Hon Speaker, yes, the national Department of Social Development receives reports on the number of child-headed households identified and serviced as well as on the types of services rendered to them, on a quarterly basis.
The statistics that government relies on are received from homes and from community-based care organisations which report to provincial departments of social development on the number of child-headed households identified and serviced and the types of services provided.
Government attempts to assist child-headed households through social workers at the district level who are assigned to these households and whose responsibility it is to link the children to all government services including, but not limited to: psychosocial support; linking children with relatives and extended family; facilitating access to official documents; and application and access to social grants such as the child support grant, the foster care grant, grants in aid and also social relief of distress grants and food parcels.
The reason for the continuing phenomenon of child-headed households in South Africa is primarily attributed to HIV and Aids. Other reasons identified are unemployment that results in people leaving home to seek employment elsewhere; desertion or abandonment of children, and excessive abuse of alcohol, which renders adults incapable of parenting.
We all have a collective responsibility to ensure that the hardships suffered by children who have to assume responsibility for their families are minimised so that all children in South Africa can experience the true joy and freedom of childhood. Thank you.