, and the revised Directions were published on 2 July 2020.

3. Yes, SASSA maintains statistics on all applications received, approved and declined.

4. Statistics are not maintained on racial demographics. The table below indicates the approved applications according to citizenship and age.

Age	SA Citizens	Permanent Residents	Refugees	Total
18	182 193	3 438	38	185 669
19	220 690	4 443	90	225 223
20	210 845	4 521	94	215 460
21	218 868	5 450	76	224 394
22	197 327	5 490	80	202 897
23	173 240	5 334	78	178 652
24	145 010	4 758	66	149 834
25	120 722	3 728	55	124 505
26	104 268	3 225	40	107 533
27	89 123	2 595	54	91 772
28	84 157	2 268	40	86 465
29	78 136	2 097	44	80 277
30	74 184	1 988	59	76 231
31	68 719	1 710	57	70 486
32	66 001	1 630	63	67 694
33	63 756	1 500	54	65 310
34	62 572	1 518	60	64 150
35	60 163	1 456	62	61 681
36	57 831	1 388	67	59 286
37	57 910	1 424	69	59 403
38	53 068	1 420	60	54 548
39	49 799	1 259	74	51 132
40	50 840	1 240	88	52 168
41	46 036	1 228	64	47 328
42	45 052	1 181	67	46 300
43	45 651	1 299	68	47 018
44	48 094	1 312	56	49 462
45	47 682	1 360	53	49 095
46	45 889	1 365	47	47 301
47	47 956	1 460	51	49 467
48	46 402	1 377	32	47 811
49	43 844	1 361	25	45 230
50	50 692	1 466	30	52 188
51	49 167	1 437	24	50 628
52	48 707	1 528	25	50 260
53	46 515	1 465	15	47 995
54	50 230	1 534	15	51 779
55	51 778	1 611	17	53 406
56	53 629	1 547	9	55 185
57	54 309	1 646	14	55 969
58	49 561	1 492	8	51 061
59	44 576	1 364	5	45 945
60	2 958	86		3 044
Grand Total	3 408 150	90 999	2 093	3 501 242

5. The qualification criteria for applicants to qualify for the Special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress Grant is applied to all applicants. The gazetted criteria, including the recent amendment on 2 July 2020 is as follows:

A special COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress of R350 per month may be provided for the period indicated herein to distressed individuals who are:

• South African Citizens, Permanent Residents or Refugees registered on the Home Affairs database,and holders of special permits under the Special Angolan Dispensation, the Lesotho Exemption Permit dispensation and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit Dispensation, and asylum seekers whose section 22 permits or visas are valid or were valid on 15 March 2020;
• Residing within the borders of the Republic of South Africa;
• Above the age of 18;
• Unemployed;
• Not receiving any social grant;
• Not receiving unemployment insurance benefit and does not qualify to receive unemployment insurance benefit;
• Not receiving a stipend from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme;
• Not in receipt of any other government COVID-19 response support; and
• Not a resident in a government funded or subsidised institution.

Applicants are declined if they do not meet any of the above criteria.

Reply:

1. All clients seeking to apply for disability related grants are booked at SASSA Local Offices using the Electronic Medical Assessment Statistical Template. Such clients are booked for an assessment to a particular assessment site on a particular date and there is no differentiation on new and existing beneficiaries. This booking is to assist the Agency to monitor service demands and the time clients have to wait before they are assessed. At this stage clients awaiting an assessment who have already been booked for the specified offices are as below:

• George: 1 385; Knysna: 120; Riversdale: 31, Mossel Bay: 125 and Plettenberg Bay: 32

2. SASSA strives to ensure that all clients booked are assessed within 30 days and clients waiting for longer than 30 days are referred to as backlogs, and programme managers are required to come up with innovative measures to avoid the emergence of backlogs.

3. The South African Social Security Agency contracts doctors provincially so as to allow for the flexibility to deploy such resources to deal with service demands at specific time periods and to allow for rotation as a risk mitigation strategy. SASSA has directly contracted a total of 10 doctors in the Western Cape. The Western Cape SASSA has a contract with all Provincial Health Districts so that the Department of Health doctors can conduct assessments for SASSA clients and claim an assessment fee for each assessment undertaken.

