Hon Chair, after years of drawing attention to the importance of adequately funding the nongovernmental organisations that are providing statutory services, the ACDP is pleased to see at least some increased support for them.
NGOs are, however, still raising concerns about specific funding allocations. They believe that more money should have been allocated to organisations and programmes that support rape and domestic violence survivors, given the high numbers of rape and violence in the country. They also raised a concern about the need to create more capacity in the NGO sector to deal with these issues, even if these amounts have to be ring- fenced in some way to make sure it happens within the provinces.
It is our understanding that there will also be additional funding to increase the number of state social workers - something the ACDP has continuously been calling for over the years. We welcome all the efforts in this direction. But there is, to date, still no relief on the ground, where shortages of social workers seriously disadvantage children. The ACDP is concerned about the pitiful increase of R60 in grants for the elderly - a huge disappointment, especially when we consider that grandmothers are often the sole carers for grandchildren and that many families rely totally on them.
For the ACDP, an important outcome specified in the budget is to promote and strengthen families in South Africa by facilitating the establishment of family service forums in three provinces, in order to co-ordinate services to families at provincial level by March 2014. It appears, however, that for the next four years the budget for a family would remain the same as the previous four years - a rather meagre 1,5% of the total budget.
The White Paper on Families was developed in 2012-13, and a key activity over the medium-term will be to provide training on the White Paper, yet the budget for this programme has been reduced.
The National Development Plan, NDP, which does not mention the White Paper anywhere at all, calls for more research. On page 424, the commission suggests a full review of the state of South African families, which should be undertaken by 2015. So we are asking: Where will the extra money come from to conduct the review and then to implement whatever recommendations might arise?
Consultant Russell Wildeman, in his keynote address on early childhood development to the SA Human Rights Commission and the United Nations Special Session on Children and Budget, said that additional allocations for the Isibindi Model and the early childhood development, ECD, programme that were promised in 2012 for the years 2013 and 2014 were not highlighted in the Budget Speech, the Budget Review or the department's Budget Vote. Further, he asked whether provinces would still prioritise these areas if they did not receive high-level political attention.
The ACDP calls on the Minister to take responsibility in ensuring that the ECD services are provided and sufficiently funded. It will be to ensure that quality ECD services are available for all children, with priority given to the marginalised children and children with disabilities, even if this means again ring-fencing the money that goes to provinces. The ACDP will be supporting this budget.