Chairperson and hon members, since the inauguration of this administration, I have travelled with a team of Ministers and senior officials to two provinces to witness progress made since the launch of the War on Poverty campaign in 2008. Communities that we have visited are located in Jacobsdal in the Free State and Lubala village in the Eastern Cape.
During these visits, officials from national, provincial and local government departments take note of issues raised by communities and compile reports. These reports are then processed by the relevant government departments using established systems such as the National Integrated Social Information System, Nisis, of the Department of Social Development.
It is on the basis of these reporting mechanisms that verification of household needs and services rendered is conducted. This is also used for referral and follow-up purposes. Individual reports are not presented to Cabinet. Instead, consolidated reports are prepared for Cabinet twice a year. Institutionally, the national task team, consisting of provincial war rooms and representatives from implementing departments, is a forum tasked with the responsibility of processing reports and following up on service delivery issues raised by communities. The same reporting and follow-up mechanism is replicated at provincial and local levels.
In addition to these institutional mechanisms, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and senior officials share their experiences through the Antipoverty Interministerial Committee, which is co-ordinated by the Presidency. Here, consideration is also given to prioritising urgent matters raised by communities.
Our overall assessment is that the War on Poverty campaign mechanism has helped to highlight the value of clustering services and delivering them as a package to poor communities, who often miss out due to a lack of information or the distance between the community and the point of service. Thank you.
Chairperson and Deputy President, the Ten-Year Review report showed defects in our existing antipoverty approaches. It also highlighted the fact that our approach on poverty is undermined by the lack of a common antipoverty strategy, the lack of reliable information about conditions of the poor, the lack of monitoring of antipoverty initiatives, and ad hoc and unco-ordinated services.
We want to check whether the Deputy President would look into the possibility of tabling the reports generated by the Presidency so that Parliament can use them to monitor the progress that our nation is making in the fight against poverty, instead of using reports that are generated by international nongovernmental organisations that have no understanding of the conditions of our people. I thank you.
Chairperson, I think the idea of the War on Poverty campaign was to pilot a co-ordinated intervention. Out of that, the reports that are generated would serve a useful purpose if they are indeed shared with Parliament. They can be replicated in all other areas because the critical element in this strategy is co-ordination. When government departments work in silos, the impact is minimal.
I mentioned the Nisis system of Social Development because we may find that recipients of one social grant or the other can benefit. They can actually be assisted if one or two members of that household are identified and given dedicated support in a sustained fashion, particularly if in that household there are people who are trainable, or people who have dropped out of school but can still go back. Such people can be assisted to complete their education because that then has the impact of lifting the household out of the poverty morass. Therefore I think sharing these reports with Parliament can really serve a useful purpose. Thank you.
Chairperson and Deputy President, in instances where there are reports from those visits, does the government have any specific turnaround time in place? Furthermore, in cases where there is no progress or service delivery - according to those reports - are any sanctions put in place or any measures taken to ensure that service delivery takes place? Thank you.
Chairperson, in the case of Jacobsdal - just to give you an example, hon members - the pilot programme was launched, and we were able to go back 18 months later to assess the impact and progress made. When we went back to Jacobsdal, we found that one old lady, who had been down with TB and had been living in a shack that had no flooring - essentially inhaling dust all the time - had been put on monitored treatment by the Free State department of health. This ensured that she actually took her treatment.
While she was on monitored treatment, she was provided with an RDP house that came with potable water, a kitchen sink, a bath tub and a flushing toilet inside the house. The roof was fitted with rain gutters, and she was supplied by the department of agriculture with a water tank to harvest rainwater. They also provided her with a tunnel and seeds, and trained her to grow vegetables in her yard.
When we went back 18 months later, she was cured of TB and her garden was green and full of vegetables. She then actually addressed the public meeting as a motivational speaker and encouraged other women to join a similar programme.
So, to me, this is a case of how - with the correct identification of a potential change agent in a household - the conditions of these households can be improved. In this way, the members of such households can be pulled out of the clutches of poverty. Thank you.
Inroads made by Moral Regeneration Movement into social disintegration among the youth
11. Prince M M M Zulu (IFP) asked the Deputy President:
Whether the Moral Regeneration Movement has made any inroads into the growing levels of social disintegration among the youth; if not, why not; if so, (a) how and (b) what are the further relevant details?