4. SASSA utilises a hybrid model for medial assessment for social grant assessments. This model relies on doctors from both the Department of Healthin accordance with a contract entered into as well as privately contracted medical officers. As reported, SASSA has only 10 privately contracted medical officers in Western Cape. There was an open tender advertised for services, but there was a very low response rate to the process that was undertaken. The Health District in the George area is not coping with the social assistance demands which has resulted in the large number of backlog assessments.

5. The Electronic Medical Assessment Template, flags all clients scheduled more than 30 days for an assessment from the date of booking. In such situations programme managers are expected to either add a resource in the form of a doctor, an additional assessment day within that week or utilise doctors from other areas in the province. In urgent cases, SASSA will request assistances from doctors contracted in other provinces.

In response to the shortage of contracted doctors, SASSA in the Western Cape has on 5 May 2020 been granted approval for deviation from normal tender processes by the National Treasury to appoint doctors in the George and Boland areas through a closed bidding process. The process to be followed is to approach all doctors listed on the Health Professions Council of South Africato ensure that the process is fair and transparent.

Reply:

(a)(b) I would like to inform the honourable member that the Department of Social Development does not issue permits. The Departments of Home Affairs is responsible for this permits.

National Assembly written Reply: 626 of 2020

Reply:

(a) Apart from monitoring statistical trends such as the changes to poverty produced by STATSSA, the department also conducts periodical impact evaluations

The social development sector has institutionalised the results-based management approach in contributing to the desired developmental state as outlined in the National Development Plan vision 2030. The department has been committed to the use of evidence from evaluations to inform decision making by managers, improve policy formulation and programme performance.

The department has conducted a number of evaluation studies to measure the effectiveness, outcomes, sustainability and impacts of the services delivered to communities and especially poor and vulnerable households, as well as gather an understanding of the lessons to be learnt. A brief outline of the evaluations that have been conducted in the last five years is as follows:

• Implementation evaluation of the Older Persons Act (OPA) to understand how the Older Persons Act 13 of 2006 is implemented (or how it is working) and how it can be strengthened. Evaluation report and the improvement plan have been completed and are in the process of Cabinet approval through the Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation. Some of the findings were used in the review of the Older Persons Act.
• Evaluation of You Only Live Once (YOLO) Programme to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and sustainability of the YOLO programme targeting 15-24 year olds and to determine the improvements to be made. The intention is to determine the immediate outcomes of the programme with regard to the extent to which YOLO contributes to increased knowledge, reduced negative attitudes and norms, reduction in risk behaviors’, and increased testing and adherence, all of which contribute to reducing HIV transmission. Evaluation report and the improvement plan has been completed. The findings were used to strengthen the programme.
• Evaluation of NPO regulatory system to assess how effective the system of NPO delivery is and how it can be strengthened. Evaluation report and the improvement plan have been completed. Some of the findings of the evaluation will be used for the review of the NPO Act Evaluation report and the improvement plan have been approved by Cabinet. The Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation has been monitoring the progress on the implantation of the improvement plan.
• Evaluation of Household Food and Nutrition programme to assess the appropriateness of the design and implementation of the national integrated food security strategy during the first year and to understand whether the strategy is addressing the issues of hunger in South Africa. An improvement plan was developed to ensure that findings and recommendations are used to strengthen the programme.

(b) The National Drug Master Plan provides a multisectoral blueprint for South Africa’s response to substance abuse. It is aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness and interventions in preventing substance abuse by providing a clear national policy statement, leadership and coordination of activities related to countering the substance abuse problem in South Africa. The implementation of the NDMP 2013 – 2017, ensured that South Africa reaffirmed its commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem in partnership with every local, national and international stakeholders. NDMP 2013 – 2017 was fully implemented. The implementation evaluation of NDMP 2013 – 2017 was conducted in order to understand whether, and how it has been implemented and how likely it is to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery across different institutions and programmes for reducing substance abuse. Amongst the recommendations provided from the implementation evaluation report were the following: The NDMP needs to be reviewed and harmonise its approaches; the Provincial Substance Abuse Forums and the Local Drug Action Committees be strengthened and it should have an Implementation Plan. The NDMP 2013 – 2017 was reviewed and NDMP 2019 – 2024. The NDMP 2019-2024 was approved by Cabinet in October 2019. Government Departments are currently being capacitated to implement the NDMP guided by the Implementation Plan

