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Madame Speaker
Honourable Members

The Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the people in 1955 stated:

"South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people..."

In 1994, our people for the first time were given the opportunity to express their will. They gave the ANC the mandate to "build a better life for all". On the basis of that mandate, we set out five years ago to build "a life for all" the children, women, older persons and families under our care.

As part of government's blueprint for the building of a better life for all, the Department of Welfare has, I am proud to say, laid the foundation for the establishment of a democratically determined, equitable, just and effective social delivery system. In this vein our Population policy focuses on the quality of life and hence sustainable human development is the central focus of our policy.

This year has been declared the International ear of Older Persons, with the theme "Towards A Society For All Ages." To celebrate with us today we have in the gallery about one hundred older persons and in keeping with the theme of a "Society of All Ages" we have a number of children and youth. I would like us to extend a special, warm welcome to hem. Many of them are in Parliament for the first time.

Madam speaker,

It is important for us to measure our progress against where we began, a mere five years ago.

Five years ago there were 14 different systems of social security. Different grants were allocated to Whites, Coloured, Indians and Africans. There were well established social services provided for White South Africans, while other racial groups had inferior or no services at all. Extreme poverty hunger and malnutrition was the order of the day. From this rubble we had to build a new welfare order that recognised our people as the fundamental resource of our country.

Our vision, as set out in the White Paper for Social Welfare was

"A welfare system which facilitates the development of human capacity and self reliance within a caring and enabling socio-economic environment."

The cornerstone of our attempts to create a just, humane and caring society is the provision of equitable and accessible welfare services to all South Africans, especially those living in poverty, those who are vulnerable and those who have special needs.

The Department of Welfare and Population development is more than just a cornerstone of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Our job is to weave the different vulnerable components of our society; women, children, disabled and older persons and ensure that they become part of the strong fabric of society. I am going to be mentioning many projects, which may seem disparate, but which are all integrated into a complex texture. We are not building in isolation, in every initiative you will see that the impact on the community is exponential.

Madam speaker,

One of the most important methods of reducing poverty amongst the elderly, disabled and children are the direct payments by the means of grants. Every month nearly two million South African receive a grant or pension from the sate. These are cash payments directly into poor households which amounted to R16,8 billion in the 1998/99 financial year. We all know that pensioners share their pensions with the rest of their family. Many families, especially in the rural areas are kept going in this manner. We estimate that up to 9 million people benefit from grants.

One of our aims is to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children and their families. With this aim in mind we introduced a new grant - the child support grant, in April 1998. This grant is paid to the poorest households to ensure that children up to the age of seven years are taken care of. In the NCOP on the 2 March, I reported that we were paying this grant to the care givers of 23 832 children. Today, I can proudly say that 31 127 children are benefiting from this grant, an increase of 7 295 in just under three weeks. These numbers are increasing daily.

The 30 000th child to benefit from this grant is Zizipho Mdladlamba from the Mount Fletcher district Mountains. To you and I, the payment of R100 per month per child may not seem like much, but to the children of farm workers who are paid R50 a month; and to Zizipho, this is the difference between life and death through hunger/starvation and malnourishment. We are committed to reach 3 million Zizipho's in poor households by the year 2003.

The completion of this process in 1997 meant that for the first time South Africa had a uniform administration of social security. It also allowed us to begin the clean up of beneficiary data and generate savings. Through this process, we saved the state R281,9 million in this year. This included the removal of 70 772 "ghosts".

One way in which we are achieving clean and accurate data of all beneficiaries is through the re-registration process. In many provinces re-registration is being done on a pilot basis with roll-out on a full-scale planned for later this year. This process will be completed by March 2000.

Our collective effort to improve customer services is bearing fruit. Last year the Free State Province won a prestigious silver medal at the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management for the innovative use of a smart card for payments. An Operations Centre has been established at the national Department and provinces are to set up similar centres linked to the national centre. We have a national toll-free number 0800-601-011 to deal with complaints and enquiries.

