Statement by the MEC for Social Development, the honourable Ouma Tsopo on the occasion of the media briefing to launch the Social Development Month 2007 and the signing of the Service Level Agreement with the South African Social Security Agency, held at the Floreat Hall, Bram Fisher Building

Chairperson
The Acting Head of Department (HOD) and Executive Management of Social Development
The Acting Regional Executive Manager and Management of South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), Free State
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

This occasion of the launch of the Social Development Month 2007 should serve as an indication of our continued commitment to do all that is necessary to deliver on the ideal of a better life for all our people. We are marking this month in order to highlight the services that the Department offers and the extent to which access to these services can be reached by greater numbers of the Free Staters who up until this day still suffer the indignity of deprivation, poverty and the curse of underdevelopment. We are marking this month also to ensure that the quality of the services that are on offer are up to the standard that can fulfil the needs of our people and restore their dignity and human rights.

This occasion and the implementation of our month long programme should serve to raise awareness to all our people of what it is that this department can offer them to accelerate the pace of building socially cohesive and empowered communities. The success of this programme should therefore be underlined by the extent to which our people demand and receive social services that can enable them to contribute towards a process of their empowerment and self reliance. We must, therefore, during this period work with our communities, to listen and understand what their plight is but importantly to ensure that we unlock that which may serve as an obstacle in meeting their long declared need of emancipation and empowerment. This should also serve as an opportunity to expand our partnerships towards a more efficient and cost effective service delivery. As it is, the task of meeting our people's needs for emancipation cannot be achieved by government alone it is a function of a collaboration of business, civil society and our communities.

Since August this year, we have embarked on a number of changes in the department with a view to strengthening and getting the department ready to dispense its service delivery obligations. These changes have been necessary and were based on the strength of the personnel that we have. These should undoubtedly see the department through to meeting its obligations to the diverse community of the Free State.

The Social Development Month Programme in outline is intended to set the benchmark for the department on the most critical aspects of service delivery. It is cognisant of the important international and national calendar dates which on their own point us to the nature of the services that must be rendered to the focus groups such as the children, the elderly, the youth, the women and people with disabilities. We are therefore certain that the marking of these important calendar dates will resonate with our commitment to accelerating the pace of service delivery towards these focus groups and therefore determine the direction of services towards their delivery on a continuous basis. The overall theme is that of accelerating the fight against poverty. It should be common knowledge to all that the scourge of poverty has affected the nature of the livelihood of all our people, and has contributed significantly to undermining the resilience of families and communities.

It has also undermined the credibility of our social relations to a point instilling a negative set of values that have seen a spiralling decay of morality with the elderly suffering gross neglect, the women and children being deprived of their right of equal citizenship as a result of the abuse that is instituted against them. These negative features can no longer be the defining character of our society, something must be done and this is our obligation to turn the tide against these negative elements by working to reclaim our communities as instruments of our humanity, by empowering families as the foundation of building a morally just society.

The signing of the Service Level Agreement with the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) is an important landmark in our quest to increase the modes of accountability in the services that are rendered by government. As it is, in the minds of the many the establishment of Sassa meant that the department no longer had anything to do with the administration of grants in the province. The reality is that grants are an important element of social development and the work of Sassa in this regard serves to strengthen the basis upon which other social services are rendered. It is therefore critical to point to the fact that this service level agreement will certify the extent to which government is able to account at the provincial level on the extension of access to grants by our people, it will increasingly link services of the department to social security, and it will also ensure that these services are delivered to reflect the ethos of 'People First - Batho Pele.' This is one of the building blocks of our determination to build a caring society, together.

To be part of the Social Development Month Programme, please refer to the departmental website (http://fssocdev.ofs.gov.za/) or the provincial website (http://www.fs.gov.za).

For further details contact:
Mondli Mvambi
Head of Communications
Tel: 051 400 0204/9
Cell: 083 265 2612
E-mail: email mondli@socdev.fs.gov.za

Issued by: Department of Social Development, Free State Provincial Government
1 October 2007