Chair, I greet you hon commissars and fighters, I greet you South Africans. The primary mandate of the Department of Social Development is and I quote:
The provision of comprehensive, integrated and sustainable social development services.
We are a country and people traumatised by centuries of dispossession, violence, poverty and landlessness. That is why the Department of Social Development has such an important role to play
because if we want to develop this country and build a nation and people that is proud of itself and its achievements, we need to support the social development of our people because currently, the social fabric of our society is collapsing.
Youth up and down the country are hooked by substance abuse, and the worst of these substances is nyaope. Nyaope is killing our youth, and without a youth, there will be no future. We must declare war on Nyaope and other drugs such as Tic. For this to end, the Department of Social Development must begin to work with the Departments of Police, Health, Education, Sports and Recreation to develop a joint programme that will allow us to tackle the drug epidemic.
In this fight against substance abuse, hon Chair, a key role the department can play is providing rehabilitation centres across the country. Our young people who are hooked on drugs must be able to find a space in our society where they are able to properly recover from their addiction, so that they can once again be integrated into society and become functioning and productive members. That space must be created by this department and must be in the form of good quality, well-staffed and well-resourced rehabilitation centres.
But rehabilitating people once they are hooked on drugs is only a short- term solution to the problem. The more long-term approach this department can take is to train and deploy social workers across our country. We need to have social workers and counsellors in schools, hospitals, police stations, orphanages, universities, Tvet colleges and in work places.
It cannot be that throughout the country the South African Police Service only employs 114 counsellors and only 200 social workers. It cannot be that schools, Tvet colleges and clinics do not have social workers. Our people, particularly women and young people experience the trauma of poverty, violence, unemployment and dispossession everyday. If they do not have a way to progressively deal with this trauma they will obviously turn to drugs or become suicidal.
Young people are dying everyday because of mental health issues and for this issue to be addressed properly, social workers and counsellors need to be deployed everywhere in South Africa. If your department does not ensure the expansion of the social worker programme, our young people will continue to die and suffer from drug abuse and mental health issues.
On the issue of social grants, hon Chair, we have always maintained the principled position that the current allocation for social grants is simply not enough. We cannot expect 17 million South Africans to live on these meagre grants. That is why they must all be doubled.
But on top of that, municipalities cannot be charging families surviving on social grant for utilities. Any individual who relies on a social grant should not be required to pay for electricity or water. It is ridiculous and shows an alienation from the struggles of our people that this government expects people who receive these social grants to pay for water and electricity. Many electricity bills including your very own Minister, are more than the total money received by social grant recipients every month.
We also need to see your department migrate all social grant beneficiaries to the Postbank. Currently, only 70% of these beneficiaries have been migrated.
An issue that your department must address is that over the years there have been 20 000 cases of fraud at South African Social Security Agency, SASSA, which have cost more than 5 000 people their grants; all because there was no fraud manager. The people who lost
out on grants because of this vacancy must be immediately reimbursed. And we also want to thank the Minister for making sure that this vacancy is filled.
Another area where your department should establish joint programmes with other government departments, hon Minister, is with regard to the issue of sanitary pads, so that all learners at schools and institutions of higher learning who require sanitary pads receive them free of charge. We cannot continue to allow the exclusion of young girls from valuable class time simply because they do not have sanitary pads, and this department has an important role to play in ending this problem.
What is shocking, however, is that despite our society's growing need for this department and the services it should be providing, we are seeing cuts in staff as well as in the budget for things like equipment and machinery. This will impact on the provision of services by this department. If this department is cutting budgets, how is it going to build the much needed shelters for women who run away from abuse? Government must create a safe place for abused women.
This department cannot meet the social development needs of this country and it is reflected in this budget. The budget of this Department of Social Development is not enough. That is why as the Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, we reject this budget. Thank you.