Reply:

a) No, the Minister of Social Development cannot commit on the date on which she will appoint the members of the new board of the Central Drug Authority (CDA).The Minister will appoint the new members of the CDA board once the Parliamentary Committees: Social Portfolio Committee on Social Development and the Select Committee on Social Services have short-listed, interviewed and recommended the suitable candidates for the new CDA board. Based on the relevant Parliamentary Committees’ recommendations, the Minister will appoint new members of the CDA board. At present, the Minister is awaiting the recommendations from the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and the Select Committee on Social Services.

(b) Yes, the Minister of Social Development commits to submit the outstanding CDA Annual Report for :

(i) 2018 – 2019 financial year in September 2020. Prior developing the CDA Annual Report, the members of the CDA board have to receive the reports from the relevant stake holders outlining their achievements and challenges in implementing the National Drug Master Plan. Normally the commencement of developing the CDA Annual Report starts in April of each year, as it entails reporting the previous year efforts and initiatives relating to combating substance abuse. The delay in the submission of the report was caused by the late submission of stakeholders’ (Government Departments, Provinces and Non- Governmental Organisations) reports. The CDA does not have an electronic system to ensure the submission of reports on time; and

(ii) The 2019 – 2020 financial year in

December 2020. CDA Annual Report is still awaiting reports from Provincial Substance Abuse Forums and the National Departments. The delay in the submission of the reports is caused by competing mandates. Some stakeholders do not see the issue of addressing the scourge of substance abuse as part of their priorities. The current legislation, the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act (Act 70 of 2008) does not have consequences for late and non-reporting by stakeholders

(aa) the Department of Social Development has reviewed The Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act 70 of 2008 to address the policy gaps including consequence management. The Draft Policy has been developed and currently being consulted with cluster departments. The Department is also in the process of developing system to ensure timeous reporting to parliament and

(bb) the Substance Abuse Fraternity

 

Reply:

	Province	(a)	(b)
1.	Eastern Cape	One	None
2.	Free State	One	One
3.	Gauteng	One	None
4.	KZN	Two	None
5.	Limpopo	One	None
6.	Mpumalanga	None	None
7.	North West	Two	One
8.	Northern Cape	One	None
9.	Western Cape	Two	None

Reply:

1. Yes, the Minister will provide the requested information.

2. (a) the pledge letter and (b) the contract signed by the Acting Director-General Mr Toni, to commission the services of KIRINOX across the country are attached.

3. (a) An amount of R50 million was paid by 31 May 2020.

(b)(i) The contract was to supply a relief package consisting of food, personal protective equipment (PPEs), blankets and mattresses to the homeless people in shelters (not to households). The table below reflects the number of shelters and individuals who receive the relief package by the end of the contract on 31 May 2020. These numbers still need to audited and may fluctuate when compared to the final audited close-out report.

Province	Beneficiary	Shelter
EC	934	25
GP	381	5
WC	14 400	26
KZN	34	1
MPU	2 000	14
LIM	466	5
FS	500	5
NC	244	3
NW	1 692	22
Delivered	20 651	106

(ii) There are no outstanding items for delivery of food relief from KIRINOX at the conclusion of the project on 31 May 2020.

Reply:

1 (a) -   When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in early March 2020, the NDA crafted a quick response to the pandemic at a time when there was lack of information about the virus, particularly in townships and rural areas. A Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) Volunteer programme was initiatedto build the capacity of civil society organisations to provide community-based responses to challenges facing them.

• The NDA identified CSOs who were already implementing community-based programmes through volunteers and field workers. As a result, CSOs enlisted volunteers from their own organisations including beneficiaries of their normal programme activities.

Honourable members to note that the programme was implemented in two phases. Phase 1 is comprised of 580 volunteers and Phase 2 comprised of 2000 volunteers.

