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Social development
Legislation
The Children's Act, 2005 [PDF] provides for the establishment of the National Child Protection Register that lists all persons found unsuitable to work with children.
In terms of this law, childcare facilities, including welfare organisations offering foster care and adoption, are able to check prospective employees, foster parents and adoptive parents against the register.
The Older Persons Act, 2006 [PDF] contains provisions to improve the lives of older South Africans. The main objectives of the Act are to:
- maintain and promote the status, well-being, safety and
security of older persons
- recognise the skills and wisdom of older persons
- encourage older persons' participation in community activities to promote them as people.
The amendment of the Social Assistance Act, 2004 [PDF] saw men aged 63 to 64 for the first time qualifying and receiving socialassistance grants.The full implementation of the Act ensured that from 2010 men too receive social-assistance grants when they turn 60 years of age.
The Children's Amendment Act, 2007 [PDF] provides for:
- the partial care of children
- early childhood development (ECD)
- further protection of children
- prevention and early-intervention services
- children in alternative care
- foster care
- child- and youth-care centres, shelters and drop-in centres
- certain new offences relating to children
- the plight of child-headed households
- respect for parental rights by providing that no person may take or send a South African child out of the country without consent of parents or guardians
- the discipline of children.
| Amounts of grant per month |
Grant type |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
State Old-Age Grant |
R1 080 |
R1 140 |
Disability Grant |
R1 080 |
R1 140 |
Child-Support Grant |
R250 |
R270 |
Foster Child Grant |
R710 |
R740 |
Care Dependency Grant |
R1 080 |
R1 140 |
War-Veterans’ Grant |
R1 100 |
R1 160 |
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Social assistance
Under the first pillar, the Social Assistance Programme covers close to 15 million South Africans, the majority (nine million), of whom are children who receive the Child-Support Grant (CSG). Other provisions include the:
In 2010/11, government spent R89 billion on social grants in the face of increasing unemployment and the impact of 2009's recession. Expenditure on grants increased from 3,2% of the gross domestic product to 3,5%.
Government's most successful strategy in combating abject poverty and hunger is its Social Assistance Programme. The majority of the beneficiaries are children who receive the CSG. Eligibility for this grant is restricted to poor children, with most recipients being women.
Most of these recipients are usually mothers or anyone acting as the child's primary caregiver, which is critical because many children are cared for by relatives as a result of the impact of HIV and AIDS.
In 2010, the department extended the CSG to eligible children between the ages of 15 and 16, and will raise this in phases to include children who will turn 18 years old in 2012.
In the State of the Nation Address on 10 February 2011, President Zacob Zuma announced that social grants would be linked to economic activity and community development, to enable short-term beneficiaries to become self-supporting in the long run.
Did you know?
President Jacob Zuma launched Child Protection Week (CPW) on 21 May 2010, in Atteridgeville, Pretoria. Government introduced the CPW in 1997 to raise awareness and to mobilise all sectors and communities towards the perspective of holistic development, and the care and protection of children.
The CPW has become an annual campaign to educate and mobilise communities to put children first. The event also marked the launch of the Child Justice Act, 2008, which came into effect on 1 April 2010.
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Social assistance and security fraud
The Department of Social Development's national facilities to combat fraud and corruption in the social-security system consist of:
- a toll-free national security fraud hotline (0800 60 10 11) that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- an e-mail address (fraud@socdev.gov.za).
As part of the Anti-Corruption and Fraud Prevention Strategy, internal control systems have been improved and forensic and investigating teams deployed in all provinces.
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War on poverty
As a coordinated programme on poverty, government developed the War on Poverty Campaign and the Comprehensive Anti-Poverty Strategy. The former was scaled up to
cover 1 128 of the most deprived municipal wards in the country by 2014, while the latter underwent consultation in November 2010 in the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) after receiving support from the National Anti-Poverty Civil Society Colloquium in December 2009.
The Anti-Poverty Strategy focuses on capacitating and empowering households and communities to take themselves out of poverty with the help of government and its social partners by:
- creating economic opportunities
- investing in human resources
- providing income security to the most vulnerable members of society
- providing social and individual asset-accumulation such as
housing, land, working capital and infrastructure
- environmental sustainability
- providing social wages such as subsidised electricity, water and sanitation services
- providing preventative and curative healthcare
- social inclusion
- good governance.
