Hon Chairperson, members of the House and distinguished guests, the objective of the ANC-led government is to improve both the overall level of wellbeing of its citizens, as well as the distribution of goods and services to promote the wellbeing of all members of society.
Social development is based on an integrated understanding of the challenges facing South Africa. Although there are no simple or isolated solutions to the challenges we face, the ANC has, over the past 16 years, implemented a set of priority actions to help accelerate social progress in supporting the attainment of the social development goals. Successful implementation of planning requires both fiscal and political resources. The social development strategy of the ANC-led government applies to all sectors of society and reinforces the approach of all sectors working together in partnership to achieve the common goal of creating a better life for all.
Central to the task of social transformation is the role of the ANC in government in confronting the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment. At this juncture, we can and must reaffirm our commitment to redress poverty and inequality. We are building a developmental state and not a welfare state, given that in a welfare state dependency is profound.
Beyond poverty alleviation, interventions must seek to develop exit programmes that capacitate households and communities to empower themselves. It is the duty of the developmental state to achieve this. The ANC, in adopting the 2002 Taylor Committee's recommendation on comprehensive social security, was seeking to address itself to a social security system that included comprehensive social insurance schemes such as the Unemployment Insurance Fund, UIF, the Road Accident Fund, RAF, and the National Health Insurance, NHI, financed through contributions of potential beneficiaries and subsidised by employers. Secondly, it spoke to social assistance for those who cannot provide for themselves because of circumstances beyond their control.
The restructuring of the social development sector, which was partly triggered by shifting the social security function to the national sphere, resulted in positive developments. Funding for the sector has grown and is expected to grow over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period. This enables the base for improved service delivery to the most vulnerable. Given the growing budgets, the sector has to reposition itself to deliver a comprehensive package of social services.
The 2002 51st national conference of the ANC called for care and support for families to be elevated. As a result, care and support services to families experienced increases over the medium term. At the 52nd national conference of the ANC in Polokwane, concern over the negative impact of poverty on our society was deeply debated. The following priority has emerged: that a comprehensive social security net provides a targeted and impeccable approach in eradicating poverty and unemployment, establishes a mandatory retirement fund and ensures that retirement provisions cover low- income groups, prioritises the welfare of children, and, in this regard, develops services that seek to deal with child poverty.
The Department of Social Development should strengthen collaboration with the department of Education and other departments involved in early childhood development. The child support grant should be gradually extended to the age of 18 years. The pensionable age must be equalised and set at 60 years, and a co-ordinated national drug campaign must be intensified to combat substance abuse. We are glad to notice that, as the select committee, the department is in the process of addressing all the issues that were mentioned in this conference.
Within the national frameworks of poverty reduction and economic growth, the ANC sees the social development sector supporting efforts to eliminate hunger, improve food security, and develop appropriate feeding practices for high-risk populations. For the ANC, food security is critical and part of the ANC's agrarian reform programme is designed to address this. In addressing this, we welcome Social Development's programme to provide integrated food aid and nutrition to people who are not currently included in the safety net. This includes, but is not limited to, incorporating the homestead food gardening programme, nutritional support services to mothers and babies, a nutrition and food safety programme available at early childhood development facilities, school feeding schemes for poor learners in primary and secondary schools, subsidisation of nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, to provide food relief, and community self-help initiatives, such as bulk buying of food through saving clubs, organisations and co-operatives.
The provision by Social Development of social relief to individuals, families and communities in distress and the provision of disaster relief and emergency housing had one of the most profound impacts upon the destitute and the unemployed. We must ensure that a comprehensive social security net provides a targeted approach in eradicating poverty and unemployment. In doing this, we will have to ensure that a minimum common base on all social security intervention programmes by all departments must be adhered to. Chairperson, the committee supports the departmental Budget Vote. Thank you very much. [Applause.]