The Department of Social Development is responsible for developing and monitoring the implementation of social policy that both creates an enabling environment for, and leads to the reduction in, poverty. The Department ensures the provision of social protection and social-welfare services to all South Africans. It works in partnership with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs), the business sector, organised labour and other role-players in the spirit of batho pele.
The Department provides implementation support to the provincial Departments of Social Development, and monitors and evaluates the range of social-development programmes. Responsibility for most of the service delivery rests with provincial Departments.
There has been a substantial increase in the social development budget from R19,4 billion in 1999/00 to R31,2 billion in 2002/03.
Restoring the ethics of care and human development in all welfare programmes. This includes the rebuilding of family, community and social relations to promote social integration.
By September 2003, about 6,5 million people were receiving social grants at a cost of about R2,5 million per month. Of these about two million were recipients of Old-Age Grants.
Developing and implementing an integrated poverty-eradication strategy that provides direct benefits for those who are in need, within a sustainable development approach.
Developing a comprehensive socialsecurity system that links contributory and non-contributory schemes, prioritising the most vulnerable households.
Responding to the brutal effects of all forms of violence against women and children, including strategies to deal with perpetrators.
Providing a range of services to support community-based care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as those affected, such as AIDS orphans.
Developing a national strategy to reduce youth criminality and unemployment within the framework of the National Crime Prevention Strategy.
Making social-welfare services accessible and available to people in rural, peri-urban and informal settlements, as well as ensuring equity in service provision.
Redesigning services for people with disabilities to promote their human rights and economic development.
Basing welfare work on a commitment to co-operative governance that includes working with different spheres of government and civil society.
Training, educating, redeploying and employing a new category of workers relevant to addressing the development challenges of South Africa.
Recent years have seen significant progress in developing and strengthening the system of social grants (government's key instrument for direct poverty relief), expanding the social safety net, as well as improving administration. In addition, since 1998/99 there has been a progressive shift from the traditional welfare model to a social-development model, placing more emphasis on addressing the structural causes of poverty and responding to their social manifestations.
The Department of Social Development has surpassed the target of registering three million children for the Child Support Grant (CSG) by April 2004. By 31 July 2003, some 3,4 million children had been registered.
The administration of social security has been rationalised with the introduction of assessment panels for Disability Grants, the simplification of the review of eligibility, and the removal of the three-month limitation on arrear payments to beneficiaries.
Norms and standards for social-grant delivery have been developed and planning is under way for its phased implementation over a three-year period.
Developing new policy in line with the recommendations of the Ministerial Committee on the Abuse, Neglect and Ill-treatment of Older Persons, adopted by the Cabinet in February 2001.
Revising the financing subsidies for welfare organisations.
Establishing the Advisory Board on Social Development to advise the Minister on a range of social-development issues and serve as a consultative mechanism.
The implementation of the National Integrated Plan for Children Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS, focusing on home-and community-based care initiatives, which started in 2000 in partnership with the Department of Health, is gathering momentum.
The investigation by the Ministerial Committee on the Abuse, Neglect and Ill-Treatment of Older Persons revealed an alarming level of abuse, neglect and ill-treatment of the elderly by families, institutions and government services. The Cabinet adopted the recommendations of the Committee and implementation of these recommendations is in progress.
significantly improving social-assistance service delivery to older persons accelerating the transformation of residential homes for older persons increasing the support for community-based care and non-residential services to older persons introducing new legislation that complies with the Constitution, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996), and with the international conventions on the rights of older persons.
The Older Persons Bill was adopted for submission to Parliament in July 2003.
The Bill strives to maintain and increase the capacity of older persons to support themselves and contribute to the well-being of those around them.
maintain and promote the status, well-being, safety and security of older persons maintain and protect the rights of older persons as recipients of services regulate the registration of facilities for older persons combat the abuse of older persons.