1 (b) -   The volunteers were not required to provide qualifications. However, they have the following relevant skills for the work to be done:

- Communication skills, including reading and writing in order to assist communities in interpreting and explaining the information on Covid-19;

- Ability to assist community members to apply for Social Relief of Distress Grants and other social protection services provided to communities;

- Knowledge of the communities in which they work, including identification of most vulnerable households.

Additionally, the CSOs and volunteers were provided training by already established provincial teams which include the Departments of Social Development, Health, SASSA and Municipalities.

(2) (a) (i) – the allocation of volunteers per Province is as follows:

Province	Number of Volunteers
Eastern Cape
Free State
KwaZulu Natal
North West
Northern Cape
Western Cape
TOTAL

(2)(a) (ii) impact of the specified volunteers to date:

The volunteers have reached a total number of 145 947households and have done the following:

 

• assisting communities with distribution of food parcels, support of elderly and disabled persons;
• dissemination of Covid-19 information at hot spots as well as door-to-door within communities. The volunteers also provide translations of the advocacy material
• data collection in the households on useful information which can be  shared with relevant departments and entities e.g. household sources of energy data for donation of safe energy products.
• at an advanced level, and based on their competence, others are assisting with community screening interventions, counselling for gender-based violence cases and assisting people who need access to chronic medication to visit the health care facilities.
• assisting communities with the various registrations to access government relief funds such at the SASSA social relief of distress funds and the Department of Agriculture Disaster Relief Fund for small scale farmers.

 

(2)(b) what are the contract details of the volunteers?

The NDA has an agreement with the CSOs and not with the volunteers. The appointment letter for the CSOs includes the roles and responsibilities of the CSO in terms of the management of the volunteers, monitoring of the volunteers and reporting to the NDA.

Reply:

(a)(i) As at 15 June 2020, SASSA had received a total of 6 926 748 complete applications for the special relief grant.

(ii)(aa) A total of 3 277 660 have been rejected

(bb) A total of 1 048 380 are still being processed. All applications received are electronic, so no paperwork or supporting documents are required. The processing which is undertaken is the verification of the information against the multiple databases to ensure that the applicant is not in receipt of income from a social grant, UIF. NSFAS, a salary or a pension.

(iii) A total of 3 258 000 have been approved.

(b) A total of 1 095 090 have been paid as at 15 June 2020.

The difference between the number approved and those already paid is that there are various steps after approval before payment can take place. Applicants are only asked for bank details once the application is approved. Once the bank details are received, the correctness is verified by the banks before deposits can be effected, to ensure that the money goes to the right person. For clients who do not have bank accounts currently the payment is sent to the Post Office. Once the Post Office has opened the account, the applicants are sent notifications to collect their grants at specified Post Offices closer to their residential areas. SASSA will introduce money transfer to mobile numbers as soon as the contracts with banks are signed.

 

Reply:

1. As a result of COVID-19 lockdown, innovative and new ways of ensuring that children are protected from violence; abuse; neglect and exploitation and reaching out to children whilst in lockdown was and is still done through digital and online media communication.

The theme for 2020 CPW awareness activities, which is within the 365 Days Child Protection programme of action on violence against children, child abuse, neglect and exploitation, is “Let Us All Protect Children, During Covid-19 and Beyond”. This theme put emphasis on the responsibility of every citizen to ensure protection and promotion of the rights of children during this difficult period of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CPW activities were conducted from 30 May to 7 June 2020. 30 May 2020 was the official opening of the 2020 CPW with onsite outreach programme at an SOS Children’s Home in Rustenburg since the 31 May 2020 was the National Prayer Day as announced by the President on the 26 May 2020.

The Child Protection Week was marked by an array of activities that were done by various key stakeholders in the child protection sector. The stakeholders included, government, non-governmental organisations; civil society, community based child protection organisations and children themselves. Due to COVID-19 restrictions; messaging was done through social media posting, TV and radio talks on child protection topics.

On the 1 June 2020, the department held a webinar with child ambassadors from 9 provinces to commemorate the International Children’s Day; giving child ambassadors an opportunity to share their experiences on Covid-19 and how it impacts on their lives as children. The aim of International Children’s Day celebration was to draw attention to children’s rights and highlight the progress being made towards the realisation, promotion and protection of the rights of children. International Children’s Day is significant as it is the fulfilment of the right to child participation; to ensure that children are active participants in decision making processes on matters affecting their lives.

