Reply:

 

1. There are currently 13 public rehabilitation/treatment centres across the country which are situated in all the nine provinces. The breakdown per province is as follows:

Province	Facilities
Eastern Cape	Ernest Malgas Treatment Centre
Free State	Charlotte Maxeke Treatment centre
Gauteng	Dr Fabian and Florence Treatment Centre
KwaZulu-Natal	Madadeni Rehabilitation Centre Newlands Park Rehabilitation Centre Khanyani Treatment Centre
Limpopo	Seshego Treatment Centre
Mpumalanga	Swartfontein Treatment Centre Nkangala Treatment Centre
Northern Cape	Northern Cape Substance Abuse Treatment Centre
North West	JB Marks Treatment Centre Taung Treatment Centre
Western Cape	Kensington Treatment Centre

1. Public rehabilitation centres are established in terms of the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act (Act No. 70 of 2008) to render counselling and treatment services for substance use disorders. The treatment services are aimed at reducing the negative health, social and economic consequences associated with alcohol and other drugs. The programmes implemented at the public rehabilitation centres include amongst others the following:
   1. Universal Treatment Curriculum (UTC) - the aim of the training series is to reduce the significant health, social and economic problems associated with substance use disorders. It focuses on screening, brief intervention, referral, assessment, treatment, continuum of care and continued care. The intention of the Universal Treatment Curriculum programme is to ensure that addiction practitioners working in the field develop a balanced perspective of the principles relating to both the science and art of treatment. The programme improves the knowledge, skills and competencies of treatment professionals, as well as promote evidence-based practice for the enhancement of service delivery and treatment outcomes. Through the implementation of the UTC programme, services users’/ recovery addicts receive comprehensive treatment and care for addiction management.

The implementation of the UTC programme has reshaped the delivery of Substance Use Disorders services in the country; through ensuring that treatment centres conduct a comprehensive screening and assessment of service users. The intended outcome is to ensure that people in recovery are assessed for co- occurring disorders such as: mental disorders, medical disorders and substance use disorder related treatment issues in order to provide an individualised treatment and recovery plan. The overall outcome of the programme is the provision of effective, efficient and comprehensive treatment programme.

• 1. Family Therapy is a set of therapeutic approaches that attempt to use the family’s strengths and resources to help them live without drugs or alcohol. It also seeks to reduce the harm of addiction on both the substance abuser and his or her family. Through education, the family can play a significant role in the service user’s recognition of the problem and acceptance of treatment. The aim of Family therapy is to educate family about relapse warning signs for alcohol and other drugs; and in turn help prevent a relapse.

• 1. Cognitive Behavioural therapy a tool that teaches service users to change the ways they think. It is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps people to learn how to identify and change destructive thoughts that have a negative influence on behaviour and emotions.

• 1. Motivational Interviewing is a counselling approach designed to help people find the motivation to make a positive behaviour change. This is a client-oriented counselling style’ that seeks to help clients ‘explore and resolve ambivalence to change.

12 Step Model - the basic premise of the 12-Step model is that people can help one another achieve and maintain abstinence from the substances or to which they are addicted. They can do this through meetings in which they share their experiences with one another and support each other in the ongoing effort of maintaining abstinence.

Pharmacotherapy - medications can help alleviate the withdrawal manifestations among service users with severe physical dependence to help patients feel more comfortable during the early stages of treatment after stopping alcohol or drug use.

Time programme is a community based multi system approach to treatment family centred services. It provides a basket of services to address the needs of service users in a systemic way and contributes to harm reduction.

Vocational and skills development -It’s a programme that promote economic viability and provide job opportunities.

Relapse Prevention - focuses on the identification and prevention of high-risk situations in which a service user may be more likely to engage in substance use. Relapse prevention include challenging the service user’s expectation of perceived positive effects of use and providing psychoeducation to help the service user’s make a more informed choice. Relapse to drug use does not mean treatment has failed, but it is part of treatment.

Reply:

 

The right to education is a fundamental human right issue and the Department always strives to ensure that children with disabilities (not living with disabilities) are not left behind. There are currently 786 ECD centres that cater for the educational needs of children with disabilities. Below is the provincial breakdown:

Province	Number of ECD centres catering for children with disabilities
EC	38
FS	10
GP	73
KZN	31
LP	59
MP	43 (up to 17 years). A total of 529 fully registered facilities have facilities to accommodate children with disabilities
NC	6
NW	35
WC	5

Reply:

 

The table below provides information on the numbers of beneficiaries receiving social grants in the Delft area, according to grant type and total value of the grants paid per month.

Grant Type	(a) Monthly grant payment	(b ) Number of community members receiving grants
(ii) Old Age Grant	R 8,659,980	4 582
(v) War Veterans Grant	0	0
(iii) Disability Grant	R 6,724,620	3 558
(iv) Foster Child Grant	R 659,400	628
Care Dependency Grant	R 807,030	427
(i) Child Support Grant	R 14,706,660	31 971
Grant-in-Aid	R 158,240	344
(c) TOTAL	R 31,265,930	41 510

Reply:

 

372 who were funded through the Department of Social Development’s Social Work Bursary Programme graduated in the 2020/21 financial year. This notwithstanding that there are other Social Work Graduate Programmes run by other institutions. Social Work graduates are placed in the database of unemployed graduates and are notified and placed when vacancies arise across the country.

Whilst the department may absorb social workers, options outside of the DSD remain available for absorption, including in the private sector, in NGO’s and Civil Society movements as well as in broader government.

It should further be noted that whilst the Department of Social Development places social workers on a regular basis, the funding for social worker posts is limited and the Department is engaging the National Treasury on the possibility of increasing funding for absorption of social workers.

The Department is currently developing a strategy for the employment of Social Service Professionals to strengthen its ability to absorb more social workers – but as noted above the funding aspect becomes important hence the ongoing discussions with the National Treasury. The first draft of the strategy following consultations with Sector Departments has been concluded. The strategy will be consulted with the NPO and private sector before approval and implementation, as we well wider government.

Every opportunity is used for the employment of graduates whilst the strategy is being developed. The Social Development Sector was able to appoint approximately 1 300 social workers on contract to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic from 01 June 2020 for a period of three months. These contracts were extended until 31 March 2021.

The Provincial Departments of Social Development have recently received allocations for the short-term employment of approximately 2000 social workers. Provincial Departments are currently in the process of employing the unemployed graduates until 31 March 2022.

The below is an indication of the placement of social worker graduates from the 2020/21 financial year. It should be noted that the departments is still gathering additional data from provinces who have yet to provide this information as noted below and same will be made available as soon as received.

Province:	Scholarship Graduates 2020/21:	Number of Social Work Graduates placed:
NW	75
FS	36
GP	39
KZN	55
LP	25
MP	21
NC	18	14
WC	26	2
EC	77	None places
TOTAL	372

Reply:

 

• 1. The Fund-Raising Amendment Bill will culminate in the dissolution of the Refugee Relief, Social Relief, State President and Disaster Relief Funds with the exception of the South African National Defence Force Fund (in terms of clause 7 of the amendment Bill), The amendment Bill establishes a new Disaster Relief and National Social Development Fund, and in terms of clause 7, transfers all the assets and liabilities of the existing funds to the new Fund. There should thus be no impact on the Funds, as the four funds are being consolidated into one Fund, and all their assets and liabilities are being transferred to the new Fund.
  2. The Department has established an Entity Oversight Forum through which all DSD entities are supervised. The Forum serves as a platform through which the Executive Management team at the DSD, led by the DG and supported by Finance, Legal Services, Internal Audit, Risk Management, the respective line function unit. The Inspectorate engage the Entity CEOs and their executives on a quarterly basis. These engagements serve as the oversight platform through which the DSD interrogates the quarterly performance and financial reports as well as governance and compliance matters of all the entities, in order to identify challenges and give guidance to support and assist entities to improve their overall performance. The main focus is of the Entity Oversight Forum is to:
• • • Build a harmonious relationship with DSD Entities and Associated institutions; based on the Portfolio Approach
    • Address Auditor general’s concerns on oversight shortcomings;
    • Address governance weaknesses in all Entities;
    • Consider the quarterly reports of all entities and ensure that mitigation plans are developed where targets are not met;
    • Oversee the implementation of audit findings from both Internal Audit and Inspectorate
    • Engagement on matters pertaining to Parliament, Legislation and Cabinet that require the attention of this forum.

In addition, the DG has established the Audit Steering Committee to address all Auditor- General findings within the Department and its Entities. This committee meets on a monthly basis to discuss the Audit Implementation Action Plan of each of the Entities. Responses to challenges related to audit findings and related implementation plans are managed and overseen and also tabled to the scheduled Audit Committee meetings for further guidance and support.

Through these platforms, the Department elevated the oversight of its entities as one of its apex priorities, and expects to see a marked improvement in the tracking and implementation of corrective actions in the current year.

Reply:

 

By their very own nature, Child and Youth Care Centres provides alternative care and support for children in need of care. The Children’s Act No 38 of 2005, Section 176 makes provision for children to remain in alternative care beyond the age of 18 years:

Section 176(1) of the Act makes provision for a child placed in alternative care after reaching 18 years to remain in that care until the end of the year in which that person reaches the age of 18 years.

Subsection (2) of the Act makes provision for the Provincial Head of Social development to allow a young person who has reached the age of 18 years to remain in alternative care until the end of the year in which he or she reaches the age of 21 years if:

1. The current alternative care-giver is willing and able to care for that person; and
2. The continued stay in that care is necessary to enable that person to complete his or her grade 12, higher education, college education, internship or learnership and Subsection (c) indicates that an application contemplated in subsection (2) must be submitted before the end of the year in which the relevant child reaches the age of 18 years, but a late application may be condoned, upon good cause shown, if such application is submitted within three months after such date.

Section 191(3) (e) makes provision for the programme to assist a person with the transition when leaving a child and youth care centre after reaching the age of 18. In compliance with this section, the department has developed guidelines for independent living programmes for children placed in alternative care. The Department is providing an ongoing training on the said guidelines and has trained 250 Social Service Practitioners in Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Free State and Mpumalanga.

It is also important to highlight that each child is assisted to develop a Personal Development Plan which outlines future plans for children as they transition into adulthood and independent living.

Reply:

 

As the Honourable Member is aware, the Department currently provides Social Relief of Distress, in the form of the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant, which covers those aged 18-59. The Department is of the view that the implementation of the Special COVID- 19 SRD Grant has provided a basis for the introduction of the Basic Income Grant. However, I must point out to the Honourable Member that this require an amendment of existing legislation.

Depending on costs and the fiscal position of the country, it may take a few years to progressively implement. Until then, the Department is however, currently motivating for the extension of the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant, preferably over the medium- term period. This should provide the much-needed income support to cushion against the economic hardship occasioned by the advent of COVID-19 pandemic for the 18- 59 years.

Reply:

department approached the NT for funding with a view to employ more social work graduates.

Through the Presidential Employment Stimulus programme, the department appointed approximately 1300 social workers in the eight provinces commencing 1 June/July 2020 respectively for a period of three months. There was a further extension of the contract employment of social workers from 1 November/December 2021 respectively to 31 March 2022 due to the extension of the stimulus programme.

