Date: 15/05/2003
Source: Ministry of Social Development
Title: Skweyiya: Social Development Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004, NCOP
BUDGET VOTE SPEECH BY DR ZOLA SKWEYIYA, MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, Cape Town, 15 May 2003
Madam Chairperson,
Honourable Members;
MECs for Social Development;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
This budget vote speech is presented against the backdrop of critical international resolutions adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, hosted by us last year in Johannesburg. These resolutions added fresh impetus to our collective commitments to, amongst others, half the world's poor by 2015.
Honourable members, as we finalise our preparations for the Growth and Development Summit due in June this year, we should note significant progress, both in the social and economic spheres that has been made over the past nine years. Indeed the tide has turned and the people's contract for a better tomorrow is taking shape.
In my budget vote speech to the National Assembly in March this year I pledged to accelerate the pace of delivery of social development programmes and grants whilst empowering millions of poor citizens of South Africa. Indeed the vulnerable of our society, in particular children, older persons, people with disabilities, people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases, These vulnerable sections of our populace are, more than ever before, beginning to feel that the government is indeed taking bold steps to make them masters of their own destinies, I did also reiterate that children must come first in all that we do.
The approach of the Ministry of Social Development and the sector has been one that supports the poor and vulnerable through direct income support and social welfare services, whilst placing emphasis on the empowerment of community organisations and families.
Strengthening Families
Today, we celebrate the ninth anniversary of the International Day of the Family. This is a prelude to the tenth anniversary, which will be celebrated across the globe next year as The International Year of the Family. This should mark the beginning of our journey to realising social integration through strengthened family units and accompanying social infrastructure.
As I speak to you hundreds of families are gathered in Soshanguve, in the city of Tshwane, and many other parts of South Africa. They gather to reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the family and vulnerable groups are placed at the centre of all development strategies and programmes. Many families are under pressure to cope with the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS, unemployment and other social ills and this is having a devastating impact on the most vulnerable, especially children. In this regard it is the duty of the government in general and our Department in particular to reach out and assist. It is from this perspective that our theme this year is "Building a social contract to strengthen families and communities for a better life for children."
This approach is at the centre of the moral regeneration of our society and is the premise of addressing many of the social challenges confronting our society, including those that confront children.
In strengthening families we ought to reach out and render support to non-governmental and community-based organisations who are the cold face of these challenges. Critical to this support is the development of a volunteer core that will assist us as we reach out to these families. As we endeavour to develop sustainable interventions at a family level, we must strengthen our efforts to build a community-oriented cadre. We firmly believe that these community development workers are the key to reinforcing all our development efforts and will assist us in identifying, reaching out, and strengthening vulnerable families.
Honourable members, stronger families will facilitate for greater access to all the constitutionally guaranteed rights, including the rights of children. Our efforts this year and over the MTEF period will therefore give strong emphasis to strengthening families as we believe that stronger families are a foundation for strong communities, and strong communities are a foundation to a stronger nation, stronger nations are nations that a fit for children and their development.
Social grants for children
I take this opportunity to thank the members of this House who have travelled the journey from welfare to social development with us. I also thank the community members and civil society organisations who have maintained us on the path of ensuring that "children are put first".
Honourable members, our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, as attested by over 5,6 million people who are now recipients of social grants. Of these 2,7 million are children who now receive the Child Support Grant (CSG). An additional 1 million children under age 9, who from the 1st April 2003 became eligible to receive their grants, will be added. This follows the President's announcement in his State of the Nation Address of an increase in the age of eligibility for the CSG for children up to their 14th birthday over the next three years. I am pleased to announce that from 1 April 2004, the grant will be extended to children in the 9 and 10-year age category and the following year to all children under the age of 14 years. This will translate to an additional 3.2 million children receiving the child support grant and the R11 billion set aside by government underscores our commitment to ensuring that children are indeed put first.
