DSD, SASSA & NDA 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan, with Minister & Deputy Minister

Meeting report

2021/22 Annual Performance Plan (APP) Department of Social Development

Programme 1: Administration

The administration programme provides strategic leadership, management and support services to the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the DSD sector as enablers to the core functions organisation.

The key problems that the Programme is seeking to respond to include:

• Addressing long protracted processes by creating efficiencies to enable core programmes to effectively execute their work through the support service provided.
• Improving the organisational risk and ethical maturity by promoting and enforcing ethical practices, good governance as well as oversight of its entities.
• Inadequate evaluations to enable evidence-based policy and planning by conducting several evaluation studies with the development of theories of change to align with results-based frameworks.
• The deliberate targeting of women and youth-owned enterprises in the procurement of goods and services.
• Non-compliance to legislation and policy prescripts and repeat AG-SA findings by improving the internal control environment to obtain a clean audit and with reduced findings on irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, while we aim for zero including SASSA and NDA.
• A shift from a predominantly paper-based monitoring system to electronic systems.
• Inadequate management information systems so to develop information and communication systems that promote automation, address data security matters and enhance business intelligence for planning purposes through integrating systems; and
• Insufficient human capacity and skills by developing a sector human resource plan to enable appropriate capacity and a skilled workforce, SASSA and NDA included.

 

SASSA will during 2021 invest in the digitisation of additional business processes in line with the revised ICT strategy focusing on the following projects:

 

• Roll-out of the online grant applications that were developed and piloted in 2020 (OAG, CSG, FCG and SRD).
• 100% of Regulation 26A (funeral deductions) mandates implemented electronically.
• Explore further alternative Biometric Identification Technology Solutions for beneficiaries.
• NDA to build a high performance, self-sustaining organisation with reduced dependency on Government allocation for Civil Society Organisation (CSO) development.

 

Programme 2: Social Assistance

The purpose of this programme is to ensure the provision of social assistance to eligible beneficiaries in terms of the Social Assistance Act (No. 13 of 2004) and its regulations.

The main problem that the programme is responding to is:

• South Africa is faced with high levels of hunger, poverty and inequality and the Department through its monthly transfers to SASSA to pay social grants to eligible individuals, seeks to reduce the levels of poverty and inequality.

 

Programme 3: Social Security Policy & Administration

The purpose of this programme is to provide for social security policy development, administrative justice, the administration of social grants, and the reduction of incorrect benefit payments.

This programme is seeking to address some of the following key challenges:

• Silo approach and delivery of social protection benefits and services.
• Shortcomings in the governance arrangements of SASSA through amending the SASSA Act.
• Lack of social security coverage (including social assistance) for the majority of the population between the ages of 18 and 59 through engaging in consultations on policy for income support to 18 -59-year-olds.
• Lack of contributory social security coverage of informal sector and atypical worker and for the majority of women during pregnancy through engaging in policy development processes; and
• Strengthen levels of financial and compliance management by conducting audits.

 

Programme 4: Welfare Services Policy Development and Implementation Support.

 

The purpose of this programme is to create an enabling environment for the delivery of equitable developmental welfare services through the formulation of policies, norms and standards, best practices and provide support to implementation agency.

 

This programme is seeking to address some of the following key challenges as aligned to the outcomes:

• DSD does not have overarching legislation for the DSD sector.
• There are high levels of substance abuse, social crime and Gender Based Violence (GBV).
• Inadequate quality of Early Childhood Development Services;
• Fragmentation of service provision, poor case management and poor data collection on cases of violence against children resulting to children falling within the cracks of the child protection system.
• Inefficiencies in the foster care systems;
• Lack of skills and knowledge of SSPs on HIV Social and Behavior Change (SBC) programmes
• Inaccessibility of adoption services to those in need.
• Poor access and availability to integrated services; and promotion and protection of rights of Older Persons.
• Inadequate programmatic response in the provision of services to persons with disabilities; and
• Unprofessional and unethical conduct by unregulated social service practitioners

 

 

Programme 5: Social Policy and Integrated Service Delivery

 

The purpose of this programme is to develop and facilitate the implementation of policies, guidelines, norms and standards for effective and efficient delivery of community development services to enable the poor, the vulnerable and the excluded within South African society to secure a better life and build sustainable, vibrant and healthy communities.

