Chair, whilst the DA will be supporting the Social Development budget, we have several concerns. We recognise that the roll-out of social grants has been a great success - with over 11 million beneficiaries. However, the processing of grants remains a challenge. We sincerely hope that the establishment of the South African Social Service Agency, Sassa will rectify this - we need to get a shorter name for it, hon Minister.
The awarding of guardianship to family members of children who in the main have lost their parents to HIV/Aids needs urgent attention. It is a pity that the Children's Bill fails to address this issue when we dealt with it earlier this year. Currently, relatives have to approach the High Courts at huge expense and they are generally inaccessible due to the physical location of these courts in the provinces.
The current crisis with regard to social workers needs urgent attention and we recognise that the Minister is strategising something through the recent workshop held in Pretoria. However, we are currently failing the children of our country by not being able to implement the current Child Care Act, never mind the new Children's Bill. The Children's Bill indicates that a minimum of 16 000 social workers will be needed to implement it properly. This 16 000 excludes social workers needed for the Older Persons Bill. If we fail to address this crisis, both these pieces of legislation will be stillborn.
The funding of civil societies such as NGOs and nonprivate organisations needs urgent attention if we want to prevent their meltdown through the flight of skills and expertise.
The National Child Protection Register is failing children because provinces are not linked up with each other for all the children who should appear on the list actually to do so. Whilst there should be hundreds of thousands of names on the list, there are currently just over 13 000. Hon Minister, there is one thing you must do this year: Please make sure that the register is capacitated to do what it is supposed to do.
The DA is concerned that we still have no legislation outlawing trafficking of children. We appeal that the chapter in the Children's Bill pertaining to trafficking of children be fast-tracked and implemented as a matter of urgency. Lastly, Chair ... [Time expired.]