Chairperson, allow me to present the Budget Vote on behalf of the MEC for Gauteng. We continue to be confronted with challenges, including unacceptable levels of unemployment, the growing gap between the poor and rich, extreme poverty alongside opulence, and the increasing erosion of societal values. These challenges occur as we emerge from the global economic meltdown which put a strain on already limited resources. I will therefore use this policy debate to outline interventions that we will embark on to address these challenges.
Last year, we embarked on an exercise to reprioritise service delivery in line with the ANC manifesto called the Gauteng provincial government priorities. We have therefore allocated resources in order to achieve these priorities. As the Gauteng government, we have prioritised reducing poverty levels by half in 2014. Our interventions continue to be focused on creating a more inclusive economy, by expanding opportunities for the poor to access the labour market and broadening the impact of growth as well as ensuring that the benefits reach all sectors of society, particularly the poor and marginalised. These interventions also include support for small and micro enterprises and co-operatives.
We have targeted young people in our efforts to create decent jobs and thus grow the economy. We have prioritised investment in youth development through the provision of skills such as electrical skills, plumbing, life skills, computer training, business skills and carpentry. We aim to prepare our young to enter the labour market with skills and confidence. To promote sustainable development, each of our 26 development centres will continue to run income-generating programmes.
Through the Masupatsela Youth Pioneer Programme, young people will receive training on, for example, action research, communication skills and project management. This programme will focus on mobilising teenagers to serve their country by promoting activism and a spirit of patriotism in preparation for future leadership roles. It will also provide Gauteng with an exclusive opportunity to foster and groom a cadre of social scientists who will assist with the multitude of programmes planned to expand the rapid delivery of services to households and communities.
Our interventions are now narrowed down to municipal wards and households. This approach will make it easy for us to monitor and evaluate the impact of our interventions. We have come to realise that we need to move away from focusing on inputs. We will be judged by how the outcomes changed the lives of the poor. We will assist to establish 200 co-operatives in previously disadvantaged communities. These co-operatives will be empowered in school uniform production and the rendering of cleaning, security, laundry, catering and gardening services.
We are committed to building human capital in order to improve the quality of human resources of our province. This we will achieve through, among others, skills development and early childhood development. This programme promotes social protection and ensures the reduction of our vulnerability. Investment in early childhood development is not only a means of giving children a good start in life but also a way of developing their families and contributing to the socioeconomic development of the province. The service focuses on children in the age group of 0 to 4 years. We will continue to assist unregistered early childhood development centres, ECDCs, to comply with registration requirements. Our approach is very developmental; we will therefore expand and strengthen the relevant training provided to unregistered ECDCs. Efforts will also be made to ensure that the level and pace of training of ECD practitioners meets the need. Collaboration with municipalities to provide health certificates will continue, as this is a prerequisite for funding and the registration of these sites.
The HIV/Aids pandemic has visited untold misery on children and those who provide care for them. Our programmes are aimed at building and strengthening governmental, family and community capacities to provide a supportive environment for orphans and girls and boys affected by and infected with HIV/Aids. This will include programmes to address the psychosocial problems encountered by children affected by HIV/Aids. The integration of the Departments of Health and Social Development has begun to facilitate the streamlining of the funding of community-based service sites and to synergise delivery of psychosocial support services and the necessary medical interventions.
We have devised a multipronged strategy, which is aimed at addressing, among others, investment in human capital, development of local economic opportunities, and food and income security through income-generation activities by providing safety nets for the most vulnerable. Targeted households will be assisted to benefit from a pro-poor basket of services such as free basic water and electricity, rates rebates, social grants, free health care, free education, indigent burials, free scholar transport, home-based care for those infected with and affected by HIV/Aids, and food security for targeted children. Indeed, this is an integrated assault on poverty.
The ANC government has always prioritised children. The Bana Pele programme is the provincial response to poverty afflicting children. This programme comprises an integrated package of services targeting orphaned and vulnerable children through a single window. This package includes child support grants, school fees exemptions, free health care, school uniforms, school feeding and psychosocial support. We have developed an electronic referral of children between the Departments of Education, Health and Social Development. The highest numbers of children living in poverty are African, followed by children living in coloured households. If we do not intervene, generational poverty is perpetuated. Among Africans, households that are headed by women are worse off than those that are headed by men.
The school uniform project is not only focused on the provision of school uniforms to needy children, but also focuses on empowering communities by job creation through the creation and support of sewing groups in the communities. The school uniforms are manufactured mainly by 200 nonprofit organisations registered as sewing groups. These projects create decent jobs as these school uniforms are produced by local women.
Construction of 17 early childhood development facilities is under way in Mamelodi, Kagiso, Munsieville, Ratanda, Refilwe, Daveyton, Duduza, Katlehong, Tembisa, Tsakane, Kwa-Thema, Wattville, Ga-Rankuwa, Soshanguve, Boipatong, Sharpeville and Alexandra. We have also identified a need for facilities which provide after-school support and drop-in facilities to orphaned and vulnerable children, including those attached to child-headed households.
We are committed to deracialising old age homes. In this regard, we will focus on accessibility of services in old age homes and the development of more community-based services. We acknowledge that there is an urban bias in the location of residential old age facilities. Key to the issue of accessibility is the admission of older persons from the townships to residential old age facilities located in the suburbs or urban areas. In conclusion, we have developed psychosocial services for people with disabilities and are in the process of developing and implementing a strategy to roll out sign language and Braille training for targeted families. We have decided to mainstream disability issues in order to ensure recognition of the contribution that people with disabilities can make in society, including in the Public Service. We will ensure employment of black women and people with disabilities in terms of the Employment Equity Act. We will not falter in our quest to comply with Gauteng provincial government broad-based black economic empowerment and affirmative action targets. We are determined and ready to break the back of poverty. Gauteng supports Budget Vote No 18. I thank you. [Applause.]