 

The programme is responding to the following challenges:

 

• Most South Africans are dependent on social grants for a living. This programme is expected to build cohesive, resilient families and communities by investing in people towards creating sustainable livelihoods. This is the area that all the programmes including SASSA and NDA will contribute to.
• Lack of capacity in provinces to implement the developed Community Mobilisation and Empowerment Framework
• Lack of work or work opportunities
• Huge backlog on NPOs that are not complying with the NPO Act and an outdated NPO Act.
• Poor or Lack of capacity of the newly registered NPO
• Poor implementation of the National DSD sector NPO funding policy by provinces
• NPO funding in the sector is not integrated and reporting is not uniform.
• Poor monitoring and reporting of the food and Nutrition program
• Outdated NDA Act
• Lack of capacity in provinces to implement population policy; and
• There is limited capacity in Municipalities on the Integration Migration into the IDP issues

 

Details of Baseline Reductions

Social Assistance Grants

 

• The social grants budget has been reduced by R8 billion in 2021/22, R10.7 billion in 2022/23 and R19.5 billion in 2023/24.

 

SASSA

• The SASSA budget has been reduced by R641 million in 2021/22, R818 million in 2022/23 and R715 million in 2023/24. The reductions are largely the result of the wage bill containment strategy as announced in the 2020 Budget. SASSA should give due consideration to achieving efficiencies in its operations and managing its wage bill.

 

National Development Agency

• The transfer to the NDA is reduced by R20.9 million in 2021/22, R26.4 million in 2022/23 and R20.8 million in 2023/24, mainly as a result of the wage bill containment strategy as announced in the 2020 Budget.

 

social development operational

 

• Compensation of Employees ceiling was reduced by R63 million in 2021/22, R97.5 million in 2022/23 and R61.3 million in 2023/24, as a result of the wage bill containment strategy
• Goods and Services was reduced by R27 million in 2021/22, R22 million in 2022/23 and R40 million in 2023/24

 

2021/22 APP NDA

The NDA has prioritised the following key strategies over the next 5 years

 

• Review of service delivery model
• NDA Turnaround Strategy
• Amendment of the NDA Act
• Strengthen CSO capacity to deliver on the NDA mandate.
• Review of the business model
• Strengthening NDA institutional capacity

 

The National Development Plan (NDP) aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. According to the plan, South Africa can realise these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state, and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society.

 

• Reducing the proportion of persons living below the lower-bound poverty lines from 39% (in 2009) to zero by 2030
• Reducing income inequality from 0,7 in 2010 to 0,6 by 2030

 

• The share of income going to the bottom 40% of income earners should rise from 6% to 10% by 2030
• Reduce poverty induced hunger to 0% by 2030

 

2021/22 APP: SASSA

SASSA Focus

About 31% of the South African population relies on social grants; in addition, there are approximately six million beneficiaries who have been depending on monthly R350 special Covid-19 SRD Grants since May 2020.

 

SASSA’s main focus in 2021/22 is mainly on: 

 

• Contributing to poverty reduction by continuing to provide social assistance to older persons, people with disabilities and children who are unable to support themselves.
• Providing temporary reprieve to individuals and families experiencing temporary distress in order to meet their basics needs whilst they are addressing their permanent challenges.
• Support initiatives to support employment opportunities to Covid-19 grant recipient and CSG caregivers.
• Invest in systems that will enable the migration from manual business process to automated systems.
• Use lessons learned and opportunities from the implementation of the Covid-19 measures to improve the capacity of the Agency.

 

2021 MTEF Budget

During the MTEF process, National Treasury provided the following policy guidance to be taken into consideration when preparing the budget submissions:

 

• The deteriorating macro-fiscal outlook means there are no additional resources available for the 2021 MTEF Budget.
• This means that any additional allocations to an activity/project/programme will need to be funded through reductions in another activity/project/programme.
• Reductions to fund additional allocations should avoid actions that would harm the provision of constitutionally mandated programmes but should pursue efficiencies and reforms in the operational modalities of those programmes.
• The aim of the 2021 MTEF Budget is fiscal consolidation for the purpose of stabilising public debt.
• The actual amount of the downward reductions in baselines informed by the outcome of spending reviews and other analysis.
• The 2021 MTEF process aims to change the composition of spending towards spending that stimulates economic growth, particularly in areas of infrastructure investment.

