It is important that we look back and honour our past, but it is equally important that we look forward and own our future.

The provision of the best possible services to our children, particularly those who are the most vulnerable, is central to owning our future. It is essential if we are to create the opportunities necessary to enable all South Africans to live lives they value.

Apartheid left many scars on our society. However, the social problems our country faces have been exacerbated by a decade of HIV/AIDS denialism. As a result of government’s failure to openly address the HIV/AIDS pandemic facing our country, hundreds of thousands of children lost their mothers and fathers unnecessarily, creating a second lost generation.

My speech today is dedicated to these children.

Speaker, the DA envisages a country where every child can reach their full potential. We call this vision the “open, opportunity society for all”. We have to ensure that the barriers that have held children captive in perpetual poverty are removed.

Social Development is not the only department that plays an integral role in ensuring a child reaches their full potential, however, ours is a significant one.

This department’s responsibility is to ensure that children who are abused, neglected, at risk or are vulnerable are protected and receive the necessary support and services.

However, the DA has major concerns about the approach this government has taken to addressing the needs of our children.

Key areas of concern include:

&bull The Children’s Act:

The Children’s Act is perhaps the most important piece of legislation that empowers the department to support children in need. It is one of very few pieces of legislation where a comprehensive costing report was conducted in order to inform the department which human resources and finances would be needed to ensure that every child is protected and receives the right services at acceptable levels of quality. However, when presented with two costing scenarios, government chose that which would ensure good practice norms and standards for priority services, but significantly lower norms and standards for non-priority services and activities.

What is the point of having a costing done on a very good piece of legislation and not striving to offer the best services to our children? Why is it, Speaker, that this government has decided to take the low road- and not the high road- when it comes to our children?

&bull Inadequate number of social workers:

Having chosen the “low costing” scenario, which fails to take into account the full scale of our country’s social development needs, government’s target number of social workers is 16 504 by 2010/11. By setting a low benchmark for the number of social workers our country requires, the department may be able to claim that it has met its targets, but the needs of millions of South Africans continue to be ignored.

&bull Overburdened social workers:

As a result of insufficient numbers of social workers, the case load of existing social workers is unacceptably high. I recently visited the Boksburg Child Welfare, and their case load is 1 500 cases to one social worker. This is far above the ratio of 60 cases per social worker as set by the Minister’s department. What steps is the Minister taking to ease the pressure on social workers and make the department’s target ratio a reality?

Speaker, the department will say that they are offering bursaries to people wanting to study social work. However, we witnessed two weeks ago how many graduates could not be absorbed into the department despite the chronic shortages of social workers. This is a reflection of extremely poor planning on the department’s side.

In contrast, the DA-run Western Cape has accommodated all social work graduates. The Western Cape has also introduced a mentoring programme to ensure that all social workers are competent in writing reports for the courts.

&bull The Child Protection Register:

This register is supposed to protect children from people found to have abused or neglected a child, or who have been deemed unsuitable to work with children. However, the register contains only 22 names. How can this be, when it is estimated that around 30 000 children per year are victims of sexual abuse? The Minister is giving a false sense of security to parents who have placed their confidence in the register. These parents believe that safe guards are in place to ensure that no person who could be a threat to their children will be allowed to work with them.

&bull High levels of substance abuse:

Speaker, substance abuse has reached epidemic proportions, particularly among the youth. This government continues to fail to prioritise tackling substance abuse. The WHO Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (2011) reports that the prevalence of alcohol abuse disorders in South Africa is one of the highest in the world. The Department of Social Development is the lead department in tackling substance abuse. It has poured millions into the Ke Moja campaign (I’m fine), with very little benefit. The poor performance of the Central Drug Authority (CDA) is of additional concern.

The continued existence of a toothless CDA, and the use of a “one size fits all” approach to substance abuse is simply not working. Research from across the world shows that targeted prevention, which is community and evidence based, and takes both risk and resilience factors of each community into consideration is needed. Simply put, we must strive to have a more scientific approach to our substance abuse pandemic.

The Western Cape Government, for example, has mainstreamed drug education by bringing it into the life orientation curriculum for Grade 11, and next year, it will also be extended to Grades 5 and 9.

&bull The South African Social Security Agency:

Serious concerns have been raised about the awarding of the R10 billion tender to Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) for the payment of social grants. There are many questions that remain unanswered about this tender, such as why key tender requirements were changed by the CEO of SASSA just 9 days before the date on which applications for the tender closed. Speaker, I have written to the Public Protector in this regard in order to ensure that all South Africans, especially those who rely on social grants to survive, are confident that the tender process was in accordance with all regulations.

Speaker, the Minister and her department need to start putting the needs of our children first.

If we are to enable every child to achieve their full potential, they need to be able to access the opportunities necessary to live lives they value.

It is this vision of providing every child the best possible start in life that motivates the DA. We believe that every child can, and must, own their future.

Thank you.