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8 July 2008

Introduction

It is indeed an honour and privilege for me to present to the media this briefing on behalf of the Social Sector Cluster.

The Cluster submitted to Cabinet in mid-June its progress report regarding the implementation of Government Programme of Action (POA) 2008/09. In that report, we also drew the attention of Cabinet to the challenges we encountered in implementing the POA and advanced what we considered to be possible solutions to those challenges. Based on that report therefore, our briefing this afternoon will be pillared on the following key strategic areas:

* comprehensive social security
* promotion of national identity and social cohesion
* comprehensive healthcare
* housing and human settlements
* food security and nutrition programme
* education, broadening access and improving quality

Comprehensive Social Security

Three (3) broad programme activities guide our approach as far as Comprehensive Social Security is concerned. As some of you would know, these activities include the finalisation of Social Insurance and its different elements, the release of the consolidated position paper on social security and Retirement Reforms and exploring the possibilities of introducing a wage subsidy for low-wage employees directed mainly at new entrants in the job market.

The Interdepartmental Task Team (IDTT) meets approximately on a monthly basis to discuss reform options and several meetings have been held with stakeholders to review agencies/funds involved in the reform process. A discussion paper on this matter is due to be released for comment during the course of this year, 2008. Some of the key policy options being considered include the design of standard savings/retirement funding arrangements and options for improved unemployment insurance and death or disability benefits.

Regarding disability, the implementation of the common tool to assess disabilities has been put on hold pending the amendment of the Social Assistance Act in the 2009 Parliamentary Cycle. To this end therefore, the training of medical practitioners has had to be postponed in view of the delayed implementation of the new tool. In the meantime, the Department of Social Development has appointed 40 members to panels of Tribunals to deal with appeals submitted for all grants, especially those related to disability benefits.

National identity and social cohesion

National Identity and social cohesion remains key in our quest to build a nation that we all aspire to be. As part of this effort, we continue to utilize our national symbols such as the flag and the Coat of Arms amongst others to foster common identity, unity and cohesion.

The South African National Heritage audit report which includes our official symbols has been produced and published. An education campaign on the significance of the National Flag, which includes production and distribution of leaflets, has also been embarked upon.

In line with what has been said by Cabinet before, the cluster was also disappointed and embarrassed by the inter-community attacks directed in particular at men, women and children who may have originally came from elsewhere in the continent. We have no doubt as the cluster that our message for peace, love, tolerance and respect for human life and property will indeed continue to prevail amongst our communities if our quest for social cohesion is to become a reality.

Regarding language and terminology development, the Department of Arts and Culture is in the process of finalising the English source text of the soccer terminology project as well as development of terminology on concepts such as national reconciliation, national unity and social cohesion. So far, the in-house project team has completed providing definitions for all the terms discussed with the subject field specialist. The completed term list has been forwarded to the subject field specialist for final editing before it is taken to the Language Research Development Centres.

Comprehensive healthcare

Health and the provision of health care in our country remains a very contested terrain in our country. As we indicated in our last briefing, one of our key focus areas is the finalisation and implementation of a government-wide integrated comprehensive programme on health promotion targeted at the youth in particular. In terms of our work schedule, we are expecting that by mid-July, a report on this matter will be tabled before the Cluster by the relevant Department. In the meantime, health promotion activities are taking place all over the country.

Regarding tobacco use, we are proud to report that the Tobacco Control Amendment Bill has just been passed by the National Assembly (two weeks ago) and the Bill is being referred to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence. Through this Bill, we seek to further control the advertising, promotion and sale of tobacco products in the country in line with our healthy lifestyles campaign and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Work is also being performed in the area of expanding the number of health promoting schools from 3 500 to at least 5 000.

Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension continue to place a burden on the country’s health care system. Regarding the completion of a framework for long term care for non-communicable diseases, the framework has been sent to provincial health Departments for comments and the Department is following up with its provincial counterparts to finalise this consultation process.

On the reduction of medicine costs, the dispensing fee for pharmacists was gazetted on 1 December 2006 but was subsequently challenged by the pharmacy association. The Pricing Committee considered all inputs on benchmarking and has compiled a report for Minister’s consideration. The Minister will then announce the final methodology for International Benchmarking after the deliberations on this matter have taken place.

On HIV and AIDS, the cluster is happy to report that implementation of the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS is continuing as planned. The 2007 SADC HIV and AIDS Epidemic Report was compiled and submitted to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in April 2008 already. The 2007 Annual National HIV and Syphilis Prevalence Survey data has been analysed and the report-writing is currently underway.

