DSD & SASSA: Progress reports on implementation of social relief programmes & interventions to address effects of GP & KZN “unrest” on social development facilities

Meeting report

DSD on effects of civil unrest

Mr Linton Mchunu, Acting Director-General, Department of Social Development (DSD), said there had been shifts regarding the matter since they reported on the civil unrest last year. They had since implemented further inventions to assist communities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) through their relief measures. However, their focus areas were the same as they presented last year. The President had extended the R350 relief grant, and the Department was working to ensure measures were in place in that regard.

The Department was reporting on what they had done to ensure and support food security. They had looked at the levels of psychosocial support they provided, how they had assisted children who had been arrested, the offices destroyed and alternative accommodation provided during the unrest. They had employed a real-time monitoring tool in KZN. In addition, they had looked at social mobilisation and rebuilding, and the social relief measures regarding the R350 grant.

Introduction
 
The DSD had played a role in alleviating the challenges that people faced due to the unrest in KZN and Gauteng. One of the general views of why the unrest occurred was the social difficulties people, especially young people, face because of unemployment and lack of opportunities. There was a demand for the services provided by the DSD, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) and the National Development Agency (NDA).

Since the inception of the interventions to deal with the aftermath of the unrest, the Department provided a variety of services until 30 September 2021. After that, the project was integrated into the standard service delivery. Most services continued, but the unrest had affected peoples' jobs, and most of those people were still unemployed and getting support through the R350 grant.

The Solidarity Fund provided additional resources that fed 271 430 people in the affected areas of KZN and Gauteng. The Department had continued to offer R350 grants and had integrated all services into normal delivery in the two provinces.

The Portfolio Committee had undertaken an oversight visit to both provinces. The Department briefed the Portfolio Committee about the progress, and their report was adopted in the National Assembly.

Contextual Analysis

Mr Peter Netshipale, Deputy Director-General, DSD, said the Department's mandate was to provide care and support to the vulnerable, especially those made vulnerable by the civil unrest. The unrest in KZN and GP had occurred in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economy was not growing. There were high levels of unemployment and the deepening of the socio-economic challenges caused by Covid-19. About 20% of households in the country were already considered food insecure in 2019 before the pandemic, according to Stats SA. These numbers may have increased with the impact of the pandemic, posing a challenge for the Department.

Situation Analysis - KZN and Gauteng

The major challenge was that there were food shortages in many communities due to the disruption of the food supply chains due to the looting of supermarkets and the torching of goods trucks. The situation in KZN was worse because the transportation of food to the inland was affected. Another challenge was psychosocial support, and the psychosocial problems experienced by the people. People could not buy food because shops were closed, worsening the food security issue.

Offices in KZN were damaged, and cars were vandalised.

Key interventions by the DSD

Mr Netshipale said the Department's key interventions were:

Access to DSD services;
SRD provided by SASSA and provincial DSDs;
Provision of food to the most vulnerable households and individuals;
Provision of psychosocial support services;
Social mobilisation, rebuilding, and sustainable livelihoods;
Social Relief of Distress (SRD) R350 grant

Access to social services (DSD and SASSA)

Grant collections were affected, but the bulk had already been collected before the unrest. However, arrangements had been made with people to go to the banks and get their SASSA grants. At the time of reporting, DSD services were now fully restored in all affected areas, alternative accommodation was made available in nearby vacant spaces, and mobile services were provided in the areas worst affected, especially in KZN).  Both the DSD and SASSA had worked jointly to ensure enhanced coordination of support services.

SASSA SRD, food security and provincial SRD support

Both SASSA and the DSD in the provinces had mobilised food vouchers to ensure people were fed. The allocations for the SRD were limited, and the Department had to ensure that it covered the necessary needs/services that were provided. In Gauteng, the Department provided 64 240 food parcels, feeding 322 964 people. The province had food banks in the districts, and the DSD mobilised those food banks to ensure that food was provided to everyone in need. In KZN, the Department provided over 61 478 meals to vulnerable and needy individuals.

Churches, interfaith leaders, businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the Solidarity Fund had played a critical role in supporting the most vulnerable with food provision. The Solidarity Fund had pledged R100 million to feed over 271 430 individuals affected by violence. The DSD used their base feeding programmes to reach families who were in need.

