AfricanBrains

Hundreds of SA orphanages get ‘the nice one’

Thandisizwe Mgudlwa December 10, 2012 Featured, Humanitarian Comments Offon Hundreds of SA orphanages get ‘the nice one’

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By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

At least 900 local orphanages will receive 100 000 Santa Shoe Box gifts for the festive period of 2012.

The Santa Shoebox Project, with its vision of people connecting through the ‘Joy of Giving’, once again reached its goal this year, collecting just under 100 000 (99 470) gifts for children at over 900 orphanages, crèches and care centres across the country – thanks to the support of thousands of individuals, schools and members of the business sector.

And the emphasis this year was on extending the Santa Shoebox support network to small towns and farming communities in the country.

According to National Coordinator Irene Pieters, 70% of the new facilities added to the distribution network this year, are based in the outlying areas of cities and towns across South Africa.

Some of the major sponsors this year included the likes of Laser Logistics, PEP, Aspire Solutions, Bulk SMS, Fairheads Trust, Mpact, and KingJames to name a few, as well as Fivestar PR, the agency that provides Public Relations services for the project on a pro bono basis.

“The 2012 project will end off on a high note at the end of November, when the final Santa Shoebox Celebrations take place at homes and care centres in each of the nine provinces, making thousands of little hearts beat faster with joy.

Now Pieters and her team are looking ahead to 2013, and will be focusing on expanding their support to include even more centres and schools in the rural areas, where many children have never before received a gift at Christmas time.

Pieters adds, “We are blessed to be supported by so many thousands of people, who made this years target possible. Recognition and heartfelt thanks is also due to the dedicated volunteer co-ordinators in each area, who work alongside us to make the project a success each year. We simply couldn’t do it without them”.

Also, with ‘share the joy of giving’ as the essence of the project, the Santa Shoebox Project offers people from all walks of life the chance to participate in a profoundly valuable and personal experience, enriching the lives of those doing the giving and those on the receiving end.

“Donors are encouraged to involve their own children in the process of personally selecting a child from one of the centres or homes, and putting together his or her individualized, age appropriate Santa Shoebox gift. Uniquely, this means each participant knows the first name, age, gender and care institution of the child, and it is this personal touch that endears the project to adults and children from all walks of life.

To Register online as a donor now to receive newsletters and 2013 notifications: www.santashoebox.org.za

SA News

The Batho Pele principles

The Batho Pele (“People First”) principles are aligned to the Constitution – know the service you’re entitled to. Government officials must follow the “Batho Pele” principles which require public servants to be polite, open and transparent and to deliver good service to the public.

1. Consultation
Citizens should be consulted about the level and quality of the public services they receive and, wherever possible, should be given a choice about the services that are offered.

2. Service standards
Citizens should be told what level and quality of public service they will receive so that they are aware of what to expect. 

3. Access
All citizens should have equal access to the services to which they are entitled. 

4. Courtesy
Citizens should be treated with courtesy and consideration. 

5. Information
Citizens should be given full accurate information about the public services they are entitled to receive.

6. Openness and transparency
Citizens should be told how national and provincial departments are run, how much they cost and who is in charge.

7. Redress
If the promised standard of service is not delivered, citizens should be offered an apology, a full explanation and a speedy and effective remedy; and when complaints are made, citizens should receive a sympathetic, positive response.

8. Value for money
Public services should be provided economically and efficiently in order to give citizens the best possible value for money.

SA News

Batho Pele

Know your service rights campaign

The Branch Research and Analysis officially launched the Public Service Research Forum (PSFR) on 28 November 2014 at St Georges Hotel in Pretoria. The launch was attended by Senior Managers who are dealing with research from National Departments, Offices of the Premier as well as Research Institutions. The purpose of the forum amongst other things is to create a platform and network for engagement around the research agenda of sector departments and provinces in responding to the priorities of the National Development Plan and the Medium Term Strategic Framework.

