Hon Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, hon members and the fellow South Africans, while my fellow fighter has addressed the issues of the social grant system, I will be speaking about the other areas that the department should be working on. The mandate of your department goes beyond just providing social. It is to provide all social development services. This includes everything from social workers and counsellors, to rehabilitation centres and women's shelters. All of these are needed because 25 years into ANC rule, our society is collapsing and the suffering of our people is only getting worse.
The youth around the country are hooked by substance abuse. Nyaope and Tic are the worst of them. Drugs are killing our young people and it is destroying our communities. Young men are stealing from their own families to feed their drug habits. People are being stabbed for a mere R2 because drug addicts need to get their next fix. This department can and must do more. It must begin to work with other departments, including the Departments of Police, Health, Education, Sports and Recreation, to develop joint programmes that will allow us to tackle the drug crisis facing South Africa. In this fight this department can play an important role, and that is to provide drug rehabilitation services. Young people who are hooked on drugs must be able to find a space in our society where they are able to properly recover from their addiction, so that they can once be integrated into society and become functioning and productive members. This department must provide good quality, well-staffed and well- resourced rehabilitation centres which allow drug addicts to recover from drug addiction, and once again become functioning members of the society.
While proper rehabilitation centres are a short-term solution to drug addiction. The long term approach for the department can take is by training and deploying social workers across our country. We need to have social workers and counsellors in schools, hospitals,
police stations, orphanages, universities, Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Tvet, and at work places. The South African Police currently only employs 114 counsellors and only 200 social workers. That means that the majority of police stations do not have the ability and the capacity to counsel all the people that come in. Children who experience trauma need counselling. That is why we cannot accept that schools, Tvets and clinics do not have social workers.
Our people, particularly women and young people experience the trauma of poverty, violence, unemployment and dispossession everyday. That is why we are seeing so many young people with mental health issues leading to suicide. If your department does not ensure the expansion of the social worker programme, our young people will continue to die and suffer from drug abuse and mental health issues.
Another area where your department should establish joint programmes with other government departments, it is in regards to the issue of sanitary pads. All girl children whether at schools, universities or Tvet, must receive sanitary pads and free of charge. The government has the money it needs the political will, the same way that condoms are distributed pads can be distributed that are made in South Africa. We also need to see your department putting more resources
towards women's shelters. Abused women need a place of shelter and comfort that they can go to, otherwise they will never be able to escape abusive relationships. The importance of shelters for abused women must not be ignored.
Hon Chairperson, despite the growing need for this department we continue to see cuts in staff as well as in the budget for equipment and machinery. This department will not be able to improve service delivery if it is reducing staff. The primary mandate of the Department of Social is and I quote: "The provision of comprehensive, integrated and sustainable social development services." It is clear that this department does not have the capacity or budget to fulfil this mandate that is why the EFF rejects this budget. I thank you.