The KZN Department of Social Development’s (DSD) vision is to create “A caring and self-reliant society.” Its mission is “To transform our society by building conscious and capable citizens through the provision of integrated social development services.” Given these ambitious goals, it is therefore of grave concern to the DA that MEC Khoza’s budget – tabled today – will see this Department spend only half of its already meagre R3.5 billion budget. This simply beggars belief.
This is the Department that is supposed to assist some of the most vulnerable members of society in our province and it is clear that the MEC and her Department need to be a lot more forward thinking in their approach and ask themselves – is this budget best serving the people of our province?
For as long as government continues to focus on hand-outs, instead of the hand-ups our society so desperately needs, we will continue to lose the battle. The DA has said this many times before, to no avail. The DA strongly believes that there are five core strategic areas which KZN’s Department of Social Development must address. These include the following:
Unemployed Social Workers
How is it that while government has the means to provide bursaries to individuals, who want to make a difference in people’s lives, and then through regulations, not employ them?
Everyone knows and speaks of the millions of South Africans that are jobless. Why then are the hundreds of graduates from the DSD bursary system not being employed? Surely there cannot be a situation where, if the state does not have a position for you, you don’t have a job? This is simply ridiculous! MEC, can you not see that there is a problem here?
A DA-led government in KZN would ensure that the regulations prohibiting trained social workers from working outside of the state are changed. In doing so, NGO’s could pay half a salary and the state the other half, thereby creating jobs in a field that is seriously and severely lacking.
Foster Care
A look at the facts and figures shows that KZN is the province with the second highest number of children in foster care. At the end of March 2018, there were an astounding 83 525 children in this system.
According to reports, residential care services were provided to 4 014 children in KZN Child and Youth Care Centres during the last financial year. During the same period a further 5 604 children were placed in the foster care system.
Yet there were just 63 cases of adoption processed in the last year. Now I’m no mathematician, but these figures tell me that there is something seriously wrong with this system in the province. The question is this MEC – why does the adoption process seem to stop when it gets to your Department? Perhaps you can tell us today?
Then there is the issue of monitoring of alternative care placements. Yet again, it seems that the DSD is not doing this properly either. An example of this is the DA’s recent oversight inspection of the Malvern Child and Youth Care Centre. MEC, as you may or may not be aware, this facility is in serious trouble and could be forced to close its doors if it does not get the attention it deserves.
I have had sight of their monthly reports to the DSD which provide the number of children under its care. Yet the Department has reduced its grant to this facility, apparently based on its own oversight within the last year. Yet the Board at Malvern Child and Youth Care Centre claim that no one from the Department has set foot on the property for ages.
MEC – what is going on in your Department?
Early Childhood Development
The Department’s Annual Report of 2017/2018 is quite an eye opener. And certainly not in a positive way. MEC – how can your Department hold its head high when it has continually under-performed in so many of its key roles and functions, including the provision and promotion of integrated Early Childhood Development services?
In the Budget it says, and I quote: “Special attention will be on monitoring the registration of ECD centres and compliance with norms and standards.” This tells me that the Department has, until now, been unable to successfully assist ECD centres. One would think that ensuring registration and compliance of such facilities is of the utmost importance, particularly when the DSD is pumping the majority of the Children and Families Programme budget for 2019/2020 into this strategic objective.
MEC – can you not see that there is a problem here? The DA wants to know – what are you doing about it?
NGO Funding
Funding NGO’s is one thing, actually working with and alongside them is another. During the oversight inspections that I have conducted since becoming an MPL it is clear that there is a massive disconnect between the DSD and NGO’s.
It is alarming that while the Department provides a substantial amount of funding to NGO’s – who through their very existence support the Department’s mandate – it is unable to assess the efficiency and impact of these NGO’s due to a lack of monitoring tools.
During my recent oversight inspection of the KZN Cerebral Palsy Association in Mariannhill, the Manager of this facility was on the verge of tears while she told me how she has been trying to get assistance from the DSD for more than seven years.
It turns out though that the DSD doesn’t even know whether this Association falls under its own Department or under Health or Education and so it has just ignored the plight of this facility. The result – it’s on the brink of shutting down.
MEC – have you or anyone in your Department even considered the consequences of this? Can you not see that there is a problem here?
Women’s Month
As we approach Women’s Month, it is also the KZN DSD that has a critical role to play in protecting our woman and children. With proper preventive measures it is possible for the DSD to make a difference so that KZN no longer has the dreadful legacy of being the province with the highest number of crimes against women and children.
Unfortunately, we still hear horrific stories on a daily basis. Last week I tabled a Motion in the House after a 76-year-old grandmother was recently raped in Gobizembe section in KwaSwayimane. MEC – we need a proactive approach from you and your Department – not just ‘talk shops’ and handing out flyers.
Perhaps the MEC can take guidance from The DA manifesto. And I quote; “An empathetic and targeted response to gender-based violence can and will ensure women are free, independent and able to contribute more to their families and communities as they are no longer controlled and abused by intimate partners, family members or colleagues,” .
Conclusion
In closing, the DA commends KZN’s new DSD portfolio committee chair, Honourable Swartbooi-Ntombela, on her warning to the Department that it must not hide anything from the committee and that it needs to be consistently open and transparent.
And finally – MEC – the DA’s challenge to you today is this – to have the political will to deal with errant officials and the many NGO’s who need your Department’s help. Never again must we witness a case such as that of Kokstad’s Elonwabeni Old Age Home, where the basic human rights of elderly residents were violated right under an uncaring Department’s nose.
Rest assured MEC – I will be holding you and your Department to account, as my teenage daughter often says, “like nobody’s business!”