Ms Colette Clark, the Deputy Director-General at Research and Analysis Branch made a presentation on the overview of the draft Public Service Research Strategy. Moreover, the Launch was marked by very informative presentations from officials of various organisations such as Productivity SA, National School of Government, Centre for Public Service Innovation, Human Science Research Council, Government Technical Advisory Centre, Statistics South Africa and Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. The presenters provided numerous research related projects that are currently being undertaken in their respective organisations. Also they presented on how the organisations could better collaborate with other departments in order to leverage on the available research.

As a way forward, the delegates welcomed the Launch and mandated DPSA to form a represented Working Group to take forward to inter alia further investigate the following:

• The PSRF Terms of Reference.
• The establishment of a public service research journal as a vital tool to ensure the capturing and sharing of knowledge.
• The establishment of research portal or repository to ensure access to different types of research in the public service.
• The hosting of an annual conference where public servants could present their papers and cases studies.

Presentations

• Democracy, Governance and Service delivery - Narnia Bohler-Muller, Deputy Executive Director
• CSIR Built Environment
• Evidence based planning, processes and practices - research strategy to measure what matters for decision making within the public service
• Research and Innovation - Prof Thean Potgieter: National School of Government
• Research and Innovation - Mr Pierre Schoonraad, Chief Director: Research and Development : CPSI
• DPME’s role re evidence, including research - Dr Ian Goldman, Head: Evaluation and Research: DPME

Links of strategic partners:

• www.cpsi.gov.za
• www.palama.gov.za
• www.statssa.gov.za
• www.thepresidency.gov.za
• www.hsrc.ac.za
• www.csir.co.za

Contact details

For further information please contact us on 012 336 1424

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Last update: 26 January 2015

SA News

The New Growth Path

The New Growth Path framework

Government, under the leadership of Minister Ebrahim Patel, on 23 November 2010 released the Framework of the New Economic Growth Path aimed at enhancing growth, employment creation and equity. The policy’s principal target is to create five million jobs over the next 10 years. This framework reflects government’s commitment to prioritising employment creation in all economic policies. It identifies strategies that will enable South Africa to grow in a more equitable and inclusive manner while attaining South Africa’s developmental agenda.

Central to the New Growth Path is a massive investment in infrastructure as a critical driver of jobs across the economy.

• The framework identifies investments in five key areas namely: energy, transport, communication, water and housing. Sustaining high levels of public investment in these areas will create jobs in construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure.
• The new growth path sees the infrastructure programme as a trigger to build a local supplier industry for the manufacture of the components for the build-programme.
• Specific measures, particularly changes to procurement policy and regulations, are identified to ensure that this is achieved. Risks include the still fragile global recovery; competition and collaboration with the new fast-growing economies; and competing interests domestically.

The New Growth Path identifies five other priority areas as part of the programme to create jobs, through a series of partnerships between the State and the private sector.

• Green economy: expansions in construction and the production of technologies for solar, wind and biofuels is supported by the draft Energy on Integrated Resource Plan. Clean manufacturing and environmental services are projected to create 300 000 jobs over the next decade.
• Agriculture: jobs will be created by addressing the high input costs and upscaling processing and export marketing. Support for small holders will include access to key inputs. Government will explore ways to improve working and living conditions for the country’s 660 000 farm workers. The growth path also commits the Government to unblocking stalled land transfers, which constrain new investment.
• Mining: calls for increased mineral extraction and improving infrastructure and skills development. It focuses support for beneficiation on the final manufacture of consumer and capital goods, which can create large-scale employment. It foresees the establishment of a state mining company concentrating on beneficiation and enhanced resource exploitation in competition with a strong private mining sector.
• Manufacturing: calls for re-industrialisation in the South African economy based on improving performance through innovation, skills development and reduced input costs in the economy. The document targets a doubling of South Africa’s research and development investment to 2% of gross domestic product by 2018.
• Tourism and other high-level services: hold employment potential and the framework calls for South Africa to position itself as the higher education hub of the African continent.

Smarter coordination between government and stronger partnerships with the private sector and organised labour will galvanise our resources in achieving the aims of the New Growth Path.

