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Editors,
Political Correspondents,
And members of the diplomatic corps,

As we enter year four of our democratic government, I want to report to the people of this country our achievements and strategic priorities for the year. You will recall that when I took office as Minister for Welfare and Population Development in June 1996, I pledged to focus all my energies on transforming social welfare in South Africa, with a clear focus on poverty alleviation and welfare services, especially youth and children. Today I want to brief you on some of the areas in my performance scorecard.

To date, we have introduced two White Papers and made crucial amendments to key welfare laws. I am referring here to the White Paper on Developmental Social Welfare, the White Paper on Population Policy, the Welfare Laws Amendment Act, and the Non-Profit Organisations Act, both of 1997. In terms of the White Paper on Developmental Social Welfare, we have deepened one area, namely the transformation of the child and youth care (CYC) system.

In the past year alone, President Nelson Mandela has signed into law the Welfare Laws Amendment Act, the Non-Profit Organisations Act and the Child Care Amendment Act. Through these legislative changes the delivery of services and grants will become a reality to millions of poor South Africans.

To fully appreciate the progress we have made, particularly with regard to social security, requires some analysis. To ensure the effective and efficient management of the social security system the following steps were taken:

* We consolidated the 14 different systems onto one national data base. We completed this process in April last year.

* We started a process to ensure the integrity of this data by cleaning up the information on our consolidated data-base. This involves checking the data for duplicates, deceased beneficiaries and suspending those who no longer qualify for social security benefits. This has resulted in significant cost savings. For example, in December 1997 and January 1998 alone about 12 000 deceased beneficiaries have been removed from the system, which led to a saving of R 5,5 million per month! We anticipate that further progress will be made this year as we accelerate the re-registration of all social security beneficiaries.

* A parallel process is the elimination of fraud and corruption. We have found a high rate of fraud which the previous government could neither detect nor deter. We have taken steps to deal with corrupt officials and will continue to do so .

Similarly we will spare no effort to act against those who fraudulently receive social security benefits.

Yes, we are busy cleaning the cattle kraal and the stench is bound to be there!

As part of completing the policy formulation and transformation phase this year I'll table before Parliament and present to Cabinet for approval/acceptance a Child Care Amendment Bill, a Relief Fund Bill and the Social Work Amendment Bill. This package of legislation will complete the foundation of an effective social service system.

From policy to services
At our December Welfare MINMEC, we resolved that 1998 was to be declared a "policy to services" year. My colleagues and I took this resolution with a clear acceptance of the challenges that lie before us. We realise that in order to deliver quality services to our people, we need more than just policies, we need:

* a management system that is geared towards quantifiable direct service
* realistic budgeting
* setting clear objectives and priorities

Management
With the departure of the previous Director-General of Welfare, we are reconstituting a management team comprised of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, but with a common vision.

With the exception of a few cases both the national and provincial departments of welfare will for the first time operate with a full complement of their management team. By the end of this year the national department will have a fully operational social security section headed by a deputy director general.

Furthermore, we are strengthening provincial and national co-operation to ensure that the delivery problems do not fall between the cracks.

This year we will introduce new measures to finalise the transformation of social security emanating from the recommendations of the Chikane report of 1996 and the Public Service Report of 1997, which was completed at my request.
Among the key measures introduced is an early warning system which provides signals about the status of provincial budgets, management systems and client service.

More critically, we are introducing a system of monitoring the quality of private sector companies which are contracted to deliver services on behalf of the government. As from next Monday service quality inspection teams comprised of both national and provincial officials will be visiting various pay points and social service agencies and will report to both the provincial MEC and myself of the service we are getting from contracted service providers and the officers in the region. We will take action in cases where unacceptable services are being rendered by either our staff or contractors.

Welfare is a concurrent function between national and provincial spheres of government. We have worked hard to ensure that we give effect to the idea of co-operative governance and administration.

Much of the service improvement effort is done with the full co-operation of the provinces. In fact, our provincial departments participate in the technical assistance we offer to the provinces. Without it, effective service rendering cannot be possible.

