Questions and Replies

Reply:

a) The practice of ukuthwala is not legalized in the country, and the Department of Social Development together with all of government supports this stance. Therefore, the Department is against the practice of ukuthwala and advocates against its practice. On this backdrop, it is important to note that the continuity of this practice has been masked as a customary practice. This is notwithstanding the fact that it is being denounced by the custodians of customary practices. Ukuthwala occurs without the consent of its victims. It violates the victims’ right to dignity. This practice is associated with the kidnapping, assault and rape of young girls by older men who force them into customary marriages. It is a cross-cutting issue and fighting it requires collaboration with other departments such as, for instance, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and South African Police Service (SAPS). This practice has been reported mainly in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces.

The Department of Social Development in partnership with other government departments is on a standing 365 days campaign on the protection and prevention of violence against women and children. Among the messages that we communicate through this permanent campaign is to advocate against the practice of ukuthwala. In particular in the Eastern Cape province we are embarking on a number of initiatives in this regard, including conducting educational programmes at schools and communities to empower children and parents about the infringement of children’s rights through ukuthwala. Where cases of statutory rape and forced marriages are identified, these cases are reported to SAPS and victims are provided with therapeutic services. In KwaZulu Natal, the district municipalities that are mostly affected by the scourge of ukuthwala are Uthukela and Harry Gwala. Led by Social Development, the relevant prevention and intervention programmes were implemented in an integrated approach together with all the stakeholders including the Department of Health, Amakhosi and the National Prosecuting Authority. A stakeholder’s forum has been established whereby Amakhosi in the affected areas are leading the awareness campaign against ukuthwala and other social ills. These ongoing initiatives have resulted in reduced cases of ukuthwala. Now there are improved levels of assertiveness by families and young girls against ukuthwala, ant these cases are being reported to SAPS. The social workers that we placed in police stations through lifeline as well as in Thuthuzela centres are providing psychosocial support and therapeutic services to the affected community members.

Further, from May 29 to 5 June 2022 the Department was part of the government-wide annual Child Protection Week Campaign. This year’s campaign had a particularly strong focus on teenage pregnancy. It is important to point out that some of the young girls who are victims of ukuthwala get pregnant and miss out on their rights to education, dignity and health. Furthermore, the Department worked with the provincial offices on child rights (ORCs) during this year’s commemoration of the Day of the African Child under the theme: “Advocating against harmful cultural practice” with the focus on protecting girls against ukuthwala as well as boys against attending unregistered initiation schools. The outcome of the two campaigns led to increased awareness on the violation and protection of the rights of children.

Even though the incidents of ukuthwala have only been reported in KZN and EC, the Department plans to extend its campaign to other provinces as a preventative measure. It is believed that awareness campaigns may limit the spread of ukuthwala as these target changing mindsets about the practice. The next campaign is targeted in Mpumalanga during the current financial year.

b) The perpetrators of ukuthwala (including the instigator and parents if they collaborate with the instigator) are administered in terms of the applicable legislative framework relevant to the specific matter that is associated with ukuthwala such as rape (including statutory rape if the victim is a child), contravening the Marriage Act, kidnapping, trafficking of persons, defeating the ends of justice, etc. Criminal charges should send a strong message to discourage the practice of ukuthwala.

Furthermore, the victims of ukuthwala are offered psycho-social support services by qualified professionals and they can reach out to the Department via our toll-free number 0800 428 428. This is supported by a USSD, “please call me” facility: *120*7867#. A Skype Line ‘Helpme GBV’ for members of the Deaf community also exists. (Add ‘Helpme GBV’ to your Skype contacts). An SMS-based Line 31531 for persons with disabilities (SMS ‘help’ to 31531) also exists. Victims of ukuthwala are further referred to applicable health and justice services.

 

 

Reply:

1. Referral to law enforcement was done between 01 May and 30 June 2022. Referral was done to the South African Police Service Coordinators who were dully appointed to be the nodal points on the Project. The breakdown of cases referred is reflected on the table below:

Province	Name of SAPS Coordinator to whom referral was made	Number of cases referred
Gauteng	Colonel Naidoo	14
Northwest	Colonel Moahlodi	21
Limpopo	Brigader Ramokolo	4
Mpumalanga	Colonel Majola	24
Free State	Lt Col Mathakoe	7
KwaZulu-Natal	Colonel Narayan	94
Eastern Cape	Colonel Dyasi	34
Total	198

(2)

(a) The public servant occupying a level 13 position who benefitted from the R350 Social Relief of Distress is employed at Limpopo Provincial Department of Transport and Community Safety.

(b) The total amount the specified employee benefited in this regard is R350.00

(3) SASSA did in fact inform the province, through a letter dated 14 July 2022 addressed to the Director-General: Limpopo Office of the Premier, requesting for his intervention and coordination to institute disciplinary action and recovery/acknowledgement of debt from the officer. The letter was acknowledged by the Office of the Premier on 19 July 2022. A follow up letter was sent at the beginning of October 2022 for a status update, and SASSA is still awaiting a response.

Reply:

a) (i) Refugees: 4 102

(ii) Asylum seekers: 15 258

NB: Figure are as at September 2022, the figure varies from month to month depending on the approvals.

b) (i) Refugees: R34 456 800.00

(ii) Asylum seekers: R63 113 750.00

NB: Figures are for the 2 years since Covid SRD R350 has been running.

Reply:

a) The total number of SASSA offices with outstanding rent, and other expenses are displayed in the table below:

Province	i) Rent	ii) Other Expenses
Eastern Cape	1 (one) office	(0) Nil
Free State	3 (three) offices	2 (two) offices
Gauteng	1 (one) office	(0) Nil
Kwazulu-Natal	7 (seven) offices	1 (one) office
Limpopo	3 (three) offices	(0) Nil
Mpumalanga	(0) Nil	(0) Nil
Northern Cape	2 (two) offices	4 (four) offices
North West	2 (two) offices	(0) Nil
Western Cape	(0) Nil	(0) Nil
Total Nationally	19 offices	7 offices

b) The period of outstanding rent and other expenses per provinces are displayed in the tables below:

	Office	Rent	Other Expenses- Municipal service costs	Reasons and Amount outstanding
Eastern Cape
1	Nelson Mandela Metro District Office	10 months	(0) Nil	The SASSA Nelson Mandela District Office occupies the 6th floor of South African Post Office Main building in Gqeberha. The lease still has 3yrs to go but there has been security, health and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) related issues that have resulted in actions by organized labour. SAPO has failed to attend to problems that were raised on numerous occasions. It also come to the attention of SASSA Eastern Cape Region that the Department of Labour has also raised OHS non-compliance issues with SAPO. To get SAPO’s attention, SASSA Regional Management resolved to invoke the lease penalty clause and hold back the monthly rental until SAPO attends to matters raised. Amount: R1 026 169.60.
Free State
2	Hertzogville Local Office		6 months	The invoices submitted were invalid. SASSA is waiting for the Local Municipality to correct these before payment can be processed. Amount: R68 603.10.
3	Zastron Local Office	6 months	6 months	There are delays in receiving rental invoices from the local municipality for payment. Due Amount: R36 155,20. The municipality submitted invalid invoices for municipal services. The local municipality needs to correct the invoices before payment can be processed (municipal services). Amount: R10 046.10
4	Welkom Local Office	8 months		Delays on signing of the lease agreement by the Provincial Department of Public Works and infrastructure. Amount: R 711 000.00.
5	Bethlehem Local Office	8 Months		Delays on signing of the lease agreement by Provincial Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. Amount: R 447 096. 00.
Gauteng
6	Kempton Park Satellite Office	7 months		There were delays in receiving invoices from the Ekurhuleni municipality, even after consistent follow-ups were made. The invoices were received on 21 October 2022 and payment will be effected by 28 October 2022. Amount: R87 500.00.
Kwazulu-Natal
7	Mbazwana Office	1 year, 6 months		Invoices have not yet been received. SASSA was told there is dispute between the District Municipality and Local Municipality as to who holds the centre. There is no lease agreement therefore, the costs have been provided as a contingent liability. Amount: R 284 903.14.
8	Archie Gumede Office	9 years, 10 months		Invoices have not yet been received. There is also an outstanding lease agreement therefore, they have been provided for as contingent liability.
9	Gamalakhe Office	7 years, 2 months		No invoices have been received. There is no lease agreement that has been finalised between Ray Nkonyeni Municipality and SASSA. SASSA considered the amount owed as a contingent liability. Amount: R 290 344.76.
10	Highflats Office	3 years		Invoices have not been received. There is no lease agreement therefore, the amount has been provided for as a contingent. The lease agreement has not been signed by the local Municipality. Amount: R192 544.13.
11	Umnini Office	2 years		SASSA has not received invoices. The amounts indebted for have been provided for in the provisions and contingent liability. There is a dispute with the municipality over their standard lease clause on insurance for space occupied by SASSA. The municipality is insisting on having the clause included in the lease agreement whilst this is unattainable. The matter is receiving the necessary attention. Amount: R 439 775.54.
12	Durban District Office	5 years,1 month		Partial payment is being made for space confirmed as correct by SASSA as per invoices for the Local Office. The amounts outstanding have been provided for in the provisions and contingencies as there is a dispute between DPWI acting on behalf of SASSA and PRASA on the actual space provided by PRASA as well as the effective date of the lease. DPWI has been facilitating the addendum to address same. Amount: R 6, 219, 519.29.
13	Mbonambi Office	6 months		Invoices have not been received. The lease has not been finalised, but SASSA is utilising the space and is obligated to pay for the period agreed upon. Amounts due, have been provided in the contingency and provisions. Amount: R 95 760.00.
14	Umlazi Local Office		13 years	Payments have been made as per what SASSA determined as the accurate amount owing but there is a dispute as to the amount owed and amounts paid. The amount has not yet been determined. SASSA is in continuous engagements with the municipality in this regard.
Limpopo
15	Mabatlane	12 months		The lease was extended in September 2021 and the expense has not been interfaced with Property and Accounts Payable modules. Facilities Management Unit at Head Office has been contacted for assistance. The lease for the previous financial year was accrued. Amount: R62 520.00.
16	Limpopo Regional Office	03 months	None	The lease was extended in August 2022, payment will be finalised during October and November 2022.
17	Limpopo Records Management Centre	02 months	None	The lease was extended in September 2022 and payment is in the process of being finalised for payment in October and November 2022.
Northern Cape
18	Northern Cape Regional	9 months		National Department Public Works and Infrastructure has not finalised negotiations with the landlord on certain conditions of the lease agreement. No invoice has been issued by landlord yet. Amount: R2 976 177.00.
19	Ritchie Local Office	10 years		The Municipal building was previously occupied by DSD. Thus, with establishment of SASSA, it was then shared with DSD and other organisations. Thus, there was no lease agreement between all parties. Various attempts were made with the municipality to correct this matter. The municipality wants to charge SASSA for the entire building instead of a portion that is being occupied. SASSA is disputing the R150 576.18 as it is not apportioned correctly. Amount: R150 576.18.
20	Prieska Local Office		7 years, 9 months	Siyathemba Municipality (Prieska): In the SLA, SASSA is supposed to pay for municipal services. However, invoices are not forthcoming despite follow-ups made to determine amounts outstanding to make the necessary provisions.
21	Phillipstown Local Office		6 years, 3 months	Renosterberg Municipality (Phillipstown) SASSA is sharing the building space with the Municipality. Three (3) SASSA officials occupy the building, and the rest of the building is occupied by the Municipality. There is one (1) meter for electricity and water, however SASSA is expected to pay for all municipal services. SASSA has challenged this therefore the correct amount due by SASSA has not been determined.
22	Hanover Local Office		6 years, 9 months	The Emthanjeni Local Municipality SASSA – In terms of the SLA, SASSA is responsible for 50% of municipal services costs. In SASSA’s books the municipal services have been paid up, whilst on the Municipality’s books SASSA is in arrears. The Hanover Municipality is reconciling its books. The amount to be paid has not been determined.
23	Noupoort Local Office		8 years, 2 months	Umsobomvu Municipality (Noupoort) In terms of the SLA, SASSA is responsible for 50% of municipal services costs. In SASSA’s books the municipal services have been paid up, whilst in the Municipality’s books SASSA is in arrears. The Umsobomvu Municipality (Noupoort) is reconciling its books. The amount to be paid has not been determined.
North West
24	Moretele Local Office	one year		The landlord is a Traditional Council and payment could not be effected as they are not registered on the Central Supplier Database. Intervention from COGTA was obtained to assist them to be CSD complaint, the matter was resolved on 14 October 2022 and as such they will be included in next payment cycle. Amount: R 20 160.00.
25	Ratlou Local Office	five months		The municipality has not been submitting the invoices on time and in line with the contract conditions. Invoices for the Ratlou Local Office were only received on 05 October 2022 for rental backdating to 01 April 2022. Due Amount: R135 072.52.

