Background

Background and Overview of the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development

The functional responsibilities of the Department of Social Development in the Eastern Cape are defined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The executive Committee of the Eastern Cape assigned the above responsibilities to the Member of the Executive Committee for Social Development.

As an autonomous service delivery organ of the Eastern Cape Provincial Government, the then Department of Welfare was established in June 1997. However, it was not until the start of the financial year 1998/99 that the Department's service delivery processes were carried out through a dedicated welfare administrative mechanism.

Our mandate as the department of Social Development is to provide services to the vulnerable groups of society, the poorest of the poor, the marginalized and the disadvantaged groups. This is what sets the department of Social Development apart from other social service providers and other departments.

Our service goes further than just bringing services to these groups. The kinds of services we provide and the manner in which we deliver are critical aspects of our mandate. It is our brief to deliver on our mandate in a manner that will engage and empower communities to participate actively in the improvement of their quality of life so as to build their self-reliance, which is a pre-requisite to sustainable development.

Our delivery process is thus based on the thrust to shift from the “ Welfare” approach to social development. As a department we have identified the following vulnerable groups as targets for service delivery that is: children, women, youth, people with disabilities and the aged. It is for these groups that we make a clarion call for a “caring society.”

In line with this mandate the department has identified six priorities for the 2003 –2006 MTEF. These are also in line with the ten-point plan of the National Department for Social Development and the priorities of the Provincial Government. These are;

Transformation of Welfare Services:

This key performance area is focusing on the Implementation of the new financing policy which has as its target the shifting of our delivery model from the traditional welfare approach to social development, addressing the inequities in service delivery in the welfare field as well as transforming the way and the manner in which we deliver social services.

A scientific approach is being developed to design models, systems and processes that will facilitate the shift from traditional welfare to Social Development. The department is piloting a dedicated project supported by donors to focus on this historic shift. Central to this transformation is the implementation of the transformed child and youth care system and transformation of public service specifically the implementation of “ Batho Pele” principles. While our department is committed to the implementation of Developmental programs to youth in conflict with the law, youth unemployment and children in need of care and protection, we will also continue to lead in the implementation of the Moral regeneration program which attempts to mobilise communities to care for each other, improve social networks and facilitate family integration. We regard it as our call to revive the moral fibre of our society.

Integrated Poverty Eradication Programme:

This key performance area is central to a lot of strategic documents. The world summit on social development resolved to eradicate Poverty and the South African Government was a party to that commitment. The State of the Nation by the President of the Country, the Premier’s address to the Provincial Legislature and the Budget Speech by the Minister for Finance bears testimony to the commitment of the Government to deliver on this priority area. Our department is a lead department on poverty eradication.

Being the poorest province and having the first twenty poorest towns of this country in this province is yet another reason for our department to prioritise dealing with the “time-bomb” of poverty. This key performance area is linked to the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy. In addition to priority programmes such as food security, women’s co-operatives (income generation programmes), urban renewal, integration of HIV/AIDS infected and affected etc; this area is also concerned with community development facilitation. Capacity building of project participants and monitoring and evaluation of funded programmes will be key to this performance area to ensure Sustainable development.

Integrated Social Security System:

This key performance area emphasises access to safety nets in the form of social grants. It is key to the provision of basic needs such as food that has a direct impact on poverty eradication.

The department will be focusing on improvement of the administration of social grants, the implementation of norms and standards on social security system, and monitoring of the outsourced payments. The systems in social security will be improved to ensure that, there is sound basis for diversion of beneficiaries especially in areas of disability and child and family grants to social development. The performance of the provincial government nationwide has been measured against the performance on social grants and our efforts will focus on strengthening customer outreach programmes.

Special Development Areas:

This key performance area covers HIV/AIDS, age management, Victim Empowerment Programmes (VEP), disability management and prevention of substance abuse.

HIV/AIDS interventions will focus on both community based care as well as preventive programmes. Our target group is the infected and affected individuals especially orphans.

VEP programmes are based on the National Crime Prevention Strategy and our priority is creating awareness on domestic violence and to empower both victims and perpetrators.

On age management our department will be focusing on community based care, however, residential care in areas that have been marginalized will be considered while the existing old age homes will be undergoing transformation; on substance abuse our focus will be on preventative measures; finally disability management will emphasise mainstreaming of people with disabilities into developmental programmes.

Our department as an organ of the state realises that government cannot deliver alone and as such has a duty to mobilise volunteers in the spirit of “Letsima”or “Ilima” to continue to own the departmental programs and actively participate in their execution. The program of voluntarism is an inter-departmental program however as a lead department charged with a responsibility of coordinating this program, we shall focus on establishing volunteer centres for structured intervention by volunteers in governmental programs. Furthermore policy guidelines are being developed to assist in facilitating voluntarism while avoiding prescriptions around the voluntary program which should denote its definition.

District Development:

This area focuses on the improvement of access to social services. Access will not only entail physical proximity but will also embrace the twin concepts of ownership and participation of communities in planning and evaluation of services that are directed to them.

The development of physical infrastructure, technological infrastructure, the delegation of powers for decentralised decision making and co-operative governance will dominate intervention at this level in the next three years. The districts will develop and declare their service standards which are in line with both National and Provincial departments and deliver accordingly.

Improvement Of Management Systems:

This key performance area focuses on the establishment of management systems and processes that will enhance and support rather than hinder the delivery processes and the promotion of labour peace. Such management systems will be decentralised to the districts for effective decision-making and accelerated service delivery. The infrastructure that supports such systems will be strengthened so that the department is competing and operating within sound business standards.