Hon Chairperson, hon Minister and Deputy Minister of Social Development, the mission of Social Development is, and I quote:
To ensure the provision of comprehensive social services which protect the poor and vulnerable within the framework of the South African Constitution and subsequent legislation; create an enabling environment for sustainable development; and deliver ... quality services in partnership with all those committed to building a caring society.
In South Africa the number of social welfare grants is growing at an alarming rate. For example, there has been a 300% growth in the number of social grant beneficiaries over nine years. Treasury estimates that by 2012 we will have 16 million grant recipients in South Africa. Of these, 10 million will be child support grant beneficiaries.
Sassa plays an important role in providing these grants to all beneficiaries in our country. In their presentation this year, the agency spoke about measures it would implement in order to reduce the turnaround time for the processing of applications. These measures seem to be working, especially in urban areas, as many beneficiaries now leave the offices of the agency knowing whether or not their grant has been approved and when they will receive their first grant payment. Most of the agencies in urban areas are operating in this manner, but there is still room for improvement, and more still needs to be done in rural areas.
We are concerned about the fact that Sassa received a qualified audit due to a number of challenges, ranging from missing files to loose correspondence not filed and critical documents missing. We hope for a better audit outcome at the end of the fiscal year.
Sassa has to clean up its act, as its present state of poor organisation renders the agency vulnerable to fraud and corruption. The shortage of social workers is another major problem facing the department. We welcome the Minister's remarks today that retired social workers might be brought back into the system to come and assist, because this is a serious problem. Sassa also faces additional challenges, such as sharing offices with the Department of Social Development, DSD, in certain regions.
Lokho kuyinkinga ... [That is a problem ...] ... Minister, because in some areas there are pigeonholes. The person is sitting there being interviewed, concerned that the next person is listening to their personal life history and health condition, which is unacceptable. Conditions at certain paypoints do not meet the norms and standards. The growing number of social grants is having a negative impact on service delivery, and staff- perpetrated fraud is becoming endemic in some regions.
We are happy to hear that fraud management, good governance and beneficiary maintenance will receive priority attention. The move from a cash-based welfare payment system to an electronically based system is also welcomed and we look forward to its rapid national implementation.
The Central Drug Authority, CDA, also plays a very important role in the lives of all South Africans in combating the scourge of substance abuse in our country. The IFP feels that the CDA and government cannot fight this war alone without the intervention and assistance of the parents and family of those concerned.
The information and resolutions taken at the Anti-Substance Abuse Summit must be disseminated to all members of the communities. More rehabilitation centres are needed and rural communities must be included, as drug and alcohol abuse is rampant in our urban and rural communities. Drug abuse is also complicating our fight against Aids. A new drug called whoonga has been created from antiretroviral drugs. We have heard of cases where Aids patients have been robbed of their antiretroviral medicine.
Gender-based violence against women and children in most cases occurs in conjunction with alcohol and drug abuse. The IFP calls for this matter to be prioritised and urges the DSD to keep working with other departments, such as those of Police and of Justice and Constitutional Development, in order to come up with ways of assisting our communities in this regard.
The mandate of the National Development Agency, NDA, is to contribute to the eradication of poverty by granting funds to civil society organisations for the purpose of carrying out certain projects. Most of these projects have lapsed due to a lack of capacity to run the business for which the project was created. The IFP urges that training should be given to all those who receive government funding in order to ensure that they are all able to sustain their businesses, and thereby achieve the operational objectives and mandates of the agency. The IFP would also like to see more monitoring and evaluation of all NDA-funded projects.
The IFP supports Budget Vote No 19. Thank you. [Applause.]