Budget vote speech by Minister of Social Development

This budget vote speech is presented against the backdrop of critical international resolutions adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, hosted by us last year in Johannesburg. These resolutions added fresh impetus to our collective commitments to, amongst others, half the world's poor by 2015.

Honourable members, as we finalise our preparations for the Growth and Development Summit, we should note significant progress, both in the social and economic spheres that has been made over the past nine years. Indeed the tide has turned and the people's contract for a better tomorrow is taking shape.

In my budget vote speech to the National Assembly in March this year I pledged to accelerate the pace of delivery of social development programmes and grants whilst empowering millions of poor citizens of South Africa. Indeed the vulnerable of our society, in particular children, older persons, people with disabilities, people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS and other diseases, are, more than ever before, beginning to feel that the government is indeed taking bold steps to make them masters of their own destinies, I did once reiterate that children must come first in all that we do.

The approach of the Ministry of Social development and the sector has been one that supports the poor and vulnerable through direct income support and social welfare services, whilst placing emphasis on the empowerment of community organisations and families.

Strengthening Families
Today, we celebrate the ninth anniversary of the International Day of the Family. This prelude to the tenth anniversary in which next year there will an international year of the Family which should mark the beginning of our journey to realising social integration through strengthened family units and accompanying social infrastructure. As I speak to you hundreds of families are gathered in Soshanguve, in the city of Tshwane, and many other parts of South Africa. They gather to reaffirm our commitment to ensure that the family and vulnerable groups are placed at the centre of all development strategies and programmes. Many families are under pressure to cope with the impact of poverty, HIV/AIDS, unemployment and other social ills and this is having a devastating impact on the most vulnerable, especially children. In this regard it is the duty of the government in general and our department in particular to reach out and assist. It is from this perspective that our theme this year is building a social contract to strengthen families and communities for a better life for children.

This approach is at the centre of the moral regeneration of our society and is the premise of addressing many of the social challenges confronting our society, including those that confront children.

In strengthening families we ought to reach out and render support to Non Governmental and Community Based Organisations who are the cold face of these challenges. Critical to this support is the development of a volunteer core that will assist us as we reach out to these families. As we endeavour to develop sustainable interventions at a family level, we must strengthen our efforts to build a community-oriented cadre. We firmly believe that these community development workers are the key to reinforcing all our development efforts and will assist us in identifying, reaching out, and strengthening vulnerable families. Honourable members, stronger families will facilitate for greater access to all the constitutionally guaranteed rights, including the rights of children. Our efforts this year and over the MTEF period will therefore give strong emphasis to strengthening families as we believe that stronger families, are a foundation for strong communities, and strong communities
are a foundation to a stronger nation, stronger nations are nations that a fit for children and their development.

Social grants for children
I take this opportunity to thank the members of this house who have travelled the journey from welfare to social development with us. I also thank the community members and civil society organizations who have maintained us on the path of ensuring that "children are put first".

Honourable members, our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, as attested by over 2,7 million children who now receive the Child Support Grant (CSG) and the additional 1 million children, under age 9, who as from the 1st April became eligible to receive their grants owing to the President's announcement of an increase in the age of eligibility for the CSG for
children up to their 14th birthday. I am pleased to announce that from 1st April 2004, the grant will be extended to children in the 9 and 10-year age category and the following year to all children under the age of 14 years. This will translate to an additional 3.2 million children receiving the child support grant and the R11 billion set aside by government underscores our commitment to ensuring that children are indeed put first.

I must however express my concern that, not all the children who should be receiving grants are indeed receiving them. This is true for all grant types targeting children including the foster care and care dependency grant, which account for only just over 180 thousand of the 5,5 million grant recipients, which is far from the targeted numbers. This challenge is compounded by the fact that more than half of the unregistered children and eligible people are in the poorest provinces, namely Free State, Limpopo, Kwazulu Natal and the Eastern Cape. Members of the Council will well be aware that these provinces are confronted by, amongst other things, staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure, inappropriate skills and lack of access to registration centres. To overcome these constraints we have begun our work with provinces, local authorities, and the Departments of Education, Health and Home Affairs and have intensified the campaign to reach out to qualifying beneficiaries. Particular attention is being given to the Eastern Cape and a special task team has been established to assist the province to turn around the lack of service that had afflicted the province for some time. Jointly with this Presidential Task Team I am happy to announce that considerable progress is being made which will be to the benefit of the poorest of the poor.

We have also extended our arm to civil society organizations who have assisted us in reaching rural areas and vulnerable groups.

The full text of this speech can be downloaded on the righthand side of this page