On the 2 June 2020 the focus was on Early Childhood Development; with the launch of Vangasali, a Xitsonga expression that means “no child should be left behind- every child counts”. This is a campaign that is meant to find every unregistered ECD services to determine the level of support required to meet the minimum norms and standards for registration. The ECD data will support the opening of the ECD upon the easing of the lockdown. It will assist in determining the support required by the unregistered ECD to meet requirements of registration of ECD in compliance with the Children’s Act during the ECD drive.

On the 6 June 2020, a webinar was hosted by DSD in partnership with UNICEF. The Webinar focussed on the protection of children during online use and violations, strengthening protection measures whilst children are on line as they spend too much time on the net doing school work as some learners are studying and receiving learning material online. Experts, children and a parent participated on the webinar reaching millions of South Africans as this was a live broadcast on SABC. The experts included DSD, UNICEF, UNISA, South African Law Reform Commission, Films and Publications Board as well Google South Africa. The message that came out strongly was the importance of intersectoral collaboration when dealing with online issues as it is cross-cutting; the importance of capacity building and training of key stakeholders including parents and caregivers; research to ensure responsive programing; lastly, the importance of stepping of interventions on the protection of children on online use.

On the 07 June 2020; the department held a symbolic closing of the Child Protection Week at Polokong Children’s Village (Child and Youth Care Center), Evaton, Gauteng Province. This activity was to highlight the stepping up of child protection services into the 365 Days Child Protection campaign; making a national call to step up child protection interventions; creating safety nets within families and communities at large scale for holistic care, development and protection of children whilst promoting their well-being.

(2) It is important to note that Child Protection Week is not the end of protection of children; instead Child Protection Week must be contextualized in the light of stepping up interventions into the 365 Days Child Protection campaign.

The 365 Days Child Protection campaign will be marked by monthly themes where a comprehensive integrated approach will be embraced; continuing with the work that has been started during the CPW activities. The campaign is to ensure that the country address the root and underlying causes of violence to stop it before it occurs; intensifying prevention and early intervention programmes; building capacity of parents, caregivers and families as well as communities, building their resilience to care and protect children.

Reply:

a) (i). The role of the National Development Agency is the building of the capacity of civil society to provide projects and programmes that alleviate poverty in communities. To this end the NDA has a database comprised of 15 858 CSOs that have been assessed and they provide different kinds of services in communities. In the fight against COVID-19, the NDA selected CSOs from its database as well as from youth-led organisations that are involved in the fight against gender-based violence. The selected Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) provide poverty eradication interventions within their local communities. Through a grant funding intervention, each of the CSOs has enlisted volunteers to reach almost all districts within the country, to facilitate various programmes during the lockdown period.

(ii) The NDA does not directly recruit and enter into an employment relationship with the volunteers. The Volunteers are selected and screened by the CSOs themselves and drawn from their own lists of community workers and filed workers.

b) The volunteers were not required to provide qualifications. However, they have the relevant skills for the work to be done and The CSOs and volunteers were provided training by already established provincial teams which include the Departments of Social Development, Health, SASSA and Municipalities.

c) number of volunteers were recruited in each province

Province	Number of Volunteers
Eastern Cape	92
Free State	40
Gauteng	10
KwaZulu Natal	130
Limpopo	60
Mpumalanga	50
North West	40
Northern Cape	40
Western Cape	110

d) The volunteers have reached a total number of 76679 households and have done the following:

• assisting communities with distribution of food parcels, support of elderly and disabled persons;
• dissemination of Covid-19 information at hot spots as well as door-to-door within communities. The volunteers also provide translations of the advocacy material
• data collection in the households on useful information which can be shared with relevant departments and entities.
• at an advanced level, and based on their competence, others are assisting with community screening interventions, counselling for Gender Based Violence cases and assisting people who need access to chronic medication to visit the health care facilities.
• assisting communities with the various registrations to access government relief funds such at the SASSA special relief of distress funds and the Department of Agriculture Disaster Relief Fund for small scale farmers.

e) The NDA has an agreement with the CSOs and not with the volunteers. The appointment letter for the CSOs includes the roles and responsibilities of the CSO in terms of the management of the volunteers, monitoring of the volunteers and Reporting to the NDA.