 

Reply:

1. SASSA clients are divided into two groups. Those who receive social grants and those that receive the Social Relief of Distress (SRD), including the COVID-19 SRD.

a) No social grants or SRD, with the exception of SRD for disasters, are paid in person as all grants are paid into bank accounts or via a mobile money option.

SRD for disasters are provided in-kind. This is in the form of food, blankets, mattresses, etc. that are supplied to individuals in shelters; or as vouchers that can be redeem at merchants.

In rural areas where normal banking infrastructure is limited, the Postbank provides cash paypoints for SASSA clients to access their funds from via Postbank accounts. The number of clients who utilise this facility varies from month to month from between 100 000 to 200 000. In the month of August 2022, 118,981 clients utilised this option.

b) All clients – both for SRD and social grants – and with the exception of those who are paid in-kind, are paid into their indicated bank accounts; and

c) approximately a 100 000 COVID-19 SRD clients are paid via a mobile money transfer (cash send) option.

2. In relation to the appeals relating to SASSA grant decisions:

(a) As at 30 September 2022 the Independent Tribunal for Social Assistance Appeals (ITSAA) received a total of 2 591 appeals that are related to the decisions of SASSA on social assistance applications to various grant types. A total of 1 014 appeals have been finalised and 1 577 is currently in the adjudication process. The total outstanding is still within 90 days period as the related appeals were all received during August and September 2022.

(b) The appeals are disaggregated as follows in terms, of the various grant types:

Grant Type	Total Received	Total Adjudicated	Outstanding
DISABILITY GRANT	2 335	933	1 402
OLD AGE GRANT	95	29	66
CARE DEPENDENCY GRANT	77	24	53
GRANT-IN-AID	50	24	26
FOSTER CARE GRANT	0	0	0
CHILD SUPPORT GRANT	33	3	30
WAR VETERANS GRANT	0	0	0
SRD (NORMAL)	1	1	0
GRAND TOTAL	2 591	1 014	1 577

 

In addition to the above, as at 30 September 2022, the Independent Tribunal received a total of 3 595 147 appeals in respect of the third (current) iteration of the Covid-19 SRD for the period of April 2022 to July 2022. The appeals were recorded for April, May, June and July totaling 1 165 369, 1 297 776, 516 442 and 588 401, respectively. Some appeals related to the month of June 2022, the 90-days period expired during the 1st week of October 2022. However, the Independent Tribunal has adjudicated all appeals received against the Covid-19 SRD applications declined by SASSA for the month of June 2022. The rest of the appeals that are outstanding are still within 90-days period which will expire during the relevant months in line with the period they were received. Below are the details in relation to the Covid-19 SRD appeals received as from 27 June 2022:

Grant Type	Total Received	Total Adjudicated	Outstanding
Covid-19 SRD	3 595 147	516 442	3 078 705

The adjudication processes relating to April – May 2022 are underway.

3.

(a) There are no social grants or SRD for disasters that are not paid to date. Payment challenges do however persist with the COVID-19 SRD assessments and payments. At present, assessments are running about 1 month behind (September assessments were conducted in October) and approximately 80% of approved clients have been paid. In August 2022, this represented approximately 1.4 million clients.

(b) The main reasons for delayed payments include:

• Awaiting bank account verification – before making a payment for the first time, SASSA needs to confirm with the bank that the bank account uploaded by the client belongs to the client to ensure that we are paying the correct person.
• Failed bank account verification – often clients upload incorrect banking details.
• For cash send options a similar verification of the mobile number used by the client for payment is required. A huge majority of these fail due to clients not using mobile numbers that are directly linked to them in terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication Related Information Act 70 of 2002 (RICA).

Reply:

a) For the past five financial years, a total number of 31 376 South Africans have benefited from shelters for victims of gender-based violence operated the department of Social Development.

b) The breakdown of the specified numbers in each province is as follows (where there are gaps, please note that the concerned provinces had not provided the said information at the time of replying):

PROVINCE	FINANCIAL YEARS AND NUMBER OF BENEFICIARIES
	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Eastern Cape	220	417	510	451	188
Free State	363	345	336	202	237
Gauteng					12991
Kwa-Zulu Natal	3767	3970	2438	2746
Limpopo	83	97	104	104	93
Mpumalanga	489	508	720	739	420
Northern Cape	223	244	199	215
North West	62	82	222	102	85
Western Cape			1963	1851
TOTAL	5207	5663	6492	6410	14014

 

Reply:

a) The total number of people who benefited from substance abuse and rehabilitation programmes for the past five years is 14 276 241

b) The following is the breakdown of the specified number in each province:

• Eastern Cape

FINANCIAL YEAR	NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT ACCESS REHABILITATION PROGRAMMES
2017-2018	1 482
2018-2019	1 380
2019-2020	2 576
2020-2021	2 013
2021-2022	2 974

• Western Cape

Indicator	2017-2022
Number of service users who completed inpatient treatment services at funded NPO, DSD own services treatment centres and DSD CYCCs.	5 383
Number of service users who accessed community-based treatment services.	14798
Number of service users that have received early intervention services for substance abuse.	31330
Number of service users that have received aftercare and reintegration services for substance abuse.	9568

• Free State

Indicator	2017-2022
People benefitted from Department’s substance abuse prevention programmes.	205 806
People benefitted from rehabilitation and treatment programme for substance use disorder.	2738
people benefitted from the re-integration and after care programmes	742
Total	209 286

• Gauteng

SUBSTANCE ABUSE SERVICES	TOTALS
Numbers reached through people reached through prevention programmes	7461131
Number of children 18 years below reached through the Ke –Moja drug prevention	3360020
Number of youth (19-35) reached through the Ke-Moja drug prevention programme	1499097
Number of parents and care givers participating in Ke-Moja programmes	298452
Service user who accessed outpatient-based treatment services	42232
Number of service users who have access to public in patient treatment center	5418
Number of services who accessed inpatient treatment services at funded treatment centre	36371
Number of persons who received substance abuse treatment participating in aftercare programme	41353
Number of service users who accessed funded substance abuse community based service	59950
Number of service users who completed inpatient treatment services at funded treatment centres	16610
Number of service users who accessed	118447
Number of service users admitted at registered and funded halfway house	2079

• KwaZulu-Natal

Key Performance Indicator	Total
Number of children 18 years and below reached through substance abuse prevention programmes.	770889
Number of people (19 and above) reached through substance abuse prevention programmes.	295669
Number of service users who accessed out-patient based treatment services.	7733

Reply:

1. The National Department is aware that the Gauteng Department of Social Development will not fund new CYCCs in the 2023/2024 financial year in line with the Institutional Re-alignment Project (IRP) that seeks to build state capacity and reduce over-reliance on NPOs. The Gauteng Department will continue to partner with NPOs that are compliant with the funding requirements and are registered in terms of the provisions of Children’s Act 38 of 2005 as CYCCs or any other relevant programme legislation such as Older Persons Act 13 of 2006 or Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act 70 of 2008. Furthermore, funded NPOs must be compliant with the NPO Act. The CYCCs that were funded during 2022/2023 and are compliant with above-mentioned legislation will continue to be funded during 2023/2024. The Department continues to register CYCCs or any other NPO/entity that applies for service registration provided that these comply with all the registration requirements. It must be noted that NPO registration does not automatically translate in funding by the Department. Funding is informed by priorities of the provincial department such as programme emphasis, service areas, geographic priorities and the availability of funds. Building state capacity to deliver constitutionally-mandated services, while retaining critical identified partnerships with the NPO sector, remains a priority for the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD).

2. In line with the IRP, the GDSD is strengthening its monitoring of NPOs and ensuring compliance with relevant legislative mandates. The Department is also reviewing how NPOs were previously funded. These level-headed initiatives have caused discomfort in some sections of the NPO sector. As a result, the narrative that the Department is introducing these initiatives primarily to close NPOs down is being publicised. Of course this is incorrect. NPOs continue to play a critical role in identifying social problems, finding solutions, and even achieving social objectives in numerous areas that the Department cannot cover efficiently. They operate at the coal-face. It is for this reason that, in service of the people, effective partnerships between government and NPOs will continue. Therefore, it is not correct that the Department has anti-NPOs. It remains the responsibility of the NPO to comply fully with relevant legislation while demonstration return-on-investments on public resources.

3. (a) and (b)

The department is not aware of the report commissioned in 2020 that looked at CYCCs in the preceding seven years. However, as part of ongoing monitoring, funded CYCCs and other residential facilities are expected to submit their occupancy status reports.

4. Reasons for the delays on payments is non-compliance by NPOs which are not meeting all funding requirements as legislated. Funding of non-compliant NPOs poses a huge risk for the Department and the public as the quality of services to beneficiaries may be compromised due to non-adherence to prescribed legislation and norms and standards.

Reply:

The implementation of the Sanitary Dignity Implementation Policy Framework and the Sanitary Dignity Programme is coordinated and monitored by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. The equitable share budget allocation is given to various implementing provinces from the National Treasury. At National level, the implementation of the programme is shared between the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Department of Social Development (DSD). National DSD implements the programme in four (4) provinces, which is Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Eastern Cape while DBE is implementing in five (5) provinces, namely Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Northern Cape and North-West.