Finance
For the first time we have introduced the following:
* A medium-term expenditure framework for realistic figures on which budgets are calculated over a three-year period
* We are in the process of establishing a financial / technical team whose main responsibility will be to help provincial welfare departments with establishing a new and clean financial system

Our national data bases on social security and social services is getting better by the day. We have several projects running, including the audit of SOCPEN-5 to ensure that it provides us with useful information for quality service.

Strategic priorities for 1998
To achieve our objective of putting services at the doorstep of anyone in need, we have to ensure the proper selection of priorities. For the coming year we will work on the following critical services:

* removing from prisons or police cells those children awaiting trial by putting in place key aspects of a transformed child and youth care system
* the implementation of the new child support grant (CSG)

Child and Youth Care System
For many years now, the child and youth care (CYC) system, which encompasses policy and services to children in need of care and protection as well as those in trouble with the law, has been in crisis. The approximately 50 000 young people presently within this system (foster care, residential care, children awaiting trial, and children on the street) range from infancy to 18 years of age with the majority in need of care, protection and developmental programmes. A small minority of approximately 10 to 20 percent are in trouble with the law, and many of these young people are equally in need of care, protection and development.

In 1995 when young people awaiting trial were released from prisons, the CYC system which functions mainly within the welfare sector, but is shared by Justice, Education, Correctional Services and SAPS, was unable to respond with appropriate resources.

This situation together with South Africa's new commitment to the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, resulted in an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Young People at Risk (IMC) being established by the Cabinet to design a new system and manage the crisis in the interim.

A further change to Section 29 of the Correctional Service legislation in 1996, led to children once again being detained in prison to await trial. It is this amendment which will fall away in May 1998.

Our realities
The reality is that we have a need for effective services to children, youth and families which far outweighs our present resources and capacity. Furthermore the CYC system which has been and remains in crisis, must be transformed in practice before we are likely to see this turn-around. The crisis and ineffective nature of the system itself is in effect draining our resources. We have a new CYC system design which was completed by the IMC in 1996/97. We have a new policy. Our greatest challenge now is to re-prioritise both financial and human resources, retrain and build the capacity of our human resources, plus (in the face of serious financial restraints) seek additional resources. In addition we are faced with the approaching change in Section 29 once more in May when the present 1400 children awaiting trial will (as in 1995) be released into welfare facilities.

Our challenges
Some of the individual but by no means small) challenges contextualised within the broader outline above are:

* transforming and providing probation and early intervention - particularly to young people
* transforming the residential care service to young people, which includes upgrading the effectiveness and delivery of family preservation and family reunification
* establishing policy, legislation and effective mechanisms and programmes which address child abuse and neglect
* dealing with poverty in such a way that families and communities are supported and empowered to remain together and develop towards wholeness and well-being
* transforming funding, social security and financial policy and approaches so that financial resources (whatever the amount), support the transformation of the CYC system, increase effectiveness of service delivery to children, youth and families, support quality service delivery, reach the most needy and are equally and appropriately distributed.
* ensuring that the system is prepared, willing and has the capacity and resources to deal with HIV / Aids and the consequences of this virus - most specifically the women and children and particularly the children who are orphaned and / or abandoned. Each day the number of orphaned and abandoned children increases and we expect that we will be dealing with approximately a million orphans within the next 10 years.
* preparing the system to adequately meet the challenge of May 1998 when Section 29 again changes, so that no further crisis will result
* developing the appropriate legislation.

The complexity of these challenges lies in the fact that there is a shortage of resources and capacity coupled with the fact that each challenge is directly interconnected with the others. Impacting positively on only one aspect will not necessarily change other aspects - so our task, however daunting, is to address the full system - in what we call the process of transforming the child and youth care system.

Our progress and our hope
While it is often difficult to see progress within such a vast array of very serious challenges and poor resources to meet those challenges, we have made small but significant steps of progress, and we intend that the 1998/99 financial year, in spite of challenges which lie ahead, is one which harvests our efforts to the significant and felt benefit of children youth and families.

We have 6 very effective projects which are operational and which have demonstrated the financial and programmatic effectiveness of our new principles and framework. Already 3-4 thousand young people and their families have benefited. This year, together with support from funders, we intend that these be spread around the country providing many more services and yet facilitating the transformation.