Reply:

 

Currently, the KZN Provincial Department of Social Development employs 19 social work graduates on temporary contract. The KZN Department has received a funding allocation to employ additional 387 social workers between December 2021 and end of the current financial year.

Between 1 June and July 2020, the Department through the Presidential Stimulus Employment Programme appointed approximately 1 300 social work graduates in eight provinces for a period of three months, including KZN. There was a further extension of the employment contract from 1 November/December 2021 respectively to 31 March 2022 due to the extension of the stimulus programme. It is not factually correct to state that the Department refused to appoint social workers on permanent basis as this is subject to a number of issues, key amongst which is the availability of resources. The Department is engaging with a number of stakeholders, both in government and private sector, with a view to absorb social work graduates into permanent employment.

Reply:

 

1. Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres are funded by Provincial Departments of Social Development. Below is the breakdown of data supplied by provinces:

Province	Financial years	Number of ECD services funded
EC	2019/20	2 562
	2020/21	2 562
FS	2019/20	1 039
	2020/21	1 064
GP	2019/20	1 509
	2020/21	1 529
LP	2019/20	2 132
	2020/21	2 124
MP	2019/20	1 017
	2020/21	1 054
NC	2019/20	333
	2020/21	320
NW	2019/20	520
	2020/21	542
WC	2019/20	905
	2020/21	935

1. All provincial departments sign Service Level Agreements (SLA) with funded ECD centres. The SLA clearly states expected deliverables, financial reporting requirements and monitoring visits, amongst others. All funded ECD centres are required to comply with the norms and standards. The Department also conducts capacity building for ECD centres through the National Development Agency.

1

Reply:

1. In terms of section 27 of our constitution, everyone is guaranteed the right of access to Social Security and “if needed”, social assistance. By its nature, social assistance in the form of social grants are only provided to those with low or no incomes to supplement their income. Hence, all the social grants, including the disability grant, are means tested on income; and in the case of grants for adults, on assets as well.

2. The Foster Child Grant (FCG) is slightly different from the other grants. In the case of foster care, the child is removed from their parent(s) or guardian(s) by the state and consequently is under the legal custody of the state. The maintenance of the child is thus the responsibility of the state. The state partners either with child care homes or individuals to assist, on temporary basis, with the care and protection of children in its custody, for which it provides either a subsidy (in the case of children’s homes) or a grant (in the case of person(s)

Reply:

The data requested from 2015 is not readily available and a script has to be written to retrieve information from Socpen.  The Business Intelligence System used by SASSA for reporting was only commissioned in 2018.  This has resulted in SASSA needing to retrieve historical data from Socpen.

It is also extremely difficult to separate cases where the reason for the change of care giver is attributed to abuse of the grant, as this information is not captured on the system.  However, information will be provided on change of care givers which were processed.

The expected date by which this may be ready is 17 December 2021.

Reply:

SASSA runs the data – both for social grants and the social relief of distress grant – against the Department of Home Affairs’ Population Register before the payments are extracted for the following month. All deaths that have been registered with Department of Home Affairs result in the payment not being extracted. However, deaths that are reported late, or after the extraction date will result in payments for the specific beneficiary being extracted.

The information provided below is for the payment vouchers extracted after the date of death of the beneficiary. This information is not grant specific, but linked to a beneficiary, who may receive more than one grant. Further analysis is required to be able to specify this by grant type. For the period January 2020 to 31 October 2021, a total of 214 344 vouchers were extracted after the death of the beneficiary. However, this does not reflect the numbers actually paid out as in some cases, the money paid has already been recovered, or returned to SASSA by SAPO.

The total number of vouchers for the R350 social relief of distress grant extracted after the death of the beneficiary for the period under discussion is 59 089. Again, this is the total number of vouchers extracted, but the actual number paid out will only be known on receipt of the full reconciliation from SAPO.

Reply:

1. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of the state of emergency in 2020, the volunteers were recruited as part of the NDA’s response to control the further spread and mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic through community education, identification and registration of individuals/households for SRD application, including the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant, distribution of food parcels to eligible individuals/households provided by the Social Development Portfolio and providing queue management at SAPO and SASSA pay points, amongst others.

The programme plan and costing of the volunteer programme was presented to the NDA for approval and it was granted by the NDA Board as per their delegated authority. The NDA administratively, executed the programme through the NDA Grant Funding Policy. However, the processing and appointment of the CSOs that were appointed did not go through the structures required in the grant funding policy. This was declared during the audit as irregular expenditure.

When President Ramaphosa extended Special COVID-19 SRD Grant earlier this year, the NDA was requested to render services alluded to earlier. As a result, the volunteer programme was extended with an additional 3 (three) months (January-March 2021). However, the Accounting Officer implemented the extension of the volunteer programme without the approval of the NDA Board.

1 (a) The R29 million that the Honourable Member is referring to is not entirely related to the NDA volunteer programme, the total sum of irregular expenditure for the Agency for the financial year 2020/2021. The total is inclusive of the following irregular expenditure reported in the NDA annual financial report:

Nature of Irregular Expenditure	Amount
Tender not approved in accordance with NDA Delegations	R 1 182 735
Competitive process not followed for price quotations	R 1 214 943
Price charged by supplier for PPE no in line with Treasury guidelines	R 21 710
Award made prior to approval	R 59 112
Extension of extension of Volunteer Programme not in accordance with Delegations of Authority	R 4 522 025
Volunteer programme approved without following Grant funding policy	R 22 471 235
TOTAL IRREGULAR EXPENDITURE - NOTE 29 OF ANNUAL REPORT	R 29 471 760

1 (b)(i) The NDA Board duly approved the programme budget, but not the expenditure of R22 471 235 which was incurred under this programme as it did not comply with the NDA Grant Funding Policy.

1 (ii) Refer to 1 and 1 (a) above

SASSA

2(a) The reported R1 million fruitless and wasteful expenditure disclosed in SASSA’s 2020/21 Annual Report is not only for the hotel no shows. Of the total amount, only R8, 908 is relates to hotel no shows. SASSA recorded the R1 million fruitless and wasteful expenditure. The fruitless and wasteful expenditure breakdown of the R1, 083, 218 as reported by AGSA is made up of the following (Refer to note no. 30 of SASSA Annual Report):

• Interest and penalties R61, 147 which include a material amount of R58, 136.99 (R50, 000 with interest) paid to an official for the unfair disciplinary process and defamation of character as per the court judgement made on a matter employee vs SASSA. There were penalties and interest levied by municipalities relating to car renewals and accounts payments cycle negatively impacted by the pandemic making the balance of the amount.

• Hotel no shows amounted to R8, 908 sometimes officials are booked and due to circumstances related to Covid-19 the accommodation could not be utilised. An amount of R 3,303.06 associated to a SASSA appointed medical doctor for purposes of disability assessment. The amount was then deemed recoverable from the relevant doctor. Hotel no shows does not make a major portion of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure. All the cases have been finalised, four were finalised in the previous financial year (2020/21) and last one was finalised during the current financial year (2021/22). Three cases were written off and two are being recovered.

• Payment made to a service provider R266, 760 (the service provider did not render the service but claimed the money, a case of fraud has been opened). The corrective disciplinary process was undertaken and the affected official who has since left the agency was cleared due to insufficient evidence of wrong doing. The agency awaits the outcome of the criminal case.

• Other matters R746, 403 made out of the following amounts:
  • R 549,942.75 salary paid to an official from KZN who was not at work, when SASSA requested the alleged sick notes could not get any. The employee has since been dismissed. We are currently trying to recover funds, she does not have adequate pensions benefits as she started work the past two years. SASSA is following a due legal process to recover the amount paid.
  • R187,920.53 relate to salary paid to an official in Gauteng region together with legal costs (There is currently a disciplinary process underway to deal with this matter). Only once the corrective disciplinary process is finalised will the matter be finalised in line with the outcome.
  • R8, 381.20 a KZN official did not attend arranged training. The circumstances are still being investigated.
  • R158.52, a beneficiary was booked for medical assessment in the month the grant was still valid.

(b) (i) who are the responsible persons and (ii) what consequences have been instituted?

From the stated information hotel no shows does not make a major portion of the fruitless and wasteful expenditure recorded in 2020/21. The hotel no shows cases have been finalised, four were finalised in the previous financial year (2020/21) and last one was finalised during the current financial year (2021/22). Three cases were written off and two are being recovered.

DSD

(2)(a)

With regards to fruitless and wasteful expenditure, the National Department of Social Development had R1,132 million related to car damages. 51 cases were recorded as car damages.

(2)(a)(i)

The Loss Control Committee recommended that 35 cases (R674 437, 04) be recovered from officials and the Travel Agent. The cases have been referred to the Finance to commence with the recovery process. 12 cases (R170 624, 55) were written off on the basis that the officials were not negligent; and

(2)(a)(ii)

4 cases (R286 298, 47) were referred to Labour Relation for further investigation and if the officials are found to be liable for the expenditure, it will be recovered and disciplinary processes will commence.

(2)(b)

In terms of R 1 million in hotel no-shows, only R21 638.96 has been recorded in the Annual Report for Social Development as “Hotel no-shows” and not R1 million as indicated.

14 Cases were recorded during the 2020/21 financial year 2020/2021 for “Hotel No-Show”. Eight (8) cases has already been recommended to be recovered from the officials and the Travel Agent to the amount of R11 714,52 and these cases have already been referred to commence with the recovery process.

1 case (R1 200, 00) was written off and the official was not liable due to travel restrictions imposed and the late cancellation of an event as a result of Covid-19 restrictions

The remaining 5 cases (R8 724.44) has been investigated and will be finalised by the Loss Control Committee in due course.

 

Reply:

1. The Fund-Raising Amendment Bill, once signed into law, will culminate in the dissolution of the Refugee Relief, Social Relief, State President and Disaster Relief Funds with the exception of South African National Defence Force Fund (in terms of clause 7 of the amendment Bill), The amendment Bill establishes a new Disaster Relief and National Social Development Fund, and in terms of clause 7, transfers all the assets and liabilities of the existing funds to the new Fund. There should thus be no impact on the Funds, as the four funds are being consolidated into one, and all their assets and liabilities will be transferred to the new Fund once the President has signed the Bill into law.

2. (a) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The Department has an established an Entity Oversight Forum. This engagement was prompted by the Auditor General’s report that the Department strengthen its oversight on its public entities. The main focus of the Forum is to:

• Built a harmonious relationship with DSD Entities and Associated institutions;
• To address Auditor general’s concerns of oversight;
• To take note of governance issues in all Entities;

The Audit Steering Committee has also been re-established to address all Auditor-General’s findings within the Department and its Entities. The Committee meets on monthly basis to discuss the Audit Implementation Action Plan. Responses to challenges related to audit findings and related implementation plans are managed and overseen as preparations for the scheduled Audit Committee meetings.

