During the reregistration of beneficiaries, more than 150,000 social grants were cancelled resulting in a saving of R150m a year, the minister said in her budget vote speech in Parliament.
She said 20.7-million people had been successfully reregistered in the new system. This figure included both the beneficiaries of social assistance, which now extended to more than 16-million beneficiaries (of which 11-million were children) as well as people who did not themselves receive grants but who were registered to receive them on behalf of others — such as mothers, care-givers or procurators.
The minister also noted that to date, more than 900,000 children had benefited from the early childhood development programme. She added that the department was on track to provide universal early childhood development services by 2014.
Of the Department of Social Development’s total R120bn budget for 2013-14, R113bn would be spent on social assistance grants.
Ms Dlamini said the department was committed to rooting out fraud and corruption in the social security system and had registered about 7,700 cases of fraud in 2012-13, more than half of which had been finalised and closed.
"In an effort to clamp down on unscrupulous micro-lenders who exploit social grant beneficiaries, Sassa (the South African Social Security Agency) will not be processing any other deductions, except for funeral deductions that do not exceed 10% of the value of the grant, in line with regulations," she said.
In February this year, the interministerial committee (IMC) on anti-substance abuse approved the draft Control of Marketing of Alcohol Beverages Bill, which aimed to restrict the marketing and promotion of alcoholic beverages. The minister said it would be presented to the Cabinet this year following which public consultations would take place.
"Other matters that the IMC will finalise this year include measures to enhance law enforcement such as reductions in the hours of sale of alcohol, substance abuse, workplace interventions, as well as a proposal that a person who has consumed alcohol should not drive a vehicle at all."
The National Drug Master Plan (2013-17) will be presented to the Cabinet for approval before the end of the month.
In his speech, Democratic Alliance spokesman on social development Mike Waters called for the immediate closure of the National Development Agency, which he said was a complete waste of money. Of its budget of R171.7m, a "staggering" R64.8m was spent on salaries.
"Once you have paid the fat-cat salaries, board expenses and bought new furniture, we are left with 35%, or R59,7m, for actual projects. Only one in every R3 goes towards a project."
Mr Waters said the social development department faced a management crisis that was affecting its functioning. Six of the eight top management positions were vacant, including seven deputy director-general posts.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Linda Enso
Quelle/Source: Business Day, 09.05.2013
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