Probation services have increased in most provinces and this will continue. So far we have trained or retrained 500 probation officers and this will continue throughout the year.

Secure care facilities will be ready in Mpumalanga, Northern Province, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal and Free State before or just after May 10. We already have a facility in Gauteng, and the North West facility will be ready within the next 8 months.

Project Go has been initiated to deal with transformation and re-prioritisation of residential care, finalisation of secure care, urgent probation services, immediate upgrading of re-unification services, and the effective management of the release of children in May.

Each province has initiated this project which is being co-ordinated nationally by my department. A detailed action programme is in the implementation phase and will be closely monitored by myself and the other IMC Ministers. Already number of children have been appropriately placed back within their communities. At the same time we are giving urgent attention to financial and human resources issues as well as to piloting new and more effective methods of subsidy.

At this point we are indeed concerned about the numbers of children who will need to be in some form of secure care after May 10, particularly because there is some uncertainty about the numbers of children presently being held in police cells. We are too, to some extent, dependent on other departments such as justice and education and to that end we are working in close partnership to ensure that all measures are taken to prevent a crisis in May certainly, but to do more than that - we intend that Project Go will once and for all begin to turn the system away from crisis and facilitate transformation. It is our firm intention that this system will be comprehensively addressed during this coming year. Each province, both the government and non-government sectors, is working intensely on unblocking the residential care system, establishing secure care, and putting in place the desperately needed support services to children and families. We are fortunate to have some funding available in the IMC budget and are thus able to provide at least some support to the provinces. It is unlikely that there will not be some difficulties when May 10 arrives, but we believe that Project Go will provide the necessary supports and resources.

Child Support Grant
I would like to take this opportunity to announce that we will be ready to take on applications for the Child Support Grant as from 1 April 1998. Care-givers over 18 years of age who care for children under the age of seven years will from that date, be able to apply for the grant at offices that will be announced by the national and provincial departments.

To qualify for the grant the care-giver would have to satisfy the requirements of a means test. The regulations governing the means test are being finalised in conjunction with the provinces and are being published today (Monday 9 February) for comment. I appeal to all interested parties to make an input before the closing date of Monday 23 February 1998.

The application and acceptance procedures and systems are being finalised and will be in place by 1 April. Obviously, we can only finalise the application forms once we have finalised the regulations.

The Child Support Grant replaces the state maintenance grant (SMG). As of 19 December 1997, no more new applications for the maintenance grant have been processed. All applications made before this date are being processed and payments will be made. However these payments and those of existing maintenance grant beneficiaries will be phased out over three years, by reducing the amount these beneficiaries receive every year by 25%. This phased reduction will also commence on 1 April 1998.

The implementation of the new child support grant is a massive project involving the creation of administrative, payment and computer systems which will allow the department to issue grants of R100 per month to three million children once the programme is at full maturity. Our intended target for the 1998/99 financial year is 390 000 children countrywide.

Poverty-alleviation
Poverty alleviation remains at the centre of our transformation plan. Under the special anti-poverty fund announced by the Minister of Finance last year, the Department of Welfare was allocated R50-million.

We engaged our colleagues in the provinces on how best to apply these funds to ensure that there are no leakages, and that it benefits the truly disadvantaged, particularly women and children in rural areas. We decided to primarily target existing programmes which would benefit from an injection of funds to strengthen their capacity to impact on the alleviation of poverty.

We have allocated R23 054 396 to 475 projects in all nine provinces.
I was struck by the content of the project requests. Some projects were asking for so little, yet the R9 800 we have awarded to the Masikhule Development project, in Tapoleng Village near Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape, for a food garden which will be managed by 16 unemployed persons, will dramatically improve the quality of life in that village.

Among projects that will receive part of the R2,2 million awarded by the province and ourselves are the Lingelethu Community Development Project in Cofimvaba (R9 400); the Lingelethu Project in Mdantsane township (R21 000); the Masibambane poultry and piggery project in Debe Nek, Middeldrift (R525 000); the Ilengelethu Project in Qumbu (R14 000), and the Masozakhe recycling project for 300 youth in Umtata (R14 000).