Psychosocial support services

Psychosocial support services and counselling continued to be provided to all individuals and families in need, especially from the trauma caused by the unrest. Social workers assisted people in the areas that they lived in. Children who were arrested were accordingly assessed in line with the Child Justice Act and released to their parents, charged with the destruction of property and other related crimes.

Social mobilisation, rebuilding and creating sustainable livelihoods

After the unrest, the DSD aimed to restore the peace and dignity of the individual and ensure that social cohesion took place in communities. In some cases, the unrest had left people homeless, but a place of safety was made to accommodate them. The NDA conducted several social mobilisation sessions in KZN and Gauteng with the Department of Arts and Culture. Some areas like Phoenix were still too volatile to host dialogues, and the COVID-19 restrictions made it harder to reach more people.

Getting business and investor confidence on track, creating jobs, building infrastructure, and restoring the social fabric and the moral fibre of our communities that connect South Africans would require serious efforts from all sectors of society.

Real-time monitoring tool (RTMT) findings

A team conducted a real-time assessment to determine who was most affected by the violence, and what services they needed. The RTMT study team conducted visits and re-assessments of child wellbeing for 47 children from 34 households that had previously been assessed in February 2021 as part of the rapid assessment study.

The households were selected from areas affected by riots and unrest in the uMgungundlovu and Harry Gwala districts. The aim was to gather empirical data to assess the impact of these events on children and families. The assessment played a role in how the DSD decided on dealing with the effects of the unrest.

The DSD had looked at the issue of food security. Results indicated that this domain was the most negatively impacted area, based on the drastic decline in children's food security scores, as reflected in the graph. Another area affected was the economic wellbeing of households, with many families reporting a decline in their capability to provide basic needs and in the caregivers' access to income. Additionally, care and protection were affected. The assessment found an increased risk rating of children with regard to care and protection needs.

A longitudinal study needed to be conducted to assess whether the DSD had restored the factors they had analysed in their initial assessment and re-assessment. Using the real-time data and longitudinal study, the DSD would be able to create a preventive mechanism to help address the issues.

Mr Mchunu stressed that the interventions implemented had continued beyond September 2021. They were continuing to provide interventions.

Social relief measures

Ms Totsie Memela-Khambula, CEO, SASSA, said only two branches were affected by the unrest in KZN. One had been reopened, but the one KwaMashu had not been reopened yet. In Gauteng, the SASSA office in Alexandra was totally vandalised, but they had worked with the radio station and the people to ensure the office was back in operation. At KwaMashu, a number of files that were needed to deal with debtors had been burnt, but SASSA was working on recreating the files so that they could continue with the collection. The debtors' book included those who had to return to SASSA and request the SRD of R350. SASSA did not know whether the people could still collect the grant, but indications were that those people were vulnerable.

Offices in the East and West Rand were temporally closed but were back in operation. Regarding the files, SASSA had learnt that there was a need to digitise their files to minimise this risk in the future.

Special Covid-19 SRD grant

Ms Dianne Dunkerley, Executive Manager: Grants Administration, SASSA, said that the special COVID-19 grant had been introduced in May 2020, and was supposed to last for six months. However, it had been extended several times. The grant had then been re-introduced from August 2021 to 31 March 2022. A further extension of the grant for the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 had recently been announced.
 
The grant covered those who were unemployed and caregivers. The caregivers were given the child support, foster child, or care dependency grant if they did not have any other income. The R350 supported the caregivers because the child grants did not cover them.

Progress on first cycle of SRD grant (May 2020 to April 2021)

SASSA had spent R24 billion during this period. The number of beneficiaries who benefited was approximately six million per month, and the number of payment transactions processed during the period was 68 193 449, which was 99% of the approved applications.

There were 581 818 outstanding payment transactions for the period. These were transactions from applicants whose applications had been approved but not paid because they could not trace them, or they did not contact SASSA to update their personal details. 571 724 grants had remained uncollected from the South African Post Office as of 30 July 2021. The total number of voluntarily cancelled applications was 104 565, and the total number of deceased clients was 101 989.

Progress with implementing new grant as from 1 August 2021

The total paid for August 2021 across the provinces was 99.53%, September 98.1%, and October 97.48%. The grants approved and paid for November to January 2022 were around the 95% mark. The mark for February 2022 was approximately 95%.

(The breakdown of grants approved and paid from August to October 2021 per province is given on presentation slide 26.)

