Issued by African National Congress - Parliament
11 November 2003
Madam Speaker
Honourable Members
We are here today to debate the Social Assistance and the South African Social Security Agency Bills, but it would be appropriate as we come to the end of the life of this Parliament, to reflect on the last decade of social security delivery in our country. It is important to remember where we came from so that we can fully assess why it became necessary to replace the 1992 Social Assistance Act and to establish a national social security agency.
Madam Speaker, as is well known to all of us, the Apartheid regime provided social services based on racial criteria and scales, which privileged some and discriminated against the majority of people in this country. This meant that when the ANC came to power in 1994 we inherited a very disparate system. These disparities included inequitable service provision, the fragmentation of services and the provision of services, which failed to meet the needs of people. We began to address this situation as soon as possible, but we encountered many challenges, some of which must be highlighted.
Firstly, we were faced with fourteen different systems, which had to be integrated into one coherent and efficient system. The then Department of Health and Welfare had to confront this situation head on and identified as one of its most important priorities the phasing out of the inherited inequalities in social welfare programmes. To this end, the Department of Social Development, as it is now known, released the White Paper for Social Welfare in 1997 in order to set in place a system of developmental social welfare. One of the other aims of the White Paper was to reduce the fraud and corruption, which were present in social welfare systems.
The realignment and amalgamation of government departments also created its own problems. In many cases, some provincial departments of Social Development inherited poorly equipped offices and personnel who had a lack of capacity.
To this aim and to generally improve the payment of social grants, the Department of Social Welfare allowed provinces to appoint private contractors to pay grants to recipients. These contractors performed satisfactorily in a number of instances, but it is an unfortunate reality that there were many instances in which some of these contractors did not perform to the standards expected by the Department. There was at least one incident in which a contractor, Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) in the Eastern Cape, had to have its contract terminated due to extremely poor service delivery.
Despite these and other difficulties, our government has managed to improve the lives of the poor in South Africa. As President Mbeki correctly stated in one of his recent letters on the ANC website, the ANC-led government has managed to make significant inroads in the fight against poverty "through improving the social wage of the country's poorest - increasing social spending, including social grants and access to social services, like education, health care, water, sanitation, housing and others."
The ANC-led government has managed to put in place a system of social grants, which is widely seen as one of the most important poverty relief measures in the country. In real terms, this means that our government has spent R34, 8 billion on grants during 2003. Social assistance grants are paid to close on 6 million citizens and the number of beneficiaries is likely to increase to approximately 9 million over the next three years, taking into account the extension of the child support grant to gradually include children up to the age of 14 years.
Madam Speaker, the poor has been the greatest beneficiaries of the expansion of social grants. The poorest 20 percent of households receive the largest amounts from grants. The difference the grants make on the lives of these people is profound. It is estimated that without the social grants significant numbers, that is about 55,9%, of the elderly would be living in poverty and an unacceptably high number of our elderly, that is about 38,2%, would be living in conditions of extreme poverty. One must also remember that the old age grant is often also used to support whole families.
Government's Ten Year Review, which was released recently, states that social grants have the potential to substantially reduce the number of individuals in poverty from 42% to 24%. Although great progress has been made in registering recipients, the full impact of these grants will only be realised when all eligible recipients are registered.
The seeming inability of the Department of Home Affairs to devise a fully effective method of working with the Department of Social Development to provide identification documents to all those eligible to receive grants remains one of the most important factors inhibiting payment of grants to all the people in need.
Furthermore, the existing weaknesses in the management and administration of social grants often result in a failure on the part of government to ensure that those entitled to benefits are provided with the best possible services. The ANC-led government recognised that we would have to substantially overhaul the present system as millions of people who are unable to support themselves due to e.g. unemployment through disability or old age, rely on government grants as their only form of income and the present system continues to be affected by a number of problems.
Madam Speaker, the president appointed a Committee of Inquiry (the Taylor Committee) in 2000 in order to investigate the social security system and to generate final proposals with respect to an improved and better structured social security system. The Taylor Committee recommended, amongst others, that the responsibility for the delivery of social security should be removed from the provincial to the national sphere of government and that the eventual administration of social security must be done by a national agency. These recommendations were seen as integral parts of establishing a comprehensive social security system.
The Taylor Report also represented a further step in an ongoing process of intensive research into the policy reforms necessary in the area of social reform. The intention of the Social Assistance and Agency Bills was neither to introduce new policy nor to revamp the package of available social benefits. These Bills are intended to overhaul the delivery system within the stated, existing policy. To suggest that the Bills were passed in a policy vacuum, as has been done by some in the opposition, is thus opportunistic and factually incorrect.
The first step in our attempt to improve the social delivery system is the new Social Assistance Bill, which aims to give effect to the constitutional right to have access to social security services, which includes social assistance. The most important consequence of this Bill will be the eventual removal of the responsibility for social service administration and delivery from provincial to national government. This will be done to ensure that the same minimum standards for delivery of social assistance will apply across the country and will hopefully ensure better service delivery to all the people, especially those in remote rural areas.
The Social Assistance Bill aims further to establish an Inspectorate for Social Security, which will investigate fraud, corruption and other forms of financial and service mismanagement as part of its function to ensure the maintenance of the integrity of social security systems. Madam Speaker, this Inspectorate will be very important in improving service delivery in this area, as it will help combat the mismanagement, fraud and corruption which has been found in certain sectors of social service delivery.
The other important aspect is that our Government has prioritised the improvement of service delivery in the area of social grant payments and has therefore decided to establish a focused, specialised delivery mechanism to achieve this goal. The National Social Security Agency Bill aims to establish such a mechanism to improve service delivery.
The main objective of the Agency will be to ensure the efficient and effective management, administration and payment of social assistance grants in the country. This will ensure that there is equal access to social assistance for all citizens through the implementation of similar standards and norms across the country.
The removal of the payment function to the national Agency will allow the Department of Social Development to place more emphasis on the developmental aspects of social security, that is get involved in projects which go beyond the mere handing out of grants. The Department of Social Development has stated that an effective social security system would require it to move away from the traditional approach to designing and providing services that lead to self-sufficiency and sustainability. Such services would include programmes such as the Poverty Relief Programme, which aims to provide wage-earning jobs to vulnerable groups (women, children, aged and disabled people).
The Agency also aims to act as an agent for the payment of other forms of social security and the Bill makes provision for negotiations and agreements to be entered into in this regard. This is line with government's mission to put in place a comprehensive system where all forms of social security (both social insurance and assistance) payments should be made by one body.
Madam Speaker, allow me to briefly dwell on the potential practical implications these Bills may have. Foremost, their proper implementation will give effect to the Batho Pele principles and allow grant recipients to be treated with the dignity and respect to which they are entitled.
Secondly, these Bills will place the delivery of social services firmly within the ambit of our President's January 8th statement in that they allow for conditions, which will "ensure the proper functioning of our social welfare system and effective use of poverty alleviation funds."
Thirdly, concerns about the staffing of the Agency have been raised by several stakeholders and I would just like to take this opportunity to state that these issues are still being deliberated by organised labour and the Department of Social Development. It is my sincere belief that the relevant parties will reach a solution that is satisfactory to all concerned and that this issue will cause no interruption in the payment of benefits to recipients.
The ANC therefore believes that the Social Assistance Bill and the South African Social Security Agency Bill can play crucial roles in our mission to transform the delivery of social services to the most vulnerable people in our country and will, if implemented properly, be of significant value in the fight against poverty.
The ANC supports these Bills.
I thank you.