Questions and Replies

Reply:

a) SASSA currently links all children benefiting from social grants who are in matric to the Departments of Basic Education and Higher Education, so that they can be considered for NSFAS funding for further education. This is done in an effort to foster economic independence and break the inter-generational dependence on social grants.

With regard to citizens who receive disability grants, the ability to link them to opportunities is slightly more challenging. One of the qualifying criteria for a person to receive a disability grant is that the disability must be such that it prevents the person from being employed or able to support him/herself. The persons who receive permanent disability grants are effectively excluded from the open labour market. However, those who receive temporary disability grants, where the condition is likely to improve to the extent that it does not prevent the person from being employed, should be the target for opportunities.

In addition to SASSA interventions, DSD continues to support Persons with Disabilities in improving their socio-economic conditions with the following programmes:

• Protective Workshops

This programme seeks to improve and enhance the quality of life for persons with disabilities through socio-economic development programme, in order to ensure their full and equal inclusion into mainstream society and economy. The key elements of this programme are psycho-social developmental services, inclusion of persons with disabilities as important role-players in mainstream socio-economic growth and development and promoting income generating programmes through business partnerships between government departments, the business sector and protective workshops, functioning under the auspices of the NGOs.

• Residential Facilities

Residential facilities provide protection, support, stimulation, skills development and rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities who are unable to live independently, making provision for the ultimate re-integration back to the community, where possible. Most residential facilities have protective workshops empowering residents and persons with disabilities from surrounding communities through psycho-social programme, skills development and business skills. DSD will continue to support and subside these protective workshops, residential facilities and Independent Living facilities and Supported Living facilities through the country.

• Disability Mainstreaming

This programme is implemented through a two-pronged approach:

• The provincial departments implement disability mainstreaming services within the Welfare services to facilitate the mainstreaming of disability across all services.
• Through a technical cooperation project implemented since 2012 in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to develop approaches on the empowerment of persons with disabilities and disability mainstreaming (the DEM approach) towards the promotion of social participation of

Persons with Disabilities in South Africa.

• The above-mentioned DEM project engages key departments, including local government and other stakeholders to identify and address disabling barriers, negative attitude and exclusion, as well as ensuring that persons with disabilities play central role in creating an inclusive society as change agents in order to improve their quality of life in line with the vision of the National Development Plan (NDP).

• Capacity Building/Training Programme on Covid-19

Children with disabilities and their parents have faced difficulties in accessing significant information such as COVID-19 news, especially in rural areas. As a measure against COVID-19, DSD in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plans to conduct training for children with disabilities and their parents to deliver information effectively on COVID-19 in a train-the-trainer format.

b) The creation of opportunities for persons with disabilities is not a SASSA or Social Development sector responsibility alone, but requires a whole of government response.

Applicants for the R350 social relief grant who self-declared disabilities totalled 1 405 824. An initiative which has already been implemented is to try and link the applicants for the social relief grant who are aged between 18 and 35 with opportunities through cooperation with the Presidency. A project has been implemented in cooperation with both the public and private sector to list opportunities for employment and training for youth on the Youth.mobi website. SASSA sent approximately 6,5 million SMS notifications to the youth who had applied for the social relief grant (including those who self-reported disabilities) to advise them to register on the website.

The other initiative to provide opportunities for persons with disabilities is through direct employment. SASSA has a target to ensure that a minimum of 3% of the labour force comprises people with disabilities. We currently have achieved a total of 2.2%.

In addition to SASSA’s interventions, DSD has several plans including the following to enable persons with disabilities to achieve economic liberation:

• Protective Workshops and Residential Facilities

DSD has developed a Delivery Model for Protective Workshops that recognizes a need to identify beneficiaries’ barriers impeding their development and growth. An experiential learning will be conducted in nine provinces focussing on the following components of this Model:

• Psychosocial and Personal skills, including assessment, social services, self-care, life skills and assistive devices.
• Workplace Skills Development focusing on technical skills, job coaching, vocational, ABET, financial management, business skills, entrepreneurship and simulations.
• Supported Employment, including job placement, internships, job coaching, contract work, apprenticeship and learnership.

The key determinant factor for the successful implementation of the delivery model is collaboration with key and relevant stakeholders such as the Departments of Health, Trade and Industry, Small Business Development, Education, Labour, disabled people’s organizations and private sector partners.

DSD plans to identify residential facilities that have good practice protective workshops that have established partnerships with the private sector implementing economic empowerment programmes and contributing to the independent living of persons with disabilities in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons Disabilities.

• Disability Mainstreaming

DSD is planning to roll out the DSD/ JICA’s Guidelines on Empowerment of Persons with disabilities and Disability Mainstreaming (DEM) that were implemented Limpopo, KZN, Eastern Cape, Free State in Northern Cape and Mpumalanga provinces in 2021-2022 financial year, as follows:-

• Create a platform to roll out disability mainstreaming through supportive partnerships and cooperation among provincial governments, municipalities, relevant departments, NGOs, Disabled People Organizations (DPOs), national and international organizations.
• Empowering persons with disabilities through leadership training and strengthening the capacity of disabled people organizations and mainstreaming through creating barrier free environments to ensure the active participation of persons with disabilities in society.
• Establishing partnership with government departments that have shown interest in utilising the DEM guidelines to enhance the integration of disability considerations in government services.
• Consultation with SALGA and COGTA to develop a programme to train municipalities on the Guidelines are at an advance stage.

• Training in Covid-19

The planned DSD/ Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Covid-19 Training project for 9 provinces will focus on obtaining knowledge and skills on prevention, containment and management of COVID-19 and consists of the following two capacity development programmes:

• Training of Trainers for social workers in DSD and NGOs.
• Workshop for persons with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities.

Capacitated persons with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities will be able to share knowledge and skills obtained with their families, friends and communities, including participating in the rolling out of the training. They will subsequently be able to participate and benefit from mainstream economy, despite the adverse impact of this pandemic.

Reply:

1. (a) The main contributors to the increase in irregular expenditure in the 2019-20 financial year (R39m), were the irregular contracting of the training service providers to implement the UIF third party contract (R23,3m), as well as lease costs related to the NDA’s head office (R5,9m), where the contract had expired, and was not extended on time. The training contract was terminated, and replaced by new service providers after a competitive bidding process was followed. National Treasury approved a deviation to continue with the head office lease for a further period of 5 years, thus regularizing this contract.

Up to the end of the third quarter of the 2020-21 financial year, the main contributors to the increase in irregular expenditure of R1,9m, were the internet services contract, the insurance contract, and lease contracts for the Western Cape and Gauteng provincial offices. The internet services contract had expired, and was extended irregularly in the past. This irregular contract was replaced in the 4th quarter, thus terminating the previous contract. The insurance contract was advertised for tender in April 2021, and will be regularised in the 2021-22 financial year. The lease contracts for office space were terminated in July 2020, thus curtailing the irregular expenditure.

1. (b)

(i) . In previous years the NDA experienced a high turn-over of staff and some instability in the Chief Financial Officer position, which resulted in this work not receiving the necessary attention.

(ii) The other contributing factor in the slow pace of implementing consequence management was the lack of capacity particularly in both Legal and HR Units.

(iii) However, the assessment of all cases from prior years done in 2020/21 financial year has revealed that there is no need for a formal investigation because such transactions do not raise ay suspicion of fraud fraudulent, corrupt or other criminal conduct.

The prior years’ irregular expenditure cases emanate from contracts which were concluded by officials who are no longer NDA’s employees. The individuals concerned are therefore no longer subject to the NDA’s Disciplinary Code and Grievance Procedures (“Disciplinary”).

The amounts involved have been included in the condonation application, which is currently under consideration by National Treasury

(2) Formal policies for Irregular and Fruitless and Wasteful expenditure were drafted and approved by the Board for implementation in November 2020.

(3) (a) The Department has never incurred a liable of R983 billion. (b)Therefore, does not have any information with regards to an investigation.

(4) (a)Not applicable to the Department of Social Development. (b)Therefore, does not have any information of any remedial actions taken.