Some were not paid, and the reasons for that included the bank account details needing to be verified; people who had changed their bank details and were waiting for the bank to verify them; or funds had been paid to recipients but rejected by the bank, and the bank account closed.

Covid-19 SRD grant applications by age group and citizenship as at 15 February 2022

The profile of applicants indicated that the most significant groups were between the ages of 18 and 35 years, which was 60% of the applications. Total applications were 15 329 512, and 10.5 million had been approved.

99% of the grants paid were to South African applicants. Only small percentages were permanent residents, and a smaller number (7 097) were refugees. Applications from asylum seekers and special permit holders totalled 19 800. However, SASSA found that some were duplicate applications, but once that was resolved, around 12 000 individual applicants were approved.

SASSA would continue with processing the grant. The regulatory framework regulating the relief grant had to change because of the imminent lifting of the State of Disaster. The previous grant was developed in terms of the directions of the Disaster Management Act. SASSA and the DSD had worked together to bring the grant under the Social Assistance Act as a form of social relief. This would be processed and finalised by 1 April 2022 so that there was a legal framework that would ensure that SASSA could continue to implement the grant, although the qualifying criteria may change. National Treasury was concerned that people did not qualify because they could generate income for themselves, or were employed.

Mr Mchunu said that some grant recipients were from KZN and Gauteng, which was a sign of the challenges that many faced in the two provinces, particularly post-unrest. The high number was a result of unemployment and the hardship caused by the damaged infrastructure and closing of some businesses. This had left many people in a more difficult situation than they were before the unrest. After the unrest, there had been a rise in the number of applications. The total had risen to approximately 10.5 million applicants during the second iteration.

The Department had two tasks, which were:

Get people back into jobs to help restore their dignity. Creating a conducive environment for job creation would require a social compact between government, business, civil society, labour and other sectors of society to work together to address the issue of jobs in South Africa.

The R350 had not addressed job creation, but it had addressed inequality. It had reduced poverty. Furthermore, interventions like the Presidential employment stimulus package and the economic reconstruction plan (ERP) implementation were aimed to assist those who face hardships, particularly social workers, across all provinces. The DSD was able to absorb more social workers in KZN and help with early childhood development (ECD).

The DSD was focused on rebuilding. They aimed to ensure that people understood the impact and ripple effect of criminal activity resulting from the unrest. The aim was to build social cohesion in communities and encourage people to engage with various community stakeholders.

The lessons learnt were the need to have more agile plans to respond to shocks, and that the systems were integrated and as robust as possible. There had been a considerable investment in systems, particularly those dealing with grants, to ensure recipients received their money to reduce wastage in the system. The National Treasury had advised that the fiscus was tight. Therefore, the Department was trying to get more people into jobs. The new criteria would focus on those who needed the grant and cut out those who did not need it.

Discussion

Ms D Christians (DA, Northern Cape) asked about the psychosocial support services and counselling given to individuals and families that experienced trauma due to the unrest. How many social workers were employed? Which areas were social workers deployed in? What kind of psychosocial assistance was given by social workers?

On 20 October 2021, the DSD had received 19 800 applications from asylum seekers and special permit holders. To date, had all applicants been paid? If not, how many were rejected? If there were any rejections, what were the reasons for the rejections?

Ms S Lehihi (EFF, North West) asked about the money set aside for the home-based community care centres for the disabled and the homes for the children]

Ms A Maleka (ANC, Mpumalanga) asked about the status of the current operations at DSD offices that were looted and vandalised during the unrest. How many vandalised and looted offices were currently operating? How many offices were not operating?

From 1 May to 30 April 2021, 581 818 outstanding payment transactions had been approved but not paid because SASSA could not track the applicants or the applicants did not contact SASSA to update their personal details. This included 571 724 grants which remained uncollected from the South African post office as of 30 July 2021. What was the current status of the unclaimed SRD grants?

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) asked the DSD to update the Committee on whether their request to have the food recovered from looters be provided to the Department for distribution to those in need.

The KZN DSD had requested R513.9 million during Parliament's oversight visit from 27 to 31 July 2021 to fund social relief of distress. What was the progress from Treasury regarding this request?

The Chairperson asked for an update on the children who were arrested and placed in the care of their parents in KZN and Gauteng. She also asked for updates on the children diverted to life skills programmes. Had the life skills programme assisted?