Moreover, this province has strategically included the target for the provision of sanitary towels in the Annual Performance Plans. Learners who are mostly vulnerable and those in quintile 1 and 2 schools in the townships, villages and farm schools are being provided with dignitary packs on a quarterly basis.

The Department provides sanitary towels, on a small scale, to targeted learners from impoverished households and disadvantaged schools. Also, the provision of sanitary towels is made as a form of intervention during disasters. The Department is targeting 10 000 beneficiaries to receive dignity packs throughout this financial year. In 2016, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities scaled up the provision of sanitary towels to benefit the majority of girl-children in quintile 1 and quintile 2 schools. During this period, it was decided that the North West Province Department of Education is strategically positioned to roll-out the large scale provisioning of sanitary towels to beneficiaries in that province.

The Department of Basic Education may be in a better position to provide specifics in terms of the number of sanitary towels provided and cost implications.

Reply:

It should be noted that where there is no responses, information has not yet been provided by the affected province(s) at the time of responding to this question.

Table 1: Total Number of field Social Workers employed in provincial DSD

YEAR	PROG	PROVINCE
		EC	FS	GP	KZN	L	MP	NC	NW	WC
2016/17	a) Child protection Services	180	0	601	853	1326				472
	b) Substance Abuse	79	0		264					52
	c) Older Persons	154	0		287					52
	d) Victim Empowerment	111	0		259					30
	e) Services to Persons with Disabilities	104	0		288
2017/18	a) Child protection Services	279	0	601	845	1458				493
	b) Substance Abuse	104	1		254					52
	c) Older Persons	109	0		289					52
	d) Victim Empowerment	142	0		249					30
	e) Services to Persons with Disabilities	107	0		290
2018/19	a) Child protection Services	292	2		851	1492				526
	b) Substance Abuse	100	3		255					52
	c) Older Persons	119	0		296					52
	d) Victim Empowerment	145	0		248					30
	e) Services to Persons with Disabilities	106	0		292
2019/20	a) Child protection Services	278	5	601	825	1472				417
	b) Substance Abuse	103	2		244					52
	c) Older Persons	131	1		270					52
	d) Victim Empowerment	139	4		237					30
	e) Services to Persons with Disabilities	105	1		265
2020/21	a) Child protection Services	319	0	601	835	1444				469
	b) Substance Abuse	98	0		243					52
	c) Older Persons	126	1		270					52
	d) Victim Empowerment	139			236					30
	e) Services to Persons with Disabilities	101	1		265

 

Reply:

1. (a-b) (i) During the period under review (2012/2013 to 2021/2022 financial years) SASSA referred a total number of 489 cases for criminal investigations and possible prosecution. These cases involved 1174 individuals, (ii) of which 761 were officials as reflected in the table below.

No.	Year	Beneficiaries	Officials	Money Lenders	Other
1	2021/2022	-	50	-	-
2	2020/2021	17	20	-	-
3	2019/2020	83	16	3
4	2018/2019	73	52		1 CPS Official 6 Public Works Officials 5 Former SASSA Officials
5	2017/2018	38	195	53	7 private person 1 CPS
6	2016/2017	1	22	-	3 Private Persons
7	2015/2016	9	337		5 Doctors 5 Private persons 3 Former SASSA Officials
8	2014/2015	-	3	64	16 Private Persons 2 CPS Officials
9	2013/2014	-	56	-
10	2012/2013	-	10	-	03 Former SASSA Official 15 Agents/Tout
	Subtotal	221	761	120	72 Private persons
	Total	1174

2. (a) Of the 489 cases referred to Law Enforcement Agencies, b) 31 were successfully prosecuted.

3. SASSA has an approved Fraud Prevention Strategy that is aligned to the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. (i) Fraud awareness campaigns are conducted on a quarterly basis as per the operational plan. (ii)The emphasis of the strategy is on fraud prevention through fraud awareness capabilities.

Reply:

Access to an electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment for the COVID SRD does not require a smartphone. Below are the methods of payments that clients can choose from:

• EFT into the clients own bank account of choice. A client paid through this process can collect funds at an ATM, participating merchants or Bank branches. Clients can also transact directly with their cards at participating merchants.
• EFT into a Post Bank account (if the client does not have their own account).Clients will have to collect their funds at retailers (PnP, Boxer, Shoprite, Usave or Spar). These clients are expected to be in possession of any type of mobile phone that can receive a one-time pin via USSD message. It is important for clients to use the same mobile numbers they registered with when applying for their social grant.
• Mobile money (cash send) option. A client will receive an sms with a voucher number to collect the funds from the bank of their choice. This method requires any kind of mobile phone that can receive an sms.

Reply:

a) The Central Drug Authority board members who were interviewed and appointed by the Portfolio Committee on Social Development in November 2020 have submitted two annual reports on time to the Minister of Social development. These reports detail the progress report of the CDA members on the implementation of the National Drug Master Plan (NDMP) 2019-2024 for financial years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022.

b) The Central Drug Authority board members who were interviewed and appointed by the Portfolio Committee on Social Development in November 2020 have implemented the 7 goals of the NDMP aimed towards a South Africa free from substance abuse and achieved the following:

Goal 1: Demand reduction through prevention and treatment of drug use, misuse and abuse.

Achievements:

1.1 This goal is implemented by government departments and entities, led by the departments of Social development, Basic Education, Sports Arts and Culture, Correctional services and Health. The CDA was able to increase the number of annual reports from 8 national departments and entities in 2020/2021 to 16 in 2021/22 and all the reports from the 9 Provincial Substance Abuse Fora (PSAFs) were received. There is an improvement on accountability on the implementation of this goal. Details of the work of government and other stakeholders to implement this goal is well captured in the annual report.

1.2 To monitor programmes on treatment of substance use, misuse and abuse, the CDA undertook oversight visits to in-patient treatment centres managed and funded by Government in all 9 provinces. The CDA also undertook a benchmarking visit to out-patient treatment centres that offer Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) in Cape Town in order to measure their effectiveness in communities and in particular with users. The CDA is now addressing the findings of these visits with relevant government departments and other stakeholders.

Goal 2: Supply reduction through multi-sectoral cooperation.

Achievements:

2.1 The implementation of this goal is led by the departments of South African Police and Justice and Constitutional development and the achievements of these and other departments and entities are well captured in the annual report.

2.2 In order to oversee the implementation of this goal and to foster collaboration, The CDA participated at the Gender-based Violence and Substance Abuse Dialogue held on 19 February 2022 and; the Substance Abuse Seminar held on 11 March 2022, which was jointly convened by the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development, Basic Education and Social Development. This approach promotes multi-sectoralism in addressing the problem of substance abuse and illicit trafficking.

Goal 3: Ensuring availability of and access to controlled substances exclusively for medical and scientific purposes, while preventing their diversion.

Achievements:

3.1 The implementation of this goal is led by the department of Health and SAHPRA and their achievements are well captured in the annual report.

3.2 In order to monitor the implementation of this goal and to gather evidence-based approaches from the other countries, the CDA participated in the 65th Commission on Narcotics and Drugs on 14th-18th March 2022, which was organised by the United Nations Office Against Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Lessons learned are being shared with implementers of the NDMP.

3.3 The Deputy Minister of Social Development introduced the CDA to the EGYPT-SA Hepatitis project task team, with a view to discussing a partnership with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population and the Egypt Mission of SA for the screening and treatment of Hepatitis C, especially among PWUD (people who use and inject drugs). The CDA participates fully in this project to find evidence-based approaches to reduce transmission of Hepatitis infection especially amongst people who inject drugs.

Goal 4: Identify trends and control of new psychoactive substances.

Achievements:

4.1 The implementation of this goal is led by the department of South African Police and International Relations. Their achievements on this work are well captured in the annual report.

4.2 To gather world-wide evidence-based strategies to control New Psychoactive Substances, The CDA’s attendance of the 65th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs mentioned above, also discussed the trends and control of NPS and amphetamine-type stimulants in the world, as well as the need to address the diversion of precursors and the non-medical use and misuse of pharmaceuticals containing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. These evidence-based programmes will enrich the work of relevant government departments, entities and the private sector to control New Psychoactive Substances.

4.3 The CDA has decided to undertake research into the trends and prevalence of NPS, based on the submission developed by the Research, Data Collection, Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (RDMEC). The implementation of this project is dependent on availability of adequate resources.

Goal 5: Promote governance, leadership, and accountability for a coordinated multi-sectoral effective response, including economic development at community levels.

Achievements:

5.1 The Minister appointed the Chairperson of the CDA and the CDA appointed the Deputy Chairperson in line with the Act. The CDA also established governance structures to carry out its mandate and to coordinate the implementation of the NDMP. These include:

5.1.1 Five CDA Committees namely:

1. Governance Committee
2. Research, Development, Monitoring and Evaluation
3. Programmes and Projects
4. Communications and Marketing and
5. Finance, Social and Ethics

All these committees have Chairpersons and Deputy Chairpersons. They are all functional and they meet once a month.

5.1.2 The CDA Executive Committee comprised of the CDA Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and Chairpersons of Committees. Its functional and it meets once a quarter.

5.1.3 The CDA General Meeting which is comprised of all CDA members is functional and it meets once a quarter.

5.1.4 The Extended General Meeting comprised of all members of the CDA, the Provincial Substance Abuse Fora and other strategic stakeholders from civil society and business is functional and meets twice a year.

5.2 All the above governance structures have CDA approved terms of reference to manage execution of the CDA mandate.

5.3 The CDA reviewed the 2014 CDA Rules and developed a new set of Rules in accordance with the Act. The CDA Rules will now be reviewed and promulgated by the Minister.

5.4 The CDA visited and supported the Provincial Substance Abuse Forums and in fact helped to capacitate all provinces on the NDMP. The CDA also started to encourage the launch of the Local Drug Action Committees across the 9 provinces and is capacitating these whenever there’s a request.

5.5 The CDA has engaged the stakeholders with a view to forging partnerships in the interest of service integration and coordination. The stakeholders engaged includes: the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, World Health Organisation, African Union, The Colombo Plan, Formal Anti-Drug Committee, International Technology Transfer Centre (ITTC), International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction, International Society of Substance Use Professional South Africa, Medical Research Council, South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU), South African Network of People Who Use Drugs, South African Local Government Association (SALGA), The South African National Aids Council (SANAC), and International Network on Hepatitis in Substance Users.

5.6 To monitor the performance of role-players and stakeholders, the CDA has regularly demanded submission of reports through the DG’s, Provincial HOD’s and Heads of other stakeholder organizations. The CDA has studied and analysed the reports of government departments and its entities, national and international partners and given departments the opportunity to present their draft before the Annual Report is compiled and submitted to the Minister of Social Development.

