Chairperson,
This Annual Performance Plan budget vote debate coincides with a change of Minister in the Department of Social Development, which has a direct impact on the state of the department and its entities.
We are at a very critical stage in the life of the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), with what we hope to be the last portion of grants paid by CPS.
What does this mean for the implementation of the plans we are debating today? If the latest meetings we have had with the new Minister are anything to go by, South Africa, especially the 17 million beneficiaries of the grants may just have their dignity restored.
It has been refreshing to listen to a Minister who seems to be upfront, transparent and in touch with the real issues that affect the vulnerable and the poor. We are, therefore, cautiously excited to work with the new Minister.
What has the Minister walked into though?
A department with key and critical positions filled in an acting capacity, which includes the Department’s Director General.
The entity that is responsible for the disbursement of R151 billion per year does not have a permanent CEO or COO; 7 of out 9 Regional Executive Managers are acting and a Corporate Services Executive have been in an acting status since 2009.
Why then, would it be surprising, for this agency to be run by the Constitutional Court?
At a risk of sounding like a prophet of doom Chairperson, the other parts of the Department are also teetering on the verge of collapse.
The NGO’s, to whom the department refers to as “’the key partners for social development”, are paid late or not paid at all. The Department’s offices in especially rural provinces operate from caravans since the 1990s.
Workers’ pleas for better working conditions fall on deaf ears! This is the Department which is leading in ensuring that social workers are deployed to alleviate the high levels of vulnerability in our society – these social workers are unemployed and sitting at home or work at tills in supermarkets
while their demand it skyrocketing both in government and the NGO sector.
The Minister has her work cut out in this department and we stand ready to work with her to ensure oversight takes place.
During the previous Minister of Social Development’s tenure, the DA called for the intervention of Treasury; a full Parliamentary Inquiry into the relationship between CPS and SASSA, including the bizarre payment of R316 million to CPS without following proper procedures; the personal security for the previous Minister’s, her spokesperson and the previous CEO’s children’s security without valid threat analyses; and why these security contracts were entered into with SASSA and not the Department!
It is disconcerting how a Minister could get away with so much and how calls to hold her to account
could repeatedly go unheeded!
The Democratic Alliance have made it clear, we will continue to explore every possible Parliamentary avenue to fight for the constitutional rights of the poor and vulnerable.
We will, through the available Parliamentary oversight mechanisms, hold the Executive to account at every turn. This is because as the DA we believe that we need to create one South Africa for all, and that this can only be done by ensuring freedom, fairness and equal opportunities – especially for most vulnerable citizens in our society.
The DA will ensure that all the poor and vulnerable South Africans, deserving of the Department of Social Development’s services, have access to those services.
Thank you Chairperson