Social Transformation

People must be at the centre in fighting poverty

Improving the health of all South Africans, expanding access to quality education and improving food security for the poor are among the main areas of work undertaken by government this year. This is in line with the decision of the Polokwane Conference in December that education and health should be at the centre of the ANC's programme of social transformation for the next five years.

The organisation will be launching its education and health campaigns at a local level, which will see mass campaign work complement and strengthen the work being done in government.

The social cluster of national government this week held a briefing on progress in the implementation of its programme of action since the beginning of the year. Areas covered included health, education, food security, social security, housing and social cohesion.

Comprehensive healthcare

Government's approach to comprehensive healthcare looks at health promotion, reduction of communicable and non-communicable diseases and the unnatural causes of death such as accidents and injuries.

The Department of Health has adopted the "healthy lifestyles" campaign as its key strategic message for the year. This campaign encourages South Africans to adopt and practice healthy lifestyles. This decreases the burden of disease facing the country.

The department is increasing the number of health promoting schools from 3,500 to at least 5,000 schools. These schools have initiated programmes to prevent tobacco use, development of food gardens and sports participation.

Parliament's health portfolio committee this week held hearings on amendments to the Tobacco Control Act. These amendments aim to further enhance the control of tobacco products in line with the international standards set out in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The amendment bill seeks to:

• strengthen sections which prohibit advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and the regulation of smoking in public places;
• introduce of picture-based health warnings;
• remove misleading descriptions such as "mild" and "light".

The Bill increases penalties for contraventions of the Act so that they become a real deterrent. There would also be new offences such as failing to protect employees from tobacco smoke pollution, selling tobacco products in a health institution, and a retailer not complying with point of sale conditions.

In the effort to control and manage malaria, over 85% of malaria risk areas in Limpopo and Mpumalanga have been covered with indoor residual spray, while KwaZulu Natal currently stands at 82%. The development and implementation of malaria health promotion activities in the three affected provinces is underway.

In line with the call by President Thabo Mbeki in the State of the Nation Address in February, government is working on reducing the tuberculosis (TB) defaulter rate from 10 to 7% through the establishment of TB tracer teams and the training of 3,000 health personnel in the management of this disease. A total of 72 TB tracer teams have been established in all the nine provinces. Each team comprises a healthcare worker, two community health workers and a data capturer. In addition, 122 healthcare workers were trained on multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) management in the past two months.

The programme for HIV treatment, care and support intervention is gradually gaining momentum. As at February 2008, figures showed that at least 456,000 people had been initiated on antiretroviral treatment -40,000 of these being children - in 407 facilities accredited to provide this service. Eighty-six percent of sub-districts have at least one service point accredited to provide comprehensive care to people living with HIV and AIDS.

Access to quality education

Quality education is essential for the economic growth of the country. To this end, the re-capitalisation of further education and training (FET) colleges to ensure relevance to the economy is continuing. By March, all of the R595 million allocated to FET colleges had been used.

The number of the Dinaledi schools has been increased to 500 as part of the effort to double the number of matric maths passes to 50,000 by 2009. Each of the Dinaledi schools has been provided with textbooks for every learner in English, maths and physical sciences to the value of R12 million.

On the implementation of the Mass Literacy Campaign targeted at reaching 300,000 adults, the Kha Ri Gude Campaign was officially launched in February 2008. Already 100 master trainers have been trained in the requirements of the campaign and the use of the materials developed for the campaign.

Food security and nutrition programme

Hunger and malnutrition continue to be among the biggest challenges facing the poor. The Household Food Production Programme is one of government's strategies to improve food security in vulnerable communities. To date, nearly 16,000 food production packages have been distributed, and over 6,000 school food gardens have been established.

Nearly 1,000 small farmers have received loans from the farmer support programme of the Micro-Agricultural Finance Scheme of South Africa (MAFISA). A total of R8.5 million was disbursed in the first three months of the year.

Recent increases in food prices is worrying, since it makes food increasingly unaffordable and undermines the goal of food security and improving the nutritional status of the population. It is important that all the role players in the industry - from producers to retailers - work with government to ensure that basic foodstuffs like bread, milk and maize meal remain within the reach of our people.

Comprehensive social security

The social cluster has briefed cabinet on proposals on social assistance and reforming the system of retirement provisions. It approved proposals to gradually equalise the age of eligibility for the old age grant; extend the child support grant to children up to 15 years; and advance the discussion on a National Health Insurance System.

Housing and human settlements

Positive results are emerging in the implementation of the comprehensive programme dealing with human settlement and social infrastructure. Banks have indicated that R35 billion has been released for financing housing development and ownership. The upward movement of interest rates has however eroded the affordability of housing.

An inclusionary housing policy has been finalised and implemented across private and publicly driven housing development. Multiple housing projects that are designed as mixed use and mixed income housing developments serve to ensure cross subsidisation and achieve inclusionary housing objectives.

