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21 June 2007

Introduction and macro social focus

As we enter our 14th year of democratic governance we know that, transformation obtains legitimacy only if it is carried out with the people, and not for them. To that end we have much to be proud of. We are building a society founded on values such as mutual respect, caring for one another, critical thinking and creativity, to name but a few.

As a department, Social Services and Population Development continues to put people first in line with its Integrated Service Delivery Model, which provides a blue print for the rendering of Developmental Social Welfare Services as opposed to the previous residual, passive approach. Ultimately our aim is to enable people to become self reliant within a caring and cohesive society.

In pursuance thereof we have over the last few years started many innovative initiatives commencing with the focus on internal efficiencies, devolution of authority to managers, building a team spirit among employees all of which are aimed at enhancing service delivery.

As a result of these interventions, the sound management of public resources not only resulted in unqualified audit opinions for the department but also released fiscal resources for deployment in pursuance of our developmental objectives.

As part of our endeavour to develop evidence based governance, we have developed and continue to refine accurate and reliable information systems. So for example the Population unit completed seven research projects in 2006 and will embark on a further five in this financial year.

We have also sought to create an enabling environment amongst our social partners, the NGO/NPO sector. Not only were their allocations increased in the last two years but we steered them on a path of efficiency and effectiveness through capacity building and monitoring.

The NPO Conference held in 2006 highlighted the need for partnerships and co-ordination of service delivery, thereby confirming that we are on the correct path in this regard.

The department's macro focus for 2007/08 is geared towards strengthening social protection networks, empowering and developing families and those vulnerable sectors of society and rededicating ourselves to protect children from abuse. We will also put increased emphasis on the fight against substance abuse and give specific and practical attention to the presidential priority of tackling child poverty.

Services being rendered to the, newly incorporated, Kgalagadi areas into the Northern Cape will be enhanced in a way to ensure it has the required impact on the lives of people.

I am happy to announce that the department just concluded an agreement with Transnet Foundation to avail eight containers that will be utilised as service points in Kgalagadi.

Services to families

Families are the indispensable building blocks of any community. I have previously highlighted the various threats that seek to undermine the family structure. The Family Life Indaba held in 2006 in the Northern Cape confirmed this and amongst others resolved that parenting programmes be rolled out more vigorously, that alcohol abuse be a specific focus for combating and that we look at opportunities for families to sustain themselves.

In line with the resolutions of the Family Life Indaba we intend to protect the family structure or rebuild it where necessary. To that end, various interventions and therapeutic programmes will be undertaken or expanded. We are confident that in strengthening our support to families we will build social cohesion in communities especially where poverty and other social ills undermine the very fabric of society.

Care of the aged

One of the most stabilising factors in society is the role played by older persons. They are the principal custodians of our culture, our morality, and our customs and hence should be at the centre stage of the quest for a stable family life. Active Ageing is a vision the department has where a balance is achieved between residential care of the aged and community based care and support services.

The Older Persons Act, which was promulgated by Parliament, aims to promote the rights of the elderly. We will strengthen the fora that will promote these rights and play a meaningful advocacy role.

As part of our commitment we previously increased subsidies to Old Age Homes by 25% supporting 875 frail older persons and will top that up by a further six percent this year. This increases the allocation to R11 662 per person per annum.

Our programme of community based care and support services will receive a further boost this year with the registration of an additional 12 service centres at a cost of R680 400, the opening of the third Multi Purpose Centre at Strydenburg and the construction of a fourth one at Williston.

In this way we ensure that the elderly remain in communities to fulfil a special role, as the department puts in place infrastructure that supports their unique needs.

Child care and protection services

The safety of our children has come under continuous threat, despite efforts to create safe environments for the most vulnerable. Children also remain on the periphery of social transformation and continue to be affected by poverty. Therefore, and as a result of the directive given by the Provincial EXCO Lekgotla in January 2007, the department will in this year co-ordinate its efforts with those of the Department of Health and Education and design a plan of action, which will include the sharpening of special protection measures for the protection of children below the age of four.