5.7 As such there has been great improvement and increase in numbers of departmental representatives in the CDA and an increased number of reports received from member departments and the PSAFs. In addition, CDA ‘s engagement with other strategic partners who are not necessarily members of the CDA has led to submission of their reports to the CDA, enhancing sharing of information and best practices.

5.8 For the first time, the CDA has developed a website and social media pages including the face book and twitter, using member’s own personal resources. This has opened up communication channels and access to the CDA information by members of civil society and the CDA members are able to assist those who connect with the CDA through these channels.

Goal 6: Strengthening data collection, monitoring, evaluation and research evidence for an evidence-based response.

Achievements:

6.1 The implementation of this goal is led by the CDA and the departments of social development and performance monitoring and evaluation. The CDA has received reports from the department of health and social development on the research work done by the South African Medical Research Council on data collection, analysis and on trends of substance use and abuse through SACENDU.

6.2 The CDA is monitoring the implementation of the NDMP by all role-players and stakeholders through its governance structures.

6.3 The CDA has a clearing house with information and documents but it needs to be re-organised.

Goal 7: Stimulate robust and sustainable economic growth aimed at reducing poverty, unemployment and inequalities.

Achievements:

7.1 The implementation of this goal is supposed to the led by the department of economic development (who has not yet appointed a representative to sit in the CDA) as well as the departments of performance monitoring and evaluation and trade and industry. Some achievements of these departments and PSAFs are captured in the annual report, although very scanty.

In conclusion the CDA recorded significant achievements in coordinating the implementation of the NDMP 2019-24 in the past two years and these are reflected in the two annual reports, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 that have been submitted on time to the Minister of Social development and tabled in parliament. The CDA is experiencing many challenges but has continued to focus on executing its mandate, in the interest of working towards a South Africa free from substance abuse.

Reply:

a) The total number of non-profit organisations (NPO) that have been funded by her department in the past five years is as follows:

Name of Province	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22
EC	2665	3576	3427	3866	4029
FS	1763	1809	1812	1904	2027
GP	3261	3223	3066	3037	3435
KZN	3644	3759	3771	4076	4287
LP	2607	2742	2742	2957	2923
MP	1339	1318	1323	1344	1641
NC	777	751	720	684	638
NW	700	624	459	740	927
WC	2300	2300	2300	2300	2300

 

(b) The total amount of funds in each province is as follows:

Name of Province	2017/18 R’000	2018/19 R’000	2019/20 R’000	2020/21 R’000	2021 /22 R’000
EC	487 852	298 264	340 950	319 082	311 113
FS	416 808	466 233	471 348	528 907	579 716
GP	2 396 240	1 879 899	2 246 252	2 434 251	2 466 828
KZN	926 206	957 899	999 432	1 130 018	1 268 364
LP	529 833	220 142	248 566	333 363	305 777
MP	430 256	459 179	489 795	485 507	613 122
NC	205 182	195 578	161 920	203 662	247 965
NW	285 758	309 272	341 419	300 172	405 797
WC	1 136 307	888 588	962 387	1 026 954	1 043 359

(c) Please refer to the attached Annexures for the names of the specified NPOs.

NAME OF PROVINCE	ANNEXURES
EC	A
FS	B
GP	C
KZN	D - Response not received
LP	E - Response not received
MP	F
NW	G - Response not received
NC	H
WC	I

Reply:

a) According to information received from provinces, there is no statistics on children orphaned due to the death of both parents and/or caregivers over the COVID-19 period as the cause of death of parents and/ caregivers is not captured on statistical records, rather children are categorised as orphans. Only Mpumalanga recorded a total number of 4 134 children during that period.

b) There are children in need of care and protection that were placed in foster care during the outbreak of the pandemic, however this is not necessarily children who were orphaned due to the death of both parents and/or caregivers over the COVID-19 period.

Reply:

PROVINCE	2017/18	2018/19	2019/ 20	2020/21	2021/ 22
EASTERN CAPE	NO RESPONSE RECEIVED
FREE STATE	0	0	0	0	0
GAUTENG	0	0	0	0	0
KWAZULU NATAL	0	0	0	0	0
LIMPOPO	0	0	0	0	0
MPUMALANGA	0	0	0	0	0
NORTH WEST	NO RESPONSE RECEIVED
NORTHERN CAPE	0	0	0	0	0
WESTERN CAPE	0	0	0	0	0

At the time of responding to this question, no response was received from Eastern Cape and North West provinces.

No NPOs were closed down in the past five financial years. The department does not subsidise salaries for Social Workers in NPOs but subsidises DSD programmes owned by NPOs that talk to the mandate of DSD.

 

Reply:

This is a matter that will henceforth receive attention. So far, the Department had been collaborating with the Department of Basic Education in the identification of National School Financial Aid Scheme-facilitated opportunities for child support grant beneficiaries who are in grade 12 and wishing to proceed to higher education and vocational training.

Reply:

This is a matter that will henceforth receive the Department’s attention. So far, the Department has been collaborating with the Department of Basic Education to enable the child support grant beneficiaries who are in grade 12 to access the support that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme avails. The Department is also developing a policy on linking recipients of child grants to other government services and, once completed, this will create the momentum for such information to be collected and reported.

Reply:

1 (a) Teenage pregnancy and childbearing is a serious problem and concern throughout the country. Research has shown that teenage pregnancy increases the vulnerability of young women and has negative health consequences. These vulnerabilities include economic exclusion and inter-generational poverty owing to disruption of education and social stigma. Teenage parenting disrupts family functioning as teenagers may not be ready and equipped to assume parenting responsibilities which, consequently, are transferred to the older members of the family.

(b) In supporting teenage mothers, the Department of Social Development developed and implements teenage parents programme. This programme is aimed at assisting teenage parents to rebuild their lives and live their dreams. The programme addresses various topics that focus on strengthening parental skills, developing character, coaching teenage parents on decision-making processes, enabling them to make the right choices.

The teenage parenting programme is provided in a group setting under the guidance of trained Social Service Professionals. Thorough assessment of the group is done to determine the members’ respective challenges and expectations to ensure that topics that the group discusses are responsive to their lived realities.

Social Service Practitioners in all the provinces have been capacitated on the teenage parenting programme. Notwithstanding, there is still a need to capacitate more Social Service Professionals to ensure that they rollout the programme to more beneficiaries. To this end, the Department will continue to provide this training to additional Social Service Professionals during 2022/23 financial year.

In addressing teenage pregnancy the Department prioritised its interventions in provinces with high teenage pregnancy rate, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West. The Department adopted an integrated multi-sectoral approach, working with the Departments of Basic Education and Health.

One of the critical issues that is being given attention are the modalities of reporting cases of youth and child pregnancies by all the stakeholders. Most importantly is the coordination of efforts in addressing teenage and youth pregnancy. The following interventions have been implemented:

1. Dialogues were collaboratively conducted by DSD, DoH and DBE in EC, KZN, LP and GP to enable teenagers and stakeholders to engage on issues that affect them and make recommendations for the development of the action plan to address the matter.
2. In addition, and in partnership with Provincial DSD and stakeholders, the Department facilitated roundtable discussions and dialogues to assess gaps in service provision and deliberate on interventions that are required to address teenage pregnancy. These were held on 24 March 2022 in EC, OR Tambo District, Ngquza Hill Local Municipality Lusikisiki, and 16-17 March 2022 in Zululand District, Ulundi and King Cetswayo District Municipality. Key stakeholders in these dialogues were children, parents, community members Department of Health, Department of Education, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, National Prosecuting Authority, South African Police Services, Non-Profit Organisations, Traditional Leaders and Religious Leaders.
3. Ezabasha dialogues strengthening Integrated School Health Programme were also held in Vhembe District.
4. Both the Minister and Deputy Minister of Social Development engaged children who fell pregnant. These engagements were designed to communicate messages of encouragement to the young people, and were focussed on urging them to build a better life through education. These took place during the commemoration of the 2022 Child Protection Month and Child Protection Week in Lusikisiki and uMfolozi Local Municipality.
5. Department of Health committed to bring to school mobile clinics to ensure access to reproductive health and contraceptives to school.
6. These dialogues culminated in the development of an Integrated Community Based Intervention Plan that addresses the issues that emanated from the dialogues. A monitoring plan is attached to the plan.
7. The department continues with massive media campaign through television, national and community radio stations to educate communities about teenage pregnancy, contributory factors and measures to take when children are exploited and sexually abused.
8. Profiling and assessment of children who fell pregnant was done with psychosocial support services provided, linking pregnant teenagers and their families with available resources within their respective communities.
9. The Department continues to implement prevention and early intervention programmes and plans to upscale the provision of social behavioural change programmes. These programmes include:

• 1. Ezabasha Reproductive Health dialogues and programme;
  2. RISIHA- Community Based Prevention and Early programmes; and
  3. ChommY and You only live once (Yolo) for children between the ages of 10-14 and 15-24 respectively.

      10. Intergenerational dialogues on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, as well as training on Intergenerational Communication on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Training is also conducted on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for out of school youth; and

        11. Advocating on the replication of Nzululwazi Model to promote sexual and reproductive health in schools identified by Basic Education schools that has higher learner pregnancy.

(2) The Department acknowledges that NGOs are a critical partner in the delivery of social development services. The Department strives to work harmoniously with the NGO sector as they have a common goal of improving the lives of the South Africans. It is against this backdrop that the Department strives to have a healthy relationship with NGOs and provide the requisite support to enable them to render prevention and early intervention services.

Reply:

1. Yes, the Lease agreement is herewith attached.

2. a) Cost of temporary accommodation (Hiring of hall from City of Cape Town) amounted to R 17 696 per month and a total amount of R 53 090.42 for the three month period).

b) Total inclusive relocation cost amounted to R 54 000.

c) Cost for labourers is included in the amount in R54 000 reflected in (b) above. No additional labour was hired.

d) Assets are stored at the current office site in Khayelitsha and the SASSA storage at Bonnytuin in Wynberg, Cape Town. There are no additional storage costs.

e) Cost for the lease of the SASSA office in Khayelitsha is R 43 067.50 per month. The total cost of the lease, from 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2024 is R1 552 796.64.

f) Cost of rental furniture and equipment to be used at alternative sites:

(i) Hiring of heaters and carpets R28 940, 55 per month

ii) Mobile toilet R 9 002, 58 per month

In addition to the rental costs above, folding tables and leads were procured outright to the amount of R 19 837.50

g) There were no additional hire costs for cleaning and security services as contracts are in place for the rendering of these services. Cleaning services are rendered as per the current contract at R 27 750.16. The current security requirements in Khayelitsha were reduced during the renovation period. The monthly amount has accordingly been reduced from R106 913.64 to R 58 901.08.

