Chairperson, hon Minister of Social Development, other Ministers and Deputy Ministers, hon Members of Parliament, MECs for social development, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, Budget Vote No 16, as highlighted by the hon Minister, responds to the call made by the hon President for us to give effect to our commitment to creating a better life for all.
During the 52nd conference of the ANC in Polokwane in December 2007, the ruling party observed that our society was faced with many challenges, and resolved to confront them head-on. The ANC recognised that poverty, violent crime against women and children, increasing numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, and the increasing levels of substance abuse in our communities remained areas of major concern that deserved our immediate attention. Our work during the current Medium-Term Expenditure Framework will seek to address these challenges.
The work of transforming our society from the social ills caused by centuries of apartheid social engineering will take more than just the government to accomplish. We agree with you, chairperson of the portfolio committee, that it is a noble ideal to take our people out of the poverty cycle that they were plunged into by the very ruthless engineers of apartheid. [Applause.]
I was humbled on Wednesday, 1 July 2009, this week when I was invited to speak to the 17th biennial conference of the National Association of Child Care Workers, NACCW, an association that is working to promote care and support for orphaned, vulnerable children and youth through interventions such as the Isibindi Model. I would like to commend the NACCW and its affiliates for the significant contributions they continue to make towards changing the lives of many children in our country.
This initiative, together with many others by various organisations throughout the country, recognises the reality that protection of the rights of children is indeed a national challenge which cannot be addressed by the government alone.
We acknowledge and thank our partners, in particular, the nongovernmental organisations, community-based organisations and faith-based organisations that form a crucial link in the chain of service delivery. I say to these organisations: Some of you were in the trenches with the ANC during the times of the apartheid struggle. Today, although the consequences of past policies still remain with us, our enemies are the twin monsters of poverty and underdevelopment. Through our united action, we defeated the demon of apartheid in 1994. Today, through unity of purpose, we must prepare to implement our progressive social policies embodied in the provisions of various pieces of legislation that have been passed over the past 15 years, more particularly in the past three years.
The pieces of legislation concerned include the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act, the Older Persons' Act, and the Children's Act. In addition to legislative interventions, our programmes also respond to the challenges faced by women, children in conflict with the law, people with disabilities, and the challenges of HIV and Aids.
Our society faces the scourge of drug abuse that threatens to tear apart the very fabric of our society. To date, our country has the highest number of methamphetamine users in the world, especially among people under the age of 20, with the highest number recorded in this province, the Western Cape. This is an indicator of a huge crisis. We cannot accept this; we will not allow it. The 52nd conference of the ANC recognised this threat and called for the co-ordinated national drug campaign to be intensified to fight substance abuse. The Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act, Act No 70 of 2008, is a response to this crisis.
Our focus will be on reducing the demand for drugs and support for treatment. In this regard, we will continue with our efforts to strengthen the implementation of our drug-prevention initiative, Ke Moja, meaning "I am fine without drugs" which targets young people through arts, sport and the transfer of critical life skills.
The struggle to reduce the demand for drugs and other harmful substances is a war that we must continue to wage collectively. This means engaging and encouraging everyone: parents, teachers, community leaders and, most importantly, me and you, to play our part in full. Together, we can achieve more. [Applause.]
We are committed to the creation of a society that cares for and protects the rights of older persons. The hon Minister has referred to the equalisation of pensionable age between men and women for the exercise of their right to access to social security, as determined by the conference of the progressive ANC. [Applause.] In order to complement that resolution, during this financial year we will expedite the implementation of the Older Persons Act of 2006. We will operationalise the country's Plan of Action on Ageing to give effect to the Madrid Plan of Action commitments.
While delivery of social services to older persons is crucial in the work of the department, programmes that are designed to ensure that our elderly are not alienated from normal community life are regarded as equally important by the department. We are engaging with community-based organisations with the aim of strengthening or establishing intergenerational programmes at community level as well as to support older persons in their efforts to participate in various community activities.