 

Implications of the budget reduction

SASSA must continue to operate within the current Compensation of Employees (COE) expenditure ceiling including accommodating the annual cost of living adjustments. The R641 million was supposed to have been absorbed within COE however this was not feasible in year one therefore it will be gradually effected. Very few posts can be filled going forward and there will be limited capacity within the Agency.

 

Consumer Price Index (CPI) impact on existing contracts

 

The budget does not cater for any inflation increases or increases in commodity prices. Increases / escalation in current contracts will impact on the budget. There will be a need to test the market and negotiate prices.

 

Limited resources available to consider and implement more new envisaged projects and programmes.

 

Discussions

Ms A Maleka (ANC, Mpumalanga) noted that on th15e 15th of October 2020, the President announced that the Stress Relief of Distress Grant would be extended for another three months ending in January 2021. She asked for an update on the exact amount that was spent till the end of January 2021.

She also wanted the reason for the significant cuts of the overall budget of SASSA for the 2021/22 financial year and the impact of these financial cuts on SASSA’s mandate.

Ms S Lehihi (EFF, North-West) wanted to know if a person without an ID can apply for a grant for their child.

Mr M Bara (DA, Gauteng) wanted to know if there was any progress made by the Department on the investigation of the 67 000 people who received a grant that they were not entitled to receive.

He also wanted to know if there is any progress by the Department concerning the recommendations by the Auditor- General of South Africa, for example where there has to be some information that is supposed to be brought to the fall that talks to getting updated data from Home Affairs, UIF, SARS and other government institutions to ensure that they have their information updated all the time.

He noted that there was a time set for people to get the R350 covid-19 grant and there has not been much in terms of employment creation thus far. He wanted to know if there are any discussions as to how people can be assisted if any. If so, he wanted to know what kind of thoughts the Department is putting together to try and deal with that.

Ms D Christians (DA, Northern Cape) noted that what stood out during the presentation was that the first presenter noted that DSD and its services are there to reach people in the country effectively. But ironically in places like Barkly West in the Northern Cape, the SASSA offices have been removed from the town area which was quite accessible to everyone to a residential area where people have to travel for kilometres far from their places. The offices are therefore not accessible, and she pleaded with Department and the Minister to have a look and see if there is something that can be done.

Concerning the budget, she noted that a survey from the previous week showed that two weeks prior at least ten million adults went hungry for that time and three million children experienced the same. Perpetual hunger is at 2.5 million adults and 600 000 children. Hence it is of great concern that the social grant allocation has been cut and the entire budget has been cut. The country is going into the third wave of COVID-19 and yet allocations towards funding and grants have been significantly cut and people remain in perpetual hunger. There is also a decline in children social crime prevention and victim empowerment, social worker scholarship programmes yet social crime is on the increase. Therefore, if the Department is serious about assisting the vulnerable in the country why have they cut on the most important programme i.e. programme two and four.

On the social workers that need to work with adoption centres, their programme i.e. the social worker scholarship has also been cut. Looking at the Children’s Amendment Act that says public service social workers are expected to render adoption services she asked if they think the budget will be adequate to see that adoption processes run smoothly and in time to ensure that the children are not stuck in a system where they are not placed adequately.

She lastly noted that there is a worrying trend in the country of an increase in gender-based violence and substance abuse and yet these programmes’ budget has also been cut. She wanted the Department to explain what it intends on doing to mitigate this with the budget being cut.

Ms N Ndongeni (ANC, Eastern Cape) wanted to know the number of social workers that have been absorbed in the 2020/21 financial year in each province.

Lastly, she asked if these social workers will exclusively deal with adoption services.

Mr E Nchabeleng (ANC, Limpopo) wanted to know the reasons for budget cuts apart from the effects of COVID-19. That is, is this as a result of programmes that are not performing or underspending.

The Chairperson noted that one of the most concerning issues is the South African Post Office’s (SAPO) inability to perform per the master service and service level agreement. Furthermore, there have been reports that SAPO management has not been compliant with banking standards. She wanted to know what SASSA is doing in that regard.

She said that in terms of overall performance in meeting targets across the two financial years, stringent monitoring of the agency is needed in this regard. She asked for an update on the monitoring.

She asked SASSA to provide information concerning the IT system investment as the Auditor- General (AG) highlighted several challenges with that.

More so, she wanted to know how many beneficiaries had been overpaid in May 2020 and the amount.

She asked what the consequence management in response to the food parcels not tallying with the SRD content and how the distribution has been monitored thereof.