Reply:

Nr	Province	(a)Unspent Amount	(b) How has their underspending affected the budgets available to welfare programmes?
	Eastern Cape	R262 293 000	The amount of effect in the Welfare programmes is that, a big quantum of the beneficiaries could not get the food relief meant to be funded by the funding referred to. The employees in the ECD centres could not access the stimulus package meant by the conditional grant (Presidential stimulus package).
	Free State	R 50 870 000	The Programme for Children and Families is the worst affected in that R48.432 million was not spent. The under expenditure is mainly as a result of additional funding amounting to R38,880 million for Early Childhood Development (ECD) received late in the year (third quarter) during the adjustment budget process. The application and verification process for the stimulus package by National DSD was slow and it took longer than anticipated; as a result, the bulk of the funds were not spent. Furthermore, some ECD`s were partially paid and some not paid due to COVID-19 restrictions. A roll-over has been requested.
	Gauteng	R438 000 000	Programme 2: Social Welfare Services Food parcels at Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) clinics were not distributed as planned and the HIV Social and Behaviour change programme was not fully implemented by the end of the financial year. Programme 3: Children & Families Beneficiaries of Presidential ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund (ECD-ESRF) were not paid as the verification process took longer than anticipated. The underspending also affected the distribution of school uniform to identified learners because the production of school uniform was not finalized on time by the appointed cooperatives. In addition, the funding of ECD centres was affected by the changes of some of the municipalities by-laws. Programme 4: Restorative Services The underspending affected the implementation of substance abuse mobile services. Delays were caused by lockdown restriction and the Department contracted with NPOs from the third quarter after the easing of lockdown regulations. Programme 5: Development & Research The underspending in this programme was mainly recorded on dignity packs. Thus, the Department did not distribute the number of dignity packs planned by the end of the financial year. Roll-over of unspent funds The Department requested the roll-over of unspent funds from the 2020/21 to 2021/22 financial year on both equitable shares and conditional grant. A total of R 158 586 013 was requested to be rolled over to fund the commitments as per the signed Service Level Agreement and Purchase Order created.
	Kwazulu Natal	R97 627 000	If the rollover of R91,242 million is not approved, the Department will have no funds to pay for ECD practitioners, whose applications have been approved. The underspending did not affect the budgets available to welfare programmes to be offered in 2021/2022 but the budget cuts of R223 million will result in limited services made available to the needy communities.
	Limpopo	R 45 444 000	The ECD Employment Stimulus Relief Fund has its own allocation and has not affected budget for other Welfare programmes.
	Mpumalanga	R 44 836 000	The underspending affected Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme in that not all batches of claims received from Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) eligible and approved to benefit from the funding were not processed for payment. Roll over application request amounting to R30.495 million of the unspent funds of Presidential Employment Initiative has been made to the Provincial Treasury.
	North West	R144 100 000	The budget available to welfare programme will be for sustenance of existing programs and projects. Expansion of services will be visible on COVID-19 relief initiatives e.g. Provision of food parcels to vulnerable households and care and services to the homeless. The rollover of R28million for stimulus package has been requested to fund ECD practitioners who applied before the end of the financial year in question
	Northern Cape	R 53 059 000	Programme 1: R3.786 million Programme 1 incurred a saving of R3.786 million. The Department will request a roll-over of R3.479 million for Buildings and Administration for the construction of office buildings in Daniëlskuil. Programme 2: R3.786 million The underspending did not have a negative effect on welfare programmes because the reason for the underspending was due to the following: Resignation and death of community caregivers. Two (2) NPOs rendering Social Behaviour Change programmes did not utilize all their allocated funds due to the Covid 19 pandemic, therefor the allocation of the second tranche was decreased.   Programme 3: R40 464 of which R39 300 million was for the Presidential Stimulus ECD Fund. The unspent budgets did not negatively affect welfare programmes due to the following: The Province was overfunded for the Presidential Stimulus Package. Any funds required in the 2021/22 financial year for the stimulus purpose will be requested as a roll over. Lesser ECD centres were funded due to expired registration certificates. Certain ECD centres did not submit applications for funding because they received funding from other sources ECD Centres did not open and therefore submitted Due to restrictions on movement during the Covid Pandemic, the process of returning children, who have been visiting friends and family, to CYCC’s, were delayed. This resulted in some of the centres not operating at full capacity for the entire financial year. Since claims submitted are based on occupancy of the centres, the underspending of reflects this exceptional situation. Programme 5: R5.331 million Saving incurred due to the closure of Soup Kitchens based on Covid-19.
	Western Cape	R5 067 000	The department was able to deliver on its services but was not able to expand their services to the extent which it planned to, due to fewer facilities than anticipated applying for funding, and because of non-compliant facilities.

Reply:

1. The following Table shows the breakdown of implicated public service employees in each government department

Name of Department	Number of employees
Agriculture And Rural Development	1
Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development	4
Cooperative Governance And Traditional Affairs	2
Correctional Services	2
Culture Sport And Recreation	1
Economic Development Environment Conservation &Tourism	13
Education	75
Health	71
Justice And Constitutional Development	3
Offices Of The Premier	7
Police	1
Public Works	7
Public Works and Infrastructure	1
Roads And Public Works	1
SANDF	1
Social Development	5
South African National Biodiversity Institute	1
Statistics South Africa	1
Transport	45

 

2. The target date for the conclusion of the outstanding investigations is March 2022.

3. SASSA wrote to the Heads of the affected Departments on 1 April 2021. The 19 departments that have been listed in the response to question 1 have been approached to assist with the recovery of the monies that were paid and the disciplinary process.

SASSA has also elicited the assistance of the Department of Public Service and Administration.

The matter of government employees who benefitted from Covid 19 relief funds is also being investigated by the Fusion Centre.

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.

Reply:

(1) Sixteen (16) Gender Based Violence Social Workers received training on psycho-social support.

The first training session was on Trauma Management and it was held on the 17-21 February 2020 and the second session was on Trauma Debriefing held on the 21-28 February 2020.

(2) The Northern Cape has six (6) functional Shelters in the Province.

NAME OF THE SHELTER DISTRICT AND TOWN

1. Ethembeni Centre, Pixley Ka Seme, De Aar

2. Colesberg Shelter, Pixley Ka Seme, Colesberg

3. Bopanang Centre, Z. M. Mgcawu, Upington

4. Prinsess Poffadder Safe House, Z. F. Mgcawu, Keimoes

5. Kimberley Shelter, Frances Baard, Kimberley

6. Bankhara Bodulong White Door, John Taolo Gaetsiwe, Kuruman

Reply:

(a) No. The Department renders services to orphand and vulnerable children irrespective of the cause of orphanhood.

(b) The department has developed a core package of services (CPS), which are central to the delivery of Community-Based Prevention and Early Intervention services (CBPEI). This core package of services is provided to all orphaned and vulnerable children a irrespective of the cause of the vulnerability to address different needs that they are presenting. The CPS was developed to operationalise community-based services by identifying and mobilizing the protective resources within children, families and communities to reduce risks and build resilient children.

(c) The department utilise the Prioritisation Framework of the CPS to identify the level of risk children find themselves in. This Framework provides guidance on the risk categorisation, expected actions and timeframes for service initiation based on escalating seriousness of the circumstances of the child. The Framework also ensures continuous support to children receiving CBPEI services form the time they are identified as being at risk and requiring services to the time they exit the system. Continuous assessment is done throughout the process of rendering services to establish their level of resilience.

Reply:

1. (a) The NDA raised an amount of R399 485 000 since 2016/17 to date (Three hundred and ninety nine million four hundred and eighty five thousand rand) towards support to civil society organisations. The funds were raised through strategic partnerships such as DoSD (National and Provincial), SASSA, Unemployment Insurance Fund, CARA and National Lotteries Commission.

(b) The revenue generation will be anchored on partnerships with strategic private sector partners such as Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), the Solidarity Fund and the Jobs Fund in order to establish high yielding collaborative partnerships in the fight against poverty. Within government, the NDA will seek to establish partnerships within the three spheres of government with regards to co-ordination of community-based development efforts. The NDA will also employ cross referral strategies with other funding agencies such as the National Lotteries Commission, NYDA and SEDA whereby unsuccessful applicant CSOs can be referred to the NDA for further capacitation.

2. The NDA has created linkages and ensured access to markets for 978 co-operatives through SASSA which provide social relief to poor communities through the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) programme. This programme procures uniforms, including sanitary pads for children and they provide nutritious food for families identified to be in social distress.

3. The Mikondzo approach affirmed the critical role that NDA has to play in building the capacities of the NGOs working in the most deprived wards and municipalities. As a result, the NDA adopted a decentralized approach that would be achieved through establishing district offices to bring its services closer to the communities. Nine District offices were then established with 52 additional Development Officers hired to work in the Districts across the country. In the process over 25 550 CSOs were profiled and formed the database of the NDA.

Reply:

1. SASSA has included in its operational plan for 2021/2022 financial year a target to interface with Labour (UIF), Government Pensions Administration Agency (Government Employees Pension Fund), National Student Financial Aid Scheme and Correctional Services established to verify income means. In addition, SASSA has commenced discussions with the Department of Cooperative Governance regarding access to data of municipal employees.

2 (a) SASSA first has to conclude Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with the targeted agencies followed by a formal process to confirm interface guidelines that will give input to the revised business processes and system implementation.

2(b) The process to formalise the MOA and interface guidelines with Department of Labour (UIF) and GPAA (GEPF) has started and planned to be finalised by the end of June 2021 followed by the same process with NSFAS and Department of Correctional Services by the end of September 2021.

The Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Cooperative Governance was concluded in May 2021.

By the end of the March 2022 SASSA will utilise the reports generated from the data sharing process to initiate a review process for existing beneficiaries.

Reply:

1. The clause on payment of interest on the DSD Sector Funding Policy was considered as a result of initial engagements with the National Treasury and their Draft Guidelines on Management of Transfers that was developed in 2017. There has been further engagements with the National Treasury to review the clause and assess its practicality. Through the guidance received from National Treasury, it will not be feasible to implement the said clause and as such this will be reviewed by the Department.

(a) To date no interest has been paid to NPOs and;

(b) No budget has been set aside towards the payment of such interest.

(2) (a) the steps that the department has taken to consult with NPOs around the Sector Funding Policy included extensive consultative sessions throughout the nine Provinces that were held with the sector (NPOs) during the development of the Policy.

(b) The steps that have been taken by the Department to implement the policy included the development of the Sector Funding Guidelines and NPOs and departmental officials will be trained on the guidelines commencing in the second quarter, 2021/22 financial year.