Intervention programmes such as Isolabantwana and Neighbour-Helping-Neighbour have shown successes where they were implemented. Our innovative spirit resulted in us being the first province to initiate community based safety networks for children constituted by prospective foster parents, adoptive parents and safety parents. To date we have close to 14 000 children in foster care. I would like to urge many more of our families to come forward to participate in these programmes as the need for adoptions have increased.

In pursuance thereof, for this year, programmes to high risk areas such as Kakamas, Groblershoop, Wegdraai and Upington will be expanded.

The demand for alternative care options is high in our various Children's Homes, and will also be expanded at a cost of R2,2 million for children in need of care and protection. This support will be further strengthened through subsidy increments to the Homes. Their subsidies were previously increased by 50%. This year again it is increased by 20%, raising the allocation to R1890 per child. In doing so we ensure that the 419 children in various children's homes are adequately and properly cared for.

In addition, the phenomena of homeless children needs focussed intervention before it mushrooms. A pilot programme will be launched in Kimberley in this regard this year. This is in addition to increasing the subsidy to shelters that cater for such cases by 31% and last year by 16%.

It is also safe to say that the Early Development of children aims to empower and develop well rounded human beings able to define their own development path. The environment in which this relationship is established and developed is through the Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres. The allocated R11,68 million will help to achieve our objectives in this regard. This will facilitate the increase of the subsidy to R9 per child per day attending an ECD centre which represents a 20% increase from last year.

It is envisaged that this will enable us to register and fund 305 ECD centres in the province and thus ensuring that about 18 000 children are exposed to early education and development.

In the Kgalagadi region during the recent members of the provincial Executive Council (Exco) Izimbizo, I made a commitment to look into ECD needs of certain areas. In pursuance to that commitment we will register about 120 ECD sites and fund about 60 of them including new ones in areas such as Heuningsvlei, Pepsi, Gasehunelo, Huishou and Kagung.

The Helen Joseph Pre-School and the Rethusaneng ECD Centre housed at the Helen Joseph's Women Development Centre in Kimberley are in a very dilapidated state. We cannot allow children to be exposed to these conditions. A once of R150 000 will be availed to improve the facilities there. R100 000 and R50 000 respectively, I am confident that these interventions give practical expression to the presidential priorities.

Social crime prevention

The Child Justice Bill provides for a legislative framework for the protection of children in conflict with the law. In essence the Bill places emphasis on a wider range of diversion programmes and extends a variety of sentencing options for children in conflict with the law. This in itself is developmental in nature.

As planned and in pursuance of our fight to prevent social crime we appointed more probation officers and assistant probation officers, trained 25 volunteers at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) level 4 and rolled out prevention and diversion programmes to 43 towns in our province.

In this year programmes will be rolled out in a focussed way in Ritchie and Groblershoop as we did in 2006 in Noupoort and Postmasburg and work with appropriate community based organisations in the fight against social crimes.

There are currently three secure care facilities in the province where approximately 120 youth awaiting trial are housed. The department has embarked on a programme to improve these facilities, render proper therapeutic programmes and generally to improve the efficiency of these facilities. The construction of the new facility in Springbok at a cost of R25 million is progressing well, despite the initial delays due to a land claim, whilst the construction of another secure care facility at De Aar is due to commence soon.

The abuse of women and children is still unacceptably high. How anyone can deliberately hurt their loved ones is beyond my comprehension. Therefore the usual 16 days programme of activism against violence against women and children will be extended to a full 365 day programme at an initial cost of R1 million.

Substance abuse

It is our dream to transform our communities into alcohol and drug free societies. The abuse of these substances has reached pandemic proportions and is usually linked to most violent crimes.

If we are to eradicate this scourge we will need preventative measures or early intervention, in the first instance, and rehabilitative ones in the case of those considered to have substance abuse problems.

We have resolved to increase our focus more prominently in this regard. The budgetary allocation has been trebled to R3,5 million on substance abuse prevention services, which will entail mass mobilisation, prevention and education programmes.

To achieve the outcomes we seek more social work professionals as well as social auxiliary workers to support them will be needed.