The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) is drafting new comprehensive child-care legislation to replace the Child Care Act, 1983 (Act 74 of 1983), which is inconsistent with the Constitution and the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
On 7 December 2002, the SALRC approved the report and draft Child Care Bill in its investigation into the Review of the Child Care Act, 1983, concluding an investigation that commenced in 1997.
childhood begins at birth the age of majority be lowered to 18 years of age more than one (even more than two) persons be allowed to acquire and manage parental rights and responsibilities, or components thereof, in respect of the same child at the same time mothers and married fathers be accorded such parental rights and responsibilities automatically, while some unmarried fathers and other persons will have to apply to court to acquire such rights and responsibilities a Child and Family Court be established at regional court level a register of persons unsuitable to working with children be created children of all ages be provided with confidential access to condoms the common law defence to reasonable chastisement be repealed municipalities establish and administer child- and youth-care centres child-headed households be recognised by law a child grant be payable on a universal basis in respect of all children in need of care and protection.
The aim of the Social Assistance Bill is to provide for the rendering of social assistance to persons, the mechanisms for the rendering of such assistance, the establishment of an inspectorate for social assist-ance, and matters connected therewith.
The Portfolio Committee on Social Development held public hearings on the Social Assistance Bill and the Social Security Agency Bill on 22 and 23 September 2003.
The proposed Social Assistance Bill will provide for the establishment of the National Social Security Agency which will help to improve the administration and delivery of social grants. Through the amendment of the Social Assistance Bill, the Department of Social Development seeks to ensure easier access to government services with regard to the provision of social assistance to individuals and families that are in dire need.
In July 2003, the Cabinet approved the process of establishing the National Social Security Agency.
The Regulations for Social Assistance were amended to relax conditions that impeded easy access to grants and to promote administrative justice.
The removal of the pensions medical officer for the approval of Disability and Care Dependency Grants, and the introduction of panels to assess applicants for these Grants, in terms of both medical and social factors.
The payment of grants, if approved, accrues from the date of application for all grant types except for the Foster Care Grant, in which case accrual begins from the date of the court order.
The review of grants has been streamlined. Only applicants who declare their means of income at the time of the application are required to have an annual review of their grant. Those who have no means are only required to submit a life certificate on an annual basis to verify that they are alive. Those who collect their grants through biometrics and have no means are neither required to submit life certificates nor to have their grants reviewed.
Previously, the Care Dependency Grant was only available to parents and foster parents of children. It is now also available to custodians and guardians. Personal income has replaced household income as the meanstest indicator, thus increasing the income exclusion level for applicants.
More than four million social grants were paid in March 2002 to means-tested recipients in certain categories of older persons, persons with disabilities, and families with children. These payments have been relatively effective in reaching the rural poor, a group which is difficult to reach with other government services and programmes.
By September 2003, about 6,5 million people received social grants at a cost of about R2,5 billion per month. Of these, 3,8 million received the CSG and about two million, Old-Age Grants.
The CSG, which was introduced in March 1998 to widen the safety net, continues to increase its take-up rate. In the first year of the CSG's implementation, there were just over 58 000 children receiving payment. By July 2003, this had increased to 3,4 million children. The aim of government is to register all children eligible for CSGs by 2005.
With the registration of over three million children, each child receiving R160, the Government is spending over R480 million per month. More than half of unregistered children and eligible people are in the poorest provinces, namely Free State, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
In his State of the Nation Address in February 2003, President Thabo Mbeki announced that the age of children eligible for the CSG would be progressively increased to include children up to the age of 14 years.
The increase will be implemented in phases over the next three years. During the 2003/04 financial year, the focus was on ensuring that all children between the ages of seven and nine were registered, while during 2004/05, children between the ages of nine and 12 years will be registered. Beneficiaries between 12 and 14 years are expected to be registered in 2005/06.
Government has set aside R11 billion for the age extensions, which will result in an additional 3,2 million children receiving the CSG.
A further large proportion of the beneficiaries of social grants are the elderly. Women qualify at the age of 60 years and men at the age of 65.
The Disability Grant is paid to people who have been assessed as permanently or temporarily disabled.
Foster Care Grants are paid to caregivers of children who have been placed with them by the courts. Caregivers of disabled children up to the age of 18 years are eligible for the Care Dependency Grant. Once the child turns 18 years, he or she is eligible for the Disability Grant.
The total budget allocation for the payment of social assistance by the provincial Departments of Social Development was R21,4 billion for 2001/02 and this was expected to reach R25,2 billion in 2002/03.