Reply:

During the period in question, measures were put in place to ensure that the provision of essential services in particular, such payment of social grants, as well as the provision of social relief of distress in the form of food parcels continued uninterrupted.

Reply:

The number of children of school going age on the system of the Department of Social Development per province is as follows:

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF CHILDREN	TYPE OF SERVICES
Eastern Cape	81 006.	As April 2020, EC has a total number of 81 006 children under the age of 18 years placed in Foster Care can be regarded as following within the school going age (Early childhood development, primary and high school). It must be noted that this number only refers to the number of children placed in Foster Care as confirmed by SASSA-SOCPEN database.
Free State	29 885	The children access various services from the Department.
KZN	68 186	65833 children placed in foster care and 2303 in child and youth care centres.
Gauteng	1,766540	177157 receiving child protection services, 4572 placed in child and youth care centres, 19253 accessing community based prevention and early intervention services, 2750 in crime and prevention support programmes, 751971 in substance abuse prevention and support, 810837 accessing poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihood programmes.
Limpopo	815	(a) There are 555 children of school going age in Child and Youth Care Centres. (b) 130 children are in secure care centres (c) 66 Attend Vocational Workshop. (d) 19 attend AET former ABET. (e) 43 attend Primary school. (f) 2 attend Secondary School
Mpumalanga	55 965	The children access various services from the Department.
Northern Cape	351	The children are placed in child and youth care centres: 14 enrolled in ECD centres, 325 in public schools, and 12 in school for children with special needs.
Western Cape	41081	36 251 children in foster care, 330 children in cluster foster care schemes, 4500 children in child and youth Care centres and secure care centres.
North West	344 426	28468 in foster care, 294604 recipients of child support grant, 755 in child and youth care centres, 114 in temporary safe care centres; and 21240 in drop-in centres.
TOTAL

Reply:

a) Care dependency grants are paid to the care givers of children who have severe disabilities and therefore require full time care and support. As at May 2020, a total of 157 258 children were benefitting from this grant, of which 148 216 are aged between 4 and 18 years. The spread per province is indicated in the table below:

NUMBER OF CARE DEPENDENT CHILDREN BY AGE AND REGION AS AT 202005
Age	EC	FS	GP	KZN	LP	MP	NC	NW	WC	Grand Total
0	28	17	52	96	13	18	5	5	59	293
1	197	96	293	496	171	131	57	103	273	1817
2	393	161	491	728	355	215	89	195	468	3095
3	569	213	560	875	445	326	135	216	498	3837
4	680	277	745	1136	561	433	193	277	727	5029
5	878	361	961	1500	701	492	236	346	844	6319
6	979	385	1095	1717	825	566	246	445	946	7204
7	1108	422	1150	1945	913	652	302	455	972	7919
8	1253	491	1289	2144	978	705	321	532	995	8708
9	1416	579	1411	2452	1025	716	328	606	1049	9582
10	1540	582	1447	2654	1134	776	377	617	1093	10220
11	1731	652	1541	2944	1242	918	419	732	1174	11353
12	1870	706	1578	3337	1349	918	531	768	1275	12332
13	2124	749	1642	3477	1353	938	500	862	1258	12903
14	2128	733	1656	3732	1377	1005	529	889	1217	13266
15	2270	869	1656	3816	1449	1063	600	945	1176	13844
16	2186	773	1600	3360	1247	911	569	966	1214	12826
17	2165	751	1597	3397	1325	957	532	971	1215	12910
18	611	226	463	1021	355	309	178	305	333	3801
Grand Total	24126	9043	21227	40827	16818	12049	6147	10235	16786	157258

b) SASSA does not capture the disability on the computerised system (Socpen) and therefore is unable to provide the requested detail. Care dependency grants are provided care givers of children under the age of 18 years who require permanent care and support. The applicants must meet the criteria as set in the Social Assistance Act, 2004, which includes compliance with the means test, and confirmation of the severe, permanent condition of the child as confirmed through a medical assessment, before a care dependency grant is awarded.