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26 October 2007

Honourable guest and friends

Thank you for joining us here today. This get-together serves to re-confirm our ongoing commitment to nourishing the relationship with all our partner organisations, including civil society organisations, faith based organisations and community based organisations.

It is significant that this get-together occurs at the end of Social Development month, thus offering us an opportunity to take stock of the year gone by. This occasion also offers us an opportunity to receive feedback and direction from you, our leaders. The receipt of direction and comments from you, will contribute to the department's overall commitment to deliver quality services to disadvantaged South Africans.

We launched this year's Social Development month in Temba, just outside Hammanskraal, under the theme "intensifying the fight against poverty". In line with this theme our first task is to promote early childhood development and the registration of Early Childhood Development (ECD) sites. Accordingly, we have identified some 23 482 ECD sites which all need to be registered by the end of this financial year. Thanks to your contributions we have registered 9 726 ECD sites.

I take this opportunity to appeal for your further contributions towards ensuring that each and every ECD site known and unknown to us is registered, so that it may receive all the necessary support and comply with national policies and legislation. Our ultimate aim is to ensure that every child attends an ECD centre and receives at least two healthy meals a day, so as to lay for them an appropriate foundation towards a successful life.

To complement these efforts the department is also embarking on a massive registration drive in order to ensure quality service provision for vulnerable children. All this work will be supported by the soon to be adopted Child Amendment Bill, which is to also form part of the Children's Act. Through this innovative piece of legislation we will now be able to cater for all the children of South Africa, especially the over 2,5 million children living in impoverished and vulnerable households. To effectively do so, we are on course to mobilising all the necessary financial and human resources. The successful implementation of these plans will rest on deepened collaborations and partnerships with you in the civil society.

In this regard, the National Religious Association for Social Development (NRASD) has already pledged its support to this programme. To complement this welcome pledge from the religious leaders we will also step-up our collaboration with all other relevant departments and spheres of government.

Ladies and gentlemen, the establishment of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has enabled the department to focus its attention on the creation of an enabling environment for quality social welfare service delivery. This has required an improvement on institutional efficiency and effectiveness. This institutional transformation has assisted in getting the department to focus more on its regulatory and oversight functions. We remain steadfast in our objective to create a society of self reliant and self-sufficient communities. In this respect we are currently exploring several policy proposals aimed at linking social grant recipients to various skills development initiatives including the Expanded Public Works Programme.

This work is based on the findings of the recently released Macro Social Report, which established (among others) the importance of social structures and networks in forging social cohesion. These networks are best complemented by functional non-profit organisations (NPO). To successfully galvanise the potential of these institutions and ensure that they receive maximum support we must do all that is within our powers to ensure that they too are registered, as envisaged by the NPO Act. Currently we have only 46 324 registered non-profit organisations. Let me urge all of you gathered here to ensure that your organisations are registered under this act, as failure to do so may dent the credibility of the excellent work you are all undertaking.

We are aware that registration alone is not enough. In this regard we have conducted an impact assessment study which directs us to make certain alterations to the manner in which we have aligned the public policy environment with the changing needs of the sector. These alterations range from ensuring improved capacity enhancement and funding to the sector.

The National Development Agency (NDA), which this year received a clean audit report, will be a critical player in realising this objective. I have appointed a strong Board under the retained leadership of Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana. I sincerely believe that the NDA has a major facilitative role in unlocking community potential. Let me also take this opportunity to recognise the efforts of the outgoing Board and wish the incoming Board the best. Let me also remind you that the successes and/or challenges at the NDA belong to all of us.

Ladies and gentlemen, the efforts being undertaken at the NDA will complement all the work we have undertaken in establishing SASSA. It is SASSA's objective to deliver effective administrative systems and payment processes, in order to restore the dignity of our people.

There has been much progress in the past year on many fronts, including, the integration of the social assistance administration and payment services. The number of beneficiaries accessing social grants has also increased by 10.1 percent.

We have also launched the National Integrated Community Outreach Programme aimed at bringing services closer to rural based communities especially in the former Bantustan areas. The campaign, which began in May 2007, has resulted in the issuing of 61 389 social grants in the Eastern Cape, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. SASSA's efforts, as we have said, ought to be complemented by efforts at the NDA and in the department. In the end we must ensure that every South African accesses every service and right to which they are entitled. These rights, for children, include the right to education, access to health and nutrition.

To complement these outreach efforts we will strengthen our research, monitoring and evaluation capabilities in the department and agencies. These efforts include projects related to the management information systems on welfare services.

Friends, we remain committed to ensuring that not only do we build a South Africa fit for its children. We are also determined to ensure that the continent and the world mirror this objective. We remain firm in our assertion that solutions to Africa's challenges lie firmly and democratically in the hands of the African people themselves. In this regard we have pursued relations with almost all our Southern African Development Community (SADC) neighbouring states, including Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In just a week we will send a senior level team to the DRC to assist in the Post Conflict Reconstruction efforts in our sister ministry there.

In the context of our broad International Relations Policies we have strengthened our efforts directed at the promotion of South-South collaboration. In this regard I have participated in several meetings of Ministers of Social Development in the Latin American and African regions.

Our ultimate goal is to facilitate lasting and sustainable relations between all the regions of the south. In pursuance of these lasting relations, I have also signed agreements with India and Brazil in the context of the India-Brazil-South Africa trilateral agreement. This trilateral has much potential and is destined to usher in a new and more democratic world order. For our part, we form part of the team which has been tasked with the development of an Integrated Social Development and Poverty Eradication Strategy. I know we cannot realise this objective without contributions from the civil societies of our respective regions.

Indeed, our international profile has been well established. We have received acclaim from all over the world with various organisations such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) affording us the opportunity to lead particular social policy oriented discussions. Our contributions are always based on the experiences we gather in meetings such as this one with our communities and civil societies. I urge you to continue, in earnest with your much appreciated contributions in shaping a world that is fit for all, especially our children.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Social Development
26 October 2007