I must however express my concern that not all the children who should be receiving grants are indeed receiving them. This is true for all grant types targeting children including the foster care and care dependency grant, which account for only just over 180 000 of the 5,6 million grant recipients, which is far from the targeted numbers. This challenge is compounded by the fact that more than half of the unregistered children and eligible people are in the poorest provinces, namely Free State, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Members of the Council will well be aware that these provinces are confronted by, amongst other things, staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure, inappropriate skills and lack of access to registration centres. To overcome these constraints we have begun our work with provinces, local authorities, and the Departments of Education, Health and Home Affairs and have intensified the campaign to reach out to qualifying beneficiaries. Particular attention is being given to the Eastern Cape and a special task team has been established to assist the province to turn around the lack of service that had afflicted the province for some time. Jointly with this Presidential Task Team, I am happy to announce that considerable progress is being made which will be to the benefit of the poorest of the poor.
We have also extended our arm to civil society organisations who have assisted us in reaching rural areas and vulnerable groups. In the build up to the National Assembly Budget Vote Speech, I challenged trade unions to assist us in these efforts, I am pleased to announce that owing to meetings with many unions, including Nehawu, we are at the dawn of a revolutionary partnership to extend and improve service delivery to the poor and vulnerable communities, through the use of union members as well as the retired union members and volunteers.
IMPROVING SOCIAL SECURITY
Madame Chair, indications in our databases show that nearly 2 million older people receive the old age grant, this translates to 100% of those eligible for the State Old Age Grant.
Thus our efforts, which included grant increases above inflation rates, over the years have served to intensify our responses to reducing the pain and ongoing suffering of our people, especially older persons and people with disabilities. The challenge that remains is to ensure a dignified and speedy treatment of these groups and other grant beneficiaries during the processing and payment of grants. In this regard, we have developed the norms and standards. In the last year we have laid the foundation for the implementation of these norms and standards. This involved setting up project management offices, and training more than 2 000 officials in social security administration and customer care.
Continuous improvement of our services is of paramount importance and this cannot be achieved with the current limited infrastructure, in particular the information management technology at our disposal. We have therefore extended our arms to seek strategic partners who will be able to assist us in the replacement of the archaic SOCPEN system so as to improve the provision of social assistance grants.
The provision of social assistance grants is a very significant poverty alleviation programme of government. For this purpose we require a different institutional arrangement that focuses on this initiative. To this end, as you maybe aware, Cabinet has decided to establish the National Social Security Agency. The Agency would be a specialist and focused institution for the management, administration and payment of social grants. It is expected that the Agency's entry will simplify social development budgets to the provinces. Currently over 87,2% of the social development expenditure in 2002/03 was for social security transfers. In the larger poorer provinces such as Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo the social grant programmes absorb around 95% of the budgets. A significant number, over 55%, of the social grants beneficiaries are in these provinces, and some provincial departments pay up to R34 per grant to third party contractors. Despite these huge amounts going to these contractors, we are still experiencing unacceptable conditions of long queues, deaths during payouts and an environment where there are loan sharks which put our older citizens into further vulnerability and they having to travel and walk long distances to get their grants. I must say we need to work even harder with the provinces to ensure that this comes to a stop, so that we can restore the dignity of older citizens.
Co-operative governance is therefore a critical success factor to improving service delivery. Consequently my Department is working with the Presidential Task Team to improve social assistance service delivery in the Eastern Cape. Progress reports have been presented to Cabinet and they point to the fact that the challenges being faced by this province in terms of service delivery also obtain in other provinces, especially those incorporating former Bantustan areas. As we begin to work in close cooperative governance with the provinces to make our services available we are beginning to see the urgent need to work closely with local government, so that we can ensure quick, easy, effective and efficient access to services by the beneficiaries.
Honourable Members, one of the most critical areas of our work this year will be to consolidate our approach to a comprehensive social security system, for finalisation in the Cabinet Lekgotla in July. It is important to indicate that this approach is more than just the awarding of a social grant, but constitutes a package of services to those at risk or facing certain contingencies. This comprehensive system of social security should encompass, in addition to social assistance grants, unemployment insurance, social health insurance, retirement, improved services through the Road Accident Fund and the social wage. The Social Cluster is working towards consolidating the various elements of a comprehensive social security system for finalisation by Cabinet.
HIV/AIDS
The impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS and social exclusion on our children is devastating. In many cases, children whose parents or caregivers have died of HIV/AIDS are left to care for their siblings. Consequently these children cannot attend school or participate in recreation activities. Many of the communities continue to shun and marginalize families affected by the epidemic.