The Social Protection and Community Development Cluster leads the Anti-Poverty Strategy and facilitates synergies between government and other sections of society.
The Department of Social Development's contributions to the development of children is one of the primary means to improve society's human capital and over time contribute to a reduction in intergenerational poverty.
The Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme lies at the heart of the department's goal. By the end of March 2010, 16 250 ECD sites in total were registered. In the same period, 719 194 children benefited from these sites, including 432 727 children who were subsidised by government.
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Responding to the impact of HIV and AIDS
The National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections 2007 to 2011 serves as South Africa's primary HIV and AIDS policy document. Recognising the growing need to combat the further spread of the epidemic, the plan hinges on four key priorities, namely:
- prevention
- treatment, care and support
- monitoring, research and surveillance
- human rights and access to justice.
The sustained national response is beginning to pay some dividends as data indicates that the infection rate among women younger than 20 has decreased significantly, while the average national HIV prevalence among young pregnant women has shown signs of stabilisation since 2006.
Home and community-based care (HCBC)
HCBC is based on the premise that vulnerable children and their families are better protected and supported within the context of their communities. As a result, this programme informs one of the main development strategies implemented by the Department of Social Development to enable communities and people affected by HIV and AIDS to access social-development services.
Norms and standards for the implementation of HCBC and support have been developed
to ensure good quality of services and to provide a minimum package of services to be rendered. The norms and standards were based on the evaluation of costs and process indicators for HCBC undertaken in three provinces.
Services to orphans made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS
The Department of Social Development provides care and support to orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS and other circumstances. Childcare forums
work hand-in-hand with social workers, welfare organisations and other structures in the community to ensure that the identified children get access to appropriate services.
The department has established a number of community-based drop-in centres where children are provided with meals and lunch boxes before they go to school. Caregivers
at the drop-in centres also assist children from child-headed households with homework and involve them in lifeskills programmes.
The Department of Social Development is developing a national database of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), which will include child-headed households. The programmes to assist OVC include access to treatment, food, skills training and psycho-social support.
Children are assisted to apply for social grants they are entitled to, for example the CSG and Foster-Care Grant. Community-based care services are rendered at drop-in
centres or HCBC centres. The services are as follows:
- provision of cooked meals and food parcels
- assistance with homework for children who are attending school
- recreation
- capacity-building in parenting and life skills
- psycho-social care and support
- income-generating programmes
- provision of ECD services.
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National councils
The Department of Social Development strives to strengthen the capacity of civil society to engage actively in social and economic development, by supporting the following national councils:
Statutory bodies include the National Development Agency (NDA), relief boards and the Central Drug Authority.
National Youth Development Agency (NYDA)
The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), formally launched on 16 June 2009, resulted from the merger of the National Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund. As the primary custodians of youth development in the country, the NYDA's mandate is to:
- advance youth development through guidance and support to initiatives across sectors of society and spheres of government
- embark on initiatives that seek to advance the economic development of young people
- develop and coordinate the implementation of the Integrated Youth Development Plan and Strategy for the country.
The scope of the NYDA includes:
- the National Youth Service and social cohesion
- economic participation
- policy, research and development
- governance, training and development
- youth advisory and information services
- the National Youth Fund.
In 2010/11, the NYDA created and/or sustained 15 810 jobs mainly through its enterprise-finance and business-development services divisions. It also issued business funding to the value of R14,2 million to youth-owned enterprises since March 2010.
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National Development Agency
The NDA is a statutory funding agency established in terms of the NDA Act, 1998 [PDF]to contribute towards the alleviation of poverty, address its causes, and strengthen the capacity of civil-society organisations to combat poverty.
The key strategic objectives of the NDA are, among other things, to grant funds to civil-society organisations to meet the development needs of poor communities; proactively strengthen organisations' institutional capacity for long-term sustainability; source funds for the NDA; and promote consultation, dialogue and the sharing of development experiences.
During 2010, the department allocated R87,2 million to the NDA, primarily to fund poverty-alleviation initiatives of community-based organisations and cooperatives in poor communities. These initiatives contribute to the national goal of eradicating poverty, creation of decent work, education, food security and rural development.
The NDA is a critical engine, especially in rural development and has representation nationally with offices in all nine provinces.
Source: Pocket Guide to South Africa 2010/11
Editor: D Burger. Government Communication and Information
System
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Last modified: 20 July 2011 16:30:19.
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