We are generally also encouraged by the number of adults who voluntarily take HIV tests in line with our plans to increase such figures from 25% to 35%. Data as at 2 June 2008, indicates that the number of clients tested for HIV (excluding antenatal) is 1 474 437 and the number of lay counsellors on stipend standing at 6 815.

Closely related to this matter is the management of TB in our country. We are encouraged by data which suggests a decrease in both our infection and defaulter rate in line with what the President tasked us in the State of the Nation Address earlier this year. Just this past week in Durban, we announced new developments around TB diagnosis which will now enable us to test and produce MDR-TB results within a mere seven days as opposed to the current three to four months it takes us.

On infant mortality and the Millennium Development Goals we recently introduced two drugs to be used in our babies as part of our strategy to combat infant mortality and realise our MDG commitments.

Housing and Human Settlements

We are generally encouraged by improvement and progress that this particular area of our work is continuing to witness. To date the Financial Institutions (Banks) indicate that over R38 Billion has so far been released for financing housing development and ownership. You will recall that in the previous briefing, we were standing at R35 Billion. The upward movement of interest rates along with rising fuel and food prices have had the effect of eroding affordability for housing.

As reported previously, the final steps in the transformation of the NHFC are being implemented within the context of a government-wide review of Development Finance Institutions that is yet to be concluded. Regarding measures aimed at ensuring home ownership, an inclusionary housing policy has been finalised and implemented across private and publicly driven housing development. In our view multiple housing projects that are designed as mixed income housing developments serve to ensure cross subsidisation and achieve inclusionary housing objectives.

We are also happy to report that the establishment of the Housing Development Agency is at an advanced stage and the Bill that establishes the Agency is in its final stages in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP). In the meantime, land assembly and acquisition for human settlements is being undertaken through the housing entity (SERVCON Housing Solutions), bilateral partnership with other entities including the Department of Public Works, municipalities and Intersite.

Food Security and Nutrition

Poverty, hunger and malnutrition continue to present serious challenges which have an impact on the health of our people amongst others. This problem is now lately compounded by steep fuel and food prices which make it increasingly difficult for our people to access even basic food-stuffs.

As we reported previously, government is continuing with its Household Food Production Programme amongst other interventions as part of improving food security amongst the most food insecure and vulnerable communities. On the same breadth, government is also continuing with the developing financing requirements for the farmer support programme (MAFISA) focusing mainly on areas of large concentration of farm dwellers and those with high eviction rates. As at April 2008, a total of 11 clients received MAFISA production loans and the total amount disbursed stands at R255 195, 00. Briefly, the breakdown of the disbursement is as follows: all 11 clients funded through MAFISA loans were involved in broiler production. A total of R24 500 disbursed to two individual clients and R230 695 was disbursed to three groups.

Access to and Quality of Education

The third and final year of recapitalisation of our FET colleges began in April 2008 already. Detailed plans from all 50 FET colleges for expenditure of R795 million on infrastructure, equipment and human resources have been submitted and approved by Cabinet. R397,5 million was transferred to colleges in May 2008.

Regarding doubling the number of matric Maths passes, the monitoring visits to 200 Dinaledi schools was due for completion in June 2008. In brief these visits determine progress in meeting the targets for high level maths passes and resource requirements to achieve this goal. We are also proceeding well with improving cooperation and alignment of programmes between SETAs and FETs as well as institutions of higher learning in the country. To this end, service providers have been appointed and a survey on current relationships between SETAs and public FET/HETs underway.

We are also proceeding well with our efforts to double the output of universities in priority sectors by aligning NSFAS and subsidy funding for scarce skills. To realise this objective, government committed R439 million over the 2007-2009 period largely towards improving teaching and learning infrastructure.

On literacy and numeracy, Grade 3 literacy and numeracy baseline assessment have been conducted in 14 QIDS-UP districts covering 3 500 schools. By November 2008 all the districts will have baseline information for monitoring the quality of learning and teaching in literacy and numeracy based on the national standardized tests that will be administered to all learners in grades 1-6 in November 2008.

We are also happy to report that so far 40% of learners (approximately 5 million in over 14 000 schools) are now in no fee schools in terms of the SA Schools Act and this of course is in line with our vision of ensuring free education especially for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Conclusion

The cluster is generally encouraged by progress that we are continuing to witness in the implementation of Government Programme of Action despite the challenges that we continue to experience along the way.

Issued by: Department of Health
8 July 2008