Cabinet will discuss the establishment of a comprehensive Social Security with the aim of putting all poor people on the social security net, says Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.

Cabinet is meeting on July 23-25, to discuss this and other issues concerning the country.

Skweyiya said the comprehensive social security was not the R100 Basic Income Grant (BIG) as proposed previously by many organisations and individuals.

But, he said this was aimed at “putting together all resources available within government in order to ensure service delivery to most needy members of our communities”.

The minister was speaking in Pretoria today, where he was briefing the media, and social development stakeholders about his department’s success in registering over three million children for the child support grant.

He said with over three million children receiving R160, government would in effect be spending over R480-million each month.

“Furthermore, as part of our efforts to strengthen families and communities so that they can take better care for children, government is providing for a total of about 6-million beneficiaries at the total cost about R2,5-billion every month on social grants,” Skweyiya added.

The minister said the child support grant and other social grants were the biggest poverty alleviation programmes meant to ensure that the most vulnerable sectors of society, such as people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS, especially orphans, were uplifted from poverty and misery.

Other interventions aimed at addressing the plight of the poor were the allocation last year of R270-million and R400-million this year for a food emergency programme, in which poor households are provided with food parcels.

Skweyiya said government had given the social development department a further R71-millon for poverty relief, targeting mostly unemployed and women and the youth, especially in rural areas. According to the minister, government spent no less than R1,5-billion for poverty relief programmes annually.

He thus congratulated structures such as faith-based organisations, the media and the communities for their role in realising the department’s achievements, saying it could not have been possible without their help.

“I take this opportunity to thank all those who have contributed and urge all South Africans to join in our on-going campaign to register all eligible children for the CSG,” he said.

Vusi Madonsela, the department’s director-general said it was clear on the basis of figures that public servants had indeed heeded the minister’s call to commit themselves to ensuring a better life for all. “We are nearer to realising our set goal for this year and have committed ourselves to exceeding the target of social grant registrations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Skweyiya said today’s celebration for reaching a “monumental achievement” was significant because it coincided with the 85th birthday of former President Nelson Mandela.

The minister said Madiba was “one of the greatest sons of our soil, one of the legends of humanity’s history, the lover and giver of the most vulnerable”.

“We are therefore today saying with this 3,4-million children mark, Happy Birthday Madiba, may you live longer, with the full knowledge that we are committed to ensuring that the socio-economic rights of our children which you made sure are enshrined in our constitution, do indeed become a reality”. – BuaNews.