Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, hon MECs for Social Development here present, hon Members of Parliament, all distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you and good morning.
During the course of last year, and against the backdrop of the persistent legacy of apartheid deprivation, and in the context of the worst global financial and economic crisis since the 1930s, Social Development continued to prevail, to make real and measurable progress and to bring hope to millions of South Africans - hope that is not just a dream, but a way of making dreams become reality.
Social Development has implemented its mandate through its key areas, namely social security, welfare services and integrated development. We have had the opportunity to speak to hon members and give account on these three areas throughout the year. We are still waging a war for economic opportunity, social justice and social inclusion.
"The contradictions in our society are explosive", to quote Frantz Fanon, author of The Wretched of the Earth. Many millions of our people eke out a living as they are preoccupied solely with survival. Over 5,2 million South Africans are jobless. For many, when work is available, pay is low and conditions are often barely tolerable. Social security schemes and benefits, such as unemployment insurance, retirement savings and sickness or death cover for dependants of wage earners, remain elusive.
Permanent insecurity is the condition of the poor. Floods, droughts and disease, affecting people or livestock, can destroy livelihoods. Vulnerability to these phenomena is exacerbated by environmental factors such as climate change and global warming.
Persons with disabilities constitute the most vulnerable section of our society. Disability is linked to poverty, while the elderly face the additional burden of abuse, over and over again, often by members of their households.
In the midst of such despair, the poor turn on themselves in violent ruptures and social convulsions. Women and children often suffer the brunt of such paroxysms and their ability to make choices is extremely limited. Choices about sexual orientation, resource allocation and reproduction often lead to women being lampooned and lambasted. The youth turn to crime and gangsterism, substance abuse and other conduct, leading to self- destruction in their sense of hopelessness.
The combination of malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, unemployment and low income closes off avenues of escape. It is a picture that as Minister of Social Development I see all too often, and it brings a lump to anyone's throat and tears to the eyes.
Yet there are those among us who blame the poor for the conditions they find themselves in. They conveniently forget that poverty is systemic. Give them a rod to fish, they say.
Frantz Fanon said so poignantly -
The life of the nation is shot through with a certain falseness and hypocrisy, which are all the more tragic because they are so often subconscious rather than deliberate. George Bernard Shaw argued, "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."
While building on the progress that has been made, the ANC's 2009 manifesto is about a change in gear - no pun intended! The measures are responsive - they make real commitments and give hope for a better tomorrow to the majority of our people.
The ANC's manifesto outlines five clear, achievable objectives: education, health, decent jobs, safe and secure communities, and rural development. We made these commitments, we promised to deliver them, and Budget Vote 18 contributes to their realisation. These commitments flow from the tenets of the Freedom Charter, and they are encoded in the Constitution, whose main drafter was the ANC.
In line with the President's call, we will make this a year of action in executing our social development initiatives. We'll make good on the President's promise by further expansion of public employment programmes, home community-based care and early childhood development initiatives, and work harder to build a strong developmental state. We have heard the President's exhortation to contribute to a state that responds to the needs and aspirations of the people and a state that performs better, faster, harder and smarter.
Hon members, Social Development's expenditure grew from R67,1 billion in 2007 to R86,5 billion in 2009, an average annual rate of 11,9%. The allocation for this year, which we present to this august House, is more than R94 billion and increases to R114 billion by 2012-13. An amount of R95,4 billion, which is 99,4% of the budget allocation, is transfers. Provision of social grants makes up the largest portion of the budget, approximately 93%, which is 89,4% in the current financial year.
The other major transfers include R5,6 billion to the South African Social Security Agency, Sassa, to administer the grant system, and R87,2 million to the National Development Agency, NDA, to strengthen civil society organisations and support development initiatives in rural areas. A further R226 million goes towards social work scholarships and R43,4 million to loveLife to implement HIV/Aids prevention programmes.
I will now detail some of the salient features of the expenditure programme. Comprehensive social security is our major programme. Our envisaged comprehensive social security system has three pillars: social assistance, social insurance, as well as voluntary savings.
The first pillar, the social assistance programme, already covers just over 14 million South Africans. True to our manifesto promise, we have extended the child support grant to all children born after 31 December 1993 - all those born in the year of our democracy, I dare say. The extension of the child support grant will be phased in to cover over 2,1 million eligible children under the age of 18 by 2011-12.
As promised in our manifesto, we equalised the old-age pension on 1 April. Now men who are 60 years old, and who meet the means test criteria, become eligible for old-age pensions.
In a related development, and giving effect to our Polokwane resolution, this year we introduced in Parliament the Social Assistance Amendment Bill, which seeks to amend the definition of disability and provides for the introduction of a common, harmonised assessment tool to ensure a uniform and objective assessment of disability.
The Bill will give effect to Parliament's original intention: those who are disabled, to the extent that they cannot be gainfully employed as a result of some or other impairment, should qualify for the disability grant. In excess of R140 million will be available for social relief of distress to provide income support for those who may be left vulnerable as a result of a sudden catastrophe.