This year the Department has been allocated R65.9 million in order to accelerate the expansion of the Home and Community Based Care Programme in partnership with NGOs, CBOs and faith-based organisations so as to address the critical needs of children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Of this KwaZulu-Natal received the biggest allocation in the amount of R11.9 million, followed by Mpumalanga with R9.8 million, Gauteng with R9.6 and Free State receiving R9.2 million, and the balance received by all other provinces. Through the implementation of effective and affordable care and support models, which are integrated with social welfare services, social security and the poverty relief programme, provincial departments are beginning to address the twin challenges of HIV/AIDS and poverty and have successfully established and supported more than 300 centres which have targeted over 75,000 children and their families to date. Since many of the communities continue to shun and marginalise families affected by the epidemic, the Department has set aside a substantial amount of the budget to cater for drop in centres and soup kitchens, which will be run by provincial departments in cooperation with community organisations, in order to care for children and those who are frail.
Over the past year the Department of Social Development has concluded several major research reports on the impact of HIV/AIDS, one such research is the "causes of death report" which my Department did in collaboration with the Department of Health, Stats South Africa and the Medical Research Council, points to the fact that TB and HIV/AIDS are now the biggest killers in the country. My department will consequently work closely with Statistics SA, the Department of Health and academic institutions to improve our understanding of the demographic and social dimensions of the epidemic and develop strategies to mitigate its effect.
Simultaneously, we have to continue building the capacity of the government, NGOs, CBOs and FBOs to understand these research findings and use it in planning their intervention and services. In the past two years, we trained more than 1 500-government planner through the Primary HIV/AIDS capacity building course. This course will be expanded to also include the sectors mentioned above in the coming year.
Integrated development and Poverty eradication
Honourable members, in the National Assembly Budget Vote I asserted that our attack on poverty is underpinned by our desire to empower our people to extricate themselves out of poverty. To this end my Department continues to administer over R563 million since 1997, which supports over 3 600 community based projects which seek to rebuild and strengthen the community asset base, whilst ensuring that community level social infrastructure is enhanced, vulnerable groups are targeted, and food insecurity is addressed.
In the next financial year, which marks the final year of the Poverty Relief Programme in its current form, my Department will be managing R71 million. This will be used to strengthen the existing poverty relief projects and linking them with other resources and agents of development. Over the years the Programme has overcome the problems of under - expenditure and the Department continues to gain invaluable experience in working directly with the poor themselves.
Madame Chair, these gains are not without challenges, both at a programmatic and project level. One of these is the complete isolation and exclusion of communities from assets and institutions such as land, banks, suppliers, markets and skills development agents.
These challenges require of us to increase the number of community development workers and improve their skills base. The challenges confronting the projects themselves may require greater flexibility in our financing and development policies.
Madam Chair, in order to mitigate the food crises confronting millions our people in the country and sub-region, government has allocated over R400 million for each of the next three years, starting 1 April 2003, in the form of the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme. The Programme is led by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, and will provide relief measures to vulnerable groups who cannot afford adequate and nutritious food due to poverty and escalating food prices. In order to support this programme, my Department has employed and seconded 36 officers to the provinces. The main beneficiaries of the programme will be child, granny and women headed households and households with HIV/AIDS affected and infected persons. Essentially the programme is initially focusing on social facilitation and the distribution of food parcels to the most vulnerable, in cooperation with the Provincial Departments, the IDT, the NDA, and a range of relief organisations. In future the provision of the food parcels will be complemented by the support of food production clusters and initiatives in impoverished communities and households.
Honourable members, I take this opportunity to thank and seek your ongoing support in delivering this important Programme. I further ask your assistance in order to develop the programme in such a manner that it can be a vantage point for community empowerment and stimulation of local economies.
LEGISLATION
Honourable Members, transformation of the legislative framework remains an important part in ensuring that democracy in our country has real meaning to the vulnerable. To this end I am pleased to announce that, with the assistance of honourable members in the Portfolio and Select Committees, the following Bills are being worked on and are close to completion:
1. The Comprehensive Child Bill seeks to provide a holistic protection to children in line with the socio-economic rights enshrined in our constitution
2. The Social Security Agency Bill seeks to centralise the payment of grants through the establishment of a national agency;
3. Social Assistance Bill seeks to provide for the rendering of social assistance and social relief of distress to persons;
4. The Older Persons Bill seeks to protect and secure the dignity of older persons; and
5. The National Development Agency Amendment Act has formally transferred the NDA to my Department, and the cumulative effect of this and the above pieces of legislation will lay the basis for the strengthening of families, communities and civil society for a better life for all, especially children.