 

Reply:

The Department working with other stakeholders is strengthening the implementation of the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan 2018-2023 developed as a response to the challenge of food insecurity and malnutrition in South Africa. This is implemented with diverse stakeholders including government departments; nongovernmental organisations; academic institutions and development partners working in unison to fight against hunger and the underlying causes.

DSD will continue to implement Strategic Objective 3 of the plan, which is about expanding targeted social protection measures and sustainable livelihood programmes to assist the poor and vulnerable.

This work is implemented by the National Interdepartmental Coordination Committee, led by the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) and DSD will play its part and mobilise provinces to also intensify their contribution on the same.

 

 

Reply:

SASSA does consider the marital status when assessing applications for any social grant. Proof of spousal relationship is required when applying for any social grant. In terms of Regulation 18(2) to the Social Assistance Act, the income of an applicant and his/her spouse must be taken into account irrespective of whether the couple is married in or out of community of property under the Marriage Act, or any provisions contained in an ante-nuptial contract.

Spouse is defined for the purposes of social grant applications as “a person who is the spouse or partner of a person in accordance with the Marriage Act, 1961 (Act no 25 of 1961), the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, 1998 (Act No 120 of 1998) or the Civil Union Act, 2006 (Act no 17 of 2006 or the tenets of any Asiatic religion…” This therefore covers all the marriage regimes applicable in South Africa.

Reply:

The budget process of Government requires that all requests for roll-over on unspent funds be submitted to the relevant Treasuries. All provincial Departments of Social Development have applied for roll overs with their respective Provincial Treasuries for consideration. The Department has been engaging regularly with National Treasury to try and expedite this matter and make regular follow-ups, noting that all relevant process ought to be followed accordingly. Only once the roll overs requests are approved, the qualifying employees will receive their payment.

Reply:

(a). Table 1 shows the number of persons who are benefitting from the State’s social grants as at 30 April 2021. The total number is 18 478 567.

Table 1: Number of social grants by grant type as at 30 April 2021

Region	Care Dependency Grant (CDG)	Child Support Grant (CSG)	Disability Grant (DG)	Foster Care Grant (FCG)	Grant-In-Aid (GIA)	Old Age Grant (OAG)	War Veteran’s Grant (WVG)	Grand Total
Eastern Cape	23 042	1 957 054	177 510	72 585	32 823	593 015	8	2 856 037
Free State	8 753	711 420	75 633	22 956	10 267	213 604		1 042 633
Gauteng	20 504	1 989 063	116 726	38 939	10 077	681 084	10	2 856 403
Kwazulu Natal	38 514	2 952 283	217 560	58 033	78 987	731 196	4	4 076 577
Limpopo	16 383	1 949 424	98 024	37 984	54 366	489 863	2	2 646 046
Mpumalanga	11 334	1 159 496	75 679	21 061	23 275	267 300		1 558 145
North West	9 752	899 905	63 829	25 242	17 047	279 105	1	1 294 881
Northern Cape	5 755	326 678	49 724	10 175	18 516	93 480	1	504 329
Western Cape	16 121	1 054 197	139 560	31 186	23 951	378 511	10	1 643 536
Total	150 158	12 999 520	1 014 245	318 161	269 309	3 727 158	36	18 478 587

(b). (i) Table 2a shows the age breakdown of people receiving child grants.

Table 2a: Age breakdown of persons receiving adult grants

(b). (i) Table 2b shows the age breakdown of people receiving child grants.

Table 2b: Age breakdown of persons receiving child grants

Child Age	Grant Type	Grand Total
	Care Dependency Grant	Child Support Grant	Foster Care Grant
0	444	546 717	141	547 302
1	1 715	744 641	650	747 003
2	2 848	750 091	1 338	754 266
3	3 831	728 832	2 116	734 757
4	4 508	710 442	2 812	717 728
5	5 763	724 330	4 174	734 209
6	7 039	785 798	5 587	798 349
7	7 803	782 103	7 171	796 969
8	8 520	779 319	9 308	797 018
9	9 216	779 117	11 501	799 676
10	10 047	759 839	14 503	784 192
11	10 777	748 303	17 917	776 740
12	11 923	772 218	22 562	806 373
13	12 843	745 274	27 078	784 752
14	13 320	731 030	32 099	775 889
15	13 683	703 467	36 422	752 984
16	14 138	673 022	40 864	727 332
17	11 735	534 977	40 758	586 832
18+			22 465	22 465
Grand Total	150 153	12 999 520	299 466	13 444 836

(b). (ii) Table 3 shows the number of social grants by gender.

Table 3: Number of social grants by gender as at 30 April 2021

b. (iii) race of each specified person?

SASSA does not collect information on the race of grant beneficiaries. Thus the information on the racial breakdown of grant beneficiaries is not available.

Reply:

(1) The budget cuts to SASSA are as a result of the announcements made by the Minister of Finance in his 2021 Budget Speech, wherein he announced reductions in allocations across government departments, including the Department of Social Development.

(2) (a) In order to stay within the budget allocation, SASSA has no option but to implement below-inflation increases to the social grant amounts, while also implementing measures to achieve efficiencies in its operations and manage the wage bill. The Agency will consider initiatives to do more with less, such as encouraging grant beneficiaries to choose the most economical channel when withdrawing their grants to lower the cost of disbursing the grants, and review existing contracts and operations to identify areas where savings can be achieved.

(b) In due consideration of the Agency’s budget situation and to deal with budget pressures the following will be given attention:

• 1. Finalise the Business Process Re-engineering project to enhance future personnel and capacity planning.
  2. Reduce travel expenditure and encouraging the use of technology.
  3. Review of the existing contracts to assess their need in the current form.
  4. Improvement and strengthening of the controls in the management of assets e.g. fleet, telephones, etc.
  5. Implement cost containment measures on non-critical areas.
  6. Review prioritisation of projects/ activities to fund other key projects.

(c) SASSA will continue paying social grants to those who meet the qualifying criteria as set in the Social Assistance Act. Given the ever-shrinking financial allocation, SASSA will ensure that only qualifying persons receive the grants – this means that regular reviews of those already in the system will be strengthened; the application process must will be strengthened with external validations to confirm the means of those applying, and communication of the qualifying criteria will also be strengthened.

However, it should be noted that these measures will be undertaken without compromising the provision of social grants to qualifying persons, which is a constitutional right.

Reply:

(1)(2) The Department of Social Development has not engaged Cuban experts on the said matter during the said period.

Reply:

a) The current vacancy rate for all types of positions at the SA Social Security Agency is 1.7% for vacant and funded posts.

b) Breakdown of the numbers in each province are depicted in the table below:

Region/Office	Overall Number of vacancies
EASTERN CAPE	16
FREE STATE	13
GAUTENG	7
HEAD OFFICE	16
KWAZULU-NATAL	23
LIMPOPO	14
MPUMALANGA	8
NORTH WEST	19
NORTHERN CAPE	5
WESTERN CAPE	13
Grand Total	134

Number of vacancies per salary level:

Salary level	Numbers
Salary level 5	32
Salary level 7	27
Salary level 8	18
Salary level 9	3
Salary level 10	3
Salary level 11	18
Salary level 12	8
Salary level 13	19
Salary level 14	5
Salary level 15	1
Total	134

(c) Employees leave the organisation due to a number of reasons such as death, resignations, dismissal, retirement and ill-health.

(d) These 134 posts have been vacant for an average period of 12 months.

Reply:

1. (a) Yes, the department has funded social worker students through the scholarship programme in the 2020 academic year.

(b)Yes, the department is funding social work students through the scholarship programme in the 2021 academic year.

2. (a) Nine hundred and twenty five (925) social work students were funded through the scholarship programme in 2019.

(b) Three hundred and eighty nine (389) social work students were funded through the scholarship programme in 2020.

(c) One hundred and fifty six (156) social work students are funded through the scholarship programme in 2021.

3. The lesser number of students have been awarded scholarships since 2019/20 because of the reduction of funds. During the 2017-2019 MTEF period, the allocation for social worker scholarships was reduced to fund the conditional grant for employment of social work graduates. This grant was implemented over a period of three years (2017 – 2019), therefore the department suspended recruitment of new students in the scholarship programme. All students funded in 2019/2020, 2020/21 and 2021/22 are those who were previously funded and were in the process of completing their studies.

Reply:

1(a) Following a reconciliation of all available information, a total of 31 929 grants were paid to clients who did not qualify for these in the period from May to July 2020. The grants were paid as the information available to SASSA at the time excluded databases of COVID relief paid to citizens through other government programmes such as the relief to sportsmen, spaza shop owners and farmers. In addition, SASSA only received the database from correctional services which included information on inmates in correctional facilities later in the process.

(b) A total of R11 175 950 was paid to citizens who did not qualify.

(c) No qualifying beneficiary was not paid as a result of the above incorrect payments.

2(a) All food parcels which were identified as not complying with the standard set for food parcels issued by SASSA were replaced by the relevant service provider.

(b) The distribution of food parcels was monitored by SASSA staff in the provinces, as the food parcels were distributed. SASSA staff were available at all distribution points to confirm the content of the food parcel, that the food parcel was collected by the approved beneficiary and that the invoices for food parcels distributed was received from the relevant service provider.