We will, in the course of the financial year, bring to Cabinet the social relief Bill, which will seek to shift the delivery responsibility of the programme, among other things, to provinces but to also ensure that we make our response to people's emergency needs faster and more efficiently than ever before.
We will respond to President Zuma's appeal to make government work faster, harder and smarter. Sassa will embark on a number of innovative service delivery improvements over the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, period. Central to these is the Improved Grant Application Process, known as IGAP, which seeks to resolve challenges relating to the grant application process. Our intention is that social grant applicants should be given the outcome of their applications on the same day. That is what we ultimately want.
Leakage in the social assistance programme is an affront. We will uproot fraud, eradicate corruption and spare no effort to bring to justice those who compromise the integrity of the grant system. We have scrutinised hundreds of thousands of dormant accounts of beneficiaries to assess their eligibility. We will make an announcement in due course, to indicate how we are doing with this. Suffice it to say, we will save hundreds of millions of rand.
In response to the Minister of Finance's petition to do more with less, we have assessed the cost of paying social grants. There is a need to change the current model of paying up to 70% of our social grant recipients through the cash payment contractors system. This method is inefficient, ineffective and not financially sustainable.
Reviewing the payment system is not an easy task. The public demands a system that is transparent and one where the costs of providing such a key service are reduced. As government, we are obliged to source cost-effective and perhaps more developmental means of providing these services - developmental means in rural areas in particular.
While we are embarking on all these business process redesign initiatives, we have no intention of forcing social grant recipients to migrate to a permanent system and thereby adversely affect them. Based on our payment model, we will go out on tender soon. We regret that so many of our people have waited so long for their appeals to be dealt with, especially in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. We will prioritise their plight. We say ... "thokolathemba amathunzi ayewukela". [... they must rejoice because their issues will be sorted out soon.]
We now have an independent appeals tribunal to deal with these matters, and we have allocated R171 million for it.
The second pillar of our social security system is social insurance. While social assistance aims to alleviate poverty, the goal of social insurance is to prevent poverty.
Regrettably, too many previously employed people in South Africa fall into poverty because we do not have a mandatory retirement system, millions of workers do not insure against disability and millions more breadwinners do not save to ensure that their surviving dependants have an income in the event of their death.
Many employed people are also not covered for unemployment insurance, and the system for compensation for work-related injuries is fragmented. Consequently, millions of former employees become dependent on the social assistance system, as it currently is.
In addition to the consolidated government document on social security reform, we have developed detailed reform policy proposals that will inform the implementation over this MTSF. The key social security reforms relate to setting up a mandatory system of social insurance, especially the retirement system, with disability provisions and benefits for surviving dependants in the event of the death of the breadwinner.
The Minister of Finance will definitely provide details on the reform of the private pensions, but I daresay we will take on the big insurance companies and the bureaucracies to bring down the costs of retirement and health-care savings, to remove the opacity of products, to improve governance of funds, and ensure trustees exercise their fiduciary duties as well.
A business case to reform the institutional arrangements for social security has been completed. The aim is to integrate social security policy development to ensure coherence and consolidate service delivery of the various social security benefits to achieve economies of scale.
In view of our participation in the activities of the International Social Security Association, Issa, which are important, particularly as we embark on the process of developing the comprehensive social security system, we will this year host the 30th Issa general assembly and the World Social Security Forum from 29 November to 4 December 2010.
Among other matters, the conference will discuss issues pertinent to our own social security system and the coverage systems that go with that. With regard to welfare services, we can and must bring hope in the midst of such despair. Our suite of welfare services intervention is vast.
Maatskaplike diensintervensies is wyd in omvang. Dit sluit onder andere in kwesbare kinders, die jeug, gestremde persone en die oues van dae. Een van die departement se eerste prioriteite is die implementering van die Children's Act, Wet 38 van 2005, sowel as die Older Persons Act, Wet 13 van 2006, wat 'n aanvang geneem het op 1 April 2010. Die implementering van die twee wette sal die grontwetlike regte van kinders en ouer persone in die land bevorder en realiseer, sowel as ander beleidsviglyne en internasionale ooreenkomste. Daar is hoop en ons, die ANC, maak vooruitgang. [Applous.] (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Interventions by Social Services are comprehensive. They include, amongst others, vulnerable children, the youth, disabled people and the aged. One of the first priorities of the department is the implementation of the Children's Act, Act 38 of 2005, as well as the Older Persons Act, Act 13 of 2006, which came into effect on 1 April 2010. The implementation of the two Acts will promote and actualise the rights of children and older people in the country, as well as other policy directives and international agreements. There is hope, and we, the ANC, are making progress. [Applause.]]
Chairperson, just as these pieces of legislation are the product of a remarkable partnership between government and civil society, their effective implementation will require a continuation of that partnership, at all levels and at all times. Noteworthy is that our reach of care and support services will be enhanced through a laudable partnership with the German Development Bank to address the plight of child-headed households.