2(b) NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY:

The NDA has put in place the following measures in place to prevent the occurrence of irregular expenditure:

a) The development a policy and detailed Standard Operating Procedure manual on Irregular Expenditure - In the 2021 Financial year, the entity developed a policy on Irregular expenditure, guided by the requirements of the Framework for Irregular expenditure that was issued by the National Treasury. The Framework and the policy are intended to institutionalise the processes for the treatment of Irregular expenditure identification, determination of losses and investigation of cases of irregular expenditure. After approval of the policy, awareness workshops were held across all NDA offices where NDA staff were workshopped on the policy.

b) Establishment of an independent Loss Control Committee to investigate all reported cases of Irregular Expenditure - The establishment of this committee is informed by the requirement of the Framework on Irregular expenditure that was issued by National Treasury. The Loss Control Committee is expected to investigate all reported cases within 30 days of these instances being reported. This committee will ensure that all cases are dealt with timeously. The process to appoint the Loss Control Committee is s expected to be finalised by end of January 2022.

2. SASSA

SASSA takes issues of irregular expenditure very seriously and has focused on the areas listed below;

a) Focus on office accommodation procurement for SASSA:

SASSA recorded additional Irregular expenditure amounting R73 million during the 2020/21 reporting period of which over R43 million relate to occupation of office accommodation with expired lease agreements. The procurement of alternative accommodation by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure was not concluded by the time a lease expired and SASSA did not request approval to extend the existing lease agreement on time.

Mechanism being put in place are:

• SASSA is currently developing an appropriate procurement strategy to fast track procurement of office accommodation currently occupied by SASSA for which lease agreements already expired. This is being done in consultation with Department of Social Development and Department of Public Works and Infrastructure to be finalised 31 December 2021.
• SASSA with the assistance of Department of Social Development is currently reviewing Immovable Property management policy to be concluded by 31 March 2022.
• Review the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) entered with DPWI by 28 February 2022.

b) Strengthen internal controls

• Requests for procurement of alternative office accommodation by Department of Public Works and Infrastructure will be sent eighteen (18) months before expiry of any lease agreement.
• Where DPWI has not finalised procurement of requested office accommodation, SASSA will timeously request for the extension of the existing lease agreement before expiry of lease agreement.
• Supply Chain Management Compliance unit performs pre-audit or reviews of all new contracts before an award is made.
• Prioritised Supply Chain Management (SCM) unit capacity (Currently busy with recruitment process to augment current manpower across the agency).
• Re-trained SCM and users at head office on SCM Legislative framework and processes and procedures.
• Reviewed Supply Chain Management Policy and Standard Operating Procedures and work shopped all SCM officials in the Agency on 26 November 2021
• Trained EXCO and officials serving as Bid Adjudication Committee members. The first training took place on 22 October 2021 and the second training should take place during the fourth (4th) quarter of 2021/22.
• Treasury training of all SCM officials in SASSA on 02 June 2021
• Develop and implement a Corporate Audit Action plan to respond to 2020/21 audit findings.

c) Strengthen implementation of disciplinary corrective measures for already incurred irregular expenditure cases:

• Accurate and complete recording of all incurred irregular expenditure including where currently SASSA is in occupation of office accommodation where leases have expired thus continue to incur irregular expenditure.
• A target on financial misconduct cases has been included in 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan (APP) allowing adequate monitoring.
  • 95% of long outstanding cases to be finalised by 31 March 2022, timeous implementation of disciplinary corrective measure will serve as a deterrent.
• SASSA Head Office to strengthen regional Support
• Outcome of the disciplinary corrective measures will become the basis for consideration of recovery or support for National Treasury to condone Irregular Expenditure where appropriate.

Reply:

I would like to point out to the Honourable Member that South Africa does not have any legislation referred to in the question. Rather, the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act 2016 is a piece of legislation that has its origins from the United States of America.

CARA is an abbreviation for the Criminal Assets Recovery Accounts, a fund that is currently administered by the National Development Agency (NDA). The contract for the NDA to manage the CARA Fund to support NGOs/civil society organisations that provide services to survivors and victims of gender-based violence as guided by the National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (2019-2024).

a) (i) (ii) Refer to Annexure A

b) The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), which is the principal Act in terms of funding of non-profit organisations/civil society organisations prescribes that due diligence be conducted before the transfer of funds to any organisation, and the CARA Fund is no exception. All funded CSOs are subjected to verifications and performance reviews before funds can be transferred to the CSOs’ bank accounts. The organisations are expected to submit progress reports and thereafter the performance reviews are conducted before second tranches can transferred. Therefore, all the CSOs that have not been paid second tranches are yet to submit progress reports and be subjected to performance review before the transfer of second tranches as per the Service Level Agreement.

c) Refer to (b)

d) Refer to second paragraph above.

Reply:

a) The post became vacant on 14 December 2014.

b) In 2018, a moratorium was placed on the filling of posts due to financial constraints occasioned by a drastic cut to the Compensation of Employees (COE) budget The Department has commenced with the process of identifying and prioritising critical posts to be filled.

c) (i) Initially two Deputy Directors, namely Ms MG Keetse and Ms MN Maloba acted in the vacant post before it became unfunded.

(ii) 2 years and 5 months

d) Refer to (b)

e) The Department is currently prioritising posts that will give effect to the Departmental Strategy as required in the MTSF. While this process is under way, this function is currently performed by the four (4) Social Work Managers in the unit.

Reply:

a) The Auditor General identified 5812 government employees who had applied for and received the social of relief grant to the value of R5 498 500. Due to the volume of government employees exposed and also work which needs to be done, a total of 242 was prioritised in line with a resolution taken with other stakeholders at the Fusion Centre.

SASSA opened one a criminal case for all the prioritised 242 government employees at Sunnyside Police Station (CAS 753/08/2021). SAPS recommended that SASSA open a criminal case for each of the individual on the prioritised list.

A series of meetings were held at the Fusion Centre to further discuss prosecution-led investigation, with another meeting scheduled for 26th November 2021. Working with the Fusion Centre, SASSA is currently in the process of opening such individual cases and this process is envisaged to be concluded on or before the end of December 2021.

b) No government employee suspended currently. SASSA has concluded its internal investigation of the 242 government employees. An internal investigation report was shared with the DPSA for the purpose of coordinating and monitoring disciplinary hearings as well as facilitating Acknowledgment of Debts (recovery) with relevant government employees through their respective departments. DPSA has since advised that of 242 government employees on the priority list, 198 were confirmed to have been actual government employees in the period of the Social Relief of Distress grant pay-outs, meaning 44 individuals are to be removed from the initial list.

In the meeting held by DPSA and SASSA on the 15th November 2021, as directed by the Fusion Centre, it was resolved that SASSA should submit evidence files per individual government employee. The process of submitting such 198 files is projected to be concluded on or before the 3rd December 2021. SASSA and DPSA is also validating the variance between 242 and 5812 (5570) and such process is to be concluded by the 30th December 2021.

In terms of roles and responsibilities, SASSA is expected to compile evidence files, while DPSA is expected to coordinate and monitor the processes of disciplinary hearings and acknowledgment of debts with relevant departments.

On the question of loss recovery, it is expected that cases of government employees who refuses to sign acknowledgment of debt forms be dealt with in terms of Section 300 of the Criminal Procedure Act. Disciplinary hearing and criminal prosecution processes will run concurrently.

2. As and when SASSA submits individual criminal cases to SAPS, SAPS will hand over the cases to the NPA for criminal prosecution.

Reply:

I would like to bring it to the attention of the Honourable Member that no application for any of the social grant is rejected by virtue of the applicant being part of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). On application for a social grant, every applicant has to declare his/her source of income. Applications are subjected to a means test thresholds for a specific grant, and applicants are approved when the meet the eligibility criteria.

Recently, SASSA completed a verification process against the PERSAL (government payroll system) to identify social grants beneficiaries on this system, but have not declared income on their applications. Beneficiaries whose names appear on the PERSAL were all suspended pending verification. Upon completion of this process, it was found that many were EPWP workers or interns, whose stipends do not exceed the means test threshold. The affected beneficiaries’ social grants have since been investigated from this month.

However, I must clarify that the reinstatement does not absolve beneficiaries from declaring their source of income to SASSA. Each affected beneficiary will thus have to review their grant, and provide information on the stipend received, to ensure that SASSA records are up to date. The onus is on beneficiaries to inform SASSA as soon as their financial circumstances change.

Reply:

I do not have knowledge of any other contractor that SASSA has paid without work being done except this one.

The case of fraud and corruption was opened in March 2019 (Case no. 133/03/2019) in Qeberha (not East London). This matter was finalised through SASSA’s internal disciplinary processes and the official was dismissed in 2019. The case is currently in court scheduled for the 6th of December 2021.

The total amount involved in this particular case is R1 174 777, 59 (One million, one hundred and seventy-four thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven rand – fifty-nine cents.

The SIU (in terms of Proclamation No. R. 37 of 2019) launched an investigation into this matter. It should be noted the SIU has a legal duty to submit the investigation report only to the President, and not to SASSA. It is envisaged in the event there are recommendations necessitating SASSA implements certain recommendations, SIU will communicate the investigation report.

Reply:

The numbers of beneficiaries who have been paid per month from January 2021 to October, as at 10 November 2021 is as follows:

Month	Number paid
January 2021	6 045 534
February 2021	6 057 481
March 2021	5 897 986
April 2021	5 939 137
August 2021	6 998 278
September 2021	7 483 712
October 2021	8 850 442

Reply:

a) No cash send payments for the first iteration of the grant are still outstanding. Of all the applications received to date, approximately 51% have provided information their personal bank accounts, into which the grants are paid. The cash send option, while being very convenient, is not the most popular method of payment for approved applicants. This is because many do not own their mobile phones, and one of the requirements for this payment option is that there has to be a positive, direct link between the applicant’s ID number and the mobile number.

For the month of August, only 8,8% of approved applicants chose the cash send option; while this percentage for September and October is 9,1% and 9,4% respectively. Given the delay in activating the cash send payment method, clients who had chosen this method were requested to provide banking details or to opt to be paid through the post office. The majority responded positively, and in August 2021, of the 734 358 approved clients who chose cash send as a payment method, 712 784 were paid through their own bank accounts or the post office. The numbers paid through their own bank accounts or post office in September and October were 804 559 of the total of 866 517 and 809 647 out of 900 753 respectively. This indicates that approximately 89% of the clients who originally chose the cash send payment option were able to access their funds.

The balance of the clients who have not yet been paid for these three months, are as a result of the failure of the bank details which were submitted, or a delay in the opening of accounts with SAPO for them. SASSA will continue to ensure that all approved clients are paid.

(b) SASSA was not given the authority to extend the contracts which had been in place with the banks for the first iteration of the grant. As this is a procurement process, SASSA had to first get approval from National Treasury to go on a closed tender with all registered banks, as advised by the Bid Adjudication Committee in order to ensure compliance with supply chain prescripts. This process is currently underway. Once completed, the cash send option will be available once again, and those clients who initially indicated this as their preference will be considered to be paid through this channel, provided they meet the conditions for this channel as set by National Treasury.

