Thank you, hon House Chair. It is interesting to hear the hon Plaatjie talking about the increase in crime today, just two years after he crossed over from the ANC to Cope. Crime was there before 2009 or 2008, when he crossed over from the ANC to Cope. Prostitution was there. It hasn't just started now that we have this new administration. That is just a fallacy and misleads this House and the people who are affected.
I would also like to pay tribute and express my condolences to the families of the 12 people who perished after a fire broke out two days ago at the care centre and hospice for the elderly and mentally disturbed at Struisbult in Springs, Gauteng. I also thank those heroes who rose to the occasion to help and rescue other inmates from the blazing fire.
Hon De Villiers, this home was accredited during the apartheid era. The Gauteng government inherited it and continued subsidising it. The point here is that we need to check whether the safety and security measures in care centres, homes and shelters are being adhered to or not. This, then, calls for more monitoring mechanisms, as this fire follows another one which occurred in Gauteng in 2010. We need recourse and should be able to deregister those homes or care centres that do not adhere to the security and safety measures.
Normally, care centres, shelters and homes house vulnerable groups such as the elderly, people with disabilities and children. The outcome that government has set, which says that all people in South Africa should feel safe through the creation of an environment that enables the protection and promotion of older and vulnerable persons, has to be adhered to at all costs in all government-funded nongovernmental organisations and nonprofit organisations, so that events of this nature do not happen again.
Regarding the safety of and a friendly society for children, I call for monitoring measures to be in place as the budget shows an increase of 10% in the number of children accessing alternative care services. I would like to mention a case from my constituency. A child-headed family of six at Vlakfontein in Gauteng was helped by the community to obtain alternative care service. Only four children were taken. A 6-year-old and a 16-year-old were left in the family house, which is an RDP house located in a wetland area. Whenever there are heavy rains, they swim in that house. The community there needs assistance.
Once the budget for building the capacity for NGOs and NPOs has been increased there have to be clear and transparent criteria and development programmes focusing on the former marginalised communities or emerging NGOs and NPOs in rural areas and in townships such as Atlantis, Gugulethu and Lusikisiki, so that the "nots" benefit, instead of the "haves" benefiting more.
We also have to be clear on what measures are put in place for NGOs and NPOs that are assisted and funded by government, but who then do a somersault and organise against the very government that is assisting them. They become an antigovernment platform, especially in the Western Cape.
The challenge of the shortage of social workers is a national crisis that needs to be addressed. We therefore need a recruitment strategy that links with the Department of Basic Education to inspire learners to take up the career of social work as they progress to the tertiary education level by telling them up front that there are bursaries to that effect. In his state of the nation address the President emphasised the role of social development in skills enhancement. Social work as a profession should be included on the list of critical and scarce professions.
The Lotto board has to have an education programme and a marketing strategy that allows them to communicate how they decide on the programmes they fund and what the criteria are for individuals, NGOs and NPOs to qualify. These can serve to guide disadvantaged communities in particular. It cannot be right when Lotto funds, which are supposed to assist the needy and support our fight against poverty, go to support concerts and ping-pong games.
A few months ago we learned with the utmost shame of the report that the lottery had given over R4 million to sponsor the Johannesburg concert of soul band Earth, Wind and Fire and that R8 million had been given to tennis, while the NGOs that play a key role in assisting the needy, such as children, homeless people and old age homes, suffer. The increasing lack of funding and the diversion of funds away from community-based organisations have negative effects on South Africa's struggle to eradicate poverty.
In the Western Cape we saw how NGOs that were predominantly assisting our people in the townships had their funding stopped or heavily reduced. We saw how, in some instances, the funding of NGOs was used as an election ploy by the DA to mobilise in the coloured communities. [Interjections.]