Budget Allocation
Honourable members allocations to the provincial social development budgets have increased, over the MTEF period, in an unparalleled and unprecedented growth, from 19,4 billion in 1999/00 to R31,2 billion in 2002/03. This is but one expression of our commitment to social development and the growing importance and significance of social development, as expressed by the average growth to 25,8 percent of total provincial expenditure.
I take this opportunity to once again thank all the partners who assisted us to communicate and publicise the social grants and all our other services, I say to them "Nangomso! Without your efforts we would have not reached such growth levels.
These growth rates are however inflated by a special allocation of R2 billion in 2002/03, which was for the payment of monies owed to millions of our beneficiaries and as a result of our policy shift to pay recipients from the date of application as opposed to the date of approval. The new Child Support Grant, totalling R10.9 billion, and the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme, totalling R388 million per year are the most prominent increases.
This growth has translated to increases in all the provinces ranging from 9 per cent in the Northern Cape and to 21,2 percent in Mpumalanga. This growth was also accompanied by equity and equalization of access with the poorer provinces receiving the bulk of the budget and with an above national average growth.
I would like to however draw to the attention of members that despite this unparalleled increase in grant recipients and added pressures on the administration the total personnel budget has decreased from 12.8%, in the previous MTEF period to 11,5% in the current MTEF period. We cannot deliver on our mandate unless we have the right numbers and skills at the delivery point.
We also have a serious problem of losing critical social workers skills due to the conditions of work and some are migrating to other countries. I have already started discussions with the Minister off Finance to ensure that we have a retention strategy including better conditions of work and remuneration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to thank my colleagues and members of the Executive Committees in the provinces for having walked besides me down this road from welfare to social development. Let me also thank the chairperson and members of the Select Committee who have continued to support and guide me through this difficult and challenging period.
Without all your collective and individual efforts and those of all our partners the road to social development would be so much thornier.
I thank you
Issued by Ministry of Social Development
15 May 2003
Source: Ministry of Social Development
Title: Skweyiya: Social Development Dept Budget Vote 2003/2004, NCOP
BUDGET VOTE SPEECH BY DR ZOLA SKWEYIYA, MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, TO THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, Cape Town, 15 May 2003
Madam Chairperson,
Honourable Members;
MECs for Social Development;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen
Introduction
This budget vote speech is presented against the backdrop of critical international resolutions adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, hosted by us last year in Johannesburg. These resolutions added fresh impetus to our collective commitments to, amongst others, half the world's poor by 2015.
Honourable members, as we finalise our preparations for the Growth and Development Summit due in June this year, we should note significant progress, both in the social and economic spheres that has been made over the past nine years. Indeed the tide has turned and the people's contract for a better tomorrow is taking shape.
In my budget vote speech to the National Assembly in March this year I pledged to accelerate the pace of delivery of social development programmes and grants whilst empowering millions of poor citizens of South Africa. Indeed the vulnerable of our society, in particular children, older persons, people with disabilities, people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases, These vulnerable sections of our populace are, more than ever before, beginning to feel that the government is indeed taking bold steps to make them masters of their own destinies, I did also reiterate that children must come first in all that we do.
The approach of the Ministry of Social Development and the sector has been one that supports the poor and vulnerable through direct income support and social welfare services, whilst placing emphasis on the empowerment of community organisations and families.
Strengthening Families
Today, we celebrate the ninth anniversary of the International Day of the Family. This is a prelude to the tenth anniversary, which will be celebrated across the globe next year as The International Year of the Family. This should mark the beginning of our journey to realising social integration through strengthened family units and accompanying social infrastructure.
As I speak to you hundreds of families are gathered in Soshanguve, in the city of Tshwane, and many other parts of South Africa. They gather to reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the family and vulnerable groups are placed at the centre of all development strategies and programmes. Many families are under pressure to cope with the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS, unemployment and other social ills and this is having a devastating impact on the most vulnerable, especially children. In this regard it is the duty of the government in general and our Department in particular to reach out and assist. It is from this perspective that our theme this year is "Building a social contract to strengthen families and communities for a better life for children."