The Department offered social services like counselling services and support, assistance with birth certificates and social relief of distress to those affected by the civil unrest. Additionally, some people were admitted to the hospital because they had a mental disability or needed mental assistance. What was the Department of Health's update about what happened to the patients? What was the update on the birth certificate assistance that had been provided?

DSD's response

Mr Netshipale said the Department had asked the South African Police Service (SAPS) to give them the food they had confiscated from the looters or redistribute it to known families in need. SAPS in KZN and the Department had worked together to distribute the food to a list of families in need in different areas. The Department was told that in Gauteng, no food had been recovered, so they could not distribute food in that province.

The civil unrest had affected some children caught in between, and some families were implicated. Vulnerable people needed counselling services for psychological problems, assistance with lost birth certificates, and SRD assistance. The psychosocial support included ongoing/continuous counselling and assessments for referral to services. The Department needed to provide people with counselling and mobilise people to get the social services they offered.

A special report would be needed to report on the progress related to reintegrating services into the mainstream. After an assessment done by the DSD, it had been found that the 35 children who were arrested in KZN had not been part of the civil unrest -- they were just caught in the crossfire.

At the moment, the DSD could not provide the amount of money set aside for the home-based community care centres for disabled persons, homes for the children and funding of the ECD facilities.  

The number of offices destroyed during the unrest would be sent to the Committee in writing. Many offices were destroyed, especially in parts of KZN, like Vulamehlo, Phoenix and other places. The report regarding the matter would be sent.
 
Mr Mchunu added that offices in KwaMashu, Bridgetown, and some surrounding areas were mainly affected by the unrest. Alternative accommodation had been arranged in those areas, and all the services rendered by those offices were still operational. It may be through mobile services provided to ensure services were still accessible to the people. Regarding the number of social workers recruited, KZN had the highest amount, and some social workers had been recruited in Gauteng.

Mr Khumbula Ndaba, Acting Deputy Director-General, DSD answered the question about the number of social workers hired. The recruitment process of social worker graduates had been done in two phases. The first phase took place during the periods of June/July and August/September 2020. During this period, the Department had received funding to employ 1 809 social workers on a contract basis. However, 1 037 social worker graduates had been employed, which was less than the intended target. The reason for failing to meet the intended target was that the Western Cape province did not participate in the recruitment process, such as lack of accommodation and supervision. The period had been extended from November/December 2020 to 31 March 2021. The number of social workers recruited was approximately 1 300 graduates.

The second phase had commenced in April 2021. The aim was to appoint 2 000 social worker graduates for a ten-month period starting in June 2021. Unfortunately, the DSD was able to get the allocation only in late October/November 2021, but they had managed to hire 3 473 social worker graduates. The breakdown of social worker appointments by province was:
 
Eastern Cape 490.
Free State 170.
Gauteng 1 026.
KwaZulu-Natal 967.
Limpopo 479.
Mpumalanga 236.
Northern Cape 20.
North West 85.

Mr Mchunu added that there had been an increase in the number of recruitments in KZN.

Ms Dunkerley said the current total of asylum seekers' unique applications -- where duplications had been taken out -- was 16 279. Of the total, 11 413 had been approved. Those who were disapproved were a result of asylum seekers or special permit holders applying with documents that were not valid. It could have been that the permit was valid only up to March 2020, so the DSD was not able to accept it. If it was valid from March 2020, it would have been accepted because the Minister of Home Affairs had provided extensions during the lockdown period.

All the approved asylum seekers had been paid up to November. SASSA was currently busy with the tranche of payments for asylum seekers and special permit holders from December to February. They took longer to pay these applicants than other categories because SASSA had to verify the validity of the permits with Home Affairs every month. The reason was that the verification process was a manual process, not a system process like other categories.

Regarding outstanding payments, the iteration of the grant had gone up to April 2021, and over 328 000 clients had not collected their grants yet. It could be that there was more than one grant they had not collected at the Post Office. In August, 442 000 clients had not collected their grants at the Post Office for the second cycle. SASSA sends SMS notifications to alert clients that if the money was not collected, it could be forfeited to the state. The Department had not taken back any money. They were continuing to contact the clients to ensure that the money was collected. SASSA's only means of communication with clients was through SMSs, using the phone numbers provided when applying for the grant. There was no guarantee that the message would get to the right person because different applicants sometimes used the same number when applying for grants.

