Hon Deputy Chairperson, Minister, I welcome the opportunity to comment on the issues currently impacting on social development services in the Western Cape. In general, we can say that the national and provincial departments of social development enjoy a good working relationship in the Western Cape, and we welcome this. It is in the interests of the public, particularly the more vulnerable members of society, that different spheres of government work together to provide a social safety net that is as effective as possible.
The provinces and their nongovernmental organisation, NGO, partners have benefited from the progressive pieces of legislation introduced at national level in recent years, like the new Children's Act and the Child Justice Act. The Western Cape has done well in realising the intentions of the new children's legislation and has succeeded in reducing the number of children awaiting trial in prison to under 30 at any given time, setting the benchmark nationally. This province has, in fact, been a sterling example of living in the spirit of these Acts.
The Older Persons Act is now also in place, and we welcome the enlightened move by the national government towards community-based care for older persons. The training and job creation that goes along with it also speaks directly to poverty alleviation.
We welcome the fact that the national department has adopted a national policy to regulate and guide the provision of funding to NGOs, following the Western Cape's own introduction of such a policy. This is the sharing of ideas that the premier has referred to as one of the major benefits of having different parties in power in different parts of the country.
The next step in making a success out of the new legislative and policy developments at national level is for National Treasury and the national Department of Social Development to focus on meeting the resource requirements generated by these pieces of legislation. We must avoid the risk that the new laws become de facto unenforceable because they are not backed up by resources. This would undermine the credibility of the national and provincial social development departments and their laws.
Another area that needs attention from the national Department of Social Development is the finalisation of norms and standards for social development. This progress has been drawn out for too long. It is creating planning problems for NGOs and provinces and complicating registration processes.
NGOs want to know when they will have to update their business process and service delivery methods to meet the new norms and standards. We are very unhappy with the uncertainty that this creates. The new norms and standards will also help provinces with performance management of NGO and non-NGO projects and facilities, but they have been left hanging by the ongoing delays from national government.
In the Western Cape we are particularly concerned about the delays in norms and standards and regulations around the new Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act of 2008. This province is faced with a substance abuse crisis and the Department of Social Development has increased its budget allocation to drug treatment and prevention programmes by 50% in the past two years.
The new Act will further strengthen the department's service quality in this field by providing clearer standards and regulation for treatment and related programmes. It will also overhaul the criminal justice system's approach to handling drug offenders and help reduce the massive backlogs that have developed by broadening diversion options. It's been three years since Parliament approved the Act, but we are still waiting for the department to complete the regulations that would allow it to come into force. This must be addressed urgently.
Similarly, we would like to see more attention from national government on setting clear standards for early childhood development, ECD, facilities. In the Western Cape we have seen a clear need to expand ECD facilities, with proper programmes for children in their care. We need both quantity and quality. The national Department of Social Development needs to focus on expanding educational and cognitive development programmes in ECD facilities and making these programmes the norm.
In terms of poverty alleviation policies and programmes, we still have a long way to go. The national government needs to rethink its approach to social grants. In South Africa today we have roughly 5 million registered taxpayers and nearly three times as many grant recipients - a situation that is clearly not sustainable.
National government has to create the economic climate for the private sector to be able to create jobs. It is only through the creation of gainful employment that you would lift people out of the trap of poverty. Direct grants always carry the risk of keeping recipients dependent on the state, or of becoming political patronage to keep voters loyal to the party in power.
The citizens of this country need to be empowered in order to become financially self-sufficient and make a meaningful contribution to the economy. The Department of Social Development has a valuable role to play in helping to provide support services where individuals, families and communities face challenges that they cannot overcome on their own. But it doesn't have infinite resources, and we should never lose sight of this fact. [Applause.]
Ms F NAHARA (KwaZulu-Natal): Madam Chair, hon Minister Dlamini, hon Deputy Minister Ntuli, Ministers present here, MECs, it is an honour for me to participate in this debate on the Budget Vote for the Department of Social Development, which deals mainly with the poor and vulnerable people in our country.
What the Minister has presented to us here in her speech tallies with what His Excellency President Jacob Zuma said in his state of the nation address:
Since we are building a developmental and not a welfare state, the social grants will be linked to economic activity and community development, to enable short-term beneficiaries to become self-supporting in the long run.
In line with the commitment of the KZN premier, the department of social development in KZN has reported to the portfolio committee on the various initiatives that the department has undertaken. I will talk about only two of them that are very close to my heart. They have indicated that they will scale up the creation of employment opportunities in the province through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, and other initiatives reported. One of them that is close to my heart, as I have mentioned, is caring for vulnerable groups, including caring for children through the ECD services, which are serving more children in the rural areas.
