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Children’s Sector’s ResponseTo The President’s Statement On the Child Support Grant14 February 2003 The Alliance for Children’s Entitlement to Social Security (ACESS) welcomes the announcement by the State President to progressively extend the Child Support Grant (CSG) to children up to the age of 14. This statement reflects an historic moment for the children of this country. The 380 member organizations of ACESS have been working and campaigning for an extension of this grant to all children for the past 5 years. The Child Support Grant was introduced in 1998, and since then has been limited to children under 7. Since 1998, the programme has reached 2, 6 million of South Africa’s 14,3 million poor children. When the grant was introduced there was a clear commitment by the State to progressively extend the cut off age beyond seven. It is now five years later and the first step to realising this commitment has finally been made today. Although we welcome the State President’s statement, we are concerned about the Minister of Social Development’s decision to progressively implement the extension over an effective three year period. We believe that it must happen now because children are in dire need NOW. The demand for immediate action is supported by the Constitutional obligation to provide social security for children. In addition, the Constitution obliges the State to go further than it has and extend the child support grant to all children up to the age of 18 years. This means government is under an obligation to reprioritise its budget and practices to ensure the immediate provision of social protection to all children in need. Government and civil society need to direct their energy to: § Establishing a clear and concise time frame for the implementation of the extension of the grant to 18. § Making explicit what each level of government is responsible for, in the roll out of the grant. If provincial government is to be held accountable for financing and implementing the extension then a clear message to this effect must be sent to provinces so that budgets and administrative plans can be adjusted accordingly. § Estimating the number of children age 7-14 in need of the grant and identifying where these children are - particularly those most urgently requiring it. (This exercise is crucial to facilitate the costing, budgeting, administrative and infrastructure development required for a rapid roll out of the grant to all in need). § Developing a model that identifies where and how administrative, infrastructure and financial capacity should be built to ensure rapid and cost effective implementation. ACESS has, and will continue to work in partnership with the Government to ensure that all children under the age of 14 get their child support grant. Through the recent grants awareness and empowerment campaign, Soul City, ACESS and the Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs was able to rapidly and effectively register many eligible children around the country for grants. At the same time, we call on the government to go further and extend the CSG to ALL children under the age of 18, as a first phase of a basic income grant. Besides cash grants as an essential foundation, government must also give effect to the constitutional rights of children to sufficient food and water, shelter, basic health care services, education and social services. In this regard, priority attention needs to be given to planning and putting in place a comprehensive system of social security that includes access to free education, free primary health care, free basic water and electricity. All children need the Child Support Grant now. ACESS for all. For more information contact:
Press Conference panel members: Mama Darlina Tyawana, New Women's Movement; Isobel Frye and Marcella Naidoo Black Sash; Sharon September, Grassroots Educare Centre; Teresa Guthrie and Zama Mvulane, Children's Institute; Denise Damon, Women on Farms Project; Solange Rosa, ACESS Advocacy Coordinator.
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