Reply:

1 (a) The Western Cape is the only province that has established six (6) shelters for victims of gender-based violence and femicide following provision of necessary facilities by the national Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. The other provinces have conducted site verification and prepared costing for operationalisation of the shelters in the coming financial year (2022/23) due to the budget constraints experienced by the provinces.

(b)(i) Countrywide, there are 140 Shelters established and functional by Government in partnership with Civil Society Organisations

In terms of the National Public Works and Infrastructure partnership the Western Cape Government operationalised six (6) shelters.

(ii) The Shelters that are functioning and established by government in partnership with Civil Society Organisations are 134. However only Six (6) shelters in Western Cape from the facilities donated by the National Public Work and Infrastructure are operational

(2) (a) Below is the reflection of the breakdown for the (i) Government shelters in partnership with Civil Society Organisations with regard to the (ii) uptake:

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF SHELTERS PER PROVINCE	BED CAPACITY
GAUTENG	25	605
FREE STATE	07	47
KWAZULU-NATAL	20	274
MPUMALANGA	22	144
NORTHERN CAPE	08	20
EASTERN CAPE	13	88
WESTERN CAPE	15	361
NORTH WEST	SHELTERS 02 SAFE HOUSES 20	108
LIMPOPO	02	40
TOTAL:	134	1687

Below are what is the breakdown for each shelter established through the National Public Works and Infrastructure in the Western Cape with regard to the (i) uptake of the shelters:

Shelter	District/ Municipality	Quarter 1 (1April – 30 June 2021) new Admissions	Quarter 2 (1 July – 30 September 2021) new Admissions
Shelter 1 (Launched on 7th May 2021)	West Coast/ Swartland	2	5
Shelter 2 (Launched on 26th March 2021)	Eden Karoo/ Central Karoo	1	7
Shelter 3 & 4 (Launched on 7th May 2021)	West Coast/ Bergriver	11	23
Shelter 5 (Launched on 27th August 2021)	Eden Karoo/ Hessequa	6	6
Shelter 6 Launched on 27th August 2021)	Eden Karoo/ Hessequa	2	14
Total:	22	55

(ii) capacity for each shelters

Shelter	District/ Municipality	Bed Capacity
Shelter 1	West Coast/ Swartland	8
Shelter 2	Eden Karoo/ Central Karoo	6
Shelter 3&4	West Coast/ Bergriver	16
Shelter 5	Eden Karoo/Hessequa	8
Shelter 6	Eden Karoo/Hessequa	8

2 (b) All shelters are established in partnership with NPO service providers.

Reply:

a) As stated in my previous reply to this question, the Deputy Minister’s programme in the area is linked to the implementation of the District Development Model (DDM), which Cabinet approved in August 2019 as an important innovation to improve integrated planning and delivery across the three spheres of government.

The Deputy Minister is the District Champion for Amajuba District. The DDM focuses on the forty-four (44) districts and eight (8) metros as focal points of government and private sector investment. The model will ensure coherence and integration in planning, budgeting and implementation of service delivery projects in all districts and metros by all three spheres of government – national, provincial and local.

b) Key activities of the programme included amongst others, meeting and distribution of personal protective equipments (PPEs) to Early Childhood Development Practitioners and facilities in the district, meet-and-greet with local mayors, launch of ChommY-a social behavioural programme targeting young children, dialogue with the District Men’s Sector, to name a few

c) Chapter 3 of the Guide for Members of the Executive (Ministerial Handbook) makes provision for the appointment of Ministerial staff (support staff) who render support services whenever they travel for work-related purposes. The travel by support staff who accompanied the Deputy Minister and the Department officials who were part of the DDM programme were approved in line with the Department’s Supply Chain Management policies. Their role was to coordinate and support the implementation of the DDM programme.

d) (i) (ii) (iii) the cost of travel and accommodation, including subsistence are covered in the Department’s annual budget for implementation of the Annual Performance Plan targets and outreach programmes in the DDM

Reply:

1. (b) (c) (i) (ii) (aa) (bb) The budget for travel and accommodation of the Deputy Minister, support staff and officials of the Department forms part of the implementation of the Annual Performance Plans (APPs), including the implementation of the District Development Model (DDM)

Reply:

The application channels were re-opened on 6 August 2021.

(a)(i) As at 25 August 2021, a total of 11 237 724 complete applications have been received.

(ii) The validations of these applications is still underway. However, as at 25 August 2021, a total of 1 914 538 applications have been approved.

(b) A total of 282 598 have been paid to 25 August. Payments will continue to be made until 31 August, by which time we expect to reach 6 million payments.

(c) The total number of grants approved on appeal which are still outstanding from the first cycle of this grant is 1 425 (Note: this refers to the numbers of grants to be paid, not the number of beneficiaries, as one beneficiary may have the grant approved for more than one month)

Reply:

The Department does not have direct statistics on number of child marriages in the Republic as this is the responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs.

a) Education and Awareness is done on Section 12 of the Children’s Act which prohibits child marriages, engaging communities, religious and traditional leaders on the implications of child marriages as well as Section 141 that prohibits child exploitation and children engaging in exploitative child labour.

Advocacy programmes on gender equality are conducted as well as intersectoral training and capacity building to key stakeholders such as SAPS and NPA on their roles and responsibility in the prosecution of perpetrators.

The department has institutionalized 365 days education and awareness programme on violence against women and children, conducted in partnership with other relevant stakeholders to educate the communities about children’s rights, protection of the rights of children from abuse and exploitation which includes child marriages.

The department further implement social behavior change programmes such as CHOMMY, a programme that is intended to equip pre-teenagers aged 10-14 with information and life skills, YOLO- teenagers aged 15-24 which serve the same purpose as CHOMMY. There is also Men and Boys Championing Change programme that is championed by men and is intended in mobilizing other Men in the fight against GBV and HIV; ad to serve as role model for boys especially those without fathers. Boys are empowered on growing up as responsible men and how to deal with issues. Social behavior change programme further includes “Asikhulume”, an InterFaith based programmes which seeks to foster social cohesion, restore moral fibre and healing to individuals, communities and the society.

Provinces embark on skill building initiatives to empower girls, families and communities through sustainable livelihood programmes and cooperatives to reduce poverty in communities which often sees a girl child traded in.

(b) Child marriage is a multi-sectoral issue which requires collaboration with different stakeholders which include government, civil society organizations, private, business, community leadership and structures, and families.

Reply:

(1a) The tender was cancelled due to the scope of the project, which was not properly defined and crafted in line with the advertised terms of reference. This resulted in huge price difference between the bidders. The request for cancellation of the tender was submitted and approved by the Bid Adjudication Committee of the Department.

(b) The purpose of this project is to upgrade the monitoring and evaluation of substance use disorder treatment services in South Africa to ensure capacity for greater responsiveness to emerging substance use trends, rapid feedback to providers, policy makers through the integration with other systems on demonstrable electronic architecture. The objectives are to monitor the quality and outcomes of Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) services; to improve the quality of SUD treatment in South Africa and to collect data that is needed to advocate for greater investment in SUD prevention, treatment and continuing care services.

(2) First bidder: Esoftware Solutions (PTY)LTD; Second bidder: Tirisan Teach Solutions (PTY)LTD.

The Tender was not awarded to anyone. The difference in price was enormous hence the request to cancel the tender and be allowed to redefine the scope for re-advertisement.

(3) The role of the Integrated Anti-Substance Abuse Programme is to develop, review, implement and Monitor legislation, policies and services aimed at reducing the scourge of substance abuse in the country. The system is therefore intended to monitor compliance, quality of services and trend and patterns of substance abuse in the country.

(4) The integrated Anti-Substance Abuse Programme targets children and youth in and out of school, women, people with disabilities, men, homeless people, and people living in substance abuse hot spot areas.

Reply:

The Department of Social Development Expenditure Analysis for the 2020/21 Fourth Quarter report discussed in Committee on 1 September 2021, it stated in programme 1 that the 'analysis of the requirements for the integration of GBV and VEP systems was not achieved'. The reasons for this was 'due to complexity of the processes'.

(a) End to end processing of Victim requires not only DSD services but other Government Departments services which is SAPS, DOJ, DCS, DBE, NPA, HEALTH, NGOs. The complexity is as a result of defining/ mapping integrated processes which required full understanding of participating departments processes towards GBV and VEP in order to develop sound Interface Control Functionality which articulates the electronic messages that will be flowing between the departments. The main challenges it where processes are not standardised within respective Departments which requires more sessions of sector standardisation of the processes first before defining integration interfaces with GBV and VEP.

(b) The plan that was executed was to have a joint consultation with all affected departments to uniformly define processes which then required more time.

(c) The complexities have been addressed. Processes are fully developed. Requirements specification developed. Currently in a process of integrating the systems which will also takes into cognisance other participating departments processes which contributes in the victims’ processes.

(d) The programme is part of the DSD’s response and contribution towards addressing the scourge of GBV by providing victim support and empowerment to victims of gender based violence. Provision of victim support and empowerment in a holistic manner reduces secondary victimisation, encourages cooperation with the criminal justice process and reinforces socially desired behaviour. Victim support and empowerment therefore contributes to crime prevention and enhances the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The DSD is coordinating and leading the Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP) which is the integrated programme that addresses the diverse needs of victims in a multi-disciplinary approach within the criminal justice value chain. The DSD has developed the Victim Empowerment Programme Information Management System (VEPIMS) to capture data of all victims that serviced by the Victim Empowerment Programme (VEP). Furthermore, the DSD) has since established the Gender Based Violence Command Centre (GBVCC) which provides professional telephone counselling and referral services to victims of gender based violence from the national call centre that is available 24 hours a day. The process of integrating the VEPIMS and GBVCC is underway in order to ensure that data collected within DSD is integrated. This data will be used to inform strategies to improve services to victims of gender based violence. This integrated DSD VEP Information Management System will be connected to interface with Integrated Justice System (IJS) Hub in order to improve access to victims’ information for further criminal justice processes such as participation in the parole processes.

Reply:

With regards to child protection of children from exposure to possible death or disability;

Section 150 of the children’s Act 38/2005, makes provision for child in care and protection including a child who may be abandoned as a child in need of care and protection.

Section 151 of the Act also makes provision for the removal of such children to any alternative placement if the current environment is of danger to that particular child.

Alternatively, section 157(3) of the Children’s Act 38 of 2008 Act provides that a very young child who has been abandoned or orphaned, must be made available for adoption in a prescribed manner and within the prescribed period, except when this is not in the best interests of the child; only the Children’s Court can make such a determination.

The following are steps which can be taken by Social Workers

According to Regulation 56, if it appears that the child has been abandoned or orphaned, the designated social worker must:

• Develop an advertisement to be published in at least one local newspaper circulating in the area where the child has been found calling upon any person to claim responsibility of the child.
• A copy of the advertisement must be submitted to the Presiding Officer who must be satisfied that the child has been abandoned or orphaned.
• A period of at least 3 months must lapse since the publication of the advertisement and that no person has claimed responsibility of the child.
• Before the child can be made available for adoption, two affidavits are required:
• By the social worker setting out the steps taken to trace the child’s biological parent/s, guardian/s or care-giver/s; and the effect that the child’s parent/s, guardian/s or care-giver/s cannot be traced, and
• By any other person, if any, who can testify to the fact that the child has had no contact with his or her parent/s, guardian/s or care-givers for a period of at least 3 months.

