Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
18 September 2003
Madam Speaker
Honourable Members
The purpose of our visit to the Eastern Cape was parliamentary oversight and more specifically, to oversee the process of applying and issuing of Identity Documents (IDs) and the registration of child-births. The critical role that ID's and birth certificates play in the speedy and efficient processing of social security grant applications was of particular importance to the Members of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development.
Officials from the departments of both Home Affairs and Social Development assured Members that as far as they were concerned, everything was in place for this visit. Furthermore, Members were led to believe that all stakeholders in the areas to be visited, had been consulted and were ready and expecting the parliamentary delegation.
However, Madam Speaker and Honourable Members, it is not an exaggeration to say that Members were appalled by the conditions found at most offices of both home Affairs and Social Development in the Eastern Cape. The areas that we visited are struggling with the legacy of Bantustan administrations having been incorporated into the government of the Eastern Cape.
Apart from the fact that corruption and maladministration were rife in the former Ciskei and Transkei, the realignment and amalgamation of government departments created its own problems. In many cases, the Department of Social Development inherited poorly equipped offices and personnel who had a lack of capacity. These factors make it very difficult for government to deliver an efficient service in the Eastern Cape.
We encountered the physical manifestations of these serious problems on our oversight visit and I wish to highlight a few critical areas.
Firstly, the large number of people who applied for services and grants on offer indicates that there is a big need for these services and social grants. Social assistance has been recognised as one of the most important poverty alleviation mechanisms in our country and it is important that administrative problems and issues not prevent people from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to access social assistance grants.
It is especially important that vulnerable, poor people in the Eastern Cape (and everywhere in our country) be treated in a way that allows them to benefit from the rights and freedoms that we have fought so hard to secure for them.
Madam Speaker, it was unfortunate to witness the lack of respect with which staff of both the departments of Home Affairs and Social Development treated their clients.
An example, which is one of many to be found in our Report, of the point mentioned above was our visit to the Umtata Home Affairs Office on May, 5th.
Secondly, staff in the Home Affairs offices appear to not be multi-skilled and seem unwilling to assist their colleagues when there is a backlog of work. The latter situation seems to occur even when the staff members in question have very few tasks to perform. This rigid and narrow thinking of officials impacts negatively on the delivery of ID's, birth certificates and access to social grants.
Our visit to the Mqanduli Home Affairs office illustrates this perfectly in that birth certificates were available to be distributed, but there was no official to do the distribution. Madam Speaker, our delegation was told that only one person was responsible for the issuing of birth certificates and when that person was absent, nobody could issue them. This is obviously an unacceptable situation and I appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs and our Government to continue to attend to this situation.
Madam Speaker, other instances that struck me were that both Home Affairs and Social Development offices were regularly ill equipped and that conducive working conditions rarely prevailed. The physical state of offices was appalling, many offices were situated in structures that are utterly unfit to serve as offices and where offices were structurally sound, they were dirty, in need of paint and in general dilapidated.
It would, however, be unfair to only emphasise the negative aspects of our visit. For example, the Social Development office at Mqanduli was very well organised on the day as was the Home Affairs officials on the day we visited the Ntabankulu Town Hall.
Madam Speaker, allow me to refer briefly to the recommendations contained in our Report. The most important of this is that officials from both Departments must adhere to the Batho Pele principles. We must put our people first.
Furthermore, the disturbing divide between what the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs say and the reality at grass roots level should be eradicated. If nothing is done in this regard, we could be faced with a possibility that would-be voters and beneficiaries will be denied their constitutional rights to access social security benefits and to vote.
In this regard, it is encouraging to note the decisive action by the Minister of Social Development and his officials in terminating the service delivery contract with Cash Paymaster services (CPS). This is indicative of the commitment by our government to eradicating the corruption and poor service that led to the tragic death of one grant recipient.
It has unfortunately come to our attention that a member of the opposition has been quoted in the Daily Dispatch as saying that as many as five people died as a result of such poor service delivery. It is highly questionable that the opposition exploits such tragedies for political gain.
Madam Speaker, all of the above must be seen in the context of the overhaul of our social assistance system and the establishment of a National Social Security Agency. Our Portfolio Committee is currently engaged with legislation to establish such an Agency and in this process, Members of the Committee draws on information obtained from oversight visits in order to enrich the legislation. This ensures that the provisions in the draft statute are informed by practical experience.
We see the establishment of the Social Security Agency as one of the most important steps in addressing the problems of service delivery in respect of social grants in the Eastern Cape and the rest of our country. The main objective of the Agency will be to ensure the efficient and effective management, administration and payment of social assistance. This will ensure that there is equal access to social security for all citizens. The Agency will be responsible for implementing uniform norms and standards with regard to service delivery in the country.
The establishment of this national agency will bring with it serious challenges for the government. One of these relates to the transfer of staff from provinces to the agency. In this process, we must ensure that personnel are not simply transferring with them the patterns of corruption and inefficiency that have emerged in our delivery system.
Secondly, we must ensure that the transfer to the Agency does not impact negatively on the ability of beneficiaries to access their grants. Thirdly, we must ensure that we communicate to our people the way the establishment of the agency will affect their lives clearly and regularly, and in ways that reach the deepest of rural areas - those areas where beneficiaries are most often disadvantaged by long distances from government offices and high levels of poverty and underdevelopment.
We believe that the changes contemplated in the social assistance dispensation, if managed properly, will have a positive impact on the people of our great country.
I thank you.