Chairperson, I would like to greet the Ministers and all members of the House.
I don't think my speech is going to be very long because, at the moment all the parties that have spoken - the DA, Cope, the IFP and the ACDP - have supported the Bill.
I would like to thank this House for giving us the opportunity to present issues and concerns relating to the Social Assistance Amendment Bill which is before Parliament. As the chairperson said before, I would like to say that we are all aware of the fact that the grant system is not perfect and will require continual changes, from time to time, to adequately respond to the needs of our people.
To improve the provision of social assistance, Cabinet has approved the Social Assistance Amendment Bill, which is before Parliament today.
We know what the Bill seeks to attain by allowing applicants and beneficiaries an opportunity to request the South African Social Security Agency, Sassa, to reconsider decisions, before they appeal to the independent tribunal. It is in order to expedite the resolution of agreements between applicants, beneficiaries and the agency.
It also allows beneficiaries an opportunity to appeal a decision of the agency. It makes provision for the appointment of an independent tribunal in a manner prescribed by the legislation. Lastly, as the chairperson and other speakers have said, the Bill seeks to insert a definition of "disability".
As the ANC and the ANC-led government, we are aware that we have made it clear that it is important to provide income support to all those who are disabled and who, as a result of their disability, are unable to enter the job market.
The chairperson and other people present here spoke about the public hearings, so I won't speak about them or the state of readiness of the Department of Health to implement their assessment team. Chairperson, in conclusion I would rather speak about the desirability of the Bill before I pass a few remarks.
Concerning the desirability of the Bill, we, the committee, would like to request the House to reconsider some clauses of the Bill, in order to address unintended consequences. Our proposal, as the Social Development Portfolio Committee, is, firstly, that the definition in the disability clause be completely withdrawn from the Amendment Bill before this House.
Secondly, seeing that there were no objections to the other clauses, our proposal is that the generic correction in section 5 of the Principal Act and the request on the reconsideration for the right to appeal, as well as the consideration of the decision by the agency for appeal in sections 14 and 18 of the principal Act, be adopted.
As I put it in my speech, we therefore would like Parliament to consider our view and to process these clauses for the acceptance of the Amendment Bill.
Then there are few housekeeping issues that I would like to address. When it comes to the time frame, we do agree that there should be a time frame in place, but we know that there are still challenges when it comes to the Department of Health. So when we get together for our first meeting, we have to look at what we would like to achieve. In this meeting we should discuss the way forward on the milestones concerning the implementation of the Department of Health's strategic plan to manage chronic illnesses.
We also have to look at the care dependency grant because, according to the amendment, there was no assessment tool. We would like the department to brief us on that assessment tool, but after the care dependency grant assessment tool has been approved by Cabinet.
Our social development chairperson gave the long title of the Bill. I therefore would like to place the short title of the Bill before this august House. This Act is called, "The Social Assistance Amendment Act of 2010". The ANC supports this Bill. Thank you. [Applause.]