• Government calls on every South African to contribute to building our nation over the coming 20 years to ensure a collective effort, creativity and solidarity.
• Good leadership and strong governance are critical in ensuring that South Africa takes charge of the new opportunities. Government commits to cut wasteful spending, tackle corruption and align the allocation of public money with developmental priorities.
• Government recognises that job targets can only be achieved if the State performs better and if the private sector grows in labour-absorbing parts of the economy.
• The New Growth Path identifies measures to strengthen the capacity of the state and enhance the performance of the private sector to achieve employment and growth goals.

The New Growth Path proposes major improvements in government, with a call for slashing unnecessary red tape, improving competition in the economy and stepping up skills development.

• The role of government departments and agencies in meeting set targets for scarce and key skills is critical. This emphasis on skills applies across the economy and will be a centrepiece of partnership with business and labour.
• Key targets include the aim to produce 30 000 engineers by 2014, with a focus on Mathematics and Science as well as changes to university funding formulae to achieve this, and 50 000 artisans by 2015, with annual targets for Eskom and Transnet and for individual Sector Education and Training Authority institutions to achieve this.
• The document calls for greater focus on workplace training, targeting on-the-job training and refresher programmes for 10% of the workforce every year.
• It also calls for measures to make it easier to import scarce skills by streamlining the work permit and visa system. This will be accompanied by a skills transfer programme to ensure that local skills development is enhanced.

The framework identifies a “development package” – a coordinated set of actions across a broad front, this consists of macroeconomic strategies, microeconomic measures and stakeholder commitments to drive employment and economic growth.

• The document recognises the challenges of an uncompetitive currency and sets out clear steps for government to address the impact of the Rand on the economy.
• In expanding on government’s tools to address inflation, a stronger role will be considered for competition policy and strategic investigations into conduct leading to high and volatile prices for intermediate inputs for producers and basic consumer goods, including important commodities such as maize, steel and fertilisers.
• Government calls for greater focus by South African business on opportunities in Africa’s fast-growing economies. This is accompanied by commitments to improve cross-border infrastructure and measures to address unnecessary regulatory obstacles to the movement of people and goods, as part of building a common market on the continent.

SA News

Community Development Workers (CDW) programme is a bridge between government and communities

27 Oct 2009

The Deputy Minister of Public Service and Administration Roy Padayachie has called for greater coordination and synergy between Community Development Workers (CDWs), provincial government departments and municipalities.

Speaking at the Gauteng Provincial Summit on the CDW policy development process in Mogale City on Monday, 26 October 2009, Minister Padayachie told delegates that the CDW programme was conceived from the idea of ensuring that citizens access government services and information.

He said the deliverables of the CDW programme should be aligned with the priorities set out in the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MSTF) (2009 to 2014).

“Its central objective is to set the country on a higher and sustainable growth trajectory by the end of 2014 with an expanded and more diversified economic base, with unemployment and poverty being halved and with greater equity and social cohesion,” the Deputy Minister said.

He said the conceptualisation of the CDW programme was motivated amongst others, by the Poverty Inequality Report (1997) and the Participatory Poverty Assessment (1998) into poverty levels in South Africa which showed that 70 percent of the poorest members of the population were unable to access programmes and other government services.

“Central to the CDW programme was priority area number ten of the MTSF, which aims to strengthen the capacity of the state to enable it to improve delivery and quality public services; to build partnerships with society for equitable development and to strengthen democratic institutions; and to promote a culture of transparent, honest and compassionate public service.

“The CDW programme seeks to improve the dissemination of information to the poor about benefits and services to which all citizens are entitled; assist the poor to access and benefit from the services that could materially improve their lives; and provide an interface or bridge between municipalities and communities to enhance the existing local government structures so as to improve the level of participation between communities and the Integrated Development Plans, Urban Renewal Projects and Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programmes,” the deputy minister said.

“The provision of government service and the effective utilization of service delivery by the poor and disadvantaged as well as the achievement of an integrated service delivery remains one of government’s national priorities.