Lastly, she noted that during lockdown it was disturbing to see what was happening in the streets of Cape Town concerning the applications of people with disabilities and how Minister Zulu was portrayed in the media as not doing her job. She noted that this was bad for the image of the agency, Department, and herself. She asked for an update on how far, as a Department it has gone to assist specifically people with disabilities and their grants.

Responses

Mr Linton Mchunu, Acting Director-General, Department of Social Development, responded on the increase of hunger and the budget being reduced. He pointed out that he agrees and as a Department, it has been on the forefront providing to people particularly the poorest of the poor through food parcels and in some cases vouchers and also grants. Mr Mchunu confirmed that the Department had to go back to Treasury in the midterm last year to ask for more money as it had used all its money within the first three to eight months of the year. There is empirical evidence from research that shows the impact of the grants and the levels of poverty and malnutrition that this has helped alleviate and slow down. Poverty would have been at a much higher level had it not been for the R350 grants and as little as it may sound it went a long way to help millions of people. They have requested to extend the grants and this decision is currently reviewed.

On the issue around the budget cuts, he noted that it was not because of underspending or underperforming, there was an MTEF process that was agreed upon that government as a whole needs to reduce the budget across the ball. Therefore, all departments were affected with SAPS being affected the most followed by the Department of Social Development.

Amid these cuts there are measures that it has put in place, some are already existing, and some the Department are looking into building firstly, for example, the area around resource organisation. The Department has agreed that it needs to find creative ways in which it can mobilise national resources whether it be from third parties or private sectors to augment the funding that it has as an organisation and across its agencies. The Department is looking into partnering with some of the development agencies, not only those in the Republic but also those outside the Republic to augment some of the programmes that it has. The Department has to look at savings as well in several areas, that is, it is going to implore some strict measures to try and reduce overspending, for example, it has reduced the number of debts that it has as an organisation.

Mr Mchunu outlined that the Department has agreed to introduce an atomisation and digitalisation strategy and it is still working on this and in some areas, it has already moved into this. More so, it is developing a district development model which it has implemented already. However, it is now working on embedding the strategy deeper to ensure that at every single district it has representatives who know exactly what is happening within the context of Social Development.

Concerning the number of Social Workers that the Department has employed last year, he noted that it will share that with the Committee.

Ms Isabella Sekwana, Acting Deputy Director-General, Department of Social Development, responded to the question on whether the social workers will exclusively be dealing with adoption. She explained that when they are employed, they will be doing other generic work concerning social work.

Concerning the issue of substance abuse and gender-based violence and how it is going to deal with it with the budget cuts, she explained that what is important Department to intensify its integration internally and other government departments but also intersectoral collaboration where it has to maximise the available resources. Critical to that is to invest in prevention services such as behaviour change social programmes where it will begin to ensure that it targets boys and girls at a younger age. Once it has invested in that the Department is likely to deal with issues of GBV and crime at an early stage.

Ms Busisiwe Memela-Khambula, Chief Executive Officer: SASSA, noted that it may not have a quick number in terms of what the increase of the grants was until January, but the total budget that was allocated was R23 billion. They now have another R1 billion that will cover this year for people it did not pay for February and March.

In terms of the decrease of budget, she said that what SASSA is trying to do is that the more it can automate the more it can cut some of the budget e.g., reduction in terms of paper, travel etc for them to be able to manage what needs to be managed.

On the issue of cost to employees, she noted that it is quite a challenge, but SASSA has put a structure in place under the leadership of one of its executives to look at what the key and critical skills are that are required now and what positions it can or cannot fill. The challenge it has is that there is a range of new skills that the Department requires in terms of where it is as an organisation. An interim measure it has put in place is that it has gone to look for funding for it to get capacity building and to also ensure that it can insource some of the skills it requires like cybersecurity.

Ms Dianne Dunkerley, Executive Manager; Grants Administration, SASSA, responded to the question of an application by a beneficiary who does not have an identity document but has a child that she needs to apply for. She noted that the person can apply and there are specific measures put in the Social Assistance Act for people without identity documents to apply and SASSA accepts other documents.

On the challenges with the Post Office, she said that it is concerned about it, and it has put in some structures to be able to monitor services from the Post Office very closely. She confirmed that SASSA has regular contact with the Post Office and one of the issues it has raised is the media report of Post Office branches being closed, and it is very concerned about the impact on their clients who will not be able to access their grants.