This approach is at the centre of the moral regeneration of our society and is the premise of addressing many of the social challenges confronting our society, including those that confront children.
In strengthening families we ought to reach out and render support to non-governmental and community-based organisations who are the cold face of these challenges. Critical to this support is the development of a volunteer core that will assist us as we reach out to these families. As we endeavour to develop sustainable interventions at a family level, we must strengthen our efforts to build a community-oriented cadre. We firmly believe that these community development workers are the key to reinforcing all our development efforts and will assist us in identifying, reaching out, and strengthening vulnerable families.
Honourable members, stronger families will facilitate for greater access to all the constitutionally guaranteed rights, including the rights of children. Our efforts this year and over the MTEF period will therefore give strong emphasis to strengthening families as we believe that stronger families are a foundation for strong communities, and strong communities are a foundation to a stronger nation, stronger nations are nations that a fit for children and their development.
Social grants for children
I take this opportunity to thank the members of this House who have travelled the journey from welfare to social development with us. I also thank the community members and civil society organisations who have maintained us on the path of ensuring that "children are put first".
Honourable members, our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, as attested by over 5,6 million people who are now recipients of social grants. Of these 2,7 million are children who now receive the Child Support Grant (CSG). An additional 1 million children under age 9, who from the 1st April 2003 became eligible to receive their grants, will be added. This follows the President's announcement in his State of the Nation Address of an increase in the age of eligibility for the CSG for children up to their 14th birthday over the next three years. I am pleased to announce that from 1 April 2004, the grant will be extended to children in the 9 and 10-year age category and the following year to all children under the age of 14 years. This will translate to an additional 3.2 million children receiving the child support grant and the R11 billion set aside by government underscores our commitment to ensuring that children are indeed put first.
I must however express my concern that not all the children who should be receiving grants are indeed receiving them. This is true for all grant types targeting children including the foster care and care dependency grant, which account for only just over 180 000 of the 5,6 million grant recipients, which is far from the targeted numbers. This challenge is compounded by the fact that more than half of the unregistered children and eligible people are in the poorest provinces, namely Free State, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Members of the Council will well be aware that these provinces are confronted by, amongst other things, staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure, inappropriate skills and lack of access to registration centres. To overcome these constraints we have begun our work with provinces, local authorities, and the Departments of Education, Health and Home Affairs and have intensified the campaign to reach out to qualifying beneficiaries. Particular attention is being given to the Eastern Cape and a special task team has been established to assist the province to turn around the lack of service that had afflicted the province for some time. Jointly with this Presidential Task Team, I am happy to announce that considerable progress is being made which will be to the benefit of the poorest of the poor.
We have also extended our arm to civil society organisations who have assisted us in reaching rural areas and vulnerable groups. In the build up to the National Assembly Budget Vote Speech, I challenged trade unions to assist us in these efforts, I am pleased to announce that owing to meetings with many unions, including Nehawu, we are at the dawn of a revolutionary partnership to extend and improve service delivery to the poor and vulnerable communities, through the use of union members as well as the retired union members and volunteers.
IMPROVING SOCIAL SECURITY
Madame Chair, indications in our databases show that nearly 2 million older people receive the old age grant, this translates to 100% of those eligible for the State Old Age Grant.
Thus our efforts, which included grant increases above inflation rates, over the years have served to intensify our responses to reducing the pain and ongoing suffering of our people, especially older persons and people with disabilities. The challenge that remains is to ensure a dignified and speedy treatment of these groups and other grant beneficiaries during the processing and payment of grants. In this regard, we have developed the norms and standards. In the last year we have laid the foundation for the implementation of these norms and standards. This involved setting up project management offices, and training more than 2 000 officials in social security administration and customer care.
Continuous improvement of our services is of paramount importance and this cannot be achieved with the current limited infrastructure, in particular the information management technology at our disposal. We have therefore extended our arms to seek strategic partners who will be able to assist us in the replacement of the archaic SOCPEN system so as to improve the provision of social assistance grants.