3. The food parcels were distributed to the approved applicants. Where an approved applicant did not arrive to collect the allocated food parcel, the parcel would be distributed to another approved beneficiary, after following a standard process to cancel the initial application and replace it with another applicant, who met the qualifying criteria.

The processes followed at the time were all manual, as SASSA was operating under Level 5 lockdown restrictions, with minimal staff available for this project.

In conclusion of the project, SASSA undertook a reconciliation process, to ensure that for every food parcel ordered and distributed, there was an approved application form; and that the support provided was captured on our grant system. This has taken a lot longer than initially planned, but has been now been completed.

Reply:

With reference to her reply to question 696 and question 697 on 23 March 2021, (a) on what date did the specified SA Social Security Agency (SASSA)-led investigations commence

On 9 July 2020, SASSA received the findings from the Auditor General containing 20797 exceptions relating to the Covid-19 SRD grant. These exceptions included 216 government employees (PERSAL registered) who received the special COVID 19 SRD grant for the month of May 2020.

On 16 July 2020, SASSA received additional findings from the Auditor General containing 11845 exceptions of which 25 related to government employees (PERSAL registered) who received the special COVID 19 SRD grant for the month of May 2020.

Thus the total number of government employees who were flagged by the Auditor General is 241.

On 7 August 2020 SASSA received additional findings from the Auditor General containing 1513 exceptions consisting of company directors whose companies had received payment for government contracts. It is important to highlight that SASSA did not have access to the databases that the Auditor General used to identify the exceptions.

SASSA’s Project Management Office, upon consideration of the reports of the Auditor General and in consultation with management immediately suspended payments to certain categories of Covid 19 SRD grant beneficiaries. Among those that were immediately suspended were payments to the implicated government employees and the 1513 company directors.

As a result of the suspension of the payments, the implicated government employees each received R350 for May 2020 and no more.

SASSA engaged the Auditor General on the exceptions/findings with particular focus on some of the discrepancies. For instance, of the sample records tested from the findings provided by AGSA for instance the Grants it was noted that the applicants did not receive any grants in April 2020 – they only received grant payments from May 2020 and thus qualified to receive the R350 in May 2020. This was confirmed during a walkthrough with the AGSA on the system in terms of two records which AGSA themselves had chosen for verification and validation.

SASSA placed a focus on the 1513 company directors and the 241 government employees who received the Covid-19 SRD grant for further investigation.

SASSA has since written to the Departments where the implicated officials are employed so that disciplinary action can be taken including recovering the monies that were paid. Most of the implicated government employees work for the Department of Education (75), Department of Health (71) and the Department of Transport (45), with the remaining 50 officials spread across 16 departments.

The investigation into company directors who benefitted from the Covid funds was referred to the Fusion Centre that consists of various law enforcement bodies for further processing.

(b) what number of the specified investigations (i) have actually been resolved and (ii) are still outstanding

Please note that none of the investigations have been finalised. The Fusion Centre is still conducting the investigation into the company directors. Regarding, public servants, SASSA is engaging the relevant departments to ensure that the monies are recovered.

(c) who specifically at SASSA is conducting the investigations

The investigations at SASSA Head Office are conducted by 2 Fraud managers, 2 assistant managers and 1 specialist.

(d) what number of people at SASSA are currently responsible for conducting the investigations

The Fraud Management department at Head Office has 5 investigators, two of which are managers (level 12), 2 are assistant managers (level 10) and 1 level 8 specialist.

The post of General Manager: Fraud Management has been vacant for more than 5 years. However, this position has been advertised and a new GM: Fraud Manager has been appointed and expected to start duty as of 01 June 2021. The Fraud Management department does not have senior managers. In the interim the General Manager: Information Management has been assisting in managing the Department in addition to his normal functions.

This team is responsible for conducting all the investigations that emanate from Head Office or are cross-cutting, including SASSA card related fraud, general administration including supply chain matters, and the special Covid 19 SRD grant related matters.

(e) how are the investigations being conducted?

Due to shortage of staff, the SASSA fraud team relies primarily on data analytics in conducting its investigations. In addition the Fraud Management team works with law enforcement agencies, other state institutions and banking industry partners. Where possible the team also conducts field visits as part of the investigations.

It should be noted that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is also conducting investigations emanating from the presidential proclamations numbers R.37 of 2019 and R. 23 of 2020.

In addition, in February 2021 SASSA requested the Special Investigating Unit to assist the Agency with forensic specialists to conduct complex investigations.

Reply:

1. Yes, the Department can sustain the social assistance budget of R190 billion. This allocation is made in terms of the Social Assistance Act (Act 13 of 2004),which mandates government to provide social assistance to specified categories of vulnerable people, including children, the elderly above the age of 60 years and persons with disabilities. All the social grants are means tested, with the exception of the foster child grant, to ensure that only the most vulnerable are able to access it. Over the past 20 years, the budget has been kept constant at around 3% of the national gross domestic product (GDP), thus staying more or less in line with the economic performance of the country.

2. Yes, the Department is considering a more comprehensive social security system, which will create a three-pillar system comprising social grants, contributory social insurance and voluntary insurance to ensure that those who are able to contribute towards their own social security provision are provided with appropriate institutional platforms to participate in social security cover. The policy makes extensive proposals for ensuring that all working people in the country, both in the formal sector and those in atypical forms of employment are mandated or encouraged to make contributions during their working years, so that they will have adequate income in the event of retirement, death or disability. These policy proposals will be the subject of wide stakeholder consultations during this financial year.

Reply:

The request for the extension of the R350 grant has been processed through the relevant structures within government and as soon as guidance has been provided, the Department will be in a position to respond to the public accordingly.

Reply:

a) To date a total of 9 998 879 applications have been received for the relief grant. The numbers approved per month varied as validation of every application was done monthly. The number approved per month for the duration of this grant is indicated below:

May 4 424 449

June 5 061 088

July 5 570 962

August 5 963 465

September 6 037 809

October 6 135 121

November 6 088 879

December 5 930 154

January 5 934 216

February 5 924 709

March 5 780 422

April 5 917 068

b) The department has conducted a Rapid Assessment of the Covid-19 R350 grant and has also reviewed other independent studies conducted on relief measures. All studies confirm that the relief measures have made significant impact on the livelihoods of not only those receiving the grant, but also those in a household of a grant recipient. From our rapid assessment study we found that around 88% of recipients of the COVID SRD grant pooled the grant with their other household incomes to take care of the needs of everyone in the household; thereby confirming that the reach of the grant to reduce poverty, thus goes far beyond just the recipient. It is estimated that between the CSG Caregivers allowance and the COVID SRD grant of R350, approximately 36 million individuals benefited from these both directly and indirectly.

Our utilisation surveys also confirms that the grant was mainly used for the purchase of food. This triangulates well with other research indicating that hunger declined during the period May to October 2020 when the relief package was at its maximum level and then increased from November onwards when part of the relief package, and notably the care givers allowance, was withdrawn. It is expected that with the withdrawal of the last portion of the relief package, whilst in 3rd wave of the pandemic, more households and individuals will become vulnerable to hunger.

The research findings by The National Income Dynamics Study - Corona Virus Mobile Survey, 2020 (NIDS CRAM) confirms that the special COVID-19 grant has brought millions of previously unreached individuals into the system, and application for and receipt of the grant has been relatively pro-poor. This is further confirmed by the department’s rapid assessment study:

• Over 6 million new applicants accessed this grant, the majority being youth.
• Most found the application process relatively easy to navigate.
• Of those who received the grant, the majority are in low-income households.
• 30% of those who were retrenched between February and April report no household-level grant protection at all; and hence the new COVID SRD grant was able to provide them with some form income support.

In terms of poverty and inequality, microsimulation work done by Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic development (SATIED), a collaboration between National Treasury, UNIWIDER, SARS, TIPS and others; found that poverty measured at the Food Poverty line would have increased from 20.6% of the population living below the food poverty line to 32.1% if there were no COVID social relief interventions. However with these interventions, not only were we able to prevent further deepening of food poverty, but also decrease this from 20.6% to 18.8%. Similar results were found at the lower and upper bound poverty lines.

Similarly with inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, without the relief measures, inequality would have increased from 0.64 to 0.67, however with the relief measures our Gini coefficient has declined to 0.61.

The policy brief on the distributional impact of COVID-19 and the state emergency packages in South Africa by SA-TIED provide recommendations that is important to note that comprehensive social security helps protect people from economic shocks by operating as an automatic stabiliser that is built into the tax-benefit system and that there is an urgent need to establish social assistance for poor people of working age, as a permanent rather than temporary feature of the system

c) The evidence provided by the various research, and analysis, confirms the assumption that ending relief programmes will reduce household demand as well as increase hunger and social alienation. These factors will add to social and political stress, which in turn will slow down the economic recovery over the coming year or two at least.

 

Reply:

a) Currently, the Department does not have backlog as we have cleared all outstanding adoption cases.

(i) Not applicable

(ii) Not applicable

Reply:

I would like to inform the Honourable Member that neither the Department nor any of its entities has a lease agreement with the Department of Defence.

Reply:

(a) The reports recommended disciplinary action against all implicated Officials. Out of (12) twelve implicated Officials, 9 (nine) are on suspension with pay. (1) One Official resigned, one passed on.

