House Chairperson, we are often told that there is simply no money for more social workers, no money to increase the social grants, no money for shelters for abused women and children, and not enough money to fight gender-based violence and other social ills such as drug abuse.
It is therefore simply unforgiveable that the Department of Social Development squandered R2 billion in irregular and fruitless expenditure over the past financial year,
mainly due to Sassa's habit of paying contractors for services that were never rendered. To make matters worse, the Auditor-General was unable to find sufficient evidence of disciplinary action taken against relevant officials.
It is the IFP's view that the days of zero accountability for rogue Social Development officials must come to an end. Every mismanaged cent must be recovered and implicated officials must be held to account and even sent to jail for misusing monies meant for the most vulnerable in our society.
Allow me also to highlight some other areas of concern for the IFP. This department remains in a perpetual crisis mode. Not long after it recovered from its self- made Sassa crisis, it now faces a self-made foster care crisis. This means the department's inaction to comply with yet another court order has again placed at risk many vulnerable children of not receiving their grants at the end of this year.
In addition to this crisis, more than 5 000 social workers trained by the state remain unemployed, while their skills are critically needed, Fraud continues to plague the grant system, with syndicates unlawfully making money from pensioners and other grant recipients, while gender-based violence remains a crisis.
Despite these concerns, the IFP believes Minister Zulu, the new chairperson of our committee and the committee as a whole have shown passion and commitment to deal with the above-mentioned challenges decisively. The IFP will therefore support this Budgetary Review and Recommendation Report. Thank you.