Advertising of children for the purpose of adoption:

• No person may publish or cause to be published in any form or by any means an advertisement dealing with the placement or adoption of a specific child.
• The child has the right not to be advertised or paraded as being available for adoption through any means including print and electronic media, such as newspaper, magazines, radio, internet, face-book, etc.
• Publication of advertisement for the purpose of recruiting prospective adoptive parents may be done by accredited adoption service providers on print and electronic media. However, such advertisement should not publish or photo list a specific child, but should give a profile of adoptable children available for adoption and express their need to be adopted and have permanent homes. Recruitment may also be done through promotional materials on adoption, presentations and community awareness campaigns at clinics, hospitals, churches, social clubs, and shopping malls and any other public facilities, etc.
• Any illegal advertisement can expose children to the abduction, sale and trafficking in children, which is likely to be done as a systematic organised operation or crime syndicate.

• Any violation to this provision of the Act relating to advertising is regarded as an offence in term of Section 305 of the Act and severe penalties may be imposed by law.

• As far as possible, the child should be placed in adoption as early as possible to enhance bonding with the adoptive family and reduce adjustment problems.

In a case of an abandoned child, the social worker must also:

• Gather all the necessary information and affidavit/s from person/s who found or reported the child as abandoned.
• Report the matter to the police, acquire a police case number and request the police assistance in investigating the child’s biological parent/s or guardian/s’ identity and whereabouts.
• Follow up with the police if child’s parent/s were traced or not and request a copy of the police report if untraceable.
• Place the child legally in a temporary safe care/ child and youth care centres pending further investigations and follow up on every lead and information if there was no person/s who made any contact with the child.
• Children should not be kept in cycc for an indefinite time, the social workers must always have a permanency plan for them and there should be a progressive movement towards their final placement into permanent families.
• According to the alternative care strategy, the social worker need to re-assess those children that have being in child and youth care centres for a long period, to determine if they can be adoptable.
• Provide the child with the name and surname, ensure the age estimation of the child by the Children’s Court and thereafter, register the child’s birth with the Department of Home Affairs.
• Ensure the medical examination and testing of the child is done and receive the child’s medical certificate/ report. The child’s medical report assist the prospective adoptive parent/s to make an informed decision about adopting the child or not.

In case of an orphaned child, the social worker must also:

• Submit a death certificate/s of the child s parent/s, guardian/s or care-giver/s must also be submitted to the Presiding Officer.
• If the death certificate cannot be obtained, an affidavit by a person/s, it can be the extended family member/s, community member/s or friends, who can testify to the death of the child s parent/s, guardian/s or care-giver/s, must be submitted. The full identifying details of the deceased, the date of birth/ identity numbers as well as the date of death are required on the affidavit.
• The adoption of an orphaned child may only be considered if the child has no guardian/s or care-giver/s including extended family member/s that is willing to adopt the child.
• Obtain a statement from the child’s guardian/s or care-giver/s or extended family member/s confirming that they will not be able to take care of the child or adopt him/ her.
• Consent of the child’s guardian/s should be obtained and signed at the Children’s Court in front of the Presiding Officer.
• If one of the child’s parents is still alive and available, his/ her consent should be obtained, if that parent agrees to the adoption of a child.
•  If the other parent of the child is alive, but not available or the whereabouts are unknown, efforts to trace him/ her should be made by the social worker with the assistance of the police, before the child can be adoptable.
• If the surviving parent of a child is a biological father who was not married to the mother of the child, he should be given preference to adopt his own child.
• Ensure the medical examination and testing of the child is done and receive the child’s medical certificate/ report. The child’s medical report assist the prospective adoptive parent/s to make an informed decision about adopting the child or not.

Consent for giving up a child for adoption

The following steps should be taken when biological parent/s or guardian/s has consented to their adoption – this is similar to when a mother does not want to keep the child rather she intends to give up the child for adoption

• An adoption of a child can only takes place after the required consent to the adoption has been obtained from the biological parent/s or guardian/s of the child, provided they are available.
• The child must also sign legal consent him/ herself, provided the child is of 10 years of age, if less than 10 years, maturity and stage of development to understand the implications of signing consent for his/ her adoption should be considered.
• The period of at least 60 days has lapse for withdrawal of the consent by the persons mentioned here and as alluded above.
• Once the required consent is obtained without been withdrawn, then the child can be adoptable.

Children whose biological parent/s or guardian/s’ consent to the adoption is not necessary or required by Court

There are different circumstances where consent for the adoption of a child is not required and the Court may dispense with such consent due to the following:

• Biological parent/s or guardian/s is incompetent to sign consent due to mental illness and this must be supported by a medical report from a qualified psychiatrist.
• Children who have been abandoned and the whereabouts of their biological parent/s or guardian/s cannot be established or their identities are unknown.
• Abused or deliberately neglected children.
• The biological parent/s or guardian/s has consistently failed to fulfil their parental responsibilities towards their children during the last 12 months.
• Guardianship in respect of the child has been terminated by the court; this could free a child for adoption when progress has not being made with efforts to reunite the child with their biological parent/s or guardian/s.
• The biological parent/s or guardian/s has been divested by an order of court of their right to consent to the adoption of their children.
• The biological parent/s or guardian/s has failed to respond to a notice of the proposed adoption within 30 days of serving the notice.
• Orphaned children who have no guardian/s or caregiver/s who are willing to and able to adopt those children; and the court has been provided with certified copies of their parent/s or guardian/s’ death certificate or other documentation as required by court.
• If biological father of the child is not married to the child’s mother, and was not married to her at the time of conception or at any time thereafter, and he has not acknowledged that he is the father of the child by:

(a) Giving a written acknowledgement that he is the biological father of the child either to the mother of the child or the clerk of the children’s court before the child reaches the age of 6 months;

(b) Voluntarily paying maintenance in respect of the child;

(c) Paying damages in terms of customary law; or

(d) By causing his particulars to be entered in the registration of birth of the child in terms of the Birth and Death Registration Act 51 of 1992 of DHA.

• The child was conceived from an incestuous relationship between the biological father and the mother, or
• The court following an allegation by the mother of the child, finds on the balance of probabilities that the child was conceived as a result of rape of the mother.
• If the biological parent/s or guardian/s is unreasonably withholding consent for the adoption of the child.
• In determining that consent is withheld unreasonably, the court must take into account all relevant factors, including the following:

(a) The nature of the relationship during the last 2 years between the child and the person withholding consent and any findings by court in this respect;

(b) The prospects of a sound relationship developing between the child and the person withholding consent in the immediate future.

Reply:

a) The number of persons that (i) were food insecure (inadequate or severe inadequate access to food) before COVID-19 was about (20% of households) in the country (Stats SA, 2019) and

(ii) The number of people that are currently food insecure as in April/May 2021 was approximately 10-million people and 3-million were children (NIDS-CRAM, 2021).

According to the NIDS-CRAM Wave 5 estimates and StatsSA’s 2020 mid-year population estimates, approximately 2,8-million households (with 10,6-million residents) were affected by hunger in April/May 2021.

b) The measures in place to address the overall food insecurity include the provision of safety nets – such as food relief through nutrition support centres, food parcels and various types of social grants, including the recently re-introduced Social Relief of Distress Grant of R350 per person. Social Relief of Distress is also provided in the form of cash and vouchers on a temporary basis to support households in distress.

Reply:

According to Children’s Act 38 of 2005, orphaned children are regarded as children in need of care and protection and therefore processes and steps as outlined in section 150 of the Act stating that such children must be placed in alternative care such as foster care and Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs) are being implemented. The Children’s Amendment Act affords potential parents the opportunity to adopt children who may be orphaned.

Orphans who are in the care of the family members benefit from Child Support Grant (CSG) as per provisions of the Social Assistance Act of 2004; and a top up grant that was introduced during COVID 19 to reduce the impact of the pandemic on families who these children are part of. The orphans who have relatives are also supported through the community-based prevention and early programme delivered in drop-in centres.

The department further employed over 1600 social workers during COVID 19 who amongst other services provided psychosocial support services to people in distress including orphaned children. The Gender Based Violence Command Centre was also operational 24 hours and accessible to all people including orphaned children. Through these initiatives the department was able to provide psycho social support services to more than 67 000 people including orphans.

The Department further implements Community-Based Prevention and Early Intervention (CBPEI) programme, which provides Core Package of Services (CPS) for vulnerable children. The aim of the community-based prevention and early intervention services to vulnerable children is to provide continuous support through an ecosystem and resilience-based approach. The Core Package of Services (CPS) are provided to all vulnerable children irrespective of the cause of the vulnerability during the pandemic to address different needs that they are presenting. The CPS was developed to operationalise community-based services for children, families and communities to reduce risks and build resilience in children.

The seven intervention domains of the CPS are:

• Food and Nutrition: Provide a safety net for children within their communities and where they can access food when the food provision in their family is insecure or where the child is at risk of stunting and malnutrition (cooked meals, food parcels).

• Psychosocial support: Improving children’s mental health by the early identification of children in emotional and psychological distress.

• Educational support: to increase access to and attendance of schools through for example, supporting children to overcome obstacles to attendance – such as lack of school uniform, lack of parental support for schooling and to support children in their educational performance.

• Economic Strengthening: aims at supporting and increasing the economic base of households through facilitating access to social security grants, entrepreneurial and other economic strengthening activities.

• Child care and protection: prevention of child abuse, neglect and exploitation and creating an enabling environment within the home, community and accessible services that will support parents to look after their children.

• Health promotion: Improve children’s health through better access to health care, promote and support access to sexual reproductive health services for girls and boys, and the early identification and support to children with disabilities, promote and support good WASH habits.

• HIV and AIDS services: Reducing children’s risk of contracting HIV by improved HIV awareness and sexuality education.

In addition to the implementation of the Core Package of Services (CPS) and in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, an Emergency Response Plan was developed. The purpose of this Emergency Response Plan is to address the needs of vulnerable children who have been affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. The purpose of this Emergency Response Plan is to address the needs of vulnerable children who have been affected by the COVID 19 pandemic. Furthermore, the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 makes provision that all orphaned children, despite their circumstances around orphan-hood, they are accommodated in terms of section 150 which identifies them as children in need of care and protection.

Reply:

a) The department is not aware of any South African children trafficked through adoption. Thus, there is no statistics of children trafficked through adoption. The department only have statistics of children legally adopted through intercountry adoption.

b) are three thousand three hundred and fifteen (3 315) intercountry adoptions recorded in the adoption register from 1 April 2004 – 31 March 2021. The following reflects the breakdown according to financial year:

Period	Intercountry Adoptions
1 April 2004 – 31 March 2005	239
1 April 2005 – 31 March 2006	248
1 April 2006 – 31 March 2007	256
1 April 2007 – 31 March 2008	231
1 April 2008 – 31 March 2009	218
1 April 2009 – 31 March 2010	234
1 April 2010 – 31 March 2011	200
1 April 2011 – 31 March 2012	194
1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013	177
1 April 2013 – 31 March 2014	212
1 April 2014 – 31 March 2015	250
1 April 2015 – 31 March 2016	187
1 April 2016 – 31 March 2017	149
Period	Intercountry Adoptions
1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018	153
1 April 2018 – 31 March 2019	151
1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020	156
1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021	60
TOTAL	3 315

Reply:

1. The Department of Social Development has not conducted any study that is specific to orphan hood and therefore does not have the figures of children orphaned due to COVID-19. The causes of orphan-hood have not been tracked as yet, services are rendered to all children who are made vulnerable by different circumstances including those who are orphaned.