 

Reply:

1. (a) The Department provides continuous support to the orphanage/child and youth care workers which among others include capacity building on any policies, legislation and guidelines that ensure care and protection of the children placed in these facilities

(b) The Department has put in place sustainable measures to ensure that child and youth care centres have enough resources to provide care and protection to all children in need, including orphaned children. The Department provides funding to the State-run and NPO-run child and youth care centres with a unit cost of R4 000 per child per month to these child and youth care centres. In addition, the Department employs qualified and trained Social Workers and Child and Youth Care Workers (subsidised by Government) to provide psychosocial support to all the children.

(2) The Department works collaboratively with the Departments of Basic Education and Health through the Integrated School Health Programme that provides prevention, awareness, and psychosocial care to children identified to be at risk and requiring intensive intervention. The Department also facilitates admission of children in the schools in the areas where the child and youth care centres are located.

3. the following is the information regarding support provided to child and youth care centres per province:

1. Eastern Cape province is funding 27 Child and Youth Care Centres
2. Northern Cape province is funding 10 Child and Youth Care Centres
3. Kwa-Zulu-Natal province is funding 70 Child and Youth Care Centres
4. Limpopo province is funding 19 Child and Youth Care Centres

Reply:

(a) The Department of Social Development has 29 Child and youth care centres/CYCC for children in conflict with the law that are rendering diversion programmes countrywide. These centres are managed and staffed by each provincial DSD, each financial year in the period 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2021.

(b) There are nine Diversion programmes provided in CYCC for Children in conflict with the law are as follows (Attached Annexure A):

In the mirror programme which addresses sexual offending,

Wakeup call programme that addresses prevention, early intervention, and statutory intervention of substance abuse.

Rhythm of life personal development skills programme that is socialising, encourages and motivates the children to make right choices.

Reverse your thinking that attends to the child in conflict with the law and his/her family to address harm causes by crime by mediation, negotiation, using apology and restoration.

(c) There are 13 public treatment centres and 1 halfway house that are managed and staffed by the Department of Social Development (Attached Annexure B). Currently the Department of Social Development does not have Community Based Service points for substance abuse.

(d) Older persons’ residential facilities and service centres

Financial Years	Number of Residential facilities	Number of Service Centres
2016/2017	72	164
2017/2018	72	167
2018/2019	72	158
2019/2020	74	155
2020/2021	73	155

Reply:

(a) Children in need of care and protection,

YEAR PROVINCE	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Eastern Cape	27 716	24 653	26 520	22 966	21 143
Free State	No inputs received
Gauteng	70182	81306	93996	83612	94116
Kwa- Zulu Natal	26855	16436	17055	16477	22886
Limpopo	25 124	4 457	4 936	5 035	3 267
Mpumalanga	35 488	36 968	33161	28 308	22 590
Northern Cape	11393	8928	9676	8681	5115
North West	No inputs received
Western Cape	21 804	22 472	22 456	25 534	14 305

(b) Shelters for victims of crime and violence,

YEAR PROVINCE	2016/17	2017/18	2018	2019	2020
Eastern Cape	26 792 (information not disaggregated according to years. The number is for the period 2016 - 2021)
Free State	No inputs received
Gauteng	No inputs received
Kwa-Zulu Natal	3033	3532	3767	3970	2438
Limpopo	1605	1612	727	1436	927
Mpumalanga	2523	5679	2631	1728	2587
Northern Cape	2397	3661	2908	3389	2934
North West	No inputs received
Western Cape	The department supports NGOs in furtherance of this of this objectives

(c) Substance abuse services,

YEAR PROVINCE	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
Eastern Cape	No inputs received
Free State	No inputs received
Gauteng	1227708	1345136	1535365	2046279	2876576
Kwa-Zulu Natal	379 776	377 436	380 875	315 627	3754
Limpopo	634	766	1676	802	521
Mpumalanga	4154	3638	4653	2252	1616
Northern Cape	323	785	787	546	186
North West	No inputs received
Western Cape	3871	3611	3741	3512	1609

(d) Older Person’s residential facilities and service

YEAR; PROVINCE	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Eastern Cape	26 792
Free State	No inputs received
Gauteng	128	119	119	116	113
Kwa-Zulu Natal	499 812
Limpopo	120	120	120	120	85
Mpumalanga	No inputs received
Northern Cape	8253	3111	1864	1870	500
North West	No inputs received
Western Cape	No inputs received

Reply:

1. No, the Department has not been informed that social media is allegedly being used as a platform for human trafficking of vulnerable children by South Africans acting as fake lawyers and/or adoption practitioners.

2. Yes, the Department collaborate with other government departments on programmes to educate South Africans on official adoption channels. Other departments like the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Department of Home Affairs participate when awareness campaigns to promote adoption services are conducted.

Reply:

1. The NDA has 12 offices across the country, 8 of these offices are rented through private property providers; 2 are still under procurement as previous leases has lapsed, 2 are district offices have been offered rent free by Provincial Departments of Social Development for NDA use staff use working in the districts. The NDA does not have any office acquired through or provided by the Department of Public Works. Table 1 below provides the details for each office. The Gauteng provincial office share the same office with the NDA Headquarters in Parktown, Johannesburg.

Table 1: NDA Current Office Space by province, lessor & occupancy arrangement

	Name of province or Office	Name of lessor	Occupancy arrangement
1	Gauteng and National Office	Orion Real Estate (Ltd)	Private rental
2	Freestate provincial office	SKG Properties	Private rental
3	Eastern Cape provincial office	SKG Properties	Private rental
4	KwaZulu Natal provincial office	Delta Property Group	Private rental
5	KwaZulu District office	Umhlathuze Municipality	Free Space from Municipality
6	Limpopo Provincial office	N/A	Under Procurement
7	Limpopo District Office	Department of Social Development	Free Space from DSD
8	Mpumalanga	SKG Properties	Private rental
9	Northern Cape	N/A	Under Procurement
10	North West provincial office	Kakapa Skills Development Institute	Private rental
11	Western Cape provincial office	Michian Properties CC	Private rental
12	Western Cape District Office	Rainbow Place Properties	Private rental

2. On the second question response to the question of (a) the monthly and or annual rental amounts, these are presented in the table below in column 3 for monthly rentals and column 4 for annual rentals per office and (b) the question on the name of the lessor and each office and province is detailed in Table 2 below. Column 1 provide the name of the province where the office is located and column 2 provide the name of the lessor of the office space.

Table 2: NDA Offices lessors, monthly & annual rental & Province

Name of province or Office	Name of lessor	Average Monthly Rental	Average Annual Rental
Gauteng and National Office	Orion Real Estate ( Ltd)	R 489 536,69	R 5 874 440,28
Freestate provincial office	SKG Properties	R 49 369,11	R 592 429,32
Eastern Cape provincial office	SKG Properties	R 32 997,92	R 395 975,04
KwaZulu Natal provincial office	Delta Property Group	R 53 966,89	R 647 602.68
KwaZulu District office	Umhlathuze Municipality	Free Rental	Free Rental
Limpopo Provincial office	N/A	Under Procurement	Under Procurement
Limpopo District Office	Department of Social Development	Free Rental	Free Rental
Mpumalanga	SKG Properties	R 36 693,95	R 440 327,41
Northern Cape	Under Procurement	Under Procurement	Under Procurement
North West provincial office	Kakapa Skills Development Institute	R 38 515, 83	R 462 189,97
Western Cape provincial office	Michian Properties CC	R 43 129,37	R 517 552,50
Western Cape District Office	Rainbow Place Properties	R 65 501,76	R 786 021,22

 

Reply:

(a)The Department of Social Development as mandated by the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, Probation Services Act 116 of 1991 and the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 provides programmes and interventions to children at risk and in conflict with the law.

These interventions includes amongst others implementation of services to children at risk and in conflict with the law included in the Integrated Social Crime Prevention Strategy (ISCPS). The main objective of ISCPS is to identify and promote innovative partnership-driven ways of reducing the current levels of crime and preventing crime from taking place.

The Strategy is implemented in all the provinces with the anticipated outcome of addressing social ills that are a contributory factor to committal of criminal activities that may lead to youth imprisonment.

1. The department conducts advocacy, education and awareness programmes in communities, schools, and institutions of higher learning in all provinces. These programmes are implemented on an ongoing basis by multi-disciplinary stakeholders, Probation officers who are social workers specialising in social crime prevention, probation services, Restorative justice and child justice services. The said advocacy, education and awareness programmes are implemented in a form of workshops, training, dialogue, debates, research and development and monitoring of the implementation of an integrated intervention plan. The strategy also emphasises the implementation of the secondary and tertiary prevention.
2. In line with the implementation of secondary prevention, the department, has developed social crime prevention and therapeutic programmes. These programmes focuses on the implementation of on life skills development, anger management, restorative justice, anti-substance abuse, sexual education, reintegration, and aftercare of persons. The said programmes have a valid status of accreditation and are published in Government Gazette No: 46059 Vol 681 of 18 March 2022.
3. Tertiary prevention: These are unification, reunification, rehabilitation and reintegration of persons back to their individual self, families and the community at large through the implementation of restorative justice programmes.
4. Aligned to the broad Anti-Gangsterism strategy led by SAPS the department has developed the Anti-Gangsterism strategy that deals with the education and awareness on the dangers of joining gangs. To date the department have reached to the following high risk hotspot districts: (Dr Ruth Mompati, Johannesburg metro, Amajuba, Lejweleputswa, Gert Sibanda, Nkangala, Vhembe, Mopani, Buffalo City, Xhariep, eThekwini South district and Francis Baard).
5. The department implements a policy framework on the accreditation of diversion services in South Africa. This policy is implemented in three-fold; by ensuring accreditation of the civil society organisations that implements prevention and diversion programmes.

(b) There are 639 social workers or probation officers as referred to in Probation Services Act 116 of 1991 that have been allocated to render probation services.

Reply:

a) i)The table below illustrates the total number of security guards per province

Province Name	Number of Guards
Head Office	14
Eastern Cape	260
Free State	121
Gauteng	151
KwaZulu Natal	324
Limpopo	132
Mpumalanga	144
Northern Cape	162
North West	208
Western Cape	280

ii) Security guards are not employed by SASSA but by service providers

b) i) and ii) SASSA does not compensate security guards. Compensation of the security guards is strictly between the service provider and the security guards

c) and ii) Not applicable

Reply:

1. The department does not fund individual posts in any NPO. The department funds programmes in NPOs which is inclusive of operational costs to fill posts.

The table below reflects the number of Social Workers employed by NPOs in the nine provincial departments.