Other grants provided by the Department of Social Development include the War Veterans Grant and Grant-in-Aid.
increasing the amounts of all types of grants above the inflation rate as a form of poverty alleviation increasing the eligibility age of the CSG to 14 years over the next three years as a way of progressively realising and prioritising children's socio-economic rights as enshrined in the Constitution implementing programmes to ensure easy access to grants, including improved communication and reaching out to communities improving the administration of grants (intensification of the Implementation of Norms and Standards).
In addition to the provision of social assistance, the Department also manages the Poverty-Relief Programme. This Programme is funded through a special allocation from the Poverty-Relief, Infrastructure and Job Creation Fund of the National Treasury and aims to assist communities in a range of developmental projects.
The Programme entrusts State resources to communities to undertake and dictate development for themselves by themselves.
Steady progress is being made with the Poverty-Relief Programme.
Since 1997, the Department has administered more than R563 million, providing support to over 3 600 community-based projects.
Most of the projects are located in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.
The Poverty-Relief Programme targets vulnerable groups, namely women, children, youth, the elderly and people with disabilities. Over a three-year period, it is estimated that 60 000 people would have earned wages generated through poverty-relief projects. For the coming years, the Department has prioritised the areas of food security, centres for engaging older persons in economic activities, support for community-based initiatives in the area of HIV/AIDS, youth-skills development in the context of urban renewal, economic empowerment of women, support for initiatives that integrate the capacities of persons with disabilities into the Poverty-Relief Programme, and income-generating projects.
The feeding of children, through the Poverty-Relief Programme, particularly orphans and those people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, is growing.
One of the projects is the Carol Shaw Memorial Project based in Zuurbekom, west of Johannesburg.
Communities are also using poverty-relief funds to generate income, by selling surplus produce from their food projects, such as the Skills Dynamic Project based in Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, which feeds poor families in the area and sells eggs from its poultry project.
The Nyumba Ya Kwethu Youth and Children's Project takes care of orphaned children of former South African exiles.
In February 2003, the Minister of Social Development commended the Inyosi Bee-Keeping Poverty-Relief Project in the Eastern Cape for receiving the Mpumelelo Trust Award.
The Award is given to organisations for creating jobs and improving the lives of poor rural communities, especially women.
The Project focuses on bee-keeping and the production of wax products and has created employment for over 500 people from poor communities. The Project received R2,4 million from the Department during the 2002/03 financial year.
During 2003, a total of R71 million was allocated to the Department of Social Development for poverty relief, targeting mostly unemployed women and the youth in especially rural areas.
In order to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on the poorest of the poor, the Department disbursed R65 million to support communityand home-based care programmes during 2003.
Government is committed to focusing more on social spending to further push back the frontiers of poverty and advance the cause of building a better life for all.
In October 2002, the Cabinet allocated R400 million to counteract soaring food prices, famine and food insecurity in South Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
Some R170 million was sent to the World Food Programme to assist neighbouring countries devastated by famine.
The larger portion of the allocation, R230 million, was used for the Food Emergency Scheme that was benefiting over 240 000 poor households by July 2003. Families without an income and those who spent a maximum of R200 per month on food and basic household essentials received food parcels.
The focus is shifting towards more sustainable ways, such as food production through the provision of starter packs, registration for social grants, linking families and communities to the income-generation programmes of government and the private sector, training and capacity-building, studying the lessons of the pilot and its costs, and escalating beyond the pilot phase.
These would further enhance the realisation of the Millennium Declaration Goals and the goals of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to have reduced poverty by half in 2015.
In 2003, government committed R1,2 billion to finance the Scheme over the next three years.
providing food parcels as emergency food relief to poor households, especially those headed by children linking eligible persons from these households and communities to social assistance and social security enhancing better nutrition among the vulnerable sectors of society ensuring that vulnerable children, especially orphans, are linked to the School Nutrition Programme protecting the poorest households from surging food prices by enhancing the capacity of communities and households to provide for themselves enhancing partnerships and co-operative governance in the fight against hunger and poverty.
The Scheme forms part of government's Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme (IFSNP).
