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| from the acess desk Greetings to ACESS Members and friends of the Alliance. This is ACESS’s first update for 2002 and it provides information on activities that the Alliance has been working on since last year, in keeping with its mission to mobilise support for a comprehensive social security system for vulnerable children and their families. The update identifies a range of actions that your organisation, institution or community can take towards building a society which ensures that the constitutionally guaranteed right of every child in South Africa to social security can be brought into practice. contents
Just
under a year ago ACESS came into existence with a commitment to
building a broad based alliance of child rights activists and institutions Over the past several months ACESS has had an opportunity to refine its thoughts and recommendations based on the deliberations of that historic meeting in Cape Town in March 2001. ACESS’s “FIRST CALL FOR CHILDREN” makes two key recommendations -: 1st Recommendation: ACESS believes that an essential ingredient in the new social security system is the implementation of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) for all adults and children in South Africa. In such a system the state, via its taxation system, is able to reclaim from those households who do not require the grant and in this way the state avoids the situation of putting scarce resources in the hands of the better off in our society. More importantly such a system avoids the enormous and often wasteful costs of means testing and also ensures that all eligible people are able to access their grants. 2nd
Recommendation: It is acknowledged that to transform a
system requires careful and adequate planning and implementation.
This may take a considerable amount of time and the harsh reality
is that children and their families CANNOT WAIT.
The State has a Constitutional imperative [1] to provide social
security to children in need, as a matter of urgency. Currently,
the Child Support grant reaches only 7% of children in need, and Some of the key demands made by ACESS regarding the improvement and extension of the existing grant system for children are-:
ACESS now has a membership of over 65 organisations across South Africa. While that represents a very substantial grouping of concerned stakeholders, the ACESS network needs to be broadened even more, especially if we are to convince decision makers that the views espoused by ACESS have wide spread support.
1 Government of the RSA and others v. Grootboom & Others [2000(11) BCLR 1169(cc)]. child malnutrition in mt frere: the urgency of ensuring access to the child support grant and increasing social security provisions for all vulnerable household members It took a Special Assignment documentary programme in August 2001 on the links between childhood malnutrition and the difficulties experienced by primary caregivers in accessing the Child Support Grant to draw the attention of the Ministry’s and Departments of Social Development and Home Affairs to respond to the desperate needs of large numbers of vulnerable children. ACESS played an extremely crucial role in bringing media exposure to this issue initially by drawing Special Assignments attention to this issue in the first place and then through ACESS members providing considerable background information to the producers of the show regarding the Child Support Grants and problems experienced throughout the country. The TV documentary, reported on the work of the University of Western Cape’s Public Health Programme, which in conjunction with the Health Systems Trust and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine had been conducting research into childhood malnutrition in the Mt Frere region of the Eastern Cape Province. The critical importance of the timeous processing of the child support grant was illustrated by the research findings. An observation by the researchers illustrated this as follows -:
ACESS welcomed the response of the Minister of Social Development in going out to Mt Frere and in ensuring that certain activities were initiated to address the problem. However ACESS took it a step further in drawing the Ministers attention to the fact that the Mt Frere scenario was not unique to the Eastern Cape and that it could be found elsewhere in South Africa. Further ACESS made recommendations to the Minister on actions which he could take to remove the obstacles to people’s access to the child support grant, administrative obstacles which in effect denied the very people for whom the grant was intended, the right of access. Since September 2001, ACESS has communicated with the Minister and the Department of Social Development on three occasions making recommendations and offering its support in ensuring that administration of social security does not thwart vulnerable people’s efforts to access the grant. To date we have not had a response. At this stage and in order to ensure that the constitutional rights to social security are not denied, ACESS is considering other actions that it may able to embark on. It must be noted that these efforts by ACESS were in addition to the extensive submission, which we made to the state and parliament on the Amendments to the Social Assistance Act Regulations. Copies of this submission were circulated to ACESS members in July 2001. acess and the basic income grant coalition As
we indicated at the very beginning ACESS is committed to the Basic
Income Grant as an effective social security mechanism for reaching
vulnerable children and their families. ACESS is a member of the
BIG Coalition and has participated in several activities in support
of the BIG. More recently ACESS participated in a workshop hosted
by the Economic Policy Research Institute (EPRI) on the affordability
and cost issues relating northern province - a problem of budgeting, a denial of rights In November 2001, ACESS became aware that a large number of old age pensioners, disability grant recipients and children who qualified for the child support grant (it was suggested by the Sowetan that over 150 000 people were affected) were not receiving their grants even though their grant applications had been received and processed. The problem according to someofficials was that the Dept of Social Development in the Northern Province had run out of budget and intended beneficiaries were advised to come back in the new year to receive their grants. The MEC for Health and Welfare, Mr Moloto was quoted as saying …..
ACESS, working in partnership with the Legal Resources Centre and the National Council for Child Welfare ensured that the Provincial and National Government Authorities attention was drawn to this problem and a response was requested as to how the matter would be addressed. In response to media reports in November 2001 the MEC for Social Development in Northern Province had blamed bad budgeting and lack of adequate data on the number of beneficiaries for the problem. However interestingly, it was the very same Mr Moloto in an address to the NCOP in June 2001, during the policy debate on the Social Development Budget vote who acknowledged that since 1994 his department had struggled to quantify the numbers of beneficiaries eligible for social assistance and hence had not been able to budget accordingly. He advised the NCOP in June 2001 that this matter had now been rectified! Table: Actual changes in budget for the Northern Province in comparison with National budget data for the period April – Dec 2001:
(Source SOCPEN data Dec 2001) To date ACESS has had no response from either the Provincial or National Department. acess commitment to partnerships towards increasing take up rates of the child support grant Soul City and ACESS are currently exploring the idea of engaging in activities aimed at increasing the take up rate of the child support grant particularly in those provinces and areas where the access is currently very low. This would be in partnership with state parties. ACESS will keep you informed about its deliberations in this regard. The intention is to run a national CSG registration campaign together with the Department of Home Affairs and Social Development. children's participation in social security policy making The Alliance at the very outset made a commitment to ensuring that children’s voices are heard in the policy making process. To this end ACESS has, facilitated 18 workshops with groups of children in all 9 provinces between September and December 2001. Children living in different environments and experiencing different problems and needs have been engaged in the consultative process. A report of this process and the key findings, which have emerged, will be available shortly to all ACESS members.
In addition a smaller group of these children will be presenting their findings and engaging indiscussions with key decision makers in Cape Town in February 2002. As a member of ACESS you will have received an invitation to this workshop. Unfortunately there is no funding available to cover transport and other costs for those wishing to attend. The children would appreciate your presence at the meeting. Look out for copies of the Children’s participation newsletters to read what the children have to say about social security. These are some of the things that were said by the children: "My family had no money for food. When I was alone sometimes I thought I am a problem at home and maybe it's better to leave home and get my food alone." (16 year old boy living on the streets) "I
think that they should give Deaf children a special class at the
school. I am 18 and I want to learn in Sign. I learned Sign at Hammanskraal
and there it was all Deaf children. I had to leave there because
we had no money. Here they put me with the Grade 1 class and I am
with small children – I can learn nothing. I am just reading
books. I like to read so much. I read everything
"In my family there are two little ones – I look after them, they are the ones I said I wash and dress everyday before I go to school. They get a grant. It helps with the food and clothes for them. I have heard it stops at 7 years. The older is 6 – what will