Madam Speaker

As women, we are proud of all this government has managed to achieve in undoing the centuries of discrimination women have had to endure. The gender issue, present and world-wide, means that women still have an extra burden to carry and they still bear brunt of poverty. For this reason our poverty reduction programmes specifically target women. We have been able to involve women in effective community based poverty reduction projects. Through these projects we have managed to reduce poverty in a number of areas.

As there will be a further cut in the State Maintenance Grant on the 1 April 1999, the challenge is to promote projects that give more people, with school going children, access to self reliance. We have many examples of women, who used to receive the State Maintenance Grant, now being independent and able to earn up to three times what they used to receive from the state. Minnie Adams, Sophie de Wet, and are now earning R210 a week in a brick making project.

The women of the Botshabelo Vegetable Project in Maraba village in the Northern province who are now not only able to feed their children, but are also able to raise funds from the sale of their vegetables. With funds received from the Department of Welfare they are able to now work 5 hectares of land and increase their membership.

Another example of poverty reductions I the Mziwabantu Brick Making Project in Bristown which now has a contract to produce enough bricks for 130 low cost houses, thereby further developing their community. Through projects such as these we have made a difference in the lives of more than 93 000 people, mainly women and children.

This is what the focus of developmental social welfare is all about. It is about releasing the potential of people with people in their families and communities.
We have set up Secure Care facilities in each province for young people who have been assessed to be a danger to themselves and or others. We have to ensure that appropriate, adequate facilities and programmes, are provided. We have therefore spent the RDP allocation of R33m on the building and upgrading of secure care facilities and more such facilities will be built over the next five years.

Madame Speaker,

Child abuse is one of the most damaging and traumatic experience for children. The effects on children are devastating and can result in serious lifelong, and even life threatening consequences for their physical and psychological development. During the past week we have heard the horrendous statistics on child abuse in our country. This means that more people are speaking out and reporting abuse. We need to protect our children from, as stated in the Constitution, "maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation."

Over the past five years we have put in place policies, legislation and various guidelines to protect children. This is not enough. We need the support and commitment of all South Africans to protect our children from abuse - we need you to speak out and report abuse - for the sake of our future.

We are also very concerned about the vast number of school-leavers and graduates who cannot find work after completing their studies. The Department has entered into a partnership with the Starfish 2000 Trust to place school-leavers and graduates with participating companies to enable them to gain the work-experience they need to find permanent employment. We have committed R6-million from the poverty reduction programme to this project.

Madam Speaker,

We recognise that there are times when people, because of societal and other pressures, need special support and assistance. We have put in place programmes to address these needs. For example, the Survivors Support Programme under the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) now runs a number of new 24 hour projects in different areas. I would like to mention in particular, a crisis support centre in the Free State for children and adults who are victims of rape and domestic violence.

We have experienced a number of natural disasters over the past few years. Since 1994 we have spent R14 million on Disaster Relief in a number of communities throughout the country. This amount excludes the recent tornado disasters in Umtata, Mount Ayliff and Tabankulu. In view of the nature of the Tabankulu disaster and the situation in that area, the board of the
Disaster Relief Fund has agreed to process the applications from this area urgently. These applications will be considered in a meeting on 26 March 1999.
We have able to respond to these disasters with immediate assistance in the form of food parcels, temporary shelter and blankets and in the longer term, assist people with the reconstruction of their houses.

It should be emphasised that as a government we now have a central disaster management centre under the chairpersonship of my colleague, Minister Valli Moosa.

We have taken up the challenge made by the Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, when he launched the Partnership against AIDS on the 9 October last year.
He identified women as one of the 5 key partnerships in the government AIDS plan. In response to this challenge, we launched the Vusa Isiswe - Restore the Nation campaign - which will mobilise women at grassroots level to participate in the Women's Partnership Against AIDS.