Out of (9) nine implicated officials (1) one official could not be charged due to lack of evidence.

Eight (8) implicated officials were served with charges and appeared before the Presiding Officer. One case has been finalised, seven cases are under subjudicare.

(b) 1) The Department has and maintains an approved Policy on management of fraud, corruption and theft, which seeks to:

a) Establish the zero-tolerance stance of the Department against fraud, corruption and theft;

2) In addition to this policy, the Department maintains the Whistle-blowing policy which further seeks to:

a) Encourage and enable employees to disclose information relating to suspected or alleged criminal or other irregular conduct within the Department.

b) Provide avenues for employees to disclose information relating to suspected criminal activities and receive feedback on any action taken; and

c) Re-assure staff that they will be protected from reprisals or victimisation for whistle blowing in good faith.

3) The Department also maintains the Fraud Prevention Plan which outlines the three strategies which are:

a) Prevention;

b) Detection; and

c) Investigate.

4) Allegations that needs to be investigated are reported to Provincial Anti-corruption hotline and directly to the Department.

5) The Department constantly conduct anti-fraud and anti- corruption awareness campaigns to its employees and stakeholders such as funded NPOs

6) Where there is manifestation of allegations of fraudulent and corrupt activities within the Department and to funded NPOs, the Department sanction investigations to probe those allegations and fully implement recommendation of investigation.

7) Lastly the Department also conducts fraud risk assessment with the aim of identifying new fraud risk areas.

Reply:

The Free State Province has 5 shelters for gender based violence and 1 safe house (white door). Their bed capacity and funding is detailed below:

NAME OF THE SHELTER	TOWN	BED CAPACITY	FUNDING OVER 5 YEARS	COMMENTS
Goldfields Family Advice Organization	Welkom	16	R 1 927 242	Funded over 4 years
Phelononofa Shelter	Bothaville	28	R 3 183 783	Funded over 4 years
Wepener Shelter(Child Welfare SA)	Wepener	10	R 3 641 978	Funded over 3 years
Child Welfare SA (shelter)	Bethlehem	8	R 1 878 939	Funded over 4 years
Thusanang Advice Centre	QwaQwa	10	R 2 375 363	Funded over 5 years
NAME OF THE SHELTER	TOWN	BED CAPACITY	FUNDING OVER 5 YEARS	COMMENTS
Tumahole Victim Support shelter	Parys	10	R 8 28927	Funded over 3 years and a quarter due to non-compliance they could not be funded for the remaining 3 quarters

WHITE DOOR
NAME OF THE SHELTER	TOWN	BED CAPACITY	FUNDING OVER 5 YEARS	COMMENTS
Reaphela Safe House	Bloemfontein	10	R1  336 404	Provides safety for 72 hours yet there cases when victims stays longer
Total	6	81	R 14343 709

Western Cape

(a) The Western Cape Department of Social Development has zero government-run night shelters

(b) Western Cape Social Development subsidize 2031 bed spaces to 32 NPO Homeless shelters.

(c) 20/21 – R26, 156 million

19/20 – R20, 205 million

18/19 – R19, 397 million

17/18 – R18, 621 million

16/17 – R17, 876 million

Northern Cape

a) There are no Government-run night Shelters in the Northern Cape Province.

The focus is on locating families of persons on the street and focussing on family re-unification programs.

Children on the street are assisted as prescribed in the Children’s Act 37 of 2005, Chapter 9

b) Not applicable

c) Not applicable

Gauteng

The Gauteng Department of Social Development does not have Government run ‘Night Shelters’.  However, the Department provides NPO funding and monitors Shelters for Homeless and Shelters for Women that operates 24 hours and is not specifically a ‘Night Shelter’.

Limpopo

(a) There are two shelters one run by government and one privately run

b) Huis Maroela in Phalaborwa with a bed capacity of 10 and Khuseleka One Stop Centre in

Polokwane with a bed capacity of 40.

c)

Funding allocation in the past 5 years
2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20
R 4 800 000	R 7 746 000	R3 718 000	R4 947 000	R4 467 000
Huis Maroela
R 317 500	R 317 500	R317 500	R317 500	R317 500

North West

1. There are two (2) shelters in the province of which one (1) is state run and the other is NPO run.

(b) Bed space capacity

State-run = 40

NPO-run = 30

(c) Government funding allocation for the past five financial years?

• State – run = The state-run was taken over from NPO management in 2019 and received R1 900 000 for operational cost and R 5.7m. Prior to 2019 the facility was run by an NPO for

• NPO-run = For the past five years, the NPO received a funding of, R900 000 for 2016/17, R870 000 for 2017/18, R1 000 000 for 2018/19 and R 1 200 000 for 2019/20 R1 300 000 for 2020/21 for rendering the Victim Support Services.

• Funded NPO-run crisis centres

2016/17 : 10 130 000 (24 centres)

2017/18 : 10 869 000 (22 centres)

2018/19 : 12 488 955 (22 centres)

2019/20 : 18 094 000 (20)

2020/21: 18 656 000 (20)

Eastern Cape

a) The total number of shelters,

Currently there are 4 shelters for homeless people that are still operational in the province which are located in Buffalo City Metro, Sarah Baartman and Nelson Mandela Metro. This number has dropped from a total of 42 shelters across the province during the Level 5 Covid 19 Lockdown.

b) Bed space capacity

The total bed capacity of the current shelters is 171.

c) Government funding allocation for the past five financial years?

There was no government funding during the past 5 years as all shelters for homeless people were established during the Covid 19 Lockdown which came into effect during the 2020/21 financial year. Shelters were established to accommodate homeless people and assist them to comply with the Lockdown Regulations.

Reply:

PROVINCE	(a) total number of early childhood development (ECD) centres are equipped to handle disabled children in the Republic	(b)Measures taken to ensure that the needs of disabled children are provided for in ECD centres
EC	The Eastern Cape has 34 Special Day Care Centres for Children living with Disabilities.	The 34 Special Day Care Centres for Children living with Disability has been funded for 2021/22 financial year.
FS	There are 10 ECD centres equiped to handle children with disabilities. All these centres are equiped with ramps, rails and disablitiy accesable toilet facilities.	A 5% of the subsidy is utilised to procure stimulation material that includes children with disablities. In ECD centres where children with disablities are admitted, the Department in partnership with the Department of Education and Health provides appropriate care and support using the strategy on scerening, idenfication and Support (SIAS) to assess in order to curb the unnecasessary placement in day care centres thereby promoting mainstreaming. The ECD classrooms are made approriate and play equipment adapted to accomodate children with Disabilities.
GP	There are 73 ECD centres that are currently accomodating children with disabilities.	The province has partnered with a Sector on Persons with Disabilities to capacitate ECD Practitioners on the identification, learning and stimulation of children with special needs to promote inclusion.The indicator is on the Province APP to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities in the sector.
KZN	All the funded ECD centers in KwaZulu Natal are equipped to handle disabled children.	The educators in ECD Centers were trained to handle children with disabilities. The Province did revamps in the ECD Centers for easy access by children with disabilities.
LP	There are hundred and two (102) centres	There are on-going capacity building sessions on management of children with disabilities offered by a multi-disciplinary team (Primary Health Care Practitioners, Occupational, speech and hearing therapists) from the Department of Health. A 5% of the subsidy is utilised to procure stimulation material.
NC	The centres are not fully equipped to render ECD services to all children with disabilities. The Northern-Cape Province had seven (7) ECD Facilities registered as centres providing ECD services to children with disabilities, but two (2) of the seven (7) centres closed and two (2) decided to mainstream due to poor attendance of children younger than seven (7) years.	parents and practitioners are supported and capacitated through programmes rendered by Uhambo, an NGO appointed by the Department of Health and Occupational Therapists stationed at clinics and some appointed by DBE to stimulate the children at the centres and at home.
NW	The Provincial Social Development has equipped 150 ECD centres through training of ECD Practitioners on Inclusive Education for children with special needs during 2019/20 financial year	The Department is continuously Conducting workshops on the minimum Norms and Standards that provides guidance on the accessibility of Partial Care and ECD Centres to children with disabilities. A total number of 400 parents and caregivers were trained on parenting programme to enable them to provide Early Childhood Development services for children with special needs. Training was also conducted in partnership with the Department of Health on the Nutrition Guideline for ECD practitioners from 134 ECD Centres.
WC	5 Registered facilities accommodates children with disabilities.	The focus on children with disabilities is an imperative. To this end, the Department is piloting the registration of partial care facilities/day care centres for children with disabilities to give effect to the legislative mandate prescribed by Chapter 5 of the Children’s Act, 38 of 2005.  One registration was concluded already. In addition, the department funds two social service organisations to provide capacity to ECD practitioners to encourage inclusion of children with special needs using the inclusive education and persona dolls approaches.

National Assembly Written Reply: 633 of 2021

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

a) The applicants receive the relief package as and when they pass the verification process. Currently eight thousand and eighty-seven (8 083) ECD services with thirty-three thousand five hundred and twenty three thousand and seventy nine (23 079) employees have been paid.

b) (i) A total of 28,283 applications were received.