The Child Justice Act also came into operation on 1 April this year. This landmark piece of legislation is designed to provide our country with a twin-track child welfare and justice approach, which focuses on prevention, early intervention, diversion from crime and the rehabilitation of children who are in conflict with the law. The Deputy Minister will provide more specific details on this.
With regard to integrated development, we will develop, implement and evaluate a set of activation strategies for caregivers of children who access the child support grant. This will involve skills development initiatives for potential work opportunities.
In this respect we are in concert with Jeffrey Sachs, who argues in his book, The End of Poverty, that the key to ending extreme poverty is to "enable the poorest of the poor to get their foot on the ladder of development".
Two flagship development projects have been implemented in this regard, in terms of poverty alleviation. They are the Hemp Project and the Vondeling upliftment craft project. Some of you may have seen the Vondeling project in the Sawubona magazine.
Nonprofit organisations, NPOs, have a major role to play in identifying, developing and implementing programmes and projects that promote genuine social development. In this respect, we have allocated an additional R17 million over the MTEF period for building capacity in NPO registration, including the recruitment of personnel.
We must channel the energy and enthusiasm of young people in a more constructive way, as the President said when he articulated so well the status of the youth in this country. For this, government initiated a number of interventions.
One worth mentioning is the Masupatsela Youth Pioneer Programme, in collaboration with our Cuban counterparts, which is contributing to and replicating the Cuban experience. We want to make the youth active agents of change in their communities. So far, we have recruited 2 099 young pioneers and 120 mentors, making significant progress in the youth interventions.
The HIV/Aids epidemic remains an immense challenge. We will, as we must, redouble our efforts in tackling this at greater speed. Guided by the programme of the national strategic plan, we would like to ensure that we work harder to contribute to the national goal of halving infections.
In the 2009-10 financial year, the NDA funded 77 community projects, in the amount of R95 million. These benefited 7 185 direct beneficiaries, the majority of whom are women, youth and people with disabilities. This year the department will allocate R87,2 million, as I've already indicated, primarily to fund poverty alleviation initiatives of community-based organisations.
Over the MTEF period, we shall make conscious efforts to contribute to government's goal of creating decent work through the Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP, particularly targeting people with disabilities, women and youth who are outside the labour market. To this end, we have accelerated our investments in home-based community care and early childhood development. We will also continue our partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, and civil society organisations in the area of early childhood development. It is my belief, and that of government as a whole, that education is both a tool of social justice and a fundamental driver of economic development.
A very concrete partnership with the private and nonprofit sectors centring on the community food bank initiative has come into effect. Social Development has supported the establishment of four food banks with an amount of R3,3 million. These are in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth.
These food banks have provided close to 1,9 million meals on a monthly basis to poor households and have also created 91 full-time jobs. The department will also support the four remaining provinces during the implementation of rural food bank projects in the coming year. This programme is intended to cover the whole country.
Our poverty reduction strategy, co-ordinated by the Presidency, seeks to pool our resources. Similar to the National Business Initiative, we have started to mobilise the entire donor community to partner with government in this endeavour.
We continue to engage the business sector with a view to harnessing the approximately R4 billion that is lying out there and could be spent on corporate social investment programmes. This will be done in order to "crowd in" this private sector investment in some of our country's most underserviced municipalities. Moves are afoot to set up the advisory board, which civil society has been waiting for, so that we can, on a more regular basis, harness the support of the business community and other stakeholders.
The policies, plans and programmes outlined in Budget Vote 18 demonstrate that this government is responsive to the struggles of our people. We have made progress and will continue to advance in this battle to bring hope to more people.
I would like to thank and acknowledge all the organisations and individuals that selflessly give of themselves to contribute to the upliftment and care of others. In particular, I want to thank organisations such as the Gift of the Givers, Tiger Brands and the Soul City Institute, that have in many ways contributed to people who are in distress, like those in Haiti, but also in helping us with some of the programmes that we deal with. There are many other organisations like those that I have not named. Please bear with me; we are acknowledging you. Before concluding, I need to inform this House about two important matters. The first is that of the chief executive officer of Sassa. The chief executive officer of Sassa was taken through the disciplinary process and accordingly dismissed. With regard to the NDA, the appointment of the chief executive officer of the NDA is now before Cabinet.
In conclusion, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to my colleague and comrade, Ms Bathabile Dhlamini, who has worked passionately and will continue to work relentlessly to make this country a better place; to the MECs for Social Development, members of my portfolio committee and the chairperson - thank you; the director-general; the acting chief executive officers of Sassa and the NDA respectively; the staff of the Department of Social Development and all the nongovernmental organisations, NGOs, and community-based organisations, CBOs, for the positive contribution that you have made to our work.
Allow me to close with the most famous of quotes on hope from our greatest icon: "It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve." You know who that icon is. Thank you very much. [Applause.]