Mr Mchunu stressed that psychosocial support would continue until the recipients could continue with their affairs as they were previously. People had experienced double trauma -- the trauma of Covid-19 and the additional trauma of people losing jobs, losing family members, etc. Therefore, it was important that the provision of psychosocial support continued, and to ensure everyone who needed it received it.

Regarding an additional allocation in KZN and if they had received it, the budget process would not allow KZN to receive additional funding. That was why the DSD had had to engage many stakeholders, like the Solidarity Fund and other stakeholders who were willing to assist. They got additional funding from the offices at SASSA to ensure the DSD was able to roll out the social relief of distress grants.

Follow-up question

Ms Christians pointed out that the contract posts had been initiated in December, and were due to end right after. She asked whether those contract posts had been extended. Also, what had worked for the programme, and what had not worked? What lessons were learned when the programme was rolled out?

The queues at the SASSA payout points were a huge issue in all the provinces. What was SASSA doing about the long queues that resulted in people getting turned away and not being attended to? Did SASSA have plans to address the issue?

Ms Luthuli highlighted that the DSD was still providing services, especially those that dealt with providing shelter. The DSD was not doing enough in rural areas, because there were no places of safety for victims of gender-based violence (GBV) and other crimes. What was the Department doing, especially in Ndwedwe, where there were no places of safety?

She referred to instances where R350 grants get approved for applicants, but when they go collect their money at the Post Office, they find their money has been withdrawn. Did SASSA have a system in place to check who withdrew the money?

Responses

Mr Mchunu said the challenge was that the DSD received the money very late. However, the DSD planned to carry the social worker recruits for a longer period. They had engaged with Treasury to ensure that they could keep the graduates for a longer period. The DSD did not have an adequate budget from the Treasury and had put bids in. but they were in the process of consolidating a strategy around how they could employ social workers across the government structures. This was in response to the Cabinet decision taken in 2018. Provinces like the Free-State had been able to absorb social workers permanently.

Mr Ndaba commented that the current contracts of the social workers were coming to an end on 31 March. They were looking at the possibility of engaging National Treasury to extend the contracts. The previous contract allocation was R220 million and had been distributed across all the provinces. National Treasury had advised that there was no budget and the cost of employment (COE) could not be rolled over. The DSD would continue to engage on the matter. The DSD and sector departments intended to put in a joint bid to find a permanent solution to the employment of social workers. In the meantime, the DSD had the provinces look at whether it was possible for them to employ or continue with the contracts of the social workers until a permanent solution was found. The DSD would look at doing the same at the national office. The process had started, but there were no guarantees because the COE had been reduced for the entire government.

Mr Mchunu said that the DSD had a challenge regarding shelters in the rural areas. However, they had identified GBV hotspots. The President had given the DSD a directive to have a shelter in every district. Eight districts did not have shelters. They were working to mobilise resources and support from provincial departments to ensure there were shelters in those areas. It would be in line with the Khuseleka Centres. There were about three provinces that had a centre at the moment and six that did not.

The DSD and Members of Executive Councils (MECs) had met to discuss the challenge of shelters, and there had been a commitment by the MECs to ensure that there were shelters in areas where they were none. The DSD would form a task team with the provincial departments. The team that worked on infrastructure programmes and line programmes would establish a committee that would provide feedback and guidance regarding the establishment of shelters. Establishing a shelter, with the help of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) was not the challenge. The challenge was the sustainability of the shelters. The matter was being addressed by the DSD, and it was at the highest level with the MECs.

Ms Memela-Khambula responded to the issue of long SASSA queues. In the last three months, SASSA had had issues with long queues because their system had not had updates for a long time from the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). However, the necessary updates had now been done, which would ease the frustrations of clients and staff when clients were collecting their money. SASSA was working on strategies and tools for support like a queue management plan to improve the situation. They were engaging with the Department of Labour to assist with the processing of customers and assisting those with the wrong documents. SASSA was working on engaging with customers in their communities, instead of them going to the Department.

Many service points had been closed because there were fewer offices than services points, particularly in the Western Cape. The province had 100 service points, but they had been closed because of Covid-19 and due to not being Occupation Health Standards (OHS) compliant, or the city wanted to use the offices for Covid-19 purposes. SASSA was working on going back to providing services in the service points that were closed to ensure people had support within their communities and did not have to travel far for services.

Committee minutes

The Committee adopted minutes of prior meetings.

The meeting was adjourned.