2. The department in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders in the children’s sector at the National Child Care and Protection Forum developed an Emergency Response Plan which is intended to ensure coordination and monitoring of services to children including the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in an increased number of orphanhood and caregiver deaths. The National Child Care and Protection Forum meets on quarterly basis and is a coordinated national structure to monitor implementation of services to children.

Reply:

(1) a. The total number of foreigners (refugees) receiving social grants as at July 2021 is 13 472.

(1) b. Table 1 shows the number of social grants by grant type per province.

Table 1: Number of social grants per province

Province	Care Dependency Grant	Child Support Grant	Disability Grant	Foster Child Grant	Grant-In-Aid	Old Age Grant	War Veterans Grant	Total
Eastern Cape	23,417	1,972,830	178,386	74,893	34,024	593,929	8	2,877,487
Free State	8,787	711,619	78,067	24,569	10,576	212,589		1,046,207
Gauteng	20,916	2,000,812	120,845	41,371	10,424	678,524	9	2,872,901
Kwazulu Natal	39,044	2,969,151	223,704	63,210	79,759	732,988	4	4,107,860
Limpopo	16,627	1,963,506	99,816	40,437	54,687	489,613	2	2,664,688
Mpumalanga	11,335	1,165,489	76,726	22,693	23,237	267,023		1,566,503
North West	9,803	903,493	64,815	26,691	17,228	277,606	1	1,299,637
Northern Cape	5,787	328,070	50,819	10,570	18,975	92,971	1	507,193
Western Cape	16,280	1,052,251	150,624	32,209	24,110	379,526	9	1,655,009
Total	151,996	13,067,221	1,043,802	336,643	273,020	3,724,769	34	18,597,485

(2) It is important to note that applicants for all social grants, except for the Foster Child Grant are means tested. In addition, SASSA checks all the applicants of social grants against the government payroll databases (Persal and Persol) in order to ensure that government employees do not unduly benefit from social grants. The fact that a government employee is benefitting from a social grant is not necessarily an indicator of fraud, as some of the lower level staff may still meet the means test thresholds.

Access to other databases that have been brought into the SASSA environment will also assist SASSA in further refining the validations processes, to ensure that the information provided by applicants on application is checked before the grant is approved. This will assist in reducing errors of inclusion.

(2) i. The total number of Social Development officials receiving social grants is 3400. Table 2 shows the breakdown by department and grant type.

Table 2: Number of DSD official receiving social grants per province

DEPARTMENT	Care Dependency Grant	Com	Child Support Grant	Disability Grant	Foster Child Grant	Old Age Grant	TOTAL
VOTE 04 - EC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	18	2	103	4	91		218
VOTE 06 - GP: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	6	1	230	7	34	1	279
VOTE 07 - FS: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	7		91	2	31	1	132
VOTE 07 - WC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	9	1	45	4	17		76
VOTE 11 - NC: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	3		41	1	13		58
VOTE 12 - LP: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	8		158	6	27	4	203
VOTE 12 - MP: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	5		42	1	31		79
VOTE 12 - NW: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT	6		59	2	30		97
VOTE 13 - KZN: SOCIAL DEVELOPMNT	51	2	1876	101	132	79	2241
VOTE 19 - NAT: SOCIAL DEVELOPMNT	2		12	1	2		17
TOTAL	115	6	2657	129	408	85	3400

(2) ii. Table 3 shows that 153 SASSA employees are receiving social grants as at July 2021.

Table 3: Number of SASSA officials receiving social grants per province

PROVINCE	CARE DEPENDENCY GRANT	COM.	CHILD SUPPORT	DISABILITY GRANT	FOSTER CHILD GRANT	TOTAL
EASTERN CAPE	5		5		33	43
FREE STATE	3		1		6	10
GAUTENG	3		2		5	10
HEAD OFFICE			5		1	6
KWAZULU-NATAL	10		2	1	11	24
LIMPOPO	6		4		3	13
MPUMALANGA	3		1		9	13
NORTH WEST	2				7	9
NORTHERN CAPE	3	4	1		4	12
WESTERN CAPE	2		3	1	7	13
TOTAL	37	4	24	2	86	153

All social grants received by SASSA employees, except for the foster child grant and the combination grants (which is a combination of foster child grants and care dependency grants, in which case both are not means tested) have been suspended with immediate effect in accordance with Regulation 29(1)(a) of the Social Assistance Act, which allows for suspension without prior notice, in cases of suspected fraud or misrepresentation.

Processes are now underway to determine the amount paid which should not have been paid, as well as the date from which these employees started being employed by SASSA, to determine the amount to be recovered. In addition, documents are being prepared for disciplinary processes to be implemented.

As a preventive measure, all Socpen data will be checked against the SASSA salary system on a monthly basis prior to the payment extraction.

(2) ii. Table 4 shows that as at July 2021, 177108 social grants were received by employees of national and provincial government departments.

NATIONAL/PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENT	Care Dependency Grant	Com	Child Support Grant	Disability Grant	Foster Child Grant	Old Age Grant	TOTAL
EASTERN CAPE	413	47	8570	435	2063	595	12123
FREE STATE	116	8	2916	114	529	144	3827
GAUTENG	537	15	20136	460	901	221	22270
KWAZULU/NATAL	1717	74	61384	3321	3414	8449	78359
LIMPOPO PROVINCE	267	10	8577	186	826	466	10332
MPUMALANGA	224	4	7744	302	617	512	9403
NATIONAL DEPARTMENTS	630	22	10113	372	1605	522	13264
NON GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS			14	1	2		17
NORTH WEST	416	25	17074	579	846	246	19186
NORTHERN CAPE	127	14	3474	217	313	228	4373
WESTERN CAPE	192	3	3079	111	473	96	3954
TOTAL	4639	222	143081	6098	11589	11479	177108

Table 4: Number of National and Provincial government employees receiving social grants per province

Reply:

1. (a) and (b)

Table 1 shows that as at July 2021, 177 108 social grants were received by employees of national and provincial government departments. The Table also shows the breakdown by grant type.

NATIONAL/PROVINCIAL DEPARTMENT	Care Dependency Grant	Com	Child Support Grant	Disability Grant	Foster Child Grant	Old Age Grant	TOTAL
EASTERN CAPE	413	47	8570	435	2063	595	12123
FREE STATE	116	8	2916	114	529	144	3827
GAUTENG	537	15	20136	460	901	221	22270
KWAZULU/NATAL	1717	74	61384	3321	3414	8449	78359
LIMPOPO PROVINCE	267	10	8577	186	826	466	10332
MPUMALANGA	224	4	7744	302	617	512	9403
NATIONAL DEPARTMENTS	630	22	10113	372	1605	522	13264
NON GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS			14	1	2		17
NORTH WEST	416	25	17074	579	846	246	19186
NORTHERN CAPE	127	14	3474	217	313	228	4373
WESTERN CAPE	192	3	3079	111	473	96	3954
TOTAL	4639	222	143081	6098	11589	11479	177108

Table 1: Number of National and Provincial government employees receiving social grants per province

2. (a) The total amount that SASSA has spent in paying Public Service employees who applied for and received SASSA administered grants is

approximately R200, 7 million. Table 2 shows the amount paid during July 2021.

Table 2: Amount paid to public servants during July 2021 per province by grant type

REGION	CSG	DG	FCG	CDG	COM	OAG	Total
Eastern Cape	R8,037,695	R1,513,124	R3,719,837	R1,259,226	R232,733	R1,613,858	R16,376,473
Free State	R2,232,898	R342,625	R949,518	R323,190	R36,540	R349,913	R4,234,684
Gauteng	R13,158,586	R1,115,230	R1,753,063	R1,426,750	R76,020	R620,144	R18,149,793
KwaZulu Natal	R63,236,049	R9,706,180	R7,970,354	R5,564,046	R419,155	R20,866,448	R107,762,232
Limpopo	R9,902,243	R642,859	R1,638,430	R881,959	R54,540	R933,824	R14,053,855
Mpumalanga	R7,233,146	R882,309	R1,129,420	R722,528	R27,510	R1,249,995	R11,244,908
North West	R2,797,271	R646,044	R650,465	R435,553	R62,160	R553,705	R5,145,198
Northern Cape	R14,185,790	R1,504,404	R1,958,887	R1,310,375	R106,680	R534,644	R19,600,780
Western Cape	R2,081,331	R294,809	R960,180	R516,273	R29,610	R337,522	R4,219,725
Total	R122,865,009	R16,647,584	R20,730,154	R12,439,900	R1,044,948	R27,060,053	R200,787,648

2. (b) Steps taken against the implicated employees

It should be noted that all social grants are means tested, apart from the foster child grant. Public servants are entitled to receive the foster child grant. Where the foster child grant is paid in conjunction with a care dependency grant for the same child neither are means tested, and public servants would not be contravening any laws by receiving these grants.

For the remainder of the grant types, the means test would need to be applied. Since the information has been extracted, arrangements have been made to suspend the grants, apart from the foster child grants, for all public servants. Those who still qualify will have to come in and review the grant, and provide current information on their income, to determine whether they still qualify to receive these grants.

Measures will also be taken to recover any funds overpaid. Where it is found that the public servants were receiving a grant to which they were not entitled, the matter will be reported to their employing department, for disciplinary action to be taken.

Reply:

1 (a) The amount that has been allocated by the Department of Social Development for food relief as a result of the violent protests is R100 million, which was distributed as follows: in (i) KwaZulu-Natal = R60 million for 81 429 food parcels and (ii) R40 million for 57 143 food parcels in Gauteng.

In addition to this allocation, SASSA has an allocation for social relief of distress in both provinces, which is used for the issuing of vouchers for affected families – not specifically for the response to the unrest.

(b) The criteria which will be used to allocate food relief includes:

• People experiencing hunger as a result of the public violence and looting.
• Families with bread winners who have been laid off from industries that have closed down.
• Families battling with hunger where there is no income (Living below the food poverty line of R585 per month).
• Targeting 70% rural & 30% urban areas of KZN

(c) The measures that have been put in place to eliminate double-dipping include verification of qualifying beneficiaries against the different lists, such as the SASSA social relief of distress vouchers vs the identified beneficiaries by Social Development officials;

(2) a) SASSA issued 5 568 food vouchers in KwaZulu-Natal and 337 food vouchers in Gauteng region to respond to the unrest for the period between 1 April 2021 to end July 2021.

b) Vouchers to be allocated will depend on the assessment of applications received since provision of this benefit is needs based and dependent on available resources. SASSA will provide assistance in accordance with the provisions as set in the Social Assistance Act, 2004.

