Chairperson, hon Minister of Social Development, hon Deputy Minister Dlamini, hon members, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to start by thanking the Minister for delivering a budget speech that was significantly filled with direction and was focused on enhanced service delivery. I specifically wanted to thank her for visiting Mitchells Plain and the Horizon Development Centre during the last Minmec held in Cape Town. During that visit, the Minister spoke to the youth about the dangers of substance abuse. I will say more about that later.
I would also like to express my gratitude for being part of a team whose mandate was to contribute to the fulfilment of our constitutional responsibility. In her budget speech, the Minister also outlined her department's programme for the next financial year. It is important that we embark on a road that has, as its commitment, our dedicated service to the people of our country, especially the poorest of the poor.
Her commitment to uproot fraud, to eradicate corruption and to ensure that no effort will be spared to bring to justice those who compromise the integrity of the social grant system must be commended. The implementation of the Children's Act, Act 38 of 2005 as amended, the Child Justice Act and the Older Persons Act, is welcomed as they are future instruments to be expedited.
The migration of the current grant system to financial institutions is long overdue and is welcomed in this House. I think all members of this House noted and have had personal experience of how older persons and the recipients of grants are being abused by gangsters and drug lords during payouts, when receiving their social grants. I believe that the migration to a banking system will eliminate many of these social ills that we have witnessed in the past number of years.
In complimenting the government's programme, we in the Western Cape are also deeply concerned about the state of abuse against children in our province. It has reached crisis proportions, and we are currently mapping out our strategic response to the abuse of children. Our first priority, for now, is to implement the 2010 child protection plan in time for the soccer World Cup.
Therefore, I am pleased to announce in this House that we are ready to implement the national 2010 child protection plan across the Western Cape in general but specifically at the five public viewing areas. We would also like to inform the members of this House that, in the next few days, we will be announcing the school safety plan. As we know, schools will be closed during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup period, which would put an added responsibility on all of us, as well as the Department of Social Development and the various municipalities across South Africa. We are committed to showcasing that we are ready to implement the child protection plan.
In the Western Cape, we also have moved from the premise that to realise a self-reliant society, opportunities need to be created for all the citizens of the Western Cape that are poor, vulnerable and have special needs. This fits into the programme, as announced by the Minister today. In the Western Cape, we believe in social entrepreneurship. Last year in this House, the Minister referred to social entrepreneurship. We believe that that is one of the key tools to create self-reliance without compromising on the developmental role of the state. Therefore, in the Western Cape we have committed ourselves to four broad goals: to modernise the services, to improve financial governance, to increase social entrepreneurship, and to create a caring society.
Speaking about improving financial governance, the Western Cape funds 1 800 NGOs. On a daily basis, I have been confronted with complaints that many of those organisations do not comply with good systems of financial governance.
Hon Minister, tomorrow the standing committee on social development in the Western Cape will join the local SA Social Security Agency, Sassa, to visit some of the service delivery points to get first-hand experience and to test whether service delivery is indeed improving on the ground.
Hon members in this House as well as the Minister referred to the old age home that burnt down over the past weekend in Paarl. Thank you for the messages of condolence. I was there this morning and on Saturday night when the place was burning. I personally witnessed the caring culture of the people of the Western Cape. Many times we speak - also in this House - about ubuntu, but we rarely see it in action. I want to mention to this House that I have personally seen ubuntu in action, through the staff, the municipality, and the law enforcement agency; everybody engaging to ensure that we create a caring society.
Today, I will be engaging with the insurance company to make sure that they pay out so that we can reconstruct the old age home. Therefore, I am also thankful for the support we have received in this House today.
Hon Minister, I think we need to do something more specific right across this country. We need to put measures in place at all the old age homes across South Africa and all the crches, in order to make sure that health and safety standards are in place all over the country. I have already issued such an instruction to my head of department to make sure that all the old age homes comply with the safety standards across the province.
Hon Minister, I would like to report that yesterday I received a letter from your office stating that we should have a dedicated focus on early childhood development. I want to report to this House that I have already indicated in the House and in the meeting yesterday with my HOD that we will comply with your request to have a dedicated focus on early childhood development. I also want to state that last month, during my budget vote, we made special priority allocations in the budget for early childhood development, and we will certainly co-operate with your request to have a dedicated focus on early childhood development.
We also believe that we need to give the youth hope. We have launched Project Hope in the Western Cape. Hope is an acronym for Higher Opportunities for People to Excel. Therefore, on 16 June we will not be involved in handing out T-shirts and caps but create opportunities for people to excel.
I would also like the Minister to investigate the role of local government in social development as we frequently get people who question the role of local government in terms of social development. As a Minister for social development in the Western Cape, I have no doubt about the important role that local authorities have, and I have no doubt about the developmental role of social development within a municipality. Secondly, I would like the Minister to inform us whether any impact assessment was done of the sustainable livelihood projects of the National Development Agency. Thirdly, I would like the Minister to inform us how the Central Drug Authority will assist provincial governments with the issue of substance abuse.
I want to congratulate the Minister on many of the initiatives that she has indicated here today in this House. However, I also want to inform the House that the current process of social workers going into the field, writing a report with a pen, going back to the office to type it and eventually emailing it to the supervisors is long, bureaucratic and cumbersome. We in the Western Cape have developed a "smart pen" whereby a person, in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, for example, can visit any farm and write up a report with the pen. That pen sends that handwritten information into a text format. Via satellite, the text format then immediately goes back to your office. The supervisor would have access to the whereabouts of the farm worker or the field worker working on the farm. [Applause.]
Hon Minister, we are now investigating the possibility of whether we could use the "smart pen" for social workers and probation officers, particularly in the courts, in order to fast-track the diversion options, so that when the social worker writes the report in the court, that information would already be with the supervisor. This will help us get smarter and work smarter in government.