ID's Florence Batyi: Debate on Social Development
2007-03-28. The ID believes that the Ministry of Social development has arguably the most critical role to play in ensuring that we live up to the social democratic ideals contained in our constitution. In many respects we have gone far over the last 13 years in providing a more substantial social security net and credit must be given for that. Unfortunately, however, the persistent and widespread poverty of our people demands that we go even further.
The ID believes that we must extend
the social security net in South Africa as roughly 60 percent of those
living in poverty in South Africa do not receive any form of social
assistance from the state. It is not uncommon to find entire families
being forced to live off the old age pension of one family member. We
cannot be satisfied with this and we must find ways of providing
immediate relief to people while they wait for this economy to start
providing enough jobs.
The ID is also extremely concerned with the inadequate level of support given to our children. In the costing report of the Children's Bill last year it was stated that current service delivery is not keeping pace with the demand for services. The under provision of services in the 2006/2007 period was es timated to be in the region of 79 to 97 percent. This is shocking, Honourable Minister, and we have to find ways of addressing this. It further stated that the reasons for this were the lack of capacity to plan and manage service delivery and the lack of suitably qualified personnel to deliver the services. In particular there is not enough social workers in the country. We have to give greater incentives for people to become social workers and we also need to consider innovative solutions such as training people in communities to fulfil certain social work functions such as child youth care.
The ID also believes that if the government is unable to spend its money in providing these services it needs to funnel it to those who can. There are numerous NGO's and CBO's providing statutory services which can increase their reach if they are simply given more funds. The equitable share that is given to provinces to allocate to NGO's therefore needs to be substantially increased.
The ID has consistently called for the Child Support Grant to be extended to all children under the age of 18 in line with the constitutional definition of children. Poverty does not magically disappear at 14 and children's needs still need to be met. Extending the Child Support Grant would reduce the poverty gap by 58 percent and ensure greater access to their constitutional rights such as education, nutrition and health care. It would also help us in confronting the challenges of HIV/Aids, child-headed households and disability. We are encouraged to see that the government is finally recognising the lack of sufficient support for children between the ages of 14 and 18 and we hope that the study you are currently doing into this matter will extend the child support grant.
Further measures which should be introduced to provide support to these children include a National Food Security programme. This programme must bolster existing initiatives that are confronting child malnutrition and introduce new ones such as training families in growing food gardens. The existing School nutrition programme must be extended to high schools to tackle drop out rates and malnourishment amongst our youth.
In short Minister the ID as a social democratic party will support any measures that truly provide relief to the immense suffering and poverty of our people. We know that you have fought with other members of the cabinet to get more financial support for the poor and you can rest assured that in this you will have the full support of ID .
Released by ID MP Florence Batyi, spokesperson on Social Development – 083 310 0352
The ID is also extremely concerned with the inadequate level of support given to our children. In the costing report of the Children's Bill last year it was stated that current service delivery is not keeping pace with the demand for services. The under provision of services in the 2006/2007 period was es timated to be in the region of 79 to 97 percent. This is shocking, Honourable Minister, and we have to find ways of addressing this. It further stated that the reasons for this were the lack of capacity to plan and manage service delivery and the lack of suitably qualified personnel to deliver the services. In particular there is not enough social workers in the country. We have to give greater incentives for people to become social workers and we also need to consider innovative solutions such as training people in communities to fulfil certain social work functions such as child youth care.
The ID also believes that if the government is unable to spend its money in providing these services it needs to funnel it to those who can. There are numerous NGO's and CBO's providing statutory services which can increase their reach if they are simply given more funds. The equitable share that is given to provinces to allocate to NGO's therefore needs to be substantially increased.
The ID has consistently called for the Child Support Grant to be extended to all children under the age of 18 in line with the constitutional definition of children. Poverty does not magically disappear at 14 and children's needs still need to be met. Extending the Child Support Grant would reduce the poverty gap by 58 percent and ensure greater access to their constitutional rights such as education, nutrition and health care. It would also help us in confronting the challenges of HIV/Aids, child-headed households and disability. We are encouraged to see that the government is finally recognising the lack of sufficient support for children between the ages of 14 and 18 and we hope that the study you are currently doing into this matter will extend the child support grant.
Further measures which should be introduced to provide support to these children include a National Food Security programme. This programme must bolster existing initiatives that are confronting child malnutrition and introduce new ones such as training families in growing food gardens. The existing School nutrition programme must be extended to high schools to tackle drop out rates and malnourishment amongst our youth.
In short Minister the ID as a social democratic party will support any measures that truly provide relief to the immense suffering and poverty of our people. We know that you have fought with other members of the cabinet to get more financial support for the poor and you can rest assured that in this you will have the full support of ID .
Released by ID MP Florence Batyi, spokesperson on Social Development – 083 310 0352
