REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE OVERSIGHT VISIT TO THE MPUMALANGA DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, NKOMAZI DISTRICT MUNICIPALITY, MBOMBELA LOCAL MUNICIPALITY, MBOMBELA AND NKOMAZI MUNICIPALITIES PROJECTS, SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL SECURITY AGENCY (SASSA) OFFICE, PAYPOINTS AND SERVICE AREAS AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (NDA) PROJECTS, DATED 3 FEBRUARY 2010
1. Introduction
1.1.The Portfolio Committee on Social Development conducted oversight visit on 23 - 27 November 2009 over the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development, Nkomazi District Municipality, Mbombela Local Municipality, Mbombela and Nkomazi Municipalities projects, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) office, pay points and service areas and National Development Agency (NDA) projects in Mpumalanga.
1.2 Delegation
Hon Tshwete P ANC Member
Hon. Kenye T E ANC Member
Hon Mafolo M V ANC Member
Hon Magagula V V ANC Member
Hon Malgas H H ANC Member
Hon Nelson W J ANC Member
Hon Xaba P P ANC Member
Hon Kopane S P DA Member
Hon Lamoela H L DA Member
Hon Gcume N P COPE Member
Hon Makhuba H N IFP Member
1.3 Purpose of the oversight visit
1.3.1 The Committee, conducted oversight to assess progress made by the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development, Mbombela and Nkomazi municipalities in support of social development challenges. It did this by visiting projects supported by the Provincial Department and municipalities. The Committee also aimed at assessing challenges and achievements related to the application and administration of social grants in pay points falling within the Bombela and Nkomazi District Municipalities.
1.3.2 Furthermore, the Committee conducted oversight to evaluate some of the projects that are funded by the National Development Agency in the two municipalities. The Committee aimed to ascertain the following:
· The impact these projects have on poverty alleviation
· Challenges and/or successes these projects have had, particularly related to funding, capacity, capital resources and general functionality of the projects.
· Compliance of the non-government organisations (NGOs) and/or projects to the Department’s guidelines.
1.3.3 Lastly, the Committee visited places of safety and child headed households to assess challenges they are facing. By conducting this oversight the Committee aimed to ascertain the extent to which the Department has responded to the needs of children in need.
2. Day 1: 23 November 2009
2.1 Welcome by the MEC for Health and Social Development, Hon D G Mahlangu
2.1.1 The MEC welcomed the delegation and she provided a synoptic overview of the social challenges facing the Province. She indicated that Nkomazi municipality is one of the six municipalities identified for integrated service delivery. The Province has high poverty level and it is predominantly rural. This impacts on the service delivery especially to places that are not easily accessible. In addition, Mpumalanga has high foster care backlog, partly due to the impact of HIV and AIDS.
2.1.2 Presentation by the Provincial Department of Social Development
2.1.3 Situation analysis
2.1.4 According to Statistics South Africa Community Survey 2007 Mpumalanga’s population is 3.6 million. There are 890 699 (24%) people who live in the Gert Sibande district, while 1 226 501 people (34%) live in Nkangala district and 1 526 234 (42%) people live in Ehlanzeni district. With the population of 3. 6 million in the province, staff shortage remains a challenge. The current 224 social workers fall short of achieving the national ratio of 1:3000 suggesting a staff deficit of 1 442. The presentation noted that the number of 113 community development practitioners does not meet the national norm of 1:10 000.
2.1.5 The Survey also showed that the total number of children in the province (0-18 years) is 1 557 232 which makes 43% of the entire population of Mpumalanga of 3 364 996. An orphan survey, conducted by the Department of Social Services, Population and Development in Mpumalanga in 2003, showed that 263 of the orphans in child headed households lived with a guardian aged between 4–18 years.[1] The province therefore has a challenge to intensify interventions to ensure that the children do not fall in the cycle of poverty. The total number of children who are heading households in Mpumalanga as per Community Survey of 2007 is 16 987. Mpumalanga province has 31 855 children who are in foster care system and 19 956 foster parents in receipt of foster care grant. This figure can be broken down as follows:
Children 0-6 years: 2 355
Children 6-18 years: 26 701
Children 18-21 years: 2 799
2.1.6 About 80% of these foster care placements are kinship care. A total number of 16 522 children were handled in terms of the Children’s Court Enquiries in 2008/09 financial year. In terms of the Provincial Service Delivery Improvement plan a total number of 9 000 children at the time of the visit had still to be reached in terms of children’ court enquiries. From April to end of September 2009 a total number of 3 031 children were placed in Foster Care. According to the provincial foster care monitoring tool the province at the time of the visit had a backlog of 12 351 children that needed to be handled in terms of Children’s Court Enquiries (foster care).