The provision of social assistance grants is a very significant poverty alleviation programme of government. For this purpose we require a different institutional arrangement that focuses on this initiative. To this end, as you maybe aware, Cabinet has decided to establish the National Social Security Agency. The Agency would be a specialist and focused institution for the management, administration and payment of social grants. It is expected that the Agency's entry will simplify social development budgets to the provinces. Currently over 87,2% of the social development expenditure in 2002/03 was for social security transfers. In the larger poorer provinces such as Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo the social grant programmes absorb around 95% of the budgets. A significant number, over 55%, of the social grants beneficiaries are in these provinces, and some provincial departments pay up to R34 per grant to third party contractors. Despite these huge amounts going to these contractors, we are still experiencing unacceptable conditions of long queues, deaths during payouts and an environment where there are loan sharks which put our older citizens into further vulnerability and they having to travel and walk long distances to get their grants. I must say we need to work even harder with the provinces to ensure that this comes to a stop, so that we can restore the dignity of older citizens.
Co-operative governance is therefore a critical success factor to improving service delivery. Consequently my Department is working with the Presidential Task Team to improve social assistance service delivery in the Eastern Cape. Progress reports have been presented to Cabinet and they point to the fact that the challenges being faced by this province in terms of service delivery also obtain in other provinces, especially those incorporating former Bantustan areas. As we begin to work in close cooperative governance with the provinces to make our services available we are beginning to see the urgent need to work closely with local government, so that we can ensure quick, easy, effective and efficient access to services by the beneficiaries.
Honourable Members, one of the most critical areas of our work this year will be to consolidate our approach to a comprehensive social security system, for finalisation in the Cabinet Lekgotla in July. It is important to indicate that this approach is more than just the awarding of a social grant, but constitutes a package of services to those at risk or facing certain contingencies. This comprehensive system of social security should encompass, in addition to social assistance grants, unemployment insurance, social health insurance, retirement, improved services through the Road Accident Fund and the social wage. The Social Cluster is working towards consolidating the various elements of a comprehensive social security system for finalisation by Cabinet.
HIV/AIDS
The impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS and social exclusion on our children is devastating. In many cases, children whose parents or caregivers have died of HIV/AIDS are left to care for their siblings. Consequently these children cannot attend school or participate in recreation activities. Many of the communities continue to shun and marginalize families affected by the epidemic.
This year the Department has been allocated R65.9 million in order to accelerate the expansion of the Home and Community Based Care Programme in partnership with NGOs, CBOs and faith-based organisations so as to address the critical needs of children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Of this KwaZulu-Natal received the biggest allocation in the amount of R11.9 million, followed by Mpumalanga with R9.8 million, Gauteng with R9.6 and Free State receiving R9.2 million, and the balance received by all other provinces. Through the implementation of effective and affordable care and support models, which are integrated with social welfare services, social security and the poverty relief programme, provincial departments are beginning to address the twin challenges of HIV/AIDS and poverty and have successfully established and supported more than 300 centres which have targeted over 75,000 children and their families to date. Since many of the communities continue to shun and marginalise families affected by the epidemic, the Department has set aside a substantial amount of the budget to cater for drop in centres and soup kitchens, which will be run by provincial departments in cooperation with community organisations, in order to care for children and those who are frail.
Over the past year the Department of Social Development has concluded several major research reports on the impact of HIV/AIDS, one such research is the "causes of death report" which my Department did in collaboration with the Department of Health, Stats South Africa and the Medical Research Council, points to the fact that TB and HIV/AIDS are now the biggest killers in the country. My department will consequently work closely with Statistics SA, the Department of Health and academic institutions to improve our understanding of the demographic and social dimensions of the epidemic and develop strategies to mitigate its effect.
Simultaneously, we have to continue building the capacity of the government, NGOs, CBOs and FBOs to understand these research findings and use it in planning their intervention and services. In the past two years, we trained more than 1 500-government planner through the Primary HIV/AIDS capacity building course. This course will be expanded to also include the sectors mentioned above in the coming year.
Integrated development and Poverty eradication
Honourable members, in the National Assembly Budget Vote I asserted that our attack on poverty is underpinned by our desire to empower our people to extricate themselves out of poverty. To this end my Department continues to administer over R563 million since 1997, which supports over 3 600 community based projects which seek to rebuild and strengthen the community asset base, whilst ensuring that community level social infrastructure is enhanced, vulnerable groups are targeted, and food insecurity is addressed.
In the next financial year, which marks the final year of the Poverty Relief Programme in its current form, my Department will be managing R71 million. This will be used to strengthen the existing poverty relief projects and linking them with other resources and agents of development. Over the years the Programme has overcome the problems of under - expenditure and the Department continues to gain invaluable experience in working directly with the poor themselves.