Development of comprehensive foodproduction and trade schemes to enhance the capacity of communities to produce food for themselves through the setting up of both household and communal food gardens.
Initiation of a community-development scheme aimed at providing employment to local communities through communitybased and community-owned public works programmes. This involves the setting up of community-based income-generating projects and activities to ensure sustainable food security.
Development of a nutrition and food programme that focuses primarily on the improvement of nutrition levels in communities, to ensure that every child has at least one nutritious meal a day.
Development of a fully funded communication strategy to ensure the maintenance of government's communication lines with all of its people.
Building of a safety net and Food Emergency Scheme to ensure that the poorest families, especially children and child-headed households, have food on the table.
The national Department of Social Development has developed a social-development framework for an integrated and co-ordinated response to HIV/AIDS. The framework includes sourcing reliable research and information; the provision of social protection to those infected and affected, especially children; protection of children's rights; provision of services; special programmes such as the Home-Based/Community-Based Care Programme; empowerment of women; and the capacitating of officials to deal with HIV/AIDS. The Department's response to HIV/AIDS is underpinned by working in partnership with other government departments, NGOs, community-based organisations (CBOs), FBOs, the business sector, volunteers and international agencies.
The Department received an allocation of R65,9 million for HIV/AIDS programmes in 2003.
During 2003, the Department focused on strengthening home- and community-based care, with the emphasis on child-headed households and strengthening partnerships with NGOs, FBOs, CBOs and civil-society structures. By mid-2003, some 300 centres, supporting 75 000 children and their families, had been established through this programme.
In February 2003, the Minister of Social Development addressed representatives from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from across the southern African region on HIV/AIDS, and poverty and population issues affecting the region, at a five-day Southern African Region Cluster meeting held in Cape Town.
The Minister announced that the R72 million injected by the UNFPA would be used to support government in reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS, strengthening integrated ruraldevelopment programmes and promoting best practices through regional integration.
reproductive health and rights advocacy and the mobilisation of resources strengthening population and development capacity. The Programme will target developments in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.
On 9 October 2003, the Minister visited several HIV/AIDS projects caring for children around Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, to assess the needs and services rendered by government. These projects are taking care of about 300 children affected by HIV/AIDS and those who have been abandoned.
During their meeting on 15 August 2003, the Minister of Social Development and the provincial members of executive councils (MECs) for Social Development (MINMEC) committed themselves to fully supporting the Cabinet's decision on the roll-out of antiretroviral treatment.
A task team was subsequently set up to study the implications of the decision and advise the Minister accordingly.
The Department is implementing the Home-Based/Community-Based Care Programme in conjunction with the Departments of Health and of Education. The integrated Programme provides life skills for children and youths, voluntary testing and counselling services, and a range of care and support services focusing on families and children orphaned through the AIDS-related death of their parents. There has been significant progress with regard to the initial implementation of home-and community-based care and support.
Nutritional care and support guidelines for people living with HIV and AIDS have been developed and distributed, together with national guidelines on home-and community-based care.
Government increased its budget on the conditional grant allocation for home- and community-based care from R28 million in 1999 to R180 million in 2003.
Besides this massive conditional grant, NGO funding nationally has spent R7 million on home- and community-based care from a total NGO budget of R22 million which covers all other HIV and AIDS-related interventions that are provided by NGOs.
By August 2003, 10 000 caregivers had been trained in home-and community-based care. The number of home- and community-based care projects doubled from 466 in 2001 to 892 in August 2003.
Partnerships with international organisations, NGOs, CBOs, and FBOs in the fight against HIV and AIDS are being strengthened.
The Department of Social Development also supports a number of community-initiated care and support projects. With the increasing demand for these services by families and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, the Department will be expanding this project over the next three years. Special attention is being given to integrate the Home- and Community-Based Care and Support Programme into all programmes of the Department, nationally and provincially.
On 11 October 2003, the Traditional HIV/AIDS Home-Based Care (THABC) Project in Robega Village in Phokeng in the North West launched a Drop-In Centre and soup kitchen.
The Department of Social Development provided funds for the project, aimed at feeding children and poor families in the area.
