FRIDAY, 30 MAY 2008
PROCEEDINGS OF EXTENDED PUBLIC COMMITTEE – COMMITTEE ROOM E249
Members of the Extended Public Committee met in Committee Room E249 at 09:05.
The House Chairperson Mr G Q M Doidge, as Chairperson, took the Chair and requested members to observe a moment of silence for prayers or meditation.
Vote No 16: Social Development
Start of Day
APPROPRIATION BILL
Debate on Budget Vote No 16 - Social Development:
Mr M J ELLIS: Chairperson, before the hon Minister speak, may I point out that the opposition outnumber the ANC this morning and consequently I believe we should straight to a vote.
The CHAIRPERSON: Please take your seat, hon member. Mr Ellis, may I remind you that this is an extended public committee. You are a little bit ambitious very early on a Friday morning. Maybe the weather has got something to do with it.
Mr M J ELLIS: There is no harm in trying, Chairperson.
The MINISTER OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Good morning everybody. Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, MECs for Social Development here present, hon members of Parliament, distinguished guests, representatives of civil society in the public gallery, ladies and gentlemen, it has been said that poverty is the worst form of violence against humanity. In the last few weeks we have witnessed the brutality and dehumanising effects of poverty in the xenophobic attacks that have plunged our country into the heart of darkness. During times like these, we are reminded in the words of our struggle hero, Steven Bantu Biko, when he wrote in I write what I like and where he alludes to the spirit of Ubuntu: “We reject the power-based society that seems to be concerned with them perfecting, like technological know how. We believe that in the long run, the special contribution to the world where Africans will be giving the world a more humane face."
The recent attacks on foreign nationals and including some South Africans, do not project a humane society. Whatever the motives and whoever the sinister sources of this violence, we will not tolerate this onslaught meted against other African brothers and sisters in these incidents. We are inseparable from our brothers within our own continent – we are Africans and part and parcel of Africa. This compels us to ask, how far have we progressed? Have human relations improved or degenerated since the dark days of apartheid?
Budget Vote 16 affords us an opportunity to elaborate on our collective contribution towards a more humane society, most humane world, which are prerequisite to a caring society. In taking stock of this contribution, we must also remember the contributions of our fallen heroes and heroines. These veterans who have lived exemplary lives towards securing a more humane world include those who have left us in this past year, amongst them, General Masondo, Sihle Mbongwa, Kevin Qhobosheane, Zoli Malindi and Frances Schoon.
Vote 16 also offers us an opportunity to take stock of our actions towards halving global poverty by the year 2015. For us poverty remains a global priority challenge and an evil which continues in its extreme form to directly affected over one billion faceless people around the world.
The 8 January statement of the African National Congress directs us to do all that is in our collective power to ensure that our response to poverty empower people to access economic opportunities, while creating a comprehensive social safety net to protect the most vulnerable members of our society.
In 1999 we committed ourselves to renewing our call for a better quality of life for all. The objective, we believed, could only be pursued and achieved by embarking on a social transformation journey; based on an integrated and comprehensive social welfare system as a basis for a more people-orientated society.
At the time of embarking on this journey we made note of the then prevailing state of the nation, which was characterised by persistent and deepening poverty, which was accompanied by social alienations. At that time, already, violence against children, women and the elderly was an affront to our society. These issues were compounded by the objective nature of the two-way relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty. What has happened since then?
Our social development outlook as spelt out in the Ten Point Plan afforded us the opportunity to realise and affirm the worth of the dignity of our people as critical contributors to the nation building and development projects. In seeking to harness this contribution I have attended 2065 community-based izimbizos since taking office in 1999.
The views of these very important members of our society lie at the centre of the Vision 2014. Vision 2014 is premised on the Freedom Charter and provides a framework for a more humane world. Vision 2014 places people at the centre of all our strategies and integrates economic and social outcomes. The successful implementation of this strategy promises a country with a more humane face. Vision 2014 has also guided the Department of Social Development and linked it to some of our more notable achievements. For instance, in April 1999, only 36 000 children received the child support grant, compared to 334 000 in March 2000 and 1,9 million children by April 2002. These are not only numbers, but are also an indication of government's commitment to reach the poorest of the poor without favour or discrimination.
This, along with the need to address pressing societal challenges, has been responsible for the average expenditure growth in excess of 28,8 percent between 2001-2 and 2003-4. This expenditure grew at an average of 12,1 % between 2004-5 and 2007-8, with a projected growth rate of 10,4 % over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework period leading to 2010.
While the bulk of this incremental expenditure has been on social assistance grants, we remain determined to diversify our strategies. This would contribute to a more sustained human and community development trajectory.
It was President Nelson Mandela who once said: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." Income support to those in need will remain an important contributor to the development of our children, but, it is not the only measure. Consequently, this Budget Vote seeks to improve our empowerment, prevention and early intervention strategies which lie at the heart of our childcare, protection and development approaches.
Allow me to take this opportunity to thank the hon members of this House who have throughout my years in this portfolio embraced these fundamentals. In particular I wish to thank the previous and current chairs and members of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development. Their most recent act of facilitating the passing of the Children's Amendment Bill has indeed ushered in a new era in the protection and care of children.