Madame Chair, these gains are not without challenges, both at a programmatic and project level. One of these is the complete isolation and exclusion of communities from assets and institutions such as land, banks, suppliers, markets and skills development agents.
These challenges require of us to increase the number of community development workers and improve their skills base. The challenges confronting the projects themselves may require greater flexibility in our financing and development policies.
Madam Chair, in order to mitigate the food crises confronting millions our people in the country and sub-region, government has allocated over R400 million for each of the next three years, starting 1 April 2003, in the form of the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme. The Programme is led by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, and will provide relief measures to vulnerable groups who cannot afford adequate and nutritious food due to poverty and escalating food prices. In order to support this programme, my Department has employed and seconded 36 officers to the provinces. The main beneficiaries of the programme will be child, granny and women headed households and households with HIV/AIDS affected and infected persons. Essentially the programme is initially focusing on social facilitation and the distribution of food parcels to the most vulnerable, in cooperation with the Provincial Departments, the IDT, the NDA, and a range of relief organisations. In future the provision of the food parcels will be complemented by the support of food production clusters and initiatives in impoverished communities and households.
Honourable members, I take this opportunity to thank and seek your ongoing support in delivering this important Programme. I further ask your assistance in order to develop the programme in such a manner that it can be a vantage point for community empowerment and stimulation of local economies.
LEGISLATION
Honourable Members, transformation of the legislative framework remains an important part in ensuring that democracy in our country has real meaning to the vulnerable. To this end I am pleased to announce that, with the assistance of honourable members in the Portfolio and Select Committees, the following Bills are being worked on and are close to completion:
1. The Comprehensive Child Bill seeks to provide a holistic protection to children in line with the socio-economic rights enshrined in our constitution
2. The Social Security Agency Bill seeks to centralise the payment of grants through the establishment of a national agency;
3. Social Assistance Bill seeks to provide for the rendering of social assistance and social relief of distress to persons;
4. The Older Persons Bill seeks to protect and secure the dignity of older persons; and
5. The National Development Agency Amendment Act has formally transferred the NDA to my Department, and the cumulative effect of this and the above pieces of legislation will lay the basis for the strengthening of families, communities and civil society for a better life for all, especially children.
Budget Allocation
Honourable members allocations to the provincial social development budgets have increased, over the MTEF period, in an unparalleled and unprecedented growth, from 19,4 billion in 1999/00 to R31,2 billion in 2002/03. This is but one expression of our commitment to social development and the growing importance and significance of social development, as expressed by the average growth to 25,8 percent of total provincial expenditure.
I take this opportunity to once again thank all the partners who assisted us to communicate and publicise the social grants and all our other services, I say to them "Nangomso! Without your efforts we would have not reached such growth levels.
These growth rates are however inflated by a special allocation of R2 billion in 2002/03, which was for the payment of monies owed to millions of our beneficiaries and as a result of our policy shift to pay recipients from the date of application as opposed to the date of approval. The new Child Support Grant, totalling R10.9 billion, and the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme, totalling R388 million per year are the most prominent increases.
This growth has translated to increases in all the provinces ranging from 9 per cent in the Northern Cape and to 21,2 percent in Mpumalanga. This growth was also accompanied by equity and equalization of access with the poorer provinces receiving the bulk of the budget and with an above national average growth.
I would like to however draw to the attention of members that despite this unparalleled increase in grant recipients and added pressures on the administration the total personnel budget has decreased from 12.8%, in the previous MTEF period to 11,5% in the current MTEF period. We cannot deliver on our mandate unless we have the right numbers and skills at the delivery point.
We also have a serious problem of losing critical social workers skills due to the conditions of work and some are migrating to other countries. I have already started discussions with the Minister off Finance to ensure that we have a retention strategy including better conditions of work and remuneration.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to thank my colleagues and members of the Executive Committees in the provinces for having walked besides me down this road from welfare to social development. Let me also thank the chairperson and members of the Select Committee who have continued to support and guide me through this difficult and challenging period.
Without all your collective and individual efforts and those of all our partners the road to social development would be so much thornier.
I thank you
Issued by Ministry of Social Development
15 May 2003
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