Food relief provision from the Solidarity Fund was purely using food parcels and no vouchers were part of this response. This was due to the fact that the food outlets in some of the affected areas were destroyed. The provision of food parcels therefore ensured that vulnerable citizens had access to food;

(3) The cost of each food parcel is R700. The breakdown in terms of (a) food items, (b) packaging is as follows:

Category	Food items	Unit	Qty
Starch	Fortified Maize meal	KG	10
	Rice	KG	10
	Potatoes	KG	7
Protein	Tinned fish -Pilchards in Tomato Sauce	400g TIN	6
	Baked Beans in Sauce	410g TIN	6
	Sugar Beans/Split Peas	KG	2
	Milk Full Cream (Powder - not creamer) or liquid	KG Litres	1 6
Vegetable	Butternut OR Cabbage (Any veg in season)	KG	10 3
Seasoning	Onions	KG	2
	Cooking Oil	LIT	2
Other	Soap	Bar	2

(c) Transport and/or (d) food sourcing, packaging and distribution to households is fixed to not more than 5% of the food parcel value = R35 per food parcel.

Reply:

a) In order to address some of the challenges which were experienced in the previous cycle of the R350 SRD grant the process has changed, to enable all applicants to provide banking details on application and not only when the application is approved. Information provided as at 18 August 2021 is that, of the 8 931 375 applications received, 6 817 229 (76%) have provided information on bank accounts. This information still has to be verified to confirm which accounts can be used for the grant to be paid into.

SASSA is dependent on the provision of information on bank accounts which is provided by the applicants. In cases where there is no bank account details provided, SASSA is obliged to effect payment through the post office, as there is no other alternative.

However, engagements with the post office and Postbank have been held to introduce alternative access channels for funds deposited into the accounts held by Postbank on behalf of the post office. This will allow for funds to be collected at participating merchants and Standard Bank ATMs thus reducing the number of people who have to collect over the counter at post offices. While this solution is yet to be tested, it is believed that it will significantly reduce the number of citizens who have to report in person at post offices.

b) COVID protocols will be enforced at all post offices. The post office has confirmed that they will stagger payments according to last 3 digits of the ID number, to reduce the number of people who report to any one post office in a single day, and that they will employ active queue monitors to manage compliance to the protocols.

c) Where beneficiaries use their own bank accounts, there are bank charges which they have to cover themselves. However, when they are paid through the post office, they are able to access their full grant amount without bank charges.

A full reconciliation is done with Post Office to ensure that all funds due to any beneficiaries are paid out when the beneficiary tries to access his/her funds.

Reply:

The below table depicts vacancies in each province due to different listed reasons such as death, resignations, dismissal, retirement and ill healthas at 31 March 2021:

Leaving Reason	HEAD OFFICE	EASTERN CAPE	FREE STATE	GAUTENG	KWAZULU-NATAL	LIMPOPO	MPUMA-LANGA	NORTH WEST	NORTHERN CAPE	WESTERN CAPE	Grand Total	% Per Reason
CONTRACT EXPIRY	27	13	21	20	44	2	4	6	6	2	145	29.2%
DEATH / DEMISE	-	29	5	3	18	10	2	2	3	4	76	16%
ILL HEALTH	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	0.2%
DISMISSAL:MISCONDUCT	-	3	-	-	8	3	-	1	-	1	16	3.2%
RESIGNATION	6	17	17	7	23	6	8	7	10	24	125	25.2%
RETIREMENT	3	23	7	9	23	21	9	8	2	20	125	25.2%
TRANSFER	-	-	1	1	2	-	-	3	1	-	8	1%
Grand Total	36	85	51	40	118	42	23	27	22	52	496
Percentage per Province	7%	17%	13%	8%	24%	8%	4%	5%	4%	10%

Reply:

The “50 Good Deeds” campaign was implemented alongside the District Development Model in the Amajuba District Municipality, as the Deputy Minister is the District Champion for that district.

The “50” was linked to the Deputy Minister’s 50th birthday where she wanted to give back to the communities as part of her birthday celebrations. The correct dates are from the 1st to the 8th of March 2021.

The Department covered all costs as this is part of the District Development Model. The Deputy Minister partnered with different private companies for different programs in addition to the different work that the department is doing.

Reply:

The “50 Good Deeds” campaign was implemented alongside the District Development Model in the Amajuba District Municipality, as the Deputy Minister is the District Champion for that district.

The “50” was linked to the Deputy Minister’s 50th birthday where she wanted to give back to the communities as part of her birthday celebrations over and above the DDM functions in the district. The correct dates are from the 1st to the 8th of March 2021. The Good Deeds campaign was from 1 March 2021 to 31 March 2021.

There were no additional costs that the campaign brought to the Department outside of everyday work. What the campaign managed to do is to draw private sector to support Social Development more and better. No Parliamentary officials joined the campaign. The Deputy Minister was accompanied by all the relevant officials in her department as this was a District Development Model outreach.

The Deputy Minister collaborated with different private companies for different programs in addition to the different work that the department was doing.

Reply:

a) What is the name of the communication agency appointed?

• Cut to Black Media is the awarded company for the Provision Of Communication and Marketing Services (Covid-19 And Related Communication And Marketing) For SASSA As Part Of The #KeepSouthAfricaHealthy Campaign.

b) Through what process was the company appointed?

SASSA took part in an existing contract of the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS).

c) What are the terms of the appointment contract?

Contract Duration: Start November 2020 end June 2021

Cut to Black Media was awarded the contract to assist SASSA’s communications. This was done through a submission process on the back bone of GCIS Bid number 06-20-COM-HO.

• Date of Letter of Award: 22 October 2020
• Purchase Order Received: 2nd December 2020.
• Contract Period of Award: 06 months (Linked to GCIS contract)

The Contracts Terms of Reference are:

1. Communicate COVID-19 grant campaign messages
2. Build stakeholder engagement, public trust, and advocacy through strategic communications.
3. Create awareness, understanding, and support of Social Development Portfolio work
4. Communicate correct SASSA and social grants information
5. Rebut fake news and wrong information
6. Strengthen SASSA public relations using regional, local and district levels of communication

Scope of Work as per Terms of Reference (condensed):

1. To participate in GCIS panel of service providers for communications
2. Utilise key integrated marking communications aspects to broadly support communication & marketing services on the campaign.
3. Customised multimedia products should be developed for the purposes of SASSA brand activation through the following channels:
4. Public relations with focus on COVID-19 SRD Grant
5. Media Strategy and Direction
6. Promotions
7. Brand management: consistency and alignment of messages
8. Stakeholder Engagement: engagement and collaboration during COVID-19
9. Creative and Production Services
10. Video and Photographic Services
11. Digital Marketing
12. Monitoring and Evaluation

d) Cost implications

1. There are no cost implications of this contract to the Department
2. SASSA appointed Cut to Black Media at a total cost of R19 983 345,30 (including VAT).

Reply:

(1)(a) There were no administration fees paid by the department in each province to administer the Early Childhood Development Employment Stimulus Relief Fund (ECD-ESRF) to early childhood development centres since the establishment of the fund. Provision was made in the framework that each province may use a maximum of 2% of their total allocation received under the unemployment risk support for administration which includes capacity to manage this initiative.

1(b)There were no civil society organisations that were used to distribute the funds in each province. However civil society organisations contracted through the support provided by DG Murray Trust assisted with the application and verification process. The list of civil society organisations as per province is attached.

2. Yes, the administration fee was part of the R380 million paid for the ECD-ESRF.

Reply:

SASSA has engaged the CEO of the Post Office to determine the impact of these closures.

The confirmation was provided that the closures are being undertaken in terms of a strategy approved by the Post Office in 2016 as a way in which to reduce costs to the Post Office for outlets which are not commercially viable, will take place over time as the existing leases come to an end, and adequate consultation will take place prior to the closures. The commitment was also made that closures will only be considered where there is alternative infrastructure within a 5 kilometre radius for social grant beneficiaries to be able to access their social grants.

The total number of post office outlets closed between 2015 and 2021 is 120. Of these, only 16 were in rural areas, but all were branches where there was another post office outlet within the close vicinity. The remaining 104 branches were in urban and Metro areas where there is no shortage of alternative National Payment infrastructure which can be used by social grant beneficiaries.

In assessing the impact these closures will have on SASSA beneficiaries, it should be noted that only approximately 3% of all the social grant beneficiaries access their social grants through the post office. Social grant beneficiaries who receive their social grants through their SASSA/SAPO cards (a total of 7 612 640 out of 11 500 274 for June 2021) are able to access their funds through multiple channels, namely bank ATM’s, merchant point of sale devices, over the counter at post offices and at the remaining 1 621 cash pay points.

During May 2021, less than 500 000 social grant beneficiaries accessed their social grant over the counter at post offices.

Notwithstanding the above, SASSA will continue to engage with the South African Post Office to ensure that, where post office outlets are identified for permanent closure, there is alternative infrastructure available, which meets the norms and standards set for social grant payment, to minimise the negative impact on the beneficiaries.

Reply:

1. Eastern Cape: Currently there are no shelters for the homeless that are operational. The beneficiaries that were accommodated during lockdown have since been reunified with their families.

2. Free State: The Department is engaging as a primary stakeholder with COGTA and relevant Departments on appropriate interventions for the homeless. The matter of homeless shelters is a standing item on the agenda of the provincial Corona Virus Command Centre.

3. Gauteng: The Department currently has 41 homeless shelters that are still open for those who need accommodation and other services. Furthermore, the Department provided funding for park homes for three (3) NPOs in 2020/21, financial year, 4th quarter, whereby homeless people were housed in tents for protection during the winter season.

4. KwaZulu-Natal: There are 7(seven) shelters for homeless shelters functional in 04 (four) districts as follows

• Metro – 04
• King Cetshwayo – 01
• UThukela – 01
• UMgungundlovu – 01

5. Limpopo: The Department has no shelters for the homeless at the present moment and only rely on the support from municipality as they have many facilities that are not utilised. During level 5 restriction, municipalities played an important role by providing accommodation for beneficiaries.

6. Mpumalanga: The Department does not have any plans for the homeless people. All shelters for homeless people were closed after the homeless were reintegrated with their families. Those that were not reintegrated opted to leave the shelter and go back to the streets.

7. North West: The Department is currently utilising 3 facilities in 3 Districts to provide services for persons who are homeless. These facilities are in Ngaka Modiri Molema, Dr Kenneth Kaunda and Bojanala Districts. The Department is in a process to establish one in Ngaka Modiri Molema district.

8. Northern Cape: There are no shelters for homeless persons in the province. Homeless people have been reunified with their families. The circumstances of those found in the street are assessed and intervention implemented according to the merit.

9. Western Cape: An additional 1000 bed spaces for the homeless in NGO run shelters will be funded by DSD over and above a baseline of 1 500 bed spaces already funded, all shelters also prepare for an overflow of homeless people during the winter times and have therefore already created extra sleeping spaces just for winter within the shelters. This excludes the extra 1000 bed spaces.