Eastern Cape	3778
Free state	1493
Gauteng	6023
KwaZulu-Natal	5415
Limpopo	4250
Mpumalanga	1928
North West	1478
Northern Cape	749
Western Cape	3169

 

(ii) The applicants received are either fully/conditionally registered or unregistered.

(iii) 39% of applications falls within poor wards according to the Statistics SA Multidimensional Poverty Index. The breakdown according to provinces:

Province	% Applications in Poor Wards	% Wards that are poverty declared
Eastern Cape	67%	72%
Free State	4%	8%
Gauteng	12%	10%
KwaZulu-Natal	55%	74%
Limpopo	84%	82%
Mpumalanga	37%	17%
North West	53%	43%
Northern Cape	22%	12%
Western Cape	0%	0%

(iv) (aa) A total of 108 833 ECD employees is targeted to benefit, however after the verification based on the applications received 116 578.

(bb) There are over 450 000 children who attend the ECD programmes since reopening of ECD services in July 2020. It is not immediately possible

to have the accurate numbers.

(cc) Every applicant committed to re-open within 60 days after receipt of funding as it was one of the requirements.

Reply:

The online booking system for disability grant medical assessments is being piloted in the Western Cape, but will be rolled out to all provinces for use by all applicants for disability-related grants.

However, this does not replace the face-to-face service which is offered to SASSA clients at local offices. For those persons who do not have access to devices to make online bookings, the option remains for them to report to the SASSA local office. There the staff will use the same system to book their medical assessments. This should speed up the service provided, as bookings can be made for people while they are still in the queue, thus reducing the need for everyone to only be served inside the office.

SASSA still retains a total number of 389 local offices throughout the country. All are staffed with staff who can attend to the citizens.

Reply:

a) Normal practice is that SASSA does not pay people who do not qualify for the different type of grants. SASSA only pays recipients who are deemed to have met the qualification criteria for the different types of grants. However, SASSA may under exceptional circumstances end up paying people who do not qualify, where there is misrepresentation from the grant applicant.

During 2020 SASSA detected possible fraud involving the following:

(i) 1 768 SAPO employees who were receiving social grants. The grants were suspended saving SASSA approximately R1.5 million per month.

(ii) 4 726 grant beneficiaries who transacted outside South Africa during the lockdown period when the international borders were closed. The grants were suspended saving SASSA approximately R7 million per month.

(iii) 105 active Correctional Services inmates who were receiving social grants. These grants were cancelled saving SASSA approximately R196 000 per month.

b) The Social Pensions System is configured in such a way that double dipping between different social grants can be detected and prevented. Thus there have been no incidents of double dipping that have been detected within the social grants system administered within SASSA.

The Auditor General of South Africa has identified incidents of double dipping involving the applicants of the special COVID 19 SRD grant who also applied for other COVID 19 relief measures administered by other government entities. While AGSA identified a total of 80 117 cases in the first 3 months of this grant, on confirming information, 25 088 people were identified with a value of R8 780 800 as having received the R350 grant to which they were not entitled. Debts are being raised for these citizens. It should also be noted that, as soon as the anomalies were identified by AGSA, payment of the special relief grant to these clients was stopped, thus limiting the loss to the state.

National Assembly Written Reply: 1079 of 2021

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

National Assembly Written Reply: 1089 of 2021

a) The following are performance areas which contributed to the decline in performance during the third quarter. There has been significant progress made in meeting some of the targets that could not be met at the end of the third quarter:

• Entity Oversight: At the time of reporting, The Entity Governance and Oversight Framework could not be presented at governance structures as anticipated. DSD Management decided that the framework be finalized using internal expertise. As a result, DSD has since finalized the Framework and it was approved before end of March 2021. The implementation of the Framework will continue in the new financial year.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): The Analysis of existing M&E tools within Social Sector Programmes was not achieved at the time of reporting. More substantial work has since been concluded including the draft “as-is report” on all existing M&E tools in the Sector as well as a draft M&E Framework with indicators for 5 priority programmes within DSD.
• Human Capital Management: The Sector Human Resources Plan was to be presented in the relevant Departmental management structures. The Plan did not serve on time as planned because critical inputs were being incorporated and the targets were also to be presented in the 4th quarter. To date, the Sector Human Resource Plan (SHRP) has been finalised and has been approved by Departmental Management Committee and a forum of all Heads of Social Development on 9 March 2021.
• Social Assistance: The target of Monthly transfers of funds to SASSA was not achieved, since the DSD does not “transfer’ the funds, but the funds are provided in monthly allocations to SASSA to pay social grants. The Auditor-General has advised that the use of the word “transfer” is inaccurate, which means the target will never be achieved. The DSD has revised the indicator in its 2021/22 APP to address the ambiguity.
• Social Security: The Regulations to the Social Assistance Amendment Act were not approved for public comment until early January 2021. The Regulations were subsequently published for public comments with the closing date of 24 February 2021. The Regulations were revised and completed based on public comments. The Regulations will be finalised during the first quarter of 2021/22 financial year.
• Early Childhood Development (ECD): The target to employ 36 111 compliance monitors to monitor the norms and standards and COVID-19 compliance in DSD managed and supported facilities was not achieved. This was due to funds being allocated towards the ECD Stimulus Relief Fund instead of appointment of compliance monitors. However, many ECDs will be supported through the allocated R496 million for the ECD Presidential Employment Stimulus Relief Fund, which seeks to provide employment protection for an additional 80 000 employees in the ECD sector.
• Families: The Framework for review of the White Paper on Families was not completed due to misalignment between the third quarter APP target and the set process to achieve the annual target. To date, consultations have been completed and the review of the White Paper has been completed.
• Professional Social Services: The Draft Social Service Practitioners Bill could not be submitted to the Office of Chief State Law Advisor (OCSLA) for precertification due to lack of capacity to support the drafting process at the National office. Provincial departments have assisted with the redrafting of the Bill and the Bill has been submitted to the office of Chief State Law Advisor for Pre-Certification.
• Population and Development: The annual target of Research report on Youth perception survey on Socio-economic, health, & gender on Impact of COVID19 was not achieved. The appointment of a Research Institution to conduct this study required approval from National Treasury, which was only granted in October 2020. Other procurement and contract management processes had to follow after receipt of National Treasury approval. The remaining time was not sufficient to complete the final study reports as planned. The timelines of the study have been adjusted to ensure that the study is completed in the new financial year.

b) The Department held intensive Programme Performance Review meetings in February 2021 to interrogate the root causes of decline in performance. During these Review Meetings, Management committed to implement various corrective actions to ensure improvement in performance for all areas where targets were not achieved in the third quarter. Preliminary analysis of the year-end performance of the Department shows improvement in achievement of set targets as compared to the third quarter. This improved performance may be attributed to the intensive Branch Performance Review Sessions and corrective actions which were implemented during the last quarter of the financial year.

Reply:

(a) SASSA Online Grants application system has been progressively implemented as of 14 September 2020. The system is used by applicants for the older persons grant, child support grant and foster child grant. The system is continuously updated based on feedback that is received from members of the public and system users.

(b) All applications for all social grant types are captured directly on the SOCPEN system during in person applications. However, the online application system does not currently interface directly with SOCPEN and applications submitted online have to be captured manually on the SOCPEN system. The integration between the Socpen system and the online application system is development which is being attended to. The future vision is to ensure that the information provided through the online system is automatically updated to Socpen as it is submitted, for staff only to quality assure the information provided.

(c) A total of 23 732 online grant applications were received since September, of which 21 401 have been captured and processed on Socpen system. The balance are in process.

National Assembly Written Reply: 1118 of 2021

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

a) (i) The total number of non-governmental organisations (NGO) that are registered in the disability sector is 3 765; as below:

Province	Count of NPOs by Province
Eastern Cape	337
Free State	226
Gauteng	975
Kwa-Zulu Natal	605
Limpopo	526
Mpumalanga	375
North West	230
Northern Cape	107
Western Cape	384
Grand Total	765

1.  

(ii) the number of NGOs funded by the department in each province as follows:

Province	Number of NPOs funded by the Province
Eastern Cape	86
Free State	97
Gauteng	111
Kwa-Zulu Natal	180
Limpopo	87
Mpumalanga	141
North West	47
Northern Cape	27
Western Cape	154
Grand Total	930

(b) the total amount of funding allocated for each specified NGO, detailed as per attached Annexures:

Annexure A - Eastern Cape

Annexure B - Free State

Annexure C - Gauteng

Annexure D - Kwa Zulu Natal

Annexure E - Limpopo

Annexure F - Mpumalanga

Annexure G - Northern Cape

Annexure H - North West

Annexure I - Western Cape

 

Reply:

No, this matter falls under the purview of the Premier who is the Executing Authority responsible for the appointment at this level in the Province.

a) Qualifications of candidates are verified by the South African Qualifications Authority and I am advised by the Province that this was done as part of the recruitment process.

b) The appointment was made by the Premier following concurrence received from the Minister of Public Service and Administration.

c) The prescribed recruitment and selection processes for the appointment of the Head of Department was followed, as advised by the Provincial Department of Social Development.

