Issued by: The Ministry for Welfare and Population Development
21 August 1997
MINISTER WELCOMES CABINET DECISION TO ENDORSE KEY WELFARE BILLS
Welfare and Population Development Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has welcomed a decision by Cabinet to endorse key Welfare bills that will dramatically transform social welfare and empower not-for-profit organisations in South Africa.
Cabinet this week endorsed the Welfare Matters Amendment Bill, Not-for-Profit Organisations Bill and the draft White Paper for a Population Policy for South Africa.
WELFARE MATTERS AMENDMENT BILL
This Bill will now come before Parliament during the 1997 session. The Bill seeks to:
The new child support grant will be paid to a primary care-giver; and will bed at the level of R100 and not R75. The age cohort of beneficiaries remains 0 - 6, this is until the child's 7th (seventh) birthday. Introduction of the new grant is targeted for early 1998, aims to reach approximately 3-million of the poorest children when the programme reaches maturity over a five-year period, this will amount to 48% of children under the age of 7 years.
These children live in households earning less than R10 000 per year or R833 per month.
THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS BILL
This Bill, also coming before Parliament during the 1997 session seeks to:
Other parts of the Fund-raising Act relating to various fields of relief funds were to remain at this stage.
The purpose of the NPO Bill is to encourage and support not-for-profit organisations in their contribution to meeting the diverse needs of the people of South Africa within a climate of freedom and voluntary association. Through voluntary registration and other capacity building initiatives, the Bill aims to promote good governance, accountability and public and donor confidence in not-for-profit organisations.
The Bill provides for voluntary registration of not-for-profit organisations, on submission of a written constitution. Once registered there is an obligation to submit annual narrative and financial reports. There will be a public register and basic data-base on the NPO sector. Organisations which register and then fail to meet the requirements above may be de-registered.
DRAFT WHITE PAPER FOR A POPULATION POLICY FOR SOUTH AFRICA
The Draft White Paper will now be tabled in Parliament during September.
This policy document proposes a new approach to addressing population concerns in the context of sustainable development. It complies with the Programme of Action of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), as well as the approach of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy of Government. It has been designed in the framework of the Constitution.
The population policy recognises the accepted international development paradigm which places population at the centre of development - as its driving force and ultimate beneficiary. It emphasises the interface between population, development and the environment. A basic tenet of the policy approach was that population concerns are multi-faceted and intersectoral; efforts to address them should therefore be multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary.
The vision of the policy is to contribute towards a society which provided a high and equitable quality of life for all South Africans, and in which population trends were commensurate with sustainable socio-economic and environmental development. The goal and objectives of the policy focus on changes to be brought about in the determinants of the country's population trends in order to attain consistency between population trends and sustainable development.
The policy firmly commits Government to address national population concerns in the context of the country's overall socio-economic development framework. National populations concerns would be addressed through intersectoral programmes implemented by government departments in collaboration with the private sector and civil society.