Table 1: Number of Social Workers employed in NPOs

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF SOCIAL WORKERS EMPLOYED AND FUNDED IN NPOs
Eastern Cape	0
Free State	0
Gauteng	2 311
KwaZulu Natal	1 111
Limpopo	136
Mpumalanga	328
Northern Cape	69
North West	-
Western Cape	1 100
Total	5 055

2. The number of Social Workers employed in provincial DSD are as follows:

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF SOCIAL WORKERS EMPLOYED
Eastern Cape	1 655
Free State	501
Gauteng	1 606
KwaZulu Natal	1 951
Limpopo	1 474
Mpumalanga	496
Northern Cape	231
North West	-
Western Cape	766
Total	8 680

3. The NPOs play a supporting role to the department in rendering social services to the most vulnerable citizens of this country. Since they operate within communities, they have direct access to the beneficiaries and are able to customize service provision according to specific target groups as per their founding constitutions, as well as localise according to the provincial/district/community needs. Their efforts contribute to the socio-economic development of the country in addressing the human development needs of society through their ability to provide developmental social services. The NPO-rendered services/programmes and interventions contribute towards improving the lives of the poor and most vulnerable. Below are some of the services and programmes rendered by NPOs:

• Social Welfare Services (care and protection of persons with disabilities, older persons including residential care facilities, programmes for Orphans and Vulnerable Children etc.);

• Children and Families Services (care and protection of children, community-based care services for children, support services to families, family preservation services, parenting programmes, adoption and foster care services etc.);

• Restorative Services (crime prevention and support, victim empowerment and substance abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services); and

• Development and Research (community mobilisation programmes, institutional capacity building and support for NPOs, poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods, youth & women development (including food security, skills development, linking welfare beneficiaries to economic opportunities) and community-based research and planning.

Reply:

1. I have not attend any meeting of that nature.

2. None

Reply:

Limpopo does not have homeless shelters. The shelters that were indicated in question 282 of 2021 are for Gender Based Violence, i.e. Khuseleka in Polokwane Welfare Complex and Huis Maroela in Phalaborwa.

Reply:

According to the information received from the Gauteng Provincial Department of Social Development, there is no information on the officials in question in their employment records. In the absence of such information, I am not able to provide any further details on the matter.

Reply:

1. All the 38 039 children were assisted with online applications by the Implementing Partners of the Children in the Move Project contracted by UNICEF in supporting the Department, for documents and through referral to the Department of Home Affairs.

The process of assisting children on the move is briefly outlined here and is more on care and protection of these children as per the provisions of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005:

The children are admitted in Child and Youth Care Centre through the Children’s Court Order as per the provisions of Section 151 and 152 of the Children’s Act. During the admission children usually undergo a panel review process to ensure a joint decision in the best interest of the child.

While in the Child and Youth Care Centres children are cared for by providing them with basic services to meet their immediate needs.

Services that are also provided relates to health education for improving hygiene and nutrition. Children are also provided with professional counselling and emotional support. Therapeutic services are also provided to them.

The following is the core component when assisting children on the move namely:

• Identification

Identification of children on the move is part of the intervention by Social Service Professionals (SSPs). Outreach work is done by Outreach Workers who are mainly Child and Youth Care Workers (CYCWs). Children are identified through the Outreach Programme which is a programme that reaches out to children to empower them to express their rights and needs and to link them with the necessary resources when required. Some of the resources are: their families; Drop-in-Centres and Child and Youth Care Centres (CYCCs). Social Service interventions are used to engage with the children and explore the reasons that led them to be on the move.

The identification of children on the move is two-fold:

• Focus on those children who can be re-unified with their families; and

• Those who cannot be reunified and would therefore have to be admitted in a Child and Youth Care Centre for further interventions.

Information on the home circumstances of the child emerge as the Social Workers engages the child. Through the engagement the Social workers are able to obtain the details of the family which he/she uses to contact them. In this regard, the contact becomes extended to family to establish the home conditions and reasons for the child to end up on the move. At this point, the family also becomes the focus of intervention until the child is fully re-unified with them. When the child is re-unified, there are other services which are recommended for the well-being and psycho-social support of the child.

A decision about a child who cannot be re-unified with the family is based on the outcomes of the investigations done into the home circumstances. The impending danger that is posed by the child being on the move is also a reason for immediate removal of the child from the situation.

Social workers further facilitate the provision of documentation by linking them with the Department of Home Affairs.

2. The breakdown of the types of documentation provided for each child is not available as the Implementing Partners do not receive feedback from the Department of Home Affairs about the document applications that are completed.

3. The number of the referred children who received each of the specified documents can be confirmed by the Department of Home Affairs as this falls within their mandate.

4. The number of the referred children that have been documented so far and have been declared citizens of the Republic and those that are still non-citizens can be confirmed by the Department of Home Affairs.

Reply:

(a) (b) The department funds programmes in NPOs which is inclusive of operational costs to fill posts. The department does not fund individual posts in an NPO.

There are 7 102 social workers employed by the NPO Sector across the country.

The table below reflects the number of Social Workers employed by NPOs in the nine provincial departments based on the programme funding received from the Department.

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF SOCIAL WORKERS EMPLOYED IN NPOs
Eastern Cape	1 638
Free State	409
Gauteng	2 311
KwaZulu Natal	1 111
Limpopo	136
Mpumalanga	328
Northern Cape	69
North West	No response
Western Cape	1 100
Total	102

 

2. The salaries of Social Workers and Supervisors/managers employed in the public service range from grades 1 to 4 and 1 to 2 respectively as prescribed by the Occupational Specific Dispersion (OSD) for Social Service Professionals (SSPs). In every Province these would range within these scales.

The table below reflects the categories of Social Workers and their respective salaries within the Public Service.

OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY	SALARY NOTCH
Social work	Grade 1	R261, 456 – R303, 093
	Grade 2	R321, 546 – R369, 258
	Grade 3	R389, 991 – R452, 106
	Grade 4	R 479, 640 – R 589, 896
Social Work Supervisor	Grade 1	R 389, 991 – R 452, 106
	Grade 2	R 479, 640 – R 725, 517
Social Work Manager	Grade 1	R 806, 811 – R 908, 085
	Grade 2	R 806, 811 – R 1 116, 931
Social Work policy Developer	Grade 1	R 369, 268 – R 413, 739
	Grade 2	R 439, 945 – R 589, 896
Social Work Policy Manager	Grade 1	R 806, 811 – R 908, 085
	Grade 2	R 963, 387 – R 1 116, 831

3. Salaries of social Workers vary from NPO to NPO and Province to Province depending on the funds, sponsors and donations they receive.

Below are the examples of salaries paid to Social Workers in Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape based of DSD Programme funding.

Province	Professional Posts	Annual Allocation
Gauteng	Assistant Director	R 285, 084
	Chief Social Work	R 233, 784
	Social Work	R 174, 456
	Social Auxiliary Work	R 141, 168
Western Cape	Social Work Manager	R 547, 884
	Social Work Supervisor	R 299, 688
	Social Work	R 198, 132
Eastern Cape	Social Work	R 135, 187
	Principal Social Work	R 203, 553

4. Salaries in the Public Service are determined centrally by the Department of Public Service and Administration. Social Workers in the Public Service fall within the Occupation-Specific Dispensation (OSD) for Social Services Professionals (SSPs), which are tailor-made to ensure staff retention. `

The appointment of Social Workers in the NPO sector is guided by the employment policies of the various organisations and their respective management boards. The salaries of social workers are dependent on the subsidy that the department gives to the NPO, which is informed by the allocations it receives from National Treasury. It is also based on the ability of the NPO’s to source funding from other sources outside of government.

Reply:

a) DSD partially funds NPOs for programmes which includes operations and staffing in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) provisions governing transfer funding. The Department’s transfer funding budgets have been reduced along with all other budget items due to the current economic situation in the country, which has curtailed the prospects of funding increases to NPOs in the medium term.

b) Refer to (a) above

2. The funding of social worker programmes in the NPO sector is reviewed annually by the department at the provincial level in an effort to maximize the allocation within the department’s budget constraints. Benchmarking of social worker posts within the public sector is done nationally in terms of the relevant Occupational Specific Dispensation.

Salaries in the Public Service are reviewed centrally. In this regard, the Director-General issued DPSA Circular 21 of 2021, dated 04 November 2021. All salaries were adjusted by 1, 5% across all levels.

3. See response to question 2.

Reply:

(a) on what date is her department planning on submitting the joint bid to the National Treasury.

• The joint bid was tabled to National Treasury on the 28th of July 2022.
• The department is expecting a response from the National Treasury anytime in the month of November 2022.

The aim of the joint bid is to:

• Source funding to leverage and expand on employment of social service professionals to address social ills which are adversely impacting the country and society.
• Source funding to employ social service professionals from the current pool of unemployed social service graduates.

Various government departments participated in the joint bid process, and these are:

• 9 Social Development Provincial Departments.
• South African State Security Agency.
• Department of Basic Education.
• Department of Correctional Services.
• Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
• South African Police Service.
• Department of Health.

(b) how far is the process on the development of the Draft Sector Strategy?

1. The Draft Sector Strategy was developed in the financial year 2021/2022.

2. The following government departments participated in the drafting of Sector Strategy:

• 9 Social Development Provincial Departments.
• South African State Security Agency.
• Department of Basic Education.
• Department of Correctional Services.
• Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
• South African Police Service.
• Department of Health.

3. The Draft Sector Strategy will serve before Cabinet before the end of financial year 2022/2023.

Reply:

a) The department of social development has a total number of 147 shelters

(i) There are 147 shelters, which are registered with the department of Social Development.

(ii) While 125 are run by non-governmental partners and are financially supported by the government.

b) These shelters received financial resources amounting to about R 700 million from government. Below is a table containing a breakdown of the shelters and the amounts distributed by provincial departments of social development between 2019-2023 financial year.

PROVINCE	NUMBER OF SHELTERS	BUDGET ALLOCATION
Financial Year		2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23
Eastern Cape	13	37 686 000.00	38 188 000.00	30 867 000.00	31 732 000.00
Free State	07	5 194 000.00	5 439 000.00	4 277 014. 09	4 214 044 .00
Gauteng	25	30 734 000.00	32 511 000.00	35 309 000.00	34 894 000.00
KZN	23	23 819 627.32	24 837 489.70	26 791 682.20	29 750 230.94
Limpopo	1 Funded	317 500.00	317 500.00	317 500.00	317 500.00
	01 Government Run			4 108 000.00	12 541 000.00
Mpumalanga	22	21 598 000.00	18 098 000.00	24 251 000.00	25 218 956.00
North West	22	14 360 200.00	14 000 000.00	15 984 800.00	15 954 800.00
Northern Cape	07	5 894 078.82	6 191 880.00	7 631 292.77	8 107 000.00
Western Cape	26	26 462 976.00	37 706 606.00	33 572 256.00	32 569 409.00
Total	147	166 066 382.14	177 289 475.70	183 109 545.06	195 298 939.94

Reply:

a) As of 1 June 2022, the WC Region had a total of 7 provincially Contracted assessors, who may be shifted across areas of need should they agree. The table below reflects the current distribution of contracted doctors servicing the areas of George, Rieversdale, Knysna, Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay:

Service Area	No. of Servicing Dr/s
i) George	1
ii) Riversdale	1
iii) Knysna	1
iv) Mossel Bay	1
v) Plettenberg Bay	1

 

(b) If a client is reapplying for a lapsed disability grant (usually a temporary grant which has lapsed), the application is treated as new. Unfortunately SASSA’s information system does not segregate booked clients as new applicants or active beneficiaries.