Additionally, SASSA monitors the level of service of the Post Office very closely and it raises the issues if it is not meeting the standards set in the master services or the service level agreement.

On the 67 000 people who received a grant they were not supposed to, she said that SASSA went through a process of validating all of those again and it can confirm that there are 31 929 people that received a grant to the value of R11 million that they should not have received. SASSA is embarking on a process to contact the people to see if they will repay the money. But it is a lengthy process, and they have to first receive confirmation that they did indeed receive it before they can raise the debt.

On the payments that happened in May 2020, she noted that all the money was recovered as it was able to reverse some payments and those who had been paid twice, returned the money and those who did not repay it were not paid the following month.

Concerning the food parcels, she noted that there was a small number of cases where the food parcels did not contain all the items SASSA had paid for. This was taken up with the service providers and the food parcels were replaced.

Lastly, on the disability grants applications, she said that there are some improvements that it put in place since then so that it will never happen again. Firstly, it is now coordinating disability grants monthly so that the numbers are much smaller and more manageable. Secondly, it has developed an online booking system for medical assessments which is being piloted in the Western Cape and is in the process of being introduced to the rest of the country. Online booking also provides them with information on the kind of documents they need.

Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, responded to the question about adoptions and social workers and said that in private practice social workers charge up to R300 000 for a child to be adopted and with the high level of trafficking in children it is becoming a very fine line between the adoption and the child and hence the decision was taken that Government based social workers will be able to process adoptions without charging the adoptive parents that high amount of money and ensure that the children are not stuck in the system.

What the Department has also done is to improve the registration of adoptions as well as the documentation of children and allocating social workers to do that has improved the system and therefore, they will be in a position to ensure that children can go through the system much faster.

About the social worker scholarship, she said that part of the challenge the Department is facing in terms of absorbing social workers, led them to ask Treasury that they absorb them on the money allocated for scholarships because what it was experiencing was that the Department was training social workers and yet unable to absorb them in the system.

The budget cuts have a direct impact on the absorption of social workers and also on its ability as Social Development because the whole scale of prevention of social crimes rests with them, so this means that if the budget of police and theirs is cut it then puts pressure on the Departments ability to role out successful prevention programmes. So, it has to increase their ICT systems capabilities so that it can absorb the budget cuts without it having a negative impact.

The biggest impact being seeing in SASSA e.g., the SASSA offices moving from one area to another, is that Public Works has not internalised the reality of SASSA and the kind of service that it is providing and hence it sees an office that was accessible being moved to somewhere not accessible. This is because the internalisation of SASSA and the service it provides has not yet happened and it seems to be misaligned from time to time and hence you see beneficiaries travelling long distances to access a service and by the time they get the money its already almost all spend in the transport that they use.

Another issue with the budget cuts is that in the social relief distress, it is not only food parcels, but it is also school uniforms, and this has a direct impact on the programme to stopping bullying. The Departments inability to provide uniforms to enable the children to learn and not be bullied is affected by the budget cuts.

She noted that these are some of the challenges that the Department faces and hence the Committee should try and bear with them.

Minister of Social Development , Ms Lindiwe Zulu, noted that this a journey that as a Department it needs to step up in as far as its services to the people that they are responsible for are concerned and the mandates that it has. The questions that the Members have asked hit straight to the challenges that the Department is facing. As a Department it needs to always try to be creative, innovative, and connected as much as possible especially looking at budget cuts that have befallen them. It is looking to ensure that there is no under expenditure because it will not be forgiven if there are budget cuts and at the end of the financial year it comes to Parliament and tells it that it had to return some money to Treasury. She noted that this will be unacceptable.

She noted that there is little that the Department can do to change the fact that the budget cuts are here, but there is everything that they can do to see how it can make do with what it has. The important thing is about a properly coordinated effort of its work within the organisation. It is in this way that the Department can see that it can make some changes and identify the programmes that have a high impact on the communities.

One of the most important things to do is to reduce duplications in its programmes, at a national, provincial, and local level, hence the insistence of a district development model.

Noted that social development is about the well-being of individuals, communities and societies its task as a Department is to make sure that it creates a conducive environment for the people and remove barriers if any. But it cannot do that on its own without properly connecting to other services of government. The integrated approach is therefore not to isolate itself, but it does not mean that it should stray away from its mandate.

The Committee considered and adopted its term two programmes.

The meeting was adjourned.