The UDM is concerned about reports that approximately 100 000 children have been left without foster care grants due to the failure of the Departments of Social Development and of Justice and Constitutional Development to process renewal applications. While the departments in question engage in their blame-shifting game, our children are faced with the harsh reality of going to bed every night on an empty stomach.
We struggle to comprehend how an already overburdened justice system with a huge backlog can be expected to play a meaningful role in the foster care application renewal process. These delays put further strain on the lives of foster parents, who now find it difficult to provide for their foster children. The UDM believes that government should have strengthened the previous application renewal system and processes instead of adding more work to the already overburdened justice system. Our children deserve better. Thank you.