For our part, we have allocated over R22 million in this financial year towards the protection of children. These resources will be directed at standardising and accelerating delivery in the areas covered by the Act.
Since our remaining challenges are the resourcing of implementation, we have also finalised a set of draft regulations for public discussions. In order to get South Africa ready to implement the Children's Act, we will increase awareness on the legislation and draft regulations whilst accelerating service delivery to children.
As we have illustrated earlier, we have faired reasonably well in the promotion of income security of our children through the Care Dependency, Child Support and Foster Care Grants. We currently distribute the CSG to over 8,6 million children. It is also our medium term aim to increase qualification age limit for the CSG up to the 18th birthday, resources willing and enabling.
However, a world with a more humane face requires us to guarantee further and sustainable employment and income opportunities for the parents and caregivers of these children. As directed by the Polokwane agreements, we would table proposals on the phased introduction of conditional basic income support. Our attention would be focussed on the most vulnerable who survive outside our social security. This will break the cycle which has made poverty an inevitable intergenerational inheritance based on the station of one's birth.
Education and health are fundamental to breaking this cycle. In pursuance of these ideals we are exploring specific conditionalities which would amongst others encourage healthy life styles and quality education for our children. Because the needs of children are ever increasing we will in the meantime increase the CSG to R220 in October this year.
The conclusions of the State of the World's Children Report 2008 direct us to strengthen local childcare and development initiatives. We have therefore launched the registration drive for Early Childhood Development centres. The implementation of a comprehensive Early Childhood Development programme is a cornerstone of investing in this country's future and we will strive to ensure an improvement in both the quality and spread of these centres so that they are accessible to as many children as possible. And we depend mostly in doing that on the support basically of the members of this House and more importantly on civil society, especially, the nongovernmental faith-based organisations.
To deepen these efforts, we must also strengthen our measures directed at orphans and vulnerable children. To date over 237 000 orphans and vulnerable children have benefited from the department's OVC programme. Our orphans and vulnerable children programme encourages children from households headed by children to remain and participate within the communities of their birth. This contributes to integrated community based care, which is in the best interests of the children concerned. It would be remiss if I did not recognise the efforts of thousands of volunteers, mainly women in the 1 700 organisations rendering Community Home-Based Care programmes nationally. Although this number might seem big, 237 000, there are still many children who are entitled to this who are not getting it because of many difficulties they face.
A humane face requires that the society treats the elderly with all the deserved respect and dignity.
This is at the heart of the Madrid plan of action on ageing; and that is what has motivated us to progressively realise age equality with regards to the qualification for the old age grant. The phasing in will be implemented as follows; 63-64 year old men in 2008 once the law is amended; 61-62 year old men in 2009; 60 year olds in 2010. I urge all eligible to wait patiently until the Social Assistance Amendment Bill is passed during the course of this year. We have, in the meantime, decided to increase the old age grant to R940.00.
A more human world is one in which the elderly; upon reaching retirement age; can secure their own livelihood. This is an essential pillar to overcome poverty among the elderly and the motive behind is to introduce a Mandatory Retirement Scheme. We will continue to explore appropriate retirement reform provisions which will address the needs of the poor together with the National Economic development and labour Council, NEDLAC. In the meantime, we have set aside approximately R8 million in this financial year in order to develop and deliver the necessary architecture.
Hon members, the Social Security measures form part of an integrated strategy to meet the needs of the poor children, youths and older persons. However, our preliminary reviews also confirm that the impact of inflation has not only eroded the values of the grants, but also those whose income has increased as a result of inflation related wage adjustment have been excluded. Consequently, it has raised a value of all grants from 1 April 2008. The old age, disability and care dependency grants increased from R870 last year to R940. The foster care grants to R650. These increases will go a towards mitigating the impact of inflation.
However, nonadjustment of the means test over the years, including, the child support and old age grants has kept many people out of the social security system. This is coupled with; beyond prediction; the higher rates which has led to the erosion of the values of these grants. Consequently, we have agreed to work towards the removal of the archaic means test on certain grant types. This will consequently remove the urban-rural qualification division whilst raising the threshold to R2 200 per month for those who get the child support, old age, and disability grants; and R9 400 per month for foster care grant.
This exercise will, however, pose a fiscal challenge which may require either a gradual phasing out of the means test or recommendation of the tax threshold levels. All these reforms in our social security system will go a long way towards widening the social security safety net and may see the entry into the system of 2 million deserving people. To effectively do so, I will promulgate the regulations to the Social Assistance Act.
In the meantime, the South African Security Agency, SASSA, has been apportioned a budget of R4,5 billion for the 2008-09 period in order to facilitate a pro-active service delivery. These initiatives include the Integrated Community Registration Outreach Programme, ICROP. This flagship programme involves the participation of the Department of Social Development, DSD, the Department of Home Affairs, Department of Education, and the Department of Health as well as the South African Police Service. The programme has also revolutionarised turn around times for the processing and application. It is now possible for an application to be approved on the same day.