He said the government is aware of the service delivery challenges in our communities and acknowledged that the current service delivery protests were among other things an indication that more work still needed to be done to bridge the gap between communities and government.

“It is evident that lack of communication between communities and government on service delivery issues can result in unnecessary destruction of property and loss of lives, the revitalisation of the CDW programme is thus critical in this regard,” Minister Padayachie.

The Deputy Minister reiterated the sentiments shared by President of South Africa Jacob Zuma in his inauguration address.

“In his 2009 State of the Nation Address, President Zuma committed government to speeding up service delivery. He further made a call for an inclusive society to do more in terms of realising a better life for all.

“Through policy, there will be a re-design of the programme to promote a high standard of professionalism for community development workers and those involved in the programme,” he said

Putting the Gauteng CDW Programme in perspective, Chief Director CDW and Public Participation Jackie Lamola said much progress has been made since the launch of the programme in 2005.

The achievements include, among others to; inform communities about problems in the delivery of basic services; help with the implementation projects; liaise with and advocate on behalf of communities with parastatals, monitor, evaluate and report on the impact of developmental projects; intensify education and awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and other health related matters.

Lamola cited challenges faced by the CDW as Ensuring that matters brought to the attention of the different spheres of government and different government departments by CDWs are responded to in a more speedily and efficient way in relation to service delivery blockages etc; ensuring that CDWs have the necessary support by all spheres of government; ensuring an effective intergovernmental relations with all spheres of government in relation to the CDW Programme.

The summit consulted various stakeholders including councillors, non-governmental organisation, community based organisations, faith-based organisations that have a working relationship with CDWs.

The consolidated policy document will be presented at a National Summit in December 2009.

SA News

Statement by the Minister for Social Development, Ms Bathabile Dlamini, at the Project Mikondzo media briefing

1 Sep 2013

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, thank you for joining us today.

In the past two years the Department of Social Development has undertaken various outreach programmes, including Social Development Month (during October) and Taking the Department of Social Development to the people. Through our outreach programmes we have been able to uncover many developmental problems in communities that contribute to the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality in our country.

Child and youth-headed households are of great concern because of the various problems the young people have to contend with as they struggle to survive without parents. It is not a normal situation for children to start being adults, by taking care of themselves and their siblings, at a young age. Many of them are abused by neighbours who take advantage of the fact that they have no older person looking after them.

As we have been visiting many parts of the country, we have found many children who are not taken care of, some because they have no one to take care of them, and some because of the dire circumstances of their families. Many of them suffer from malnutrition, others are abused.

Our violent past as a country continues to trouble us as we see the persistence of violent behaviour in our communities. Gender-based violence, violence against children, and bullying are still a great cause for concern in our communities.

The disintegration of the family unit is also a critical challenge that brings with it many social ills. Many of our children drop out of school and young girls fall pregnant because the family has disintegrated. There is no doubt that alcohol and substance abuse contribute immensely to these problems.

Loan sharks continue to abuse and take advantage of our people, especially the elderly who depend on government grants for their livelihoods. Through the dialogues we held with children and youth from child-headed households in May, we also learned that they do not know how appropriately their social assistance is used. 

This creates a fertile ground for loan sharks and poses a challenge to us as government. We believe that government and civil society has to offer further education to our grant recipients on the appropriate use of grants.

While others want us to help them use their grants appropriately, some collect grants just to abuse them. We have uncovered many examples of young women who receive the child support grant on behalf of children when they don’t live with the children nor provide for them.

Our approach to these challenges, ladies and gentlemen, must be a holistic one linking our welfare services, social assistance and integrated development. The beneficiaries who enter our system through welfare services and move on to receive social assistance, must eventually be in a position to stand on their own through our integrated development services.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We realise that, despite the achievements since 1994, more still needs to be done to improve the lives of all South Africans. We are committed to continuously improving the way we deliver services to the people of South Africa through proper monitoring and evaluation and direct interaction with municipalities and local stakeholders. 