As of 20 September 2022 the number of clients awaiting an assessment, in the listed areas, is indicated in the table below:

Service Area	Clients Awaiting Assessment
i) George	985
ii) Riversdale	None
iii)Knysna	None
iv) Mossel Bay	747
v) Plettenberg Bay	None
Total	1 732

Reply:

(1) a) For the period referred to in the parliamentary question from 2012/2013 to 2021/2022 financial year, 1174 persons were suspected to have unduly benefited from the social grant system leading to cases referred to law enforcement.

b)The breakdown of the number of persons who unduly benefited

No	Year	Beneficiaries	Offic ials	Money Lenders	Other
1	2021/22	-	50	-	-
2	2020/21	17	20	-	-
3	2019/20	83	16	3
4	2018/19	73	52		1 CPS Official 6 Public Works Officials 5 Former SASSA Officials
5	2017/18	38	195	53	7 private person 1 CPS
6	2016/17	1	22	-	3 Private Persons
7	2015/16	9	337		5 Doctors 5 Private persons 3 Former SASSA Officials
8	2014/15	-	3	64	16 Private Persons 2 CPS Officials
9	2013/14	-	56	-
10	2012/13	-	10	-	03 Former SASSA Official 15 Agents/Tout
	Subtotal	221	761	120	72 Private persons
	TOTAL	1174

2 a) The total potential loss is projected at R536 683 179.12. Some of the cases are not yet finalised to come to full determination of the actual loss.

b) The breakdown of potential loss in each year

No	Year	Potential Loss	Budget Amount	Loss as a %
1	2021/2022	R 23 141 386.15	R 221,716,422,608.00	0.010%
2	2020/2021	R 8 554 573.60	R 195,516,422,608.00	0.004%
3	2019/2020	R 6 861 156.50	R 175,155,593,000.00	0.004%
4	2018/2019	R 215 402 889.89	R 162,960,723,000.00	0.132%
5	2017/2018	R 6 886 687.94	R 151,580,232,000.00	0.005%
6	2016/2017	R 75 085 055.62	R 140,498,691,000.00	0.053%
7	2015/2016	R 14 712 807.44	R 129,818,278,000.00	0.011%
8	2014/2015	R 59 203 282.32	R 120,952,101,000.00	0.049%
9	2013/2014	R 109 949 555.00	R 113,006,841,000.00	0.097%
10	2012/2013	R 16 885 784.66	R 104,887,916,000.00	0.002%
Total	R 536 683 179.12	R 1,516,093,220,216.00	0.034%

 

Reply:

(a)(i) The table below provides an indication of the number of clients who have applied for the provision and the number of clients who are on a pending status, per month from April to August 2022.

Period	Total Applications	Pending Status
April	8 148 777	-
May	10 602 246	-
June	11 369 799	-
July	11 823 675	455 836
August	12 179 270	97 766

All clients for the months of July and August who are still on a pending status are new clients who applied late in the respective month. The processing of their applications takes a bit longer as it includes additional first-time validations, such as the verification with Home Affairs for identification purposes etc.

(a)(ii) There are various reasons why clients are declined when applying for the grant, however, all of these reasons can be attributed to indicators that the clients may have a source of income.

These include being employed within government (checks against the Persal, Persol and GEPF databases), support received through NSFAS, accommodation within a government facility (such as a prison) and other indicators of employment such as employer’s contributions to UIF on behalf of the employee and or payment of taxes to SARS. In addition, the bank accounts of applicants are also checked to confirm whether or not there were funds above the threshold flowing into the account during the month.

The table below indicates the total amount of people who were declined on a monthly basis since April to August 2022:

Period	Total Declined
April	3 303 085
May	4 793 365
June	4 390 526
July	5 645 976
August	4 648 389

The table below shows the number of declines that relate specifically to the bank account checks that indicates whether or not the applicant has had a flow of funds above the threshold into their bank account relative to the month of assessment.

Period	Total Declined	Declined due to bank account checks
April	3 303 085	2 700 752
May	4 793 365	4 030 211
June	4 390 526	3 496 046
July	5 645 976	4 902 655
August	4 648 389	4 358 023

(b) The cash send option is still used and is an active payment method for client payment.

The same process, as with bank account verification (where bank account details are verified and linked directly to the applicant) is also followed for cellphone numbers.

Thus, cellphone numbers provided by clients for the payment of the provision are also subjected to identity and cell number verification processes.

This entails that SASSA needs to ensure that the client (identity number) and the cellphone number can be directly linked to each other. This will typically also be true when a client followed a RICA process for his/her cellphone.

This process has been concluded and all cash send payments where SASSA was able to directly link the cellphone number to the client was concluded.

The table below indicates the figures of cash payments made for the month April 22 to July 22.

Period	Clients who requested Cash Send	Successfully Verified (Linked client to Cell Number)	Client could not be linked to Cellphone Number	Clients Paid	% Paid
April	240,507	70,316	170,191	70,316	100%
May	380,548	101,967	278,581	101,967	100%
June	385,062	104,109	280,953	104,109	100%
July	401,405	100,165	301,182	100,165	100%

Where clients applied for cash send and whose cell phone number failed verification, they will have to provide SASSA with a bank account where SASSA is able to pay their money into as these clients typically have not followed the RICA process and it would be a risk to Government to pay these clients without definitive linkage between the client, their ID number and cellphone number.

Reply:

(a) The table below shows the number of declines that relate specifically to the bank account checks that indicates whether or not the applicant has had a flow of funds above the threshold into their bank account relative to the month of assessment.

Period (2022)	Total Declined	Declined due to bank account checks
April	3 303 085	2 700 752
May	4 793 365	4 030 211
June	4 390 526	3 496 046
July	5 645 976	4 902 655
August	4 648 389	4 358 023

(b) The following table provides the number of reconsiderations successfully processed (approved) in the previous year (2021/22).

Month	Approved Reconsiderations
August-2021	676 236
September-2021	496 445
October-2021	400 689
November-2021	294 649
December-2021	211 494
January-2022	258 309
February-2022	271 176
March-2022	215 092

Reply:

1. SASSA has returned to providing full services, within its capacity, since the lifting of the State of Disaster. There is no “ban” in place with regards to home visits.

2. As from 2021/2022; SASSA has done the assessment in terms of critical posts required to ensure that its operation and service delivery are not compromised; It must also be recorded that SASSA is undergoing transformation process whereby its businesses are reviewed for organizational effectiveness, responding to 4th Industrial technology requirements and to be in line with the current Strategic Plan 2020/2021 to 2024/2025. As a result of the above mentioned project, SASSA has established the Critical Post Committee which is responsible to ensure that critical posts are identified and funded. The identified critical posts would be presented to the Executive Committee for consideration and approval at the beginning of each financial year. In 2021/2022 there were 251 critical posts filled 2022/2023 financial there are 118 critical posts approved for filing, and in case the post becomes vacant within a financial year it would be replaced if it meets the description/criteria of being critical.

In view of the above mentioned processes, SASSA is able to manage the risks of ensuring that on one hand, service delivery is not compromised, and on the other hand, the filling of posts is based on needs until the Business Process Re-Engineering and organizational structure are in place with minimal or no labour challenges/disputes. Lastly, SASSA has the total of 7 642 filled posts as at 31August 2022.

3. (a) At present SASSA is experiencing slightly higher than normal applications in some of their offices, which may be as a result of the lower uptake during the COVID pandemic. Load shedding, which affects both network connectivity and other system availability also negatively impacts on the speed at which a client can be assisted.

As mentioned, front line staff are considered as critical posts and are prioritised for filling, however this is subject to available resources.

SASSA has also implemented an online application portal which aims to relieve some of the pressure on the queues in local offices.

(b) With regard to shortages of capacity, please note that critical posts are filled, and SASSA has not implemented a moratorium in filling posts. In the event an official vacates a posts; replacement is sourced with immediate effect, subject to recruitment processes. However, as with all other government departments, and the overall attempts by government to manage the public sector wage bill, the compensation of employees budget of SASSA are also subject to these reviews and has been cut significantly over the past few years. As mentioned, SASSA has prioritised front line staff over other posts in an attempt to continue to provide optimal services.

Reply:

a) In terms of the current database the total number of drug rehabilitation centres in the country is 297. It is very important to indicate that the database of registered drug rehabilitation centres is updated on an ongoing basis. The update is based on the number of registered centres in terms of the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act, No.70 of 2008.

b) (i)The number of treatment and rehabilitation centres that offer services for free is 169.

(ii)The number of patients each centre accommodate depends on the centre’s bed capacity (see annexure A).

Reply:

a) The Department of Social Development after the term of office for the NDA board expired extended the term of the board and also advertised in the media for the nominations for new board. A first call for nominations to serve as Board members for the National Development Agency, was advertised in the media with a closing date of 30 March 2020.

There was a second call of nominations due to a limited pool of applicants that was attributed to COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown. The advert allowed for nominations to be sent through both email and hand delivery to the department. For the first advert a total number of hundred and sixty-four (164) applications were received, 4 did not have supporting documents as requested and were disqualified. Twenty-one (21) candidates were shortlisted and further 13 were shortlisted and interviewed. Interviews were conducted on 24, 25 November 2020.

The second advert was published and closed on the 08th of October 2021, with 67 candidates submitting their applications. 15 Candidates were shortlisted for interviews. The interviews were conducted on the 10th and 11th March 2022.

b) The department established a selection panel as stipulated in section 5 (1) (b) of the NDA Act. The panel were selected from representatives from the government, entity and civil society who are experts in the development fields. The selection panel that considered the applicants consisted of internal and entity members who interviewed the shortlisted candidates.

c) The following were the names of the panellist that were selected to shortlist and interview the NDA board candidates

NAME AND SURNAME	SECTOR	POSITION IN THE PANEL	EXPERTISE
1. Mr. Linton Mchunu	DSD - ADG	Chairperson	Economics/Development
2. Ms. T Memela - Khambule	SASSA _ CEO	Member	Corporate Governance
3. Mr. FP Netshipale	DSD- DDG	Member	Community Development
4. Mr. T Buthelezi	DSD - ADD	Member	Research and monitoring and Evaluation
5. Ms Brenda Sibeko	DSD - DDG	Member	Economist
6. Ms M Molamu	DSD – Disability	Member	Disability
7. Mr. N Ndlovu	NEDLAC	Member	Development
8. Mr. D Chinappan	DSD secretariat	Secretariat	Human Resource Management

d) The interviews were conducted initially physically for the first advert on the 24th and 25th November 2020 and later for the second advert virtually or through zoom link on the 10th and 11th March 2022.

e) List of all applicants for the NDA boards adverts cannot be provided until the recruitment processes are finalised.

f) Due to the fact that the appointment of the NDA Board Members has not been finalised, the list cannot be provided until recruitment processes are finalised.

g) A Cabinet Memo has been prepared and submitted for the consideration by Cabinet in June 2022. It is expected that any date in June cabinet will consider the memo to approve the NDA board for implementation.

h) It is expected that once cabinet approves the board appointment, the board will be constituted. It is expected that the NDA Board will be constituted not later than 30 July 2022.