The involvement of older persons in community activities will also elevate the role they play in communities with regard to the caring for and socialisation of children and intergenerational transmission of positive cultural values which contribute towards social cohesion in families and communities.
Gender equality and the empowerment of women is a developmental goal that cuts across all our objectives. The conference of the ANC resolved that gender equality is the cornerstone of our overall social transformation. In this respect, we will continue with gender capacity-building, focusing on mainstreaming, masculinity and ensuring equity in budgeting. These initiatives will reinforce our programmes to close the income gap, the representivity gap in management and the social status gap between men and women. [Applause.] In addition, appropriate empowerment interventions demand that we address both gender-practical and gender-specific needs in all spheres of our lives.
The ANC conference recognises that children are the future of our country and, therefore, measures to invest in their development have to ensure that the environment is conducive to their growth. Our contribution to this commitment is geared towards tackling child poverty and the provision of child-protection services.
The department will implement the new Children's Act, which introduces fundamental changes with regards to the protection of the constitutional rights of children in South Africa. The increasing number of children who are orphaned in the country requires us to utilise all available options and resources to provide these children not only with alternative care, in the form of foster care and residential care, but with a stable, permanent home environment, such as adoption. Our intake of adoption in this country is very low.
In order to address this, we will develop a strategy that will encourage South Africans to adopt children who need permanent placement with suitable families or individuals. A register on adoptable children and adoptive parents is also being developed. This will ensure that all children who are vulnerable and eligible for adoption are known and matched with prospective parents in South Africa. We are also undertaking research to determine the reasons for the low interest by South Africans in adopting children.
The protection of orphans and vulnerable children is of great significance to us. In this respect, we will continue to work with our partners through the National Action Committee for Children Affected by HIV and Aids to improve the quality of our services to children affected by HIV and those living with Aids. We will also develop strategies which outline the kind of support we will lend to child-headed households. The Minister has spoken about the progress we have made in increasing the number of children who are receiving early childhood development services. We are also going to mobilise and ensure that we expand to rural areas because the rights of children in rural areas are equal to the rights of children in urban areas.
The 2009 Fifa Confederations Cup and the upcoming 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa raise various concerns about the possible increase in the abuse, neglect, exploitation and trafficking of children during this event. Although there were no reports of child trafficking during the Fifa Confederations Cup, it is expected that the 2010 Fifa World Cup could create conditions for the increased vulnerability of women and children and provide opportunities for abusers, exploiters and traffickers to meet the perceived increased demand for cheap labour and the sex industry. The department, together with other stakeholders, developed an action plan to prevent the exploitation of children during this event.
The full integration of people with disabilities into the mainstream of society remains uppermost in our minds and plans are under way to develop strategies to implement policies on disability. The recent evaluation report of the Africa decade called for more systematic concerted efforts from all sectors of our society to sustain the progress made in making disability rights human rights. In this respect, we will work jointly with our partners in the disability sector to expedite the implementation of these commitments, especially in rural areas.
Nonprofit organisations, NPOs, play an important role in the provision of social services to the most vulnerable members of our society. To ensure compliance with the Nonprofit Organisations Act, we will enhance systems that seek to monitor compliance. Similarly, we will heighten the speedy registration of NPOs and ensure that we register all applications for registration within two months. Given that NGOs are a key part of our value chain, we will implement programmes to improve their capacities, including governance and accountability.
In conclusion, on 18 July 2009 South Africa will celebrate the first Nelson Mandela Day, which will also be commemorated internationally. On this day we ask all South Africans to emulate the sacrifices and services of Nelson Mandela and his comrades as well as the unsung heroes and heroines who brought us to this democracy we are all enjoying.
Our contribution will be easier in comparison to theirs in that we will be required to contribute 67 minutes of our time on that day. Please use those 67 minutes. Thank you, Chairperson. [Time expired.] [Applause.]