The target will of course be the whole province, with special focus on high risk areas such as the Upington-Kakamas belt; De Aar and Kimberley. The focus on De Aar is necessitated by the high prevalence of foetal alcohol syndrome prevalent in that area.

The Kemoja project has been successfully implemented at targeted schools and will again be continued this year as a key intervention involving youth. From a rehabilitative perspective, the need for an in patient treatment facility in the province has been highlighted for some time now. We have decided to put action to idea and budgeted for its construction, by setting aside R37 million in the outer years of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period.

Services to the disabled

People who live with some or the other disability, constitute about 5 % of our population. In almost all instances they can and must be allowed to participate in the productive life of society.

But it is up to us to create the enabling environment to promote their participation. Hence support to those organisations that support and promote the cause is important.

In line with the 2007 EXCO Lekgotla Resolutions, the department will focus on this target group in an increased way. Last year over 102 social service professionals were trained to support people living with disabilities as well as support given to Deafsa. The department will continue with these support measures.

However, this year emphasis will be placed on persons with multiple disabilities. In support of children who live with multiple disabilities, this year, an additional 100 parents and caregivers will be trained to provide support to them. In addition, four Day Care centres in Pampierstad; De Aar; Calvinia and in Kgalagadi, will cater for some 140 children with multiple disabilities. A need was identified for the registration of a section of the Helen Bishop Home, which is mainly funded by Health, as a home for 15 children with multiple disabilities in need of care. As a result of this approach an allocation to the extent of R283 500 will be made this year.

In addition, support will be given to cover the salaries of four additional staff members at identified non-profit organisations (NPOs) that work in support of this target group.

Sally Aucamp is a home that caters for the needs of severely handicapped persons. It seems that despite subsidy allocations, they struggle to make ends meet. A once off allocation of R150 000 will be made to assist them this year, pending a review of their operations into next year. Thank you, Honourable De Beer.

Sustainable livelihoods

The scourge of poverty and underdevelopment continues to define the lives of many in our communities. Poverty is multi-dimensional and our responses must be in tandem with that fact if we are to address it. Hence our programmatic interventions aim not only to eradicate hunger and malnutrition but also the lack of access to education and other basic services. We focus on empowering, mobilising and developing the poor and marginalised.

The most effective poverty eradication programme has been government's social security programme. Although grant administration is the functional responsibility of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), it is useful to note that to date over 183 000 persons are social grant recipients in the Northern Cape of whom 145 600 are children, Child Support Grant and Foster Care., this excludes the Kgalagadi figures of 41 661. I am proud to say that in the Northern Cape the average turnaround time to process grants is four days and in some instances the same day.

The challenge however lies in Kgalagadi both in terms of turn around times; currently three months, as well as meeting norms and standards at pay points e.g. inadequate shelters. I have met with Northern Cape SASSA to embark on a focussed service improvement programme.

This programme on sustainable livelihoods seeks to address food insecurity; provides material assistance and makes socio economic interventions where appropriate.

To that end 20 new soup kitchens, six community food gardens and seven new drops in centres will be established. This will, by example, increase the total soup kitchens that are funded by the department to 65. The department also funds various second economy interventions from time to time. The key concern in most cases has always been sustainability. There are many successes though there are also failures. We need to become more innovative in this regard and I hope that our discussions with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) will lead to that sustainability.

In this regard public private partnerships are crucial. In order to reach that higher trajectory of development and self reliance, it is incumbent on the public and private sectors to work together. Bold interventions are needed. To that end, I want to thank First National Bank and Absa for their support to date.

HIV and AIDS

The most effective way to eradicate this disease is through awareness and prevention. We have focussed our energies mainly among the youth and in particular orphans and vulnerable children. The Isibindi project which was initiated in Donkerhoek, and later expanded to other areas, has proven so successful that we intend to expand it further into other areas of the province, starting with Platfontein and Greenpoint this year.

It is also vital that we know who is vulnerable and where they are. Accordingly a database will be compiled of all orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) to inform our policy choices and the allocation of resources. To date support was given to some 800 OVC and 320 vulnerable families. In addition, about 39 child and youth care workers who are active in this project do sterling work on a voluntary basis in support of OVC, at a stipend of R1000.