Free State Province will distribute R2 million among 53 projects. This includes the Foundation for Entrepreneurship Development in Botshabelo which will receive R84 000 to provide intensive training to 30 women with guaranteed employment and business opportunities thereafter. The Salilewe Daycare Centre for the Handicapped, in Bethlehem which provides employment for 25 mentally handicapped persons with disabilities, recently won the contract to pack stationery for schools in the province.

In Gauteng we allocated R4,4 million to projects which would not normally or easily have been able to access funds. For example, the Greater Germiston Johannesburg Development Forum, which is a consortium of NGOs, CBOs and the Department of Welfare targeting the unemployed women in the whole Katlehong squatter area, will receive R100 000. It is very innovative economic empowerment project which intends buying a franchise among others. The Vukani Bafasi project in Tsakane, in the Far East Rand which targets 500 adults will receive R242 000, and the Simunye Skills and Job Creation Project for 120 women in Soweto R100 000.

In Mpumalanga Province R2,1 million will be awarded to 47 projects, 96% of which target skills training for income generation for 1 500 women. Two projects target street children in Ermelo R15 000) and the Cosmos Street Children Association in Standerton (R20 000).

In the Northern Cape we allocated R3 243 688 to 56 projects of which 84% are located in rural areas and deep rural settlements, and 90% of these projects involve skill development for income generation. For example, all of the brick-making projects are linked to local government housing projects. One of these is the Griekwastad Steenmakery which was awarded R200 000 for an income generation for 43 women. Another is R50 000 for the Mziwambantu brick-making project in Britstown which targets a squatter community in a farming area of the Karoo. In Port Nolloth, a group of 60 unemployed women with children who are creating ethnic arts and crafts for a growing tourist industry will receive R57 000.

Northern Province has been awarded R2 812 538 for 25 projects. This includes R400 000 for the Elim Care Project which was established in 1976. It was initiated by a group of poor, illiterate women who started with wiping out trachoma which had reached epidemic proportions in their villages. This success resulted in a cadre of care mothers traveling from village to village to teach others how to eliminate the menace of trachoma. Trachoma disappeared but the group remained. They went on to establish vegetable gardens, which improved their food security. They learnt how to eliminate kwashiorkor through preparing cheap nutritious meals. They built a creche with mud bricks they shaped and fired themselves.

Now they want to extend their projects to include a brick and bread making enterprise, and I am happy to inform Mama Violet Ritshuri and Mama Khaurisa Mabunda and their teams in the Mageva and Makhuva villages of the Northern Province, that they will receive R400 000 for their project.

North West Province has been awarded R2 million for 21 projects, 80% of which are in rural areas. This money will go among other, to the Mabule Sekwe Baking Project where a whole community will benefit from this income generation venture. Given the success and the impact of the Flagship Programme for Unemployed Women with Children Under Five, this project will also allocate R500 000 to the Madikwe project in Mogwase.

The Western Cape has been awarded R3,3 million for 63 projects. These include the People's Dialogue which is offering technical support to the Khayelitsha branch of the Homeless People's Federation. All over this township there are pockets where there is no infrastructure and people are subjected to the ravages of the Cape winter floods. Many people are living in temporary structures under port jackson trees. This CBO of unemployed women, submitted a proposal wherein they want to drive and manage all components of the housing construction project, and have been awarded R240 000. Another innovative project of this province pertains to a farm labourer empowerment programme. Farm workers have mobilised themselves to engage government with a concrete proposal.

This project will impact on farm workers in Heidelberg, Vanrhynsdorp and Vredendal to build their capacity, to strengthen and professionalise their skills so as to enable them to ultimately sustain themselves beyond their obligations to the land owners, and to develop the resources to lessen their dependence, market their skills, and ultimately stake a claim for their access to land. Most of the other projects in this province target the areas where there is the greatest concentration of women who will be affected by the Child Support Grant Programme, and the province is putting in place alternative income generation programmes for this group of people.

There are different pathways out of poverty, and I believe that these small amounts to small groups of people all over the country will not eradicate poverty but it will make a difference between mere survival and empowering them to transform their lives. For the first time they have the material resources to qualitatively alter their lives.

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