Reply:

(1) (a) (i) The department currently does not have any employees working from home.

(ii) N/A - No special permission has been granted for any employee to work from home.

(iii) N/A

(b) N/A - All employees of the department are are currently reporting for duty to their respective offices.

(2) There is no reason to make a statement in this regard as the Department has complied with all the directives in this regard.

Reply:

The employment of social workers in school settings is the responsibility of the Department of Basic Education. However, sector departments such as DSD and DBE have not been able to absorb and employ qualified social work graduates due to budget constraints across the whole of Government.

The critical shortage of social service professionals is acknowledged as one of the challenges for the social sector in the National Development Plan (NDP). To address this, the Department of Social Development (DSD) is leading the Intersectoral Forum that is coordinating efforts in the development of a Draft Sector Strategy that seeks to bring on board sector departments for employment of social workers across Government, including DBE, Health. The sector departments will submit a joint bid to the National Treasury to obtain funds for the recruitment and permanent employment of social work graduates.

Reply:

(a) The Department only started collecting statistics on the age categories of learners on social grants in 2021 Grade 12 Report. Prior to that, the Department was collecting data on the educational performance on learners who are beneficiaries of social grants. The information is not by grant type, but indicates information for all child Social Grant Beneficiaries (SGB). It is difficult to only report on CSG.

Table 1: 2021 Grade 12 Social Grant Beneficiaries achievement by age

Province		Age congruent Age<18	Age 19	Over-age Age 20+
	Mean age	Wrote	Pass rate	Wrote	Pass rate	Wrote	Pass rate
Eastern Cape	19.4	34,764	84.8%	17,055	70.7%	26,351	55.1%
Free State	19.5	11,580	93.5%	6,565	86.5%	9,842	73.0%
Gauteng	19.1	50,514	88.8%	19,788	75.0%	16,863	57.5%
KwaZulu-Natal	19.3	36,558	86.8%	13,709	73.6%	20,007	58.2%
Limpopo	19.9	38,095	83.1%	19,929	68.4%	34,749	44.8%
Mpumalanga	19.1	25,321	84.8%	12,450	72.9%	19,959	56.2%
North-West	19.2	15,837	91.1%	7,590	78.4%	10,844	54.9%
Northern Cape	19.6	4,719	84.2%	2,355	68.7%	3,252	47.0%
Western Cape	19.1	22,375	85.2%	8,302	68.8%	5,440	49.4%
Total	19.3	239,763	86.5%	107,743	73.0%	147,307	54.3%

The categorisation of congruent age for Grade 12 used the UNESCO levels that suggest that official ages for this grade are between the ages of 17 and 18 (Statistics South Africa, 2017). Learners that were over this age were considered over age.

The number of Social Grant Beneficiaries were 19 years of age was considered large (107 743), therefore necessitating independent analysis of performance for learners of this age. Results confirm that SGB learners who were age congruent had higher performance compared to those who were age 19 and older. In fact, the learners that were 19 years had a 13.5 percentage points reduction in their pass rate compared to those who were age congruent. The learners that were 20 years and older had a 32.2 percentage point reduction in their pass rate compared to the age congruent learners. Some provinces experienced an average pass rates that is below 50% for over-age learners. These provinces are Limpopo (44.8%), Northern Cape (47.0%) and Western Cape (49.4%). This is a major concern and suggests that programmes to ensure that factors that lead to older age enrolment per grade are addressed.

b) The information is not readily available at it can only be determined upon receipt of registration data of learners from the DBE.

C) The information is not readily available and can be explored once the LURITS data from DBE is available.

d) The information that is available is only for 2021 Grade 12 learners as depicted in Table 1 above. It has to be noted the information is not disaggregated by grant type, therefore it is difficult on report on Child Support Grant Beneficiaries.

(2)  This information still needs to be explored. Evidence currently not available

(3)  A wealth of evidence shows that CSG receipt is good for children’s health and welfare: children who received the grant saw improved nutrition, more schooling, and less labour-force participation, and were more likely to possess formal identity documents.

The impact evaluation study conducted by Department of Social Development in collaboration with SASSA and UNICEF in 2012 indicated that the CSG appears to play a compensatory role for children with less educated mothers, narrowing the schooling gap between children whose mothers have less education and those who have more. In these ways the Child Support Grant promotes human capital development, improves gender outcomes and helps to reduce the historical legacy of inequality. Receipt of the CSG by the household reduces adolescent absences from school, particularly for male adolescents, even when the household does not receive the grant specifically for the adolescent. Recent evidence has also complimented this robust evidence on the positive impact of CSG on children and their families.

(4) The impact evaluation study conducted by Department of Social Development in collaboration with SASSA and UNICEF in 2012 indicated that for younger children, earlier receipt of the CSG improved girls’ grade attainment by a quarter grade compared to receipt of CSG at age six. In addition, early receipt of the CSG reduces delayed school entry of girls by 26.5 percent.

Receipt of the CSG by the household reduces adolescent absence from school, particularly for male adolescents, even when the household does not receive the grant specifically for the adolescent.

Reply:

Department of Social Development (DSD)

(a)(b)

As at 31 March 2021, the Department of Social Development has recorded the following outstanding investigations:

Category of cases	Total number of the specified investigations for the year 2020/21	(a) were finalised as at 31 May 2022	(b) are still outstanding
Irregular expenditure	09	09	0
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure	69	61	8

• Irregular Expenditure (9 cases):

The investigations have been completed and has been referred Labour Relations to institute the disciplinary processes.

• Fruitless and Wasteful expenditure (69 cases):

• Sixty-one (61) cases have been investigated and finalised.
• Thirty-seven (37) cases have been recommended for recovery from the departmental officials
• Eight (8) cases have been recommended for recovery from the travel agency.
• Sixteen (16) cases were written-off
• Seven (7) out of the thirty-seven (37) cases for recovery were referred to Labour Relations to institute the disciplinary processes
• The remaining eight (8) cases has been investigated and will be presented at the next Loss Control Committee.

South African Social Security Agency (SASSA)

As at March 2021, the following are the financial misconduct cases which the investigations were not finalised:

Category of cases	Total number of the specified investigations for the year 2020/21	(a) were finalised as at 31 May 2022	(b) are still outstanding
Irregular expenditure	778	353	425
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure	38	25	13

• Of the Four Hundred and Twenty-Five (425) irregular expenditure cases in the table above under (b), SASSA has completed investigation and consequence management of the Two Hundred and Twenty- Six (246) cases which are currently with National Treasury for consideration and approval of condonation.

• Of the Fourteen (14) fruitless and wasteful expenditure cases in the table above (b), four (4) are going through civil or court process where SASSA is pursuing recovery against affected persons

• SASSA is focusing efforts in ensuring all the cases are finalised by the end of 2022/23.

National Development Agency (NDA)

Background

The National Treasury Irregular Expenditure Framework requires the investigation of expenditure incurred to determine whether any official is liable for losses. Disciplinary steps must be taken against officials who caused or permitted the irregular expenditure, and losses incurred as a result must be recovered from the person liable.

As at the 2020/2021 financial year, the NDA had a total of 195 cases made up of 166 Irregular Expenditure cases and 29 Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure cases.

a) A total number of 71 cases have been finalised. These cases are made up of 64 Irregular Expenditure cases and 7 Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure cases. The finalisation of these cases resulted in the condonation of Irregular Expenditure to the value of R96,115,315.51 for the 2015/2016 to 2019/2020 financial years. The officials responsible for Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure have been issued with written warnings following disciplinary proceedings.

b) A total number of 124 cases are outstanding. These cases are made up of 102 Irregular Expenditure cases amounting to R 78,752,277.99 and 22 Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure cases amounting to R168 239.84. These cases have since been referred to the Loss Control Committee for further investigation. The Loss Control Committee was established in line with the National Treasury Irregular Expenditure Framework and assumed duty on 01 July 2022.

Below is a table of the total number of cases finalised and outstanding as at 2020/21 financial year:

Category of cases	Total number of the specified investigations for the year 2020/21	(a) Cases Finalised	(b) Cases outstanding
Irregular expenditure	166	64	102
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure	29	7	22
Total	195	71	124

Reply:

It is important for the Honourable to note many of the homeless people are in and out of shelters, which serve as the point of contact. While there is no national database on homelessness, the table below gives a provincial data on homeless people accessing services at the time of replying to the question:

Province	(a)	(b)	(i)	(ii)
	Adults	Children	Night shelters	Street living
Limpopo	0	0	0	0
Free State	199	44	243	74
Eastern Cape	161	0	161	0
Gauteng	1949	98	2047	0
Mpumalanga	0	0	0	0
KZN	602	0	602	0
Western Cape	2308 bed spaces	41	2308 bed spaces 41 children	764
North West	8	51	59	721
Northern Cape	0	0	0	0

Reply:

For the 2022/23 financial year, SASSA has been allocated a budget that can accommodate approximately 10.5 million COVID-19 SRD eligible applicants, which is slightly less than the previous iterations of the SRD Grant. It is also important to note that the National Treasury has made additional budget allocation to various government departments to create the much-needed job opportunities.

Currently, SASSA is in the process of establishing a data sharing relationship with the Departments of Public Works and Infrastructure and Employment and Labour with the goal of assisting COVID-19 SRD recipients gain access to employment opportunities. Furthermore, the Department has finalised a framework on linking social protection beneficiaries to sustainable livelihoods initiatives, with the view to provide skills targeting the unemployed and those on the SRD database to enhance chances of employment.

These initiatives are complemented by sustainable livelihoods programme that empowers vulnerable individuals, with particular focus on youth and women who are disproportionately affected by unemployment. Through this programme, the Department and its entities, working development agencies, provides skills development project that have a potential to generate income and create employment opportunities. These measures are intended to provide for those who cannot be accommodated through the social grants or the Special COVID-19 SRD Grant and to channel them into more sustainable jobs and other economic activities.

Reply:

2279 (a) What is the total number of community nutritional development centres (CNDCs) that are funded by her department and currently operating in the Northern Cape

• There are currently 22 CNDCs in the Northern Cape Province.

2279 (b) Where is each centre located and/or situated

• Refer to the attached list (Annexure A)

2279(c) What is the total number of CNDCs, funded by her department that are currently functioning in the;

2279(c)(i) Hantam local Lunicipality.

• No CNDCs funded in Hantam Local Municipality.

2279(c)(ii) Karoo-Hoogland Local Municipality

• 1 Organization - Amandelboom CDC.

2279(d) Where are the CNDCs situated in the Namakwa district of the Northern Cape

• Amandelboom CNDC –Williston
• Gharana CNDC – Garies
• Luvuyo CNDC - Port Nolloth
• Ubuntu CNDC – Steinkopf