In terms of the Public Service Act, 1994 and the 2016 Public Service Regulations the authority for the appointment of Heads of Department (HODs) at the provincial sphere of government rests with the relevant Premiers. In the case of the North West Provincial Administration, which is under section 100 of the Constitution, 1996 administration, the Premier, Prof. Job Mokgoro agreed in terms a protocol governing the Section 100 (1) (b) intervention in the Office of the Premier, that all of his administrative decisions will be subject to concurrence by the Minister for the Public Service and Administration (MPSA), before approval. This includes decisions to appoint HODs. Under normal circumstances, these decisions are not subject to consultation with Ministers at the national sphere of government, or Cabinet, as the case would be for the appointment for HODs at the national sphere of Government.  

Reply:

1(a) The total number of doctors contracted nationally currently stands at 290. These doctors supplement the capacity provided by the Department of Health

(b) Every client who is seen by a contracted doctor comes with a referral form, which details the history of the condition, as well as the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. This assists the assessing doctor to make a recommendation based on both the presentation by the client as well as the documents provided.

Where the doctors undertake file based assessments, they have access to the clinical file which contains all the information related to that client. Where the information on the file is inadequate, then a telephonic interview is conducted.

The above measures all assist in ensuring that informed recommendations are made.

2(a) With the removal of duplicates on the lists and re-instatements that occurred in January 2021, the baseline for the Region was reduced to 13 488. Out of this baseline of 13 488, by end March 2021 a total of 12 344 clients had been booked for assessments, 10 458 assessments (77%) had been conducted and 9 260 applications processed on the system.

The contracts of 28 medical doctors have been approved for the Northern Cape and all are currently conducting medical assessments throughout the Region.

(b) During this project, a total of 10 458 assessments translating to 77% of the baseline were conducted. Staff worked over-time (after-hours & week-ends) to ensure that this target was reached.

3. While the file based assessments have been conducted for the care dependency grants, there has been a slow response to the request for the care giver to return to complete the application process. Of the 11 243 which were lapsed at the end of December, only 5 865 have returned as disability grant recipients as at 31 March 2021.

4. It is not possible to indicate in advance what the amount is that will be spent on overtime for the staff, as the amount to be paid depends on the number of hours worked as well as the salary level of each particular staff member. There is not a standard amount per staff member.

Each region has to manage the overtime within the regulations, which stipulate that no staff member may earn more than 30% of his/her salary in overtime payments and no staff member may work more than 10 hours overtime per week; as well as within the available budget.

5.(a) No support offices have been opened to support the local offices, However, where possible, previously utilised service points are used to provide the services to limit the number of clients who have to report to a local office.

(b) A total of 1 013 volunteers are assisting with multiple services offered by SASSA, including assisting with queue management at local offices, post offices and other grant access points. These volunteers assist greatly in ensuring that social distancing is maintained while the clients are in the queues. However, there are certainly areas where there are insufficient volunteers.

National Assembly Written Reply: 494 of 2021

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

(1) Northern-Cape Department of Social Development does not owe any rental to anyone for the Williston offices - as the Department owns the office building in Williston.

(2) (a) We do not owe money to municipalities in the Northern Cape. (b) None. (c) None.

National Assembly Written Reply: 944 of 2021

________________________

Approved by the Minister of Social Development

Date……………………….

Reply:

No, the Department has not conducted such study. However, in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, the Department developed an Emergency Response Plan to address the needs of vulnerable children who have been affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The plan complements other services to orphans and vulnerable children which include psychosocial support services and social assistance in a form of social grants.

It is important to point out to the Honourable Member that the Department renders services to orphans and vulnerable irrespective of the cause of orphanhood as guided by the provisions of the Children’s Act (Act No. 38 of 2005). This is to avoid stigma and discrimination.

The department further implements Community Based Prevention and Early intervention programme to ensure early identification of orphans and vulnerable children. Others include training and deployment of Child and Youth Care Workers at a community level who work in a space of a child and support and empower children who are vulnerable and those orphaned with life skills, home works and household chores. They refer and link these children with other resources where necessary.

Reply:

a) The South African courts have extra-territorial jurisdiction to prosecute acts of trafficking committed outside its borders as per section 12 (1) of the said Act.

If a person adopt a child in South Africa for the purposes of exploitation of child in a foreign country, such person is guilty of an offence as stipulated in section 4 (2) (a) of the said Act. The person can be prosecuted in South Africa regardless of whether or not the acts (trafficking) constitute an offence in the country where they were committed.

b) The South African Central Authority have put measures in place to prevent trafficking of children adopted in foreign countries by entering into inter-country adoption working agreements with those countries. These measures include post adoption services that are expected to be rendered by the accredited foreign adoption agencies for a period of five years to the children and adoptive families.

The foreign accredited adoption agencies are expected to compile post adoption reports twice in the first year then annually which are forwarded to the SA child protection organisations and the SA Central Authority. Engagements on progress are in place on the wellbeing, adjustment and functioning of children and their families.

The Central Authority and the accredited child protection organisations do visit the foreign adoption agencies, Central Authorities and adoptive families to ensure compliance to post adoption measures. During the financial year 2019/2020, some of the officials from the Central Authority and accredited CPO visited Belgium and Denmark to monitor children who were adopted.

Reply:

(a) Five (5) Senior Social Workers were trained on the rendering of adoption services - one per District. These officials have also registered with the SACSSP as such. Due to the relatively low number of adoption applications received annually (25 to 30), and the fact that Child Welfare South Africa is also accredited to provide these services in the Northern-Cape, there is no need for more social workers to specialize in this field at the moment.

b) The overall costs of the special training of the 230 social workers to handle adoption services was R 779 200.00 which was paid for by the National Department

________________________

Reply:

The Social Development Sector has not stopped the provision of food parcels as a form of relief completely. A number of the Provincial Departments of Social development still provide food parcels as an immediate form of relief for citizens facing severe challenges and food insecurity.

The sector has agreed to implement a hybrid model for the provision of assistance. This will entail a combination of food parcels, cash and food vouchers, depending on circumstances, and availability of service providers.

The interim decision not to continue issuing food parcels as the main form of social relief of distress by National Department of Social Development and SASSA was informed by a number of factors, including the costs, extensive logistics for the receipt, storage and issuing of food parcels as well as the lack of dignity for the citizens who receive the food parcels.

A decision was then made to explore alternative options for the provision of support for citizens who find themselves in situations of distress. The options considered include the provision of social relief in the form of cash as well as vouchers. Manual vouchers are already being utilised by SASSA and some provincial Departments of Social Development, such as KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng.

Initially the intention was to go on an open tender for an e-voucher solution as another option to be considered. However, given that some organisations, including the Solidarity Fund were piloting an e-voucher solution, it was agreed that the tender would rather be converted to a Request for Information (RFI) to determine what innovations exist in the market, and to have the opportunity to learn from the pilot implemented by the Solidarity Fund.

The RFI has been drafted and will be advertised in the new year. It will cover the entire social development sector, not only SASSA. This will then ensure that the hybrid model of support is implemented fully.

National Assembly Written Reply: 400 of 2021

________________________

Reply:

SASSA does not have a fixed office in Knysna. However, before the national lockdown a SASSA mobile service team served the following 7 communities in the Knysna area 4 days in the week:

Karatara,Sedgefield,Rheenendal,Hornlee,Dan se bos, Khayeletu, and White Location.

Services to these 7 communities were suspended since the inception of the national lockdown due to the halls not complying with occupational health and safety (OHS) requirements.

SASSA is liaising with the Knysna Municipality with the intention to reopen the above service points and to ensure they comply with OHS and COVID-19 requirements.

Mobile services for Hornlee and Sedgefield commenced on 1 March 2021. The SASSA George Local Office will continue with efforts to ensure that the halls in the 5 remaining communities are OHS compliant to enable SASSA mobile services to these communities to commence as soon as possible.

Reply:

1. Not all clients whose temporary disability grants lapsed at the end of December 2020 were provided with SRD. The table below indicates the numbers of clients who received SRD:

SRD ISSUED PER PROVINCE
PROVINCE	TOTAL NUMBER OF SRD ISSUED
Western Cape	2941
Eastern Cape	397
Northern Cape	2397
Free State	418
KwaZulu-Natal	206
North West	5
Gauteng	303
Mpumalanga	3017
Limpopo	0
TOTAL	9684

Many clients came to the SASSA offices only once, for an assessment and as a result they were not provided with SRD because the complete process of assessment and application was completed within a short space of time. This included clients who were booked for an assessment telephonically or their bookings done through other alternative channels.

SRD was provided to clients where bookings with the SASSA doctor was beyond a period of two weeks or beyond the payment run for the normal social grants. Other factors taken into account included where delays for a booking were as a result of an assessment site having to close on the day of the booking due to Covid19 risk exposure.

SRD was therefore not automatic for every client. Clients assisted within reasonable turnaround times were not provided with SRD.

2. Clients in the Northern Cape who could not be assisted on time were provided with SRD. In the Northern Cape a total of 2 397 clients were provided with SRD.

In order to assist clients living on farms or in the remote areas, engagements with Traditional Leaders in different villages took place for them to assist with the handing out of referral forms, which SASSA would collect at an agreed place and time. This facilitated the booking for a medical assessment with one of the contracted doctors. A regional booking strategy was implemented to ensure that all clients had the opportunity to be booked for the assessment necessary prior to a grant application.

In addition, district staff did conduct home visits in the rural areas with the aim of ensuring access to services for these citizens.