The bulk of our resources of course are directed toward the 570 Home Community Based voluntary caregivers active in this programme, all of whom also receive a stipend of R1000. This service includes psycho-social support, material assistance and protection of rights regarding access to services.

These programmes are implemented in partnership with NGO and community based organisations (CBOs), without whose support we would not achieve the successes we have recorded in the improvement of the lives of orphans and vulnerable children. In line with our endeavour to strengthen the NGO sector, the department has concluded a contract worth R4 million with the United Kingdom based department for International Development (DFID) to build capacity amongst NGO active in this sector.

Youth, an Egyptian poet once said:

"In Youth a tree bears fruit
In old age it gives nothing but wood."

This is quite a dramatic exposition of the value of youth in development. Many of our programmes expounded here are aimed at youth child care services, crime prevention programmes, substance abuse and HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns.

But these are all aimed at addressing negatives and threats that could negate their potential to "bear fruit."

But we need to focus on facilitating the burst of potential also. At the heart of this is the development of skills, entrepreneurial savvy, life skills, capacity building and so forth. Our programmes seek to do so. Some 250 young people had been participating in these programmes throughout the province, in addition to us funding the Young Women's Network and two youth service centres in Postmasburg and Hopetown.

We will continue on that path and support the National Youth Service Initiatives, especially youth volunteers, fund socio economic projects aimed at young people, and fund more youth centres.

The provision of Developmental Social Welfare Services is hampered by the shortage of social service professionals. As part of our dedicated focus on human capital development we structured an innovative agreement with the National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE), to academically train 120 young social workers all of whom receive full bursaries, with the first group of 35 qualifying by 2010. A condition will be that they work in the Northern Cape be it for us as Social Services or other departments who need their services. I want to thank First National Bank for their support in this programme through the allocation of some of the bursaries and the NIHE under the able leadership of Dr Kopano Taole for their efforts in this regard.

Administration

We have been working hard at pulling our administration into shape. There is no point in having lofty ideals if the ability to carry it out is lacking. To that end the department identified 120 of the most critical posts, early in 2006, and all have been filled in cycles of six to eight weeks.

We recruited all the necessary skills at all levels and have ensured the requisite training for all, even senior managers.

I think we are geared for effective service delivery. We will however need to be vigilant against becoming complacent.

Budget in perspective

The total budget of the department is R304,319 million. The increase represents mainly the impact of the Kgalagadi allocations.

Personnel costs amount to R112,253 million which is 37% of our budget. This is considered extremely efficient given that we are personnel driven service. Administrative expenditure amounts R72,8 million which is 24% of the budget, and is consistent with the nature of a service delivery department.

Transfers to our social partners is R87,450 million, which is 29% of the budget. Most increases are consistent with inflationary increases except for ECD centres 20%, children's homes 20% and shelters 31%. This higher increase is consistent with our policy goals.

Funding to fight substance abuse has been increased by 300%
Acknowledgements

I wish to express my profound gratitude to:

* the Premier and my colleagues in the Executive Council for their support
* the Chairperson and members of the Portfolio Committee for their constructive engagements
* our social partners in the NPO/NGO sector
* the Head of Department and staff of Ministry as well as the department who have worked hard and under difficult conditions achieved much, I am proud of you as a team.

Conclusion

I have not covered all our plans in this speech, but rather gave you a sense of the direction that we are embarking upon.

As a department we are well focussed now. We achieved internal efficiencies, though there is always scope for improvement.

We revised our strategic plan and our organogram.

We are geared to progressively move towards a developmental trajectory. Our various programmes, though individually distinct are collectively geared towards re-establishing the pre-eminence of the family as a source of stability in society.

Our social partners are adequately funded by us and there exists a trust relationship between us as opposed to a conflictual one. In a nutshell we are all on the same page now.

I think we are geared for enhanced delivery, delivery of our objectives of social upliftment and a cohesive society.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Social Service and Population Development, Northern Cape Provincial Government
21 June 2007
Source: Northern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.northern-cape.gov.za)