The department has opened more centres, or is supporting more centres, mainly in the rural areas, where children can now go to day-care centres and preschools. One must indicate that the importance of these ECD is not only for rural areas. The day before yesterday I was driving from Pietermaritzburg to Durban when a grandmother was talking on the radio about a four-year-old child who was raped at a crche in Umlazi. This is how crucially important these ECD centres are and the department has taken the initiative to support them financially and otherwise. These are our children ...
Izingane zethu ezincane lezi othola ukuthi ziba wuvanzi emgaqweni. [These are our young children who are found loitering in the streets.]
These ECDs will then address this.
The second one is the care service for the elderly. Members will recall that our MEC Shevu, in his visit to pay points, discovered a huge number of loan sharks who go to the elderly and tell them about insurance that they must subscribe to. At the end of the day ...
... uma sebeshonile laba bantu ... [... once these people have passed away ...]
...these insurance people will have a number of excuses ...
... bathi imali ayisekho nokunye nokunye. [... saying that the money is no longer available and so forth.]
There are many excuses. As the committee, Minister, we were wondering whether there was a way for there to be legislation or policy to regulate the relationship between elderly people and these institutions? After all, if these things are not regulated, they will go on ...
...bekhwahla abantu bakithi nje, bedlelwa izimali yimishwalense ongeke wathola ngisho amakheli ayo nokuthi ngeyaphi. [... defrauding our people. Our people are being ripped off by these insurance companies whose location you can't even find.]
At the end of the day, these grannies go home with R500 less, which has been taken by these people - let alone the loan sharks who come and tell them that they will give them groceries and then they can pay at the end of month. I don't even want to talk about that...
...ngoba ngokunye ukungcola nje okwenziwa kubantu abadala [... because it is another form of corruption directed at our elderly]. As you have correctly indicated, today is the international day against elder abuse.
Siyacela mam'uNgqongqoshe, mhlawumbe neKhabinethi ukuthi ake kube khona ubulungiswa la kubantu abadala. [We are appealing to the Minister or the Cabinet to ensure justice for our elderly.]
These people deserve to be buried or to be taken care of with dignity.
Another initiative that the department has taken is the rebuilding of an old age home at Nkandla. I don't have the words to describe how the rebuilding of that home has helped the elderly in that area. It seems as if we have somehow lost track, whereby ... ...uma sebegugile ogogo bethu siyabalahla. [... when our grandmothers are old we desert them].
You can't imagine how many people have now come to join the centre at that old-age home in that rural area. I also want to thank the Minister for her help, which contributed greatly to the building of that home for senior citizens. Minister, your support of the department in KZN has been really great.
The other thing that I have noticed, and which I picked up in your speech, Minister, is support in the form of scholarships for students. I can't overemphasise the importance of this. We have been questioning why this was stopped by your department because if there is anything we need in this country it is social workers, more than anything else. Maybe that will help us address the problems of our vulnerable groups even better.
Comrade Majodina spoke about street kids. This is also one of our province's problems. While we now have 10 fully operational one-stop centres in KZN, most of them are in the rural areas. This is to try and address the issue of bringing government services closer to the people, so that our people are exploited less by people who transport them to such services - even just to go and get an ID - and force them to pay so much money ...
...ukusuka eNkandla eya eShowe eyothatha umazisi. [... from Nkandla to Eshowe to get an ID].
These institutions have reduced the vulnerability of our people in the rural areas, where government services are not present. So, as the committee, we want to say we also appreciate the help that businesspeople in KZN have rendered during the difficult times of the floods but also to house poor children and orphans that we discover over time as we go about taking the legislature to the people. We have discovered many of these issues - that there are child-headed households - and the business community of KZN has played a very important and good role by offering help, like building houses or even taking some of these kids back to school.
Suffice it to say that as KZN we support the budget of the Minister because we believe the monies made available to this department are going to halve the problems of our people in this country as a developmental state.
Sibonge kakhulu ukuxhaswa nguNgqongqoshe nePhini likaNgqongqoshe ezikhathi eziningi uma sinemisebenzi yokulethwa kwezinsiza kubantu. [Thank you very much for the support we received from the Minister and the Deputy Minister in many instances where we had to render some service to the people.]
While other people may think that it was just electioneering, I want to state quite clearly in this House that we mean business. We are going to still deliver. We are still going to look after our children who are left alone for the many reasons that my colleagues have already indicated and we will continue to work with you, Minister, with your department and with other departments as well. [Applause.]