Director-General of Social Development, Mr Coceko Pakade;
Special Advisor, Mr Zane Dangor;
Members of the Ministerial Task Team;
Senior Managers of Social Development and SASSA;
Ladies and gentlemen of the media;


I am pleased to announce to you, during Social Development Month, the appointment of a ministerial committee to help us address the challenges facing our foster care system.

Some of you will recall the 2011 ruling by the North Gauteng High Court which reinstated a number of lapsed foster care orders – and by implication, the foster child grants paid for the benefit of the children.

The ruling served a critical purpose of reminding us of a number of challenges within the country’s foster care system that required urgent and lasting solutions, not least of which was the backlog in the processing of foster care applications and extensions.

In order for the foster care orders to be granted by the Children’s Court, provincial authorities are required to compile reports to submit to the Court with recommendations to be considered by the presiding officers whether children should be placed in foster care or not. Further, provincial authorities have to ensure that the foster care orders issued are managed effectively by extending them on time, ensuring the legality of placements and the continuation of foster child grants.

Since the promulgation of the Children’s Act of 2005, and the subsequent ruling of the North Gauteng High Court in 2011, it has become increasingly apparent that the growing demand for foster care placements, due especially to the impact of HIV/AIDS over the years and the limited resources to respond to this demand has created significant challenges in the system.


In the year 2000, there were approximately 200 000 children receiving foster child grants and the figure has increased to over 553 000 by 30 September 2014 and remained around that number of children because of children aging out of foster care and new ones coming in. From the amount of backlogs that exist, it is clear that the arrangements in the provinces to implement foster care programmes are not adequate for the demand that exists.

There are human resource shortages – in the form of social workers and social work supervisors – which make it difficult to implement the Children’s Act; high staff turnover for both NGOs and the Department of Social Development, putting an extra case load strain on those left behind; inadequate supervision of social workers, often leading to short-cuts in their work – we have seen this many times in social workers opting to process a child support grant instead of the applicable foster child grant; inadequate supervision of foster placements by social service professionals; foster parents not submitting extension orders to SASSA, resulting in the discontinuation of grants; and a lack of a proper management information system to properly coordinate the foster care system and make accurate data available for decision making.

An efficient foster care system requires synergy to exist between the various role players. To illustrate, the payment of foster care grants by SASSA is totally dependent on the efficiency of the Children’s Courts’ issuing and extension of foster care orders. Our guiding principle, as demanded by the Children’s Act, is that everything we do must be in the best interest of the child. Our work must therefore, be premised on the objective to provide care and protection to children in a nurturing, safe and healthy environment.

The Chief Directorate for Children has undertaken a process to collect inputs towards the amendment of the Children’s Act in order to address any ambiguities that may cause different interpretations of any part of the Act, as well as tighten up practice guidelines, norms and standards. We also intend to review policy to address the increasing number of children who require foster care.

Since 2010 we have engaged the Departments of Justice, Health, Home Affairs and Education as well as the NGO sector with the view to:

·         Eradicate the backlog of lapsed foster care orders;
·         Determine the context of foster children to inform programming of foster care services to respond to the needs of foster children;
·         Evaluate the foster care programme to inform policy reform for foster care; and
·         Make recommendations for improvement of foster care services.

To this end, a National Integrated Plan has been adopted. This strategy will be rolled out in three phases.

Phase 1 will look into the situation of expired foster care orders, while foster grants are still in payment. This involves direct contact with each family to confirm the care arrangements for the foster child or children.
Phase 2 will focus on extending the current foster care orders to eliminate the backlog and ensure compliance to the May 2011 North Gauteng High Court Order.

Phase 3, we will conduct an audit of the foster care programme. This will comprise of 3 stages:

·         A rapid assessment of foster children to gain information on the quality of foster care in South Africa as well as to create a current database of all children in foster care.
·         The second stage will be about conducting a more detailed evaluation of the foster care programme country wide. This will involve an evaluation of systems and stakeholders active in this field. The intention is to obtain empirical evidence, which can be used to influence policy.
·         The third stage is a comprehensive research project into the efficacy of the foster care programme.

The Ministerial Committee on foster care that we have appointed, and that we are introducing to you today, is an important part of the implementation of the National Strategy on Foster Care. It is established to determine the contributing factors to the challenges experienced within the foster care system and advise the Minister, within 18 months, on measures that may be considered to improve the quality of foster care services.  The work of the Committee is an important part of our efforts to respond more innovatively to challenges in society through Project Mikondzo.

As such, the Committee will be expected to consult with the respective provincial heads of Social Development and SASSA regarding the status of the foster care programme; conduct a gap analysis of the available psychosocial programmes within the social welfare programme that should be accessed by foster children; as well as provide a report with recommendations and policy options to the Minister.

The twenty-four member committee, which will be chaired by former deputy minister of social, Mrs Maria Bongi Ntuli and Deputy Chairperson, Mbuyiseli Botha, will bring with them a wealth of experience and understanding of the children’s legislation and the social development sector.  They also have knowledge of social policy implementation and evaluation, as well as a solid understanding of the foster care business process.

Mr Thokozani Magwaza, the Deputy Director-General for Comprehensive Social Security, will be the Social Development official responsible for coordinating and synergising the functions of the Committee supported by a team of Senior Managers.

I therefore, take this opportunity to congratulate and express our appreciation to the Foster Care Committee for taking on this responsibility of ensuring that our work of securing the lives of our most vulnerable children continues with purpose. The Constitution of the Republic states that ‘every child has the right to family care or parental care, or to appropriate alternative care when removed from the family environment.’  The work you are about to undertake is a significant contribution to realising this ideal. I trust that you will proceed with this ideal in mind, coupled with clarity in your understanding of the expectations of our children.

I thank you.