Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Ministers, hon members of the House and guests, I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the Department of Social Development on obtaining an unqualified audit, and particularly the SA Social Development Agency, Sassa, on improving their services, as we all know that the social grants are the only means of income for most beneficiaries.
Irrespective of that, Minister, more still needs to be done in terms of the long queues at the paypoints, the dilapidated infrastructure, mostly in rural areas, and the safety and security of the elderly, which needs to be strengthened urgently on pay days. Almost every month we learn about the devastating crime committed at these paypoints and unfortunately some ending in deaths.
Preventive measures against fraud and corruption should be strengthened, and management should adhere to strict and consistent monitoring and evaluation of the strategies. These include the internal record management, the urgent recording of the biometric data of the Sassa staff and the combating of social grant fraud among illegal refugees.
Fighting fraud and corruption effectively will save the department about R50 million to R55 million per year, which could help in feeding more poor and eligible people.
So far, only R1,1 million of the debt has been recovered from staff and other members, which is very low when compared to the defrauded R60 million, as reported.
Hon Minister, the challenge with regard to the processing and finalisation - particularly the lack of social workers to specifically work on the social services group - of court orders for the foster care grants is a huge concern. The challenge of locating and paying child support grants to the 2 million children who were reported missing in the social assistance system needs to be dealt with decisively and urgently.
South Africa is becoming the world's largest welfare state. The ever- increasing unemployment statistics released by Statistics SA recently pose an even bigger challenge to the food security of the country and a threat to the Zero Hunger Programme, as fewer people are economically active, resulting in a diminishing tax base and a declining number of taxpayers.
The deputy CEO of the SA Institute of Race Relations, SAIRR, Frans Cronje, wrote: "It is important to understand that work is dignity and so employment is key to realising constitutional values."
The effect of the epidemic triple challenge of poverty, unemployment and inequality has been immense. A substantial increase in the demand for grants poses a big threat and will undermine the mandate and potential of the government to address the huge gap of unemployment and inequality.
Therefore, the government needs to come up with a comprehensive long-term plan of transferring most young grant beneficiaries into the economically productive stream through the creation of opportunities. As the DA slogan says, "An open opportunity society for all", where the government creates an enabling environment and promotes equal opportunities for citizens to shape their lives, improve their skills and follow their dreams.
The shortage of social work professionals impacts negatively on services. According to the survey by the SAIRR, by last March 2012, we had 16 740 social workers, and the number includes both those in private and government institutions. And in our government we only have 6 000, notwithstanding the fact that we need 66 000 social workers to work with regard to only one Act, the Children's Act. It poses a threat in terms of delivery.
Social programmes are under pressure, especially, as there are no adequate social foundations and healthy systems, which are the cornerstone of productive and functioning economies.
Mathematically we need more than 72 000 social workers in our public stream. And these include those who would specialise in the faith Christian groups, FCG, correctional services, health care, HIV/Aids and many other programmes of government.
According to the Integrated Service Delivery Model developed by your department, hon Minister, the case load ratio for social workers should be 60:1, but now it has doubled, if not tripled. It is not always about the money; if the working conditions are unbearable, we will remain in a vicious cycle.
There is a high failure rate among students who have been given bursaries to study in this field. And in some years, like 2011, over 50% of students failed the course, and some extended in order to finish the course. For example, 918 students were enrolled, only 444 finished the course and 474 failed. In 2008, 1 462 students were enrolled, 806 made it and 656 failed. The intake criteria should be revised as well.
The reduction of the allocation for social worker scholarships will also impact on us reaching the required number of qualified social workers. And therefore, the country is far from implementing the Children's Act effectively and offering quality social services.
The department, through the National Development Agency, NDA, has a role to play in terms of the achievement of Millennium Development Goal No 1. But this will not be achieved, because this entity spends more than 60% of the budget on administration and this includes bonuses. Their spending pattern is greatly skewed, and if they continue in this way, they may never achieve their objectives.
The review of the nonprofit organisation's, NPO's, financial award policy should be fast-tracked to ensure that the NPOs that are rendering services on behalf of the department continue to receive the money, particularly those that comply with the norms and standards and the Nonprofit Organisations Act.
The government's plan to expand the early childhood development, ECD, programme through the NDA, Minister, should not only go hand in hand with the training, as we have spoken of the ECD practitioner, but also with the investment infrastructure. It should not overlap or compromise the ECD services offered by the Department of Social Development to the birth to 4- year-olds and the one offered by the Department of Basic Education to the 5 to 9-year-olds.
There was a request from the government that the department should reduce spending by 1%. And it is unfortunate that the Department of Social Development chose to reduce the budget on Programme No 4, which talks to subprogrammes dealing with substance abuse; vulnerable groups, that is, elderly persons, people with disabilities, children, your youth, your families; HIV/Aids; social crime prevention and victim empowerment; and social work scholarships instead of reducing on consultants.
The ANC-led government's effort to address grass-roots issues has not responded adequately to the inter-relationship between socioeconomic development, economic justice and basic service delivery. Perhaps the ANC- led government can learn a thing or two from the DA-run Western Cape province ... [Interjections.] ... on the successes of our jobs campaign, which has seen more than 8 000 jobs created and reducing the unemployment rate in the province.
The National Development Plan, NDP, is the only hope for South Africans, and only if it is implemented and adhered to. [Interjections.] Is it? Okay!