Over 100,000 units are planned in projects such as Cosmo City, Olievenhoutbosch, Chief Albert Luthuli and Mogale (Gauteng), Bendor and Lephalale (Limpopo) and Klarienet (Mpumalanga). At the same time, a voucher system for building materials in rural areas to support the self-build initiative is being investigated by the Department of Housing. The Rental Housing Act has been amended to improve the regulation of tenant-landlord relations.

Promotion of national identity and social cohesion

Government has embarked on a three-year national symbols project aimed at installing a flag in every school. Phase two of the project has been initiated and is aimed at installing 10,000 flags in schools in all provinces. The departments of Arts and Culture and Education have embarked on a project to make information on national symbols more accessible. As part of encouraging good citizenship among youth in particular, a Bill of Responsibility was launched in February 2008. This bill aims to inculcate in youth the responsibilities that come with rights.

More Information:

• Government Programme of Action Briefings, May 2008

SABC

Restore the credibility of the public broadcaster

In the midst of events that have undermined public confidence in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the central responsibility of all those involved in the management and oversight of the corporation is to restore the credibility and integrity of this important public institution. That objective should be the chief focus of the SABC board, its management, government, parliamentary oversight structures, and all other stakeholders.

The SABC's group executive of news and current affairs, Snuki Zikalala, was suspended earlier this week pending the outcome of a probe into alleged misconduct. Barely a day later, SABC Group CEO Dali Mpofu was suspended with immediate effect for allegedly failing to implement decisions of the board. These unsettling developments occurred in an environment of discord within the SABC.

Following a briefing by the ANC parliamentary study group on communications on the situation at the SABC, the National Working Committee (NWC) reaffirmed the right and responsibility of the parliamentary portfolio committee to perform its oversight role.

It concurred with the communication portfolio committee in its expression of concern at the apparent breakdown in relations between the SABC board and management - which had been aggravated by the leaking of a confidential internal memo.

"The NWC understands that the expression of no confidence by the committee was based on the board's failure to exercise its care, knowledge, diligence and fiduciary duties pertaining to the corporation. It called on the SABC board to respond positively to the serious concerns that have been raised," it said in a statement.

Minister of Communications Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri expressed "great concern" at the latest developments and said all would be done to ensure the ability of the SABC to carry out its mandate. A debate is scheduled in the National Assembly for 22 May on a motion of no-confidence in the SABC Board.

This situation highlights the need for all parties to rise above this fracas and focus on the restoration of the core principles and responsibilities of the public broadcaster. There needs to be a concerted effort to make a decisive break with the SABC's recent past of division, accusation and counter-accusation. There must be a clear determination on all fronts that the work of the SABC must be insulated from all undue external influence, including from the politics of the day.

The SABC Charter charges the broadcaster to provide the South African people with news and public affairs programming "which meets the highest standards of journalism, as well as fair and unbiased coverage, impartiality, balance and independence from government, commercial and other interests". It is critical that every effort is made to restore confidence in the SABC's ability to achieve this task.

The SABC must also focus on the other critical areas outlined in its charter. According to the charter, the corporation must:

• make services available to South Africans in all the official languages;
• reflect both the unity and diverse cultural and multilingual nature of South Africa and all of its cultures and regions to audiences;
• include significant amounts of educational programming. from a wide range of social, political and economic issues, including, but not limited to, human rights, health, early childhood development, agriculture, culture, justice and commerce and contributing to a shared South African consciousness and identity;
• enrich the cultural heritage of South Africa by providing support for traditional and contemporary artistic expression;
• strive to offer a broad range of services targeting, particularly, children, women, the youth and the disabled;
• include national sports programming as well as developmental and minority sports.

Some of these matters were raised in a discussion document distributed in preparation for the ANC Policy Conference held in June 2007. It said one of the challenges facing the SABC is to ensure that in its editorial approach the corporation "avoids both the perception and the reality that it is an uncritical mouthpiece for the government of the day."

"It remains vitally important that the SABC can be relied upon as a credible source of accurate and balanced news, information and analysis, representing in its coverage the diversity of South African society. While non-partisan in its approach, the SABC nevertheless has a responsibility to uphold and promote the values enshrined in the Constitution. The public broadcaster should be explicit in its commitment to nation building, reconciliation, forging an inclusive national identity, and the reconstruction and development of society.

"The SABC is likely to face a further challenge in the implementation of its public service mandate as the broadcasting environment becomes more cluttered and more competitive with the entry of new services, the development of new technology for content delivery, and the opening up of the broadcast spectrum. This raises difficult questions for government, legislators and regulators in how to balance the desirability of a developmental public broadcaster with the need to ensure South African people are able to freely choose from a range of broadcast services."

The SABC is a valuable national asset, with thousands of capable and committed people daily working to provide the people of South Africa with quality broadcasting. All stakeholders need to accept their responsibility to restore confidence in this important public institution.

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