Since 2001, the THABC has supplied about 60 families with food packages, made lunch boxes for about 50 scholars and cooked supper for about 130 orphans on a daily basis.
disbursed more than R65 million in 2003 to support Community- and Home-Based Care Programmes.
Of this, KwaZulu-Natal received the biggest allocation of R11,9 million, followed by Mpumalanga with R9,8 million, Gauteng with R9,6 million and the Free State with R9,2 million. The balance was allocated to the remaining provinces. The provincial Departments have established and supported more than 300 centres.
Services provided to children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS include the provision of food parcels and clothing, counselling, support, provision of day care and after school/drop-in centres, placement of children in foster and/or residential care, and addressing their education and health needs.
The Department spent R48 million during 2002/03 to ensure that children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS had access to services that included alternative care, social grants, counselling, food security, and protection from abuse and other forms of maltreatment.
The HIV/AIDS drop-in centres established by the Department of Social Development received a budget of R16,4 million in 2003/04. Each food parcel these centres provide costs about R300. The drop-in centres were identified through the HIV/AIDS database of Home- and Community-Based Care Centres. Each province has identified drop-in centres to be contracted to provide cooked meals to identified beneficiaries. These beneficiaries are classified as people who are not able to cook for themselves, e.g. as in the case of childheaded households.
The National Conference on Co-ordinated Action for Children Infected and Affected by HIV/AIDS was held in June 2002.
The Conference culminated in a plan of action to ensure that stakeholders, at all levels, work in a co-ordinated way to protect the rights of children who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and to ensure that the rights of children to food, shelter, social services and grants, education, health, counselling, alternative care, protection and non-discrimination are enhanced. This includes engaging in a national capacity-development process for communities to identify and care for orphans and other vulnerable children, to create a community, district, provincial and national database, and to track the process of accessing social grants and essential services. A Plan of Action to pursue these objectives has been developed.
The Department has developed an integrated and consolidated Five-Year National Social Development Strategic Plan which is being implemented in partnership with other stakeholders such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The Department, in collaboration with the South African Management Development Institute, has developed a curriculum for planners, analysts and researchers in the public sector (national, provincial and local governments) to develop a common basic understanding of the impact of HIV/AIDS on service delivery. The programme was launched in the second half of 2001 and is expected to reach 3 000 officials over a period of three years. The programme is being presented in all provinces and is run by universities across the country. Over 1 500 planners from all three spheres of government had attended the course by March 2003.
The first-ever Volunteer Conference was held from 5 to 7 September 2003 in Johannesburg.
Its aim was to form a co-ordination body for volunteering in South Africa.
voluntary work as an essential element of civic life and civic responsibility the role of the media in promoting volunteering partnerships in volunteering.
On 8 October 2003, the Department of Social Development and the UNFPA released the State of the World's Population Report 2003.
The report, with the theme Making One Billion Count: Investing in Adolescents' Health and Rights, aims to prepare and inform adolescents and youths on issues of poverty, inequality and HIV/AIDS.
The Report states that challenges facing South Africa include the improvement of gender practices, eradicating poverty, fighting crime, providing education, and combating sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
The Report aims to stimulate and generate public debate on the challenges and risks faced by adolescents. It finds that investing in young people yields generous returns for generations to come.
According to the Report, failure to invest in the youth perpetuates poverty, inequality, unsustainable population growth and HIV/AIDS. Young women are often worst affected. Expanding their opportunities and ensuring their reproductive health and rights, free from violence and discrimination, are critically important for sustainable human development.
Since 2000, the Department has strengthened its partnership with national and international organisations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Department chairs the National AIDS Children's Task Team (NACTT), a multisectoral task team focusing on the care and support of children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
UNICEF conducted studies on caring for vulnerable children and children orphaned through AIDS-related illnesses, as well as studies on the cost-effectiveness of six models of care for vulnerable children. The Department has implemented the results of the UNICEF studies in its design of programmes for children. UNICEF has indicated interest in providing further support to the Department in fast-tracking the Home-Based and Community-Based Care Programme.
This organisation provides secretariat and other assistance to the NACTT and has undertaken research on abused children and children affected by HIV/AIDS. It has compiled a directory of services and children's organisations.
The Department has strengthened its partnership with churches and other FBOs, the business sector, volunteer organisations and individuals to assist with the Poverty-Relief, HIV/AIDS and social-grant-registration programmes.
In addition to providing social assistance to children through the CSG and the Foster Care Grant, the Department facilitates the provision of services to children and youths through the provincial Departments of Social Development and NGOs.
representing South Africa in international social-service organisations.
The IJS Project ensures the integration of the management of cases and offenders through four departments, namely the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development, of Correctional Services and of Social Development, supported by enabling technologies. A number of projects have been initiated to this end. These include the Awaiting-Trial Prisoner Project.
Children awaiting trial in any residentialcare facility are a priority of the Department of Social Development. Active participation from the provincial social-service representatives and management teams has yielded positive results. An interdepartmental committee of senior officials monitors the cases of children awaiting trial.
The computerised Child-Protection Register has been developed, and technological improvements in the SAPS Crime Administration System enable the four Departments to track children through the System and assist in the monitoring of their cases. The Court Process Project provides for the electronic management of court processes from arrest to final court appearances. The Project is increasing efficiency and reducing court delays. The Department of Social Development runs six pilot sites.
Social-development services to women are another priority. This derives from the premise and concern that the inequality that exists between men and women in South Africa is deeply entrenched and has characterised South African society for many decades. Women are subject to discrimination, exploitation and violence despite the Constitution, which affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom. An unprecedented effort is therefore required to ensure that the status of women is elevated to protect their rights and speed up gender equality.
The Department established the Flagship Programme: Developmental Programmes for Unemployed Women with Children under Five Years. This provides economic and development opportunities and services to unemployed women with children under the age of five years, living in deep rural areas and previously disadvantaged informal settlements. Sixteen projects have been designed to create income that is distributed among the participating women.
The various projects include activities such as eating houses, overnight facilities, car washes, beauty salons, vegetable gardens, garment-making, poultry and egg production, bread-baking, leather works, offal-cleaning, child-minding and paper-and-fabric printing. Some 727 women and 646 children are benefiting from the Programme. The Flagship Programme has developed a creative form of early childhood intervention, which provides developmentally appropriate education to children younger than five to increase their chances of healthy growth and development.
A partnership between the Department and Transnet has led to the donation of old containers to communities in rural areas. These are repaired and refurbished for use by the communities as one-stop service centres or multi-purpose centres from which a range of services can be provided.
Three Social-Service Centres, housed in containers, were opened in the Northern Cape in February 2003.
The Centres, estimated to be worth more than R100 million, were provided by Transnet as part of a long-standing partnership with the provincial Department of Social Services and Population Development. The containers will serve the communities of the remote and underdeveloped Brandvlei, Galeshewe and Delportshoop, by providing services such as the registration of eligible persons for social grants, social work, poverty relief and capacitybuilding by NGOs.
By July 2003, 1 029 167 beneficiaries had received social assistance in the form of the Disability Grant. The Department also provides assistance to people with disabilities through the Poverty-Relief Programme and subsidies to national councils.
Cancer Association of South Africa. During 2000/01, the Department reviewed the procedures for assessing applicants for the Disability Grant and proposed amendments to the regulations of the Social Assistance Act, 1992 (Act 20 of 1992). The amendments provide for the use of community-based assessment panels as an alternative to district surgeons, who are not easily accessible to people in rural areas. The Committee of Inquiry into a Comprehensive Social Security System made recommendations to improve social protection for people with disabilities.
The VEP facilitates the establishment and integration of interdepartmental/intersectoral programmes and policies for the support, protection and empowerment of victims of crime and violence, with special focus on women and children.
It also ensures that the implementation of such programmes and policies is monitored and evaluated.
Some 120 projects have been established since the inception of the VEP in 1999. The projects provide trauma support and counselling services to the victims of violence and crime. Some of these projects focus on empowering community workers and professionals with skills and knowledge for the effective delivery of services to such victims.
One such meaningful project, which has been provided with technical and financial support through the VEP, is the Stop Abuse Help-Line of the Johannesburg Life Line.
Other organisations that are financially supported by the VEP include the National Network on Violence Against Women, the Ilitha Psychological Services NGO in Fort Hare, the Soshanguve Trauma Centre, University of South Africa's Department of Industrial Psychology, Themba Lesizwe NGO, and the Walk the Talk Challenge from Durban to Cape Town.
The VEP is a major component of the joint agreement between the Department of Social Development and the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, for the establishment of one-stop centres for women and children who are victims of abuse, especially domestic violence. Two such centres are already operating as pilot projects in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga.
The centres were handed over to the provincial Governments in September 2002 and February 2003, respectively, to ensure their sustainability.
The Interdepartmental Management Team (IDMT) comprises representatives from the Departments of Health, of Safety and Security, of Social Development, and the Sexual Offences and Community Affairs Unit of the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions. The IDMT was tasked by the Departments' Ministers to develop an anti-rape strategy for the prevention of sexual violence against women and children.
In March 2002, the Cabinet approved the strategic framework for an interdepartmental anti-rape strategy. The Justice and Crime Prevention Cluster and the Social Cluster Departments have begun to jointly implement the strategy.
The SAPS has also established partnerships with several other community-based role-players, including businesses. These links have improved the implementation of crimeprevention initiatives, e.g. the implementation of the Government's Anti-Rape Strategy.
The Non-Profit Directorate of the Department of Social Development registers organisations under the NPO Act, 1997 (Act 71 of 1997).
The primary purpose of the Act is to encourage and support organisations in a wider range of the work they do, by creating an enabling environment for NPOs to flourish, and setting and maintaining adequate standards of governance, accountability and transparency.
An NPO is defined as a trust, company or association of persons that has been established for public purpose and of which the income and property are not distributable to its members or office bearers except as reasonable compensation for services rendered.
This includes NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, Section 21 companies, trusts and any voluntary organisations.
The registration process to attain NPO status takes two months on average and is free of charge. The benefits of registration include improving the credibility of the sector, as NPOs can account to a public office and receive help in accessing benefits such as tax incentives and funding opportunities.
The NDA was transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Social Development in October 2001. It is a statutory development agency whose primary focus areas are to contribute towards the eradication of poverty and its causes, and to strengthen the capacity of civil-society organisations to combat poverty.
Its primary sources of income are an annual allocation from the Department of Social Development (R96 million in 2002/03 to over R103 million in 2003/04) and donor funding.
The Fund-Raising Act, 1978 (Act 107 of 1978), provides for relief boards to provide social relief to people in distress as a result of disasters or displacement from another country.
The Disaster Relief Board paid out R49,7 million to victims in the 2002/03 financial year and completed the processing of more than 19 000 claims from victims of the 2001 floods in the Western Cape.
Strategic and business plans have been developed specifically to facilitate the implementation of the South African National Drug Master Plan (NDMP) that was adopted by the Cabinet in 1999. The business plan takes cognisance of the basic proposals and priorities identified in the NDMP to counter the drug problem effectively, e.g. the need to comprehensively mobilise national and provincial departments towards taking account of drug-abuse issues in their activities and budgets, and to reduce the supply of and demand for drugs.
With regard to drug-demand reduction, various initiatives have been undertaken. For example, the launching of an ongoing national anti-drug awareness programme has been negotiated; information sheets have been developed and distributed; and numerous media interviews have been conducted on burning issues such as the decriminalisation of the use of dagga (cannabis).
With regard to drug-supply reduction, the CDA has, for example, approached members of the liquor industry in view of increasing self-regulation. Directly and indirectly, CDA members have participated in local efforts against drug syndicates, and in the efforts of the SADC, the African Union and international agencies in countering the drug problem on the African continent and abroad.
The groundwork has also been laid for the establishment of a national database on drug issues and a national clearing-house, specifically to ensure evidence-led future initiatives.
By March 2003, the CDA was planning to establish a national network of provincial and local drug forums in all nine provinces.
These will ensure good communication and the involvement of all stakeholders, including community members and grassroots organisations.
As part of the commemoration of the International Day Against Drug Abuse, the Minister of Social Development, together with the CDA and UN Office for Drug Control, launched the Ke Moja Anti-Drug Campaign in Cape Town on 24 June 2003. The Minister also gave a special address to Parliament on the impact of drugs in South African society, particularly on the youth.
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