3. SASSA as a public entity is unable to grant total exemption on bank costs. SASSA is unable to prescribe to the banks what their fee structures should be, because that environment is also highly regulated. What SASSA can negotiate with the banks is for banks to provide affordable products which are user friendly to social grant beneficiaries.

Attempts were made in 2017/18 for banks to agree to an account product subsidised by government but at that time, parties could not agree as banks were clear that they have existing products which are offered to social grant beneficiaries.

There are renewed engagements with the different stakeholders within government to consider the feasibility for subsidisation of the clients receiving their social grant money through the National Payment System. In addition, the banks are also being engaged to try and identify more cost effective options for social grant beneficiaries. The consultation processes are at an initial stage. SASSA will update all stakeholders as these negotiations progress.

Reply:

a) Due to the coronavirus pandemic home visits across South Africa were stopped because of transmission risks associated with the virus for both the Doctors, SASSA employees and the beneficiaries who are most vulnerable.

b) Three home visits were booked and done in the in Frances Baard District.

c) (i) A total of 9 008 persons have already been assessed.

(ii) 3 571 assessments remain to be completed.

Reply:

Since the inception of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), a service level agreement (SLA) has been in place between SASSA and the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health which includes the Garden Route district. The SLA makes provision for medical assessment services to be performed by the Provincial Department of Health for all disability related social assistance applications, for which they are reimbursed.

In 2018, the WC Department of Health indicated their inability to provide medical practitioners for provision of assessment services in the Garden Route district due to other competing priorities. SASSA then embark on a procurement process through an open tender process to recruit medical practitioners to service the area. However, this did not yield good results as only 4 doctors could be contracted to service the entire Garden Route District on a part time basis. One of the doctors who serviced Mossel Bay passed away and another who previously serviced Knysna is also no longer available for this area.

The Covid19 pandemic has had an immense impact on assessment services as doctors are mostly needed by the Provincial Department of Health.

Given the poor response to the open tender, SASSA approached National Treasury in 2019, for authority to deviate from the open tender process, and recruit doctors through a closed tender process. This involved sending bid requests for the required service directly to doctors registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.

The above process has yielded some positive results, in that SASSA has now contracted 2 additional doctors to add to the 3 remaining contracted doctors. Services both in Mossel Bay and Knysna, commenced in March 2021.

Reply:

The SASSA card is owned and managed by the Postbank according the South African Reserve Bank designation.

Both SASSA and the South African Post Office (SAPO) investigators have been collaborating with the South African Police Service to combat the phenomenon of loan sharks preying on social grant beneficiaries.

This ongoing collaborative effort has culminated in several arrests of suspected loan sharks who were found in possession of several SASSA cards.

(a) The illegal moneylending is widespread and has been detected across the provinces. The following are some of the examples of arrests of people who were found in possession of several SASSA cards:

(i) On the 07 March 2021, a 47 year old suspect was arrested after withdrawing cash from an ATM using some of the 70 SASSA cards that were in his possession. He was found with R7 640 in cash.

(ii) On the 09th February 2021, the Cape 'fraud syndicate' was busted after 49 SASSA cards were found hidden in a chocolate box. The suspects were arrested in Mitchells Plain and Bo-Kaap by members of the Special Operations Team. The interrogation of the suspects led the Special Operations team members to an address in Albow Gardens in Rugby where a further 191 SASSA cards were seized.

(iii) On the 11th October 2020, SAPS arrested two suspects in a Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal operation and seized 495 SASSA cards.

(iv) On the 1st May 2020 police arrested seven suspects in Tshwane with 91 SASSA cards and nearly R191 671 in cash.

(b) SASSA has conducted ongoing media awareness campaigns directed at all social grant beneficiaries not to give their SASSA cards to anyone as this practice is a contravention of Section 20 of the Social Assistance Act 13 of 2004 and Section 133 read with Section 90(2) (l) and Section 91(b) of the National Credit Act 34 of 2005.

The Agency continuously communicates with social grants beneficiaries through various channels to discourage them from dealing with loan sharks. Social grant beneficiaries and members of the public are encouraged to report loan sharks in possession of their social grant cards and/or identity documents.

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

SASSA has partnered with law enforcement agencies and the National Credit Regulator (NCR) to conduct operations during the social grant payment periods. These operations have resulted in the arrests of loan sharks in provinces such as the Eastern Cape.

SASSA will double its efforts in tackling this moneylending phenomenon together with the South African Post Office and the law enforcement agencies.

Reply:

(a)(i) No Social Workers are specifically dedicated to perform these activities at National level. This is part of the functions provided by the Families unit at national level.

(ii) No Social Workers are specifically dedicated to perform these activities at Provincial level. Social workers perform comprehensive basket of services of which homelessness is one of them. Provinces are subsidising NGOs to provide services to homeless people

(b) Family and/or society reintegration success rate over the past five years.

Province	Family and/or society reintegration over the past five years
Eastern Cape	2 555 people benefited from reintegration services
Limpopo	74 people benefited from reintegration services, only 3 individuals are still in the shelter for homeless
Northern Cape	1 003 persons benefited from reintegration services
Western Cape	3 031 people benefited from reintegration services
Free State	902 people were reintegrated with their families
Gauteng	583 beneficiaries from permanent funded shelters were reunified with their families
Kwazulu-Natal	3 940 people were reintegrated with their families
North West	231 people benefited from reintegration services

(These are responses received from some provinces, others have not responded as yet.)

Reply:

a) The member is encouraged to provide specific details of the case mentioned in the question of September 2020 in order for a detailed response on same to be provided. Nontheless, it is important to highlight that the Department provides psychosocial services to victims of GBV, they are two issues involved in this regard. 1) is the provision of psycho social services to the victim of GBV. 2) The provision of Child protection services to the affected child. The latter entails assisting the victim to secure an interdict against the party that is taking away the child; in terms of section 151 and 152 of the children’s act, a child may be removed from a person to temporary safe care; the recourse therefore entails the provision of psycho social services to the victim of GBV and assisting the victim to secure the removal of the child from the perpetrator.

Over and above the Department of Social Development (DSD) is currently advocating for the establishment of the Victim Friendly Rooms/Facilities (VFR/F) in Police Stations across the country to address challenges of cases such as the one referred here. There are currently over 1000 Victim Friendly Facilities in Police Stations across the country. The DSD has currently resourced majority of the VFR/F within the Police Station with social work professionals who are capacitated to deal with cases of GBV. They are assisting in ensuring that GBV cases are not solely dealt with by SAPS members. But that social workers as mandated by the legislation, Children’s Act 38 of 2005 form part in provision of holistic services in these types of cases especially in ensuring that the best interest of a child is considered as of paramount importance at all times. Similarly, the victim as stipulated in the Victims Charter, should be offered information and has the right to be treated with fairness and with respect for her dignity and privacy.

Furthermore, the recent appointment and deployment of GBV social workers at provincial and local level is meant to limit cases of this nature whereby the rights of the victims are violated. With regards to the perpetrator, SAPS is mandated as a law enforcement agency to arrest perpetrators of an unlawful conduct such as violent crime. The Department of Correctional Services also has a critical role to play in terms of perpetrator reform. For example, there are various perpetrator programmes conducted within the correctional facilities including perpetrator programmes on issues of domestic violence.

Further, the department is currently developing legislation, viz, Victim Support Services Bill, that is aimed at protecting the rights of victims and affording victims support services as the situation may require. The Bill will provide for, amongst others, registration of victim facilities that will ensure provision of quality services to victims and a further protection of their rights in this regard.

b) (i) The Children’s Courts are managed and run independently of the Department and where these matters are adjudicated, the department only participates in the proceedings but the final verdicts and rationale thereof lies with the presiding officer. Thus, in the absence of the court judgment, it is difficult to ascertain what provisions did the court rely on in this regard; Even if the court relied on certain provision of the children’ s act; such provision would have been used taking various factors in ordinary cause of event. It must however be noted that there is no provision in the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 that indicates that a child can be transferred to another magisterial district without informing the mother and a social worker involved in the case. However, section 44 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 states that the children’s court that has jurisdiction in matter of a child is the court in the area in which the child involved in the matter is ordinarily a resident. This means the court where the child is will preside over the case.

(ii) Section 35 of the Children’s Act provides for a co-holder of parental responsibility and right to inform the other party when there is an intention to move with a child from the address that is known by the other party. Where there is dispute over parenting, a parenting plan through mediation is supposed to be drafted and agreed upon by the co-holders of parental responsibilities and rights. The development of a parenting plan minimises dispute over parenting.

Reply:

a) The lease for the Williston Office is entered into and managed by the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (NDPWI). SASSA is the User Client. As a result, SASSA pays all the rentals payable to DPWI and not directly to the landlord. All amounts due for rental for this office have been paid to DPWI.

b) Payment was due and payable by NDPWI for the months of October, November and December 2020 respectively amounting to R28 339.95 (R9.446.65 per month). This balance was duly settled in February 2021 by DPWI.

It is reported that DPWI was paying the rental into the bank account of the deceased Lessor/Landlord. DPWI received an instruction from the Attorneys of the deceased Lessor/Landlord, to change the banking details accordingly. This was not done timeously and the payments were returned as this bank account was closed. Subsequently NDPWI processed the new banking details as instructed and has paid the outstanding amounts, thereby putting this matter to rest.