REPLY: (2) Nationally there is no budget allocated to provide shelter for homeless. The following depicts unique budgetary circumstances in provinces and compliance to COVID 19 protocols:

1. Eastern Cape: 2 The Department has no budget to set aside for homeless (a) to allow for social distancing and quarantining of the homeless nor (b) any budget to extend the care given to the homeless to include the observation of COVID-19 protocols.

2. Free State: (2) There is no budget allocated for homeless shelters. The shelters therefore remain an unfunded mandate and therefore (b) there is no budget for social distancing and quarantining of the homeless should the need arise and nor (b) any budget to extend the care given to the homeless to include the observation of COVID-19 protocols;

3. Gauteng: 2(a) There is no budget earmarked for social distancing and quarantining but homeless shelters are monitored regularly to ensure compliance to Covid-19 protocols and in the case of Covid-19 homeless people, provision is made within the available facilities for quarantine. (b) The department also funded some of the NPOs in need of PPEs at the end of the 2021/22 financial year to extend the care given to the homeless to which includes the observation of the Covid19 protocols.

4. KZN: 2(a) The current available homeless shelters are community halls and therefore cater for social distancing. Quarantine is however a challenge as there is no budet allocated for this mandate (b) DOH is part of the multi-disciplinary team that is rendering services in homeless shelters. Covid-19 protocols are observed.

5. Limpopo: 2(a) There is no budget allocated for shelters for homeless, however if a need arises, the Department will liaise with relevant stakeholders to ensure that beneficiaries are catered for as according to Disaster Management Act of 2002 and Covid-19 protocols are followed. (b) Should the Department opt to utilise the same facilities as in the first lockdown, compliance with Covid-19 won’t be a challenge as all facilities were allowing social distancing and have isolation rooms.

6. Mpumalanga: 2(a) & (b) There is no budget in place for the homeless people as there are no homeless shelters operating in the province.

7. North West: The Department have not been allocated funds specifically for services to homeless persons. (a) However the department with its pressures reprioritises within the existing allocations to make provision for social distancing, quarantine and compliance to all Covid-19 related needs; and (b) nor there is no budget to extend the care given to the homeless to include the observation of COVID-19 protocols.

8. Northern Cape: 2(a) & (b)There are no shelters that are operational and no budget has been allocated in this regard.

9. Western Cape: 2(a) & (b)The department has assisted the homeless shelters in the province with guidelines and protocols for Covid 19 safety and quarantine and isolation sites are available for all who need them, including the homeless.

Reply:

Nr	Province	(a) total number of officials have been found to have colluded with nonprofit organisations to commit fraud in her department in the past five financial years	(b) action has been taken against the specified officials and	(c) total amount was lost through this kind of fraud in the specified period?
1.	Eastern Cape	During the past year financial years, investigations have been conducted on alleged fraud and mismanagement of funds by NPOs at the Districts. The findings are that, only project members found to have committed the alleged fraudulent activities.	Some of the cases have been reported to the SAPS, due to criminal elements in them.	Not applicable
2.	Free State	There are no officials in the Free State Department of Social Development who have been found to have colluded with non-profit organisations to commit fraud in the past five years.	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
3.	Gauteng	No officials have been found guilty to have colluded with Non-Profit Organisation to commit fraud. There are however cases that are currently being investigated in the Department as well forensic investigation reports which are under review.	Not Applicable, no officials have been found guilty to have colluded with Non-Profit Organisation to commit fraud	Not Applicable, no officials have been found guilty to have colluded with Non-Profit Organisation to commit fraud.
4.	Kwa-Zulu Natal	One (1) official in the Department was found to have colluded with non-profit organisations to commit fraud in the past five (5) financial years. This happened in the financial year 2014/15	The official was charged with misconduct, found guilty and dismissed from the Public Service in March 2018	Total amount lost through this act was R438 380.00
5.	Limpopo	Zero	Not Applicable	None
6.	Mpumalanga	No officials were found to have colluded with NPO’s to commit fraud in the past 5 years	Subsequently no action has been taken.	Not applicable
7.	Northern Cape	The Northern-Cape Department of Social Development has no current knowledge on any cases of possible collusion and subsequently have no information to report	None	None
8.	North West	The North West Provincial Department of Social Development does not have any recordings on its database of fraud related cases, any officials who have been reported or found to have colluded with nonprofit organisations to commit fraud in the past five financial years. The Department have established a dedicated Risk, Fraud and Ethics Management unit, which maintains the database of any reported or allegations levelled against any official on incidents of fraud, corruption, mismanagement of funds allocated to NPOs for purpose of investigations. Should there be sufficient grounds to consider disciplinary steps, referrals are to be made to Labour Relations unit or the law enforcement agencies to take appropriate actions. The Risk, Fraud and Ethics Management unit implement quarterly education and awareness programmes to capacitate both the funded NPOs and officials, to deter any possible temptations that would be in contrary with the applicable legislations	None	None
9.	Western Cape	Zero – Noneto Western Cape Department of Social Development	Not Applicable	Not Applicable

Reply:

1. (a) The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation is the lead department in the research on identifying and costing of core gender-based violence (GBV) that was commissioned and funded by the European Union. The DSD is an important stakeholder in this process and support the outcome of the research. Once approval has been granted by all relevant forums, the implementation of the recommendations will resume. The planned activities are:

(i) First quarter (April – June 2021): the DG Social Development approved the report;

(ii) Second quarter (July – September): the report will be presented to the DG DPME and Social Cluster for endorsement and approval;

(iii) Third and Fourth quarter (October – December): report will be presented to Cabinet for approval.

(b) Yes, the department intends to use the costing model to inform as to how to fund GBV services, from shelters to aftercare services including post-rape care.

2. The new Intersectoral policy on sheltering services has been presented in the Departmental management structures. The plan is to finalise the policy approval by various stakeholders in the current financial year in order for its operation to resume in the financial year 2022/23.

Reply:

The National Department of Social Development does not owe money to municipalities as the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure manages the account for services on behalf of government departments.

Reply:

(a) The total number of social workers who graduated in 2020 is 284.

(b)

No of Social Workers absorbed	2020-2021
Gauteng	86
KwaZulu-Natal	150
Northern Cape	53
Mpumalanga	128
Limpopo	180
North West	13
Free State	92
Western Cape	118
Eastern Cape	128
TOTAL	948

2. (a) The monthly salary of a Social Worker is R29 408, 42 at an entry level (inclusive of service benefits).

(b) The monthly salary is R29 408, 42 which is the same across provinces (inclusive of service benefits).

3. The number of vacancies for social workers:

Province	Vacancies
Gauteng	356
KwaZulu-Natal	155
Northern Cape	158
Mpumalanga	72
Limpopo	5
North West	178
Free State	117
Western Cape	313
Eastern Cape	136

Reply:

1(a) The total amount paid to beneficiaries who were not eligible for the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant is R11 175 950.

(b) All people who received food parcels from SASSA met the broad qualifying criteria as set in the Social Assistance Act, which, under Regulation 9(2) stipulates that a person may qualify for social relief of distress “if refusal of the application may cause undue hardship…”

While some of the citizens who received a food parcel may have also been in receipt of a social grant (largely one of the child grants), this is also permitted in terms of Regulation 16A which allows for the provision of social relief of distress to a child already benefitting from a social grant, “where the prevailing economic circumstances warrants the provision of social relief of distress.”

In addition, Regulation 9(5) to the Social Assistance Act provides for the provision of social relief of distress to citizens who are affected by a declared or undeclared disaster. The COVID pandemic has been the largest declared disaster faced by this country and the number of citizens requiring assistance increased significantly during this period.

The assistance provided by SASSA was provided in accordance with the requirements of the Social Assistance Act and Regulations. However, SASSA was not the only instance providing assistance in the form of food parcels.

(2) (a) what are the reasons behind the slow progress in finalising cases under investigation in the SA Social Security Agency

The total number of exceptions that were identified by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) is 67670. Most of these exceptions were mainly as a result of SASSA not having access to the databases that the AGSA had. SASSA immediately stopped payments to all the cases flagged by the AGSA.

The number of exceptions identified by the AGSA are as follows:

Table: Exceptions identified by the AGSA and action taken by SASSA

Category	Number of exceptions	SASSA action
PERSAL/ PERSOL	15711	SASSA has SASSA has commenced the process of recovering money from public servants who received the Covid 19 SRD grant. In addition SASSA has referred the implicated public servants to the relevant departments for disciplinary action. The Fusion Centre is working with the Department of Public Service and Administration to ensure that all implicated public servants are pursued.
UIF	15069	People who benefitted from the Covid SRD grant and UIF were referred to the Fusion Centre for further investigation.
UIF-TERS	2119	People who benefitted from the Covid SRD grant and UIF were referred to the Fusion Centre for further investigation.
Social Pension	15062	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose from timing differences in the validation databases that were used by SASSA and AGSA.
NSFAS	10358	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose from timing differences in the validation databases that were used by SASSA and AGSA.
Internships	6562	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the internships databases.
Department of Agriculture vouchers	1281	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the Department of Agriculture database on recipients of their vouchers.
Spaza support	372	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the Spaza support database.
Inmates	332	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose from timing differences in the validation databases that were used by SASSA and AGSA.
GEPF	312	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the GEPF database.
PLAS farmers	289	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose from timing differences in the validation databases that were used by SASSA and AGSA.
Artists	111	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the Department of Arts database.
IDC Debt Relief	65	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the IDC database.
Sport applicants	27	SASSA has stopped payments to these cases, which mainly arose because SASSA did not have access to the Department of Arts database.
TOTAL	67670

SASSA has referred the suspected fraudulent cases to the Fusion Centre (which consists of the Financial Intelligence Centre, Special Investigating Unit, State Security Agency, National Prosecuting Authority, South African Police Service) for further investigation. The Fusion Centre is still busy with the investigations.

(b) what is the impact of the slow progress of finalising cases on consequence management;

It should be noted that the Covid SRD grant applications were processed electronically by matching information from various databases and systems. There is thus no consequence management that needs to be pursued on officials. However SASSA has commenced the process of recovering money paid to the implicated government employees. SASSA has in addition referred the implicated government employees to their departments for disciplinary action.

(3) With reference to the 2020-21 procurement plan, 14 (fourteen) contracts of the 19 contracts planned as per the 5th (fifth) amendment of the procurement plan were awarded by financial year end. The two contracts referred to by the Auditor-General, as not being included on the 2020-21 procurement plan, were for the Western Cape Provincial office space, and the Mpumalanga - Hazyview District office space. These contracts were extended briefly during the 2020-21 financial year, to accommodate the removal of furniture and equipment, and were then terminated, in accordance with a decision taken by management, early in the financial year, to rationalise the costs for leased premises. These contracts were however listed in the 2019-20 procurement plan, a tender for office space was issued in that financial year, and adjudicated in April 2020. It was subsequently cancelled to align with management’s decision to terminate the lease contracts for Western Cape and Mpumalanga –Hazyview, and these contracts were therefore not included in the 2020-21 procurement plan.