This month we launch a new national programme of integrated projects on children and youth within partnerships between welfare and local authorities. These projects will target rural communities and municipalities within previously disadvantaged regions. We will aim at ensuring the care, protection and development of vulnerable children and youth (such as those who lose their parents through HIV/AIDS), and furthermore we will aim at economic and social upliftment of the communities in order that they can effectively support their children and youth. The first project will be initiated in Pondoland in the Eastern Cape.

Madame Speaker,

In this the International Year of Older Persons, we have the opportunity to put in place the building blocks for a new dispensation on ageing which will ensure that future generations of older persons will be self reliant, productive and integrated into society. I would like to see emerging during this year, a variety of pilot projects to explore bold and creative ways of taking care of older persons.

For example, despite the fact that we have 2,8 million South Africans over the age of sixty, old age homes care for only approximately 30 000 older persons, mainly in the Western Cape and Gauteng. The other provinces have very few residential facilities. We therefore need to look at alternative forms of care for the elderly.

Traditionally, older persons remained in the community and part of their families where they fulfilled valued roles, especially in respect of children. We want to create new systems of community based care that will replace the traditional systems that were broken down by migration, urbanisation and apartheid. We want to ensure that our older persons are independent for as long as possible and are cared for when they can no longer look after themselves.

Sadly, many of us take our older folk for granted and inflict abuse on them..{We remember Diana Busaka, 114 years sold who was raped and murdered in her home.}

We now have a more stringent law in place to deal with the abuse of the elderly. The age persons Amendment Act, passed last year provides for jail terms and fines for such ghastly crimes. The Act also prohibits discrimination in the admission of older persons into old age homes and makes the management of these institutions more democratic. We are also putting in place an embeds system where the abuse of older persons can be reported and investigated. For this system to work effectively, we need your support and that of all stakeholders, the public and the media.

Madame Speaker,

We value the relationship we have managed to forged with our NGO partners in the welfare sector. This partnership is vital in promoting social development. To stimulate NGO development in under-services areas, the Not-for-Profit Organisations Act was passed in 1997. In terms of this Act, compulsory registration for fund raising has been scrapped.

In keeping with our development focus as outlined in the White Paper on Social Welfare, we have launched a comprehensive restructuring process to transform welfare service delivery to those who are most vulnerable, in particular, children, youth, women and older persons. A critical tool for ensuring this transformation is the manner in which we finance welfare services. I am pleased to announce that a new financing policy will be phased in from 1 April 1999. This policy will ensure substantial paradigm change that will address the imbalances of the past, pave the way for new services and reinforce those services that are already effective. Within this new policy we intend to build on and maintain strong partnerships with the NGO sector.

We are in the process of re-engineering the social security system to improve the lives of older persons and persons receiving grants. We aim to eliminate the lingo queues at pension payout points and establish an efficient and technologically advanced payment and information system which will include:

* high quality payment facilities, especially to rural and remote areas;
* access to grant payments 8 hours a day, 7 days a week;
* high-level financial and management controls to minimise fraud and corruption;
* financial tracking mechanisms for early detection of fraud;
* promoting a service-orientation and customer focus in government:
* rapid processing of applications.

In keeping with the transformation of the public service and our focus on developmental social welfare, we are in the process of restructuring the National Department of Welfare and Population development. A new organogram, which acknowledges the interlinkages between social security services, anti-poverty programmes and welfare care and development services will come into effect on the 1 April 1999. We have established an internal audit unit in the department and will soon appoint a director to oversee this function.

In conclusion, Madame Speaker, we have managed, in the short space of five years to in the words of the RDP, "secure basic welfare rights for all South Africans".

It has been an honour for me to serve in this first democratically elected parliament and been given the opportunity to serve in the Executive. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Executive, the members of the Portfolio Committee, the MECs of Welfare and my colleagues in Parliament for their co-operation during my term of office. I would like to thank the Director-General, the Department of Welfare and Population Development, the various Boards which report to me, the National Councils and all partners in the welfare sector for their support and hard work to ensure the transformation of welfare services in South Africa. Many challenges lie ahead of us, but we are confident that we have build a firm foundation for the building of a better life for all.

I thank you

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