2.1.7 Administrative structure
2.1.8 The administration of the Province is structured according to three districts, namely, Ehlanzeni in the East, Nkangala in the North-West and Gert Sibande in the South. Each district has a number of local municipal areas making up their area of jurisdiction. The province’s capital, Nelspruit is located in Ehlanzeni district.
2.1.9 The Ehlanzeni district comprises of five local municipalities, namely, Bushbuckridge, Mbombela, Nkomazi, Thaba Chweu and Umjindi. The district has three institutions, namely, Thulamahashe children’s home, Swartfontein Treatment Centre and Louieville women support centre. To facilitate the management of the district and ensure that services are brought as close to the people as possible, branch offices and service points are established in municipalities as need arises.
2.1.10 Department’s priorities
2.1.11 The presentation outlined Mpumalanga’s priorities which are based on the National Priorities as follows:
• Intensify provision of developmental and protection services to people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS;
• Youth Development;
• War on poverty;
• Tackling child poverty;
• Tackling adult and older person’s poverty;
• Community Development;
• Governance and institutional development;
• Strengthen collaboration with the NPO sector;
• Improve service delivery infrastructure;
• Improve the availability of reliable and up to date information to enhance planning, monitoring and evaluation and
• Improve human resource capacity and implementation of retention strategy for social service professionals.
2.1.12 The Presentation further outlined the three programmes with which the Province functions, namely:
2.1.13 Programme 1 Administration - This programme captures the strategic management and support services at all levels of the Department that is provincial, district, sub-district and institutional.
2.1.14 Programme 2 Social welfare services - This programme provides and supports the delivery of welfare services in partnership with registered implementing agencies.
2.1.15 Programme 3 Development and research – This programme provides research on reduction of vulnerability to poverty through sustainable development programmes. It provides research, analyses and interpretation of population and development trends to inform programmes, services and strategies.
2.1.16 To achieve the desired outcome of enhancing social functioning, Social Welfare Services are rendered at four different levels:
Level 1: Prevention services: are aimed at strengthening and building the capacity and self- reliance of clients
Level 2: Early intervention Services: are geared to ensuring that those clients that have been identified as being at risk are assisted before they require statutory services.
Level 3: Statutory services: focus at ensuring that those individuals that are no longer able to function adequately are supported and strengthened.
Level 4: Continuum of care services: are aimed at integrating and provide support to services that enhance self-reliance and optimal functioning of the client enabling the client to return to the family or community as quickly as possible.
2.1.17 Social welfare services programme received budget allocation of R63 852 161, which the bulk of the budget (R40 495 158) was allocated to Professional and Administrative Support, then followed by R12 451 994 allocated to Facilities (Swartfontein, Thulamahashe Children’s Home and Louieville Women Support Centre), R3 817 491 allocated to Child care and Protection services and R1 754 400 allocated to Social Relief.
2.1.18 Programme 3 is delivered through three sub-programmes, namely:
Youth Development sub-programme: it conducts life skills camps and workshops for the youth on organizational development and basic entrepreneurial skills. It facilitates funding of projects for unemployed youth.
Sustainable Livelihood sub-programme: it conducts workshops on sustainable livelihoods to social grant recipients.
Institutional Capacity Building and Support sub-programme: It provides training to community based organizations such as youth development, poverty alleviation projects and NPOs funded or subsidized by the Department. It facilitates public education and awareness creation programme. It also conducts network workshops and observational visits to best practice models. Lastly, it conducts volunteer mobilization workshops.
2.1.19 Programme 3 had a budget allocation of R25 062 570 and the bulk of the budget, R15 289 920 was allocated to Professional and Administrative Support sub-programme. Youth Development sub-programme was allocated R6 809 092.
2.1.20 Financial report
2.1.21 Regarding the budget expenditure of the Department, the presentation reported that the Department expenditure by 31 October 2009 was 45%. This was explained as due to the delays in the construction of five offices; cost cutting/savings in accommodation, travel and cars. By end of October 2009 the Ehlanzini District municipality expenditure was 53.6%.
2.1.22 Challenges
2.1.23 Over and above the challenges of high foster care backlog, high poverty levels and low budget expenditure, the province encounters the following challenges:
· Shortage of office accommodation - the Department in some areas (clinics) shares offices with the Department of Health. It also shares offices with magistrate courts and South African Police Service.
· Shortage of staff - Most senior managers in the Department are on acting capacity in their positions. For instance, Social welfare services programme during the time of the oversight visit did not have senior managers except the Director of the programme. The Department has undertaken to fast track the filling of these posts. There is also a shortage of probation officers. Mbomela and Nkomazi municipalities each has one probation officer.
· Most poverty alleviation projects are not sustainable
· Inadequate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure
· Due to the fact that the province is predominantly rural some of the shelters that house victims of domestic violence and old age homes are not accessible to people living in rural areas.
· A study conducted by national Department of Social Development found that Mpumalanga had no implementation plan for the Recruitment and Retention of Social Workers Strategy. A task team was going to be established to develop an implementation plan and benchmark it with other provinces in terms of resources made available to social professionals. Another challenge regarding the implementation of the Strategy is that tertiary institutions have limited entrance number of social workers than the number the social sector requires.
2.1.24 Recommendations
2.1.25 The delegation recommended that:
2.1.26 The MEC for Social Development and Health needs to pay attention to the Department’s low expenditure pattern, especially that there were only three full months before the end of 2009/10 financial year.
2.1.27 The MEC should address the issue of acting in vacant funded positions. The MEC indicated that this matter had been noted and the process of addressing it was in its advance stage. Regarding addressing matters of emphasis raised by the Auditor General, the MEC explained that the Department will implement a turn around strategy and the strategy will be made available to the Committee. She undertook that the Department will receive unqualified report in the 2010/11 financial year.
2.1.28 The Department will be audited on its performance by the Auditor General.
2.2 Visit to the Mbombela Local Municipality
2.2.1 The briefing by the Mayor Mbombela Local Municipality did not take place as the Mayor indicated that he was informed very late about the visit and so he did not have time to prepare for the meeting. The briefing was cancelled.
2.3 Site visit to Asikhutulisane Abattoirs project
2.3.1 Asikhutulisane Abattoirs was started in 2001 and funded by the Department of Social Services, Population and Development with the amount of R485 000. Between 2001 and 2003 the project had difficulty in registering as an abattoir. It was registered in 2004. It has a staff compliment of six people (five women and 1 man). Regarding its trade, it initially it bought chicken from local farms but this proved expensive. It had to change its market strategy and get orders from private individuals. This was identified as a challenge because orders are mostly seasonal, mainly coming in summer. To keep the project running, the project team made a decision to supply vegetables to the local Home Based Care centre. Other challenge faced by the project is that it does not receive any support from the Department of Social Development. It also encountered a challenge of burglary on five occasions since it was established. Despite the project not receiving any support from the Department it has managed to sustain itself.
2.3.2 Recommendations
2.3.2.1 The Department should assist the project to get appropriate clothing for visitors for occupational health and safety reasons.
2.3.2.2 The Department should also assist the project to get funding to sustain itself.
2.4 Site visit to Incaba Older Persons Service Centre
2.4.1The centre was established in 2001. Initially volunteers visited homes of elderly people and provided them with meals. In 2004 Ms Barbara Lorenz assisted volunteers by renting a place for them to work from. The centre has 16 volunteers who receive R300 stipend. Since 2004 the centre has been receiving funding of R20 091 per quarter from the provincial Department. Volunteers care for 49 elderly people who visit the centre on daily basis. In 2007 the centre started Home Based Care to 223 homes of frail elderly persons and it gets a funding of R53 262 per quarter from the Department. Volunteers work closely with social workers who assist them when the need arises.