Chairperson, hon Minister, members of the portfolio committee, hon Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, let me also join other hon members in sending our heartfelt condolences to the Sisulu family. The country remains grateful and indebted to Mama Albertina Sisulu, a stalwart of the liberation and an unassuming leader of all races of our people.
A moya wa gagwe o robale ka kagiso. [May her soul rest in peace.]
The ANC also wants to send a message of condolence to all the families of missing children and of those who were killed by adults who are meant to protect them.
Letsatsi lengwe le lengwe bana ba a bolawa, masea a latlhelwa mo mesimeng, dikarolo tsa mebele ya bona di a tsewa, ba iphitlhela ba le magareng ga tlhalano ya mme le rre, ba iphitlhela ba le magareng ga dintwa tsa selegae mme ba se na molato. (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Every day children are killed, babies are thrown into pits, their their bodies mutilated for parts; they are caught up in their parents' divorce and they are caught within domestic violence at home while they are innocent.]
The ANC abhors the circumstances under which these children died and commits itself to continue seeking justice and bringing perpetrators to book.
I want to confirm that after the interaction with the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, we have reiterated that this is not a service delivery department. This includes the IFP and Cope. I think we all understand the mandate of this department ... [Applause.] ... which is doing evaluation and monitoring with the aim to drive, accelerate and oversee the government's equity, equality and empowerment agenda for women, children and people with disabilities, especially from poor and rural communities. We therefore acknowledge the work done so far, hon Minister. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 8. The budget is the link between the outcomes targeted by the government and services that are ultimately delivered.
The main challenges faced by children in our country are poverty and abuse. Poverty often means a lack of access to quality health care and education resources, which can lead to poor health and school failure in children. Negative developmental outcomes for children have been linked to a variety of risk factors, such as having a poorly educated mother, or living in a household that is poor or headed by a single parent. More needs to be done to ensure that the child's socioeconomic rights are fulfilled.
The Polokwane Conference of the ANC resolved the following with regard to children's issues: firstly, the best interests of the child should be paramount, with child-headed households as the priority for protection and care. Secondly, the welfare of children must be promoted and, in this regard, to develop, monitor and measure tools which define and deal with child poverty. Thirdly, the safety nets for children must be strengthened to deal with child poverty, ongoing murders, disappearances, abuse and neglect. Lastly, childhood development centres must be strengthened and communities urged to understand and deal seriously with the rights of children. After all, of the over 49 million people in this country, 18,6 million are children under the age of 18 years.
Though we acknowledge that the needs of children are also addressed by numerous other service delivery departments, such as Health, Social Development and Education, it is disconcerting to note that the programme responsible for mainstreaming and co-ordination of children's rights has received only 1% of the country's budget for the current year.
Since the advent of this democracy in 1994, our country has put a comprehensive range of laws, policies and programmes in place to enable the realisation of children's socioeconomic rights. These laws place statutory duties on government to provide and budget for socioeconomic services and to clarify the roles and responsibilities of government spheres, departments and officials. Section 28 of the Constitution of our country underpins children's rights to be protected from violence, exploitation and abuse. This is in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified in this country in 1995. Since then, the convention has become the most ratified human rights treaty, and it also underscores the accountability of governments, civil society, parents and the international community to fulfil their obligations towards their realisation of the rights of children and to ensure that these rights remain inalienable, integral and indivisible. The department will be developing children's rights, the mainstreaming strategy and the responsive budgeting strategy, which will be finalised by March 2012. We appreciate this, as it will hold other departments accountable.
One other question that we should ask the hon Minister is whether our country complies with its reporting obligations on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The answer to this question is no. The country submitted its first report in 1997 and has not yet submitted its second and third report for 2002 and 2007 respectively. The lack of reporting prevents the treaty monitoring committees from evaluating South Africa's progress and from providing recommendations for improvement. We have been informed that these reports are before the Cabinet, but the committee has not received them yet. We would appreciate it if the department could come and brief the committee before the report is presented to the United Nations.
South African children have played a prominent role in the fight for their rights. The 1976 Soweto riots are also testament to the courage children displayed in standing up for what they believed in. We saw Comrade Hector Pieterson and many others shot by the police and other children were never seen by their families again. We salute the 1976 generation and say, even to those on my left, that we are what we are today because of them. [Applause.]
Children continue to be subjects of abuse and neglect. This continues despite the significant strides made in terms of the development of legislation, policies and programmes. The key challenge remains in the implementation and requisite costing and resources.
The Children's Act stipulates that children living and working in the streets are now regarded as children in need of care and protection. The Department of Social Development, as a lead department on street children's issues, is expected to provide the necessary resources as policies and legislation to protect and empower children living on the streets.
Modulasetulo, re bone toropo ya Tshwane e tsaya bana ba ba sa tlhokomelweng mo mebileng mo dingwageng tse fetileng, e ba isa kwa mafelong a a bolokegileng. Motho a ka ipotsa gore lenaneo le, le tla diriwa ga kae mo ngwageng? (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Chairperson, in the past years we saw the City of Tshwane taking street children to safe places. One would ask oneself how many times would this initiative be done in a year.]
Is this initiative going to be effective and sustainable? In turn, the department also has a responsibility of creating awareness on legislation, policy and issues impacting on the lives of these children. Raising awareness is a fundamental prevention strategy that involves not only education on information, but also helps in changing attitudes and behaviour; hence the department launched the strategy and guidelines for children living on the streets during the Child Protection Week, last week.
The purpose of the strategy is to provide different stakeholders at national, provincial and local level with guidelines to develop their own programmes for the management of those children living and working on the streets.
South Africa is still on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, of universal access to primary education and gender equality in education. Disadvantaged children are benefitting from free education through the no-fee and school fee exemption. There are also child-friendly school programmes initiated by the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, which aim to improve the quality of education through the integrated package of school interventions, which includes health, safety and protection. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 8. [Time expired.] [Applause.]