The department is continuously reviewing its service delivery model in order to meet the changing developmental needs of all South Africans, especially the vulnerable groups, including children and youth, older persons, and people living with disabilities. We recognise the need to build partnerships with all sectors of society for the advancement of development.

It is for these reasons that we announce the roll out of our new service delivery improvement strategy, Project Mikondzo a Xitsonga word meaning, “footprints”. This is an indication that we want to increase our footprint and reach every corner of South Africans we haven’t been able to reach before with our services. We do this to improve our responsiveness to the needs of our people and break down the structural barriers created by apartheid that placed government far from people.

The key objective of Project Mikondzo is to improve and extend the reach of the services that the department and its entities, SASSA and the NDA provide to South Africans at a community level. We will focus on South Africans living in poverty, the marginalised and the vulnerable who are the primary targets and recipients of social development services. The geographic location and population concentration of South Africans living in poverty is largely in the former homeland areas.

This service delivery improvement strategy will therefore be targeted at the one thousand three hundred (1300) poorest wards, which are part of the 23 District Municipalities identified by Cabinet for prioritisation. The municipalities identified face many of the challenges we have outlined above and other service delivery challenges. This provides the department with an opportunity to strengthen and improve the impact of its policies and programmes.

The service delivery improvements we want to introduce will be informed by our engagements with provincial and municipal authorities, councillors, ward committees and social workers who will provide us with first-hand information about the situation on the ground in their various areas.

We will set up a command centre with a 24/7 toll-free helpline through which communities can report difficult service delivery matters. Project Mikondzo will also pay attention to strengthening civil society organisations, through the NDA, to help us deal with the challenges of food security, early childhood development, gender-based violence, and capacity building of NGOs. We must ensure the availability and accessibility of facilities that assist vulnerable groups.

Access to Early Childhood Development Services is at the top of our agenda. The ANC’s 53rd National Conference resolved that the first one thousand (1000) days of the child’s life up to the age of four must be prioritised and called for universal access for at least four (4) years of Early Childhood Development. The conference further stressed that Early Childhood Development must be made a public good.

There are plans in place to ensure that all Early Childhood Development Centres are registered and early childhood practitioners appropriately trained. Programmes for parental training are also on the pipeline.

Further to improve the provisioning of Early Childhood Development services, the Department of Social Development has begun an audit of early childhood development centres to obtain information on the nature and extent of early childhood development provisioning, services, resources and infrastructure in order to inform and support ongoing policy and planning initiatives. 

The audit began in the Northern Cape on 19 August. The Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State will be audited during September; followed by the North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo in October; and conclude in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in November.

The success of Project Mikondzo will therefore be measured by the accessibility of the department and its entities to the people. Our teams have already entered the Mpumalanga province through the Social Cluster of that province. In Limpopo we have entered the Elias Motswaledi District Municipality; the Amathole, O.R. Tambo and Alfred Nzo District Municipalities in the Eastern Cape; and the West Rand Municipality in Gauteng.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In order for this initiative to produce the required results, we need the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders, especially the public. The enabling factors for our success is cooperation between stakeholders, more importantly communities, community based organisations and non-governmental organisations. 

We have been able to achieve more in areas where there are functional community structures. We have not been successful in areas where communities are not actively involved in their own development initiatives. These are areas where local government structures such as Municipalities, Ward Committees are not so supportive or strong in advocating for the social development cause. 

We also call on you, the members of the media, to partner with us by bringing to our attention any matters of concern regarding service delivery that you encounter as you go about your work of holding us accountable so that the necessary interventions can be brought about. I am sure many of us saw Cutting Edge this past Thursday when it broadcasted a very heart-breaking story of an elderly woman who has to look after a bed-ridden autistic child. 

Project Mikondzo is about identifying such desperate cases and putting our resources into action so that no South African has to live under those circumstances. We therefore call upon our communities and all other stakeholders to cooperate with us in this initiative as we identify service delivery gaps and devise ways to take us further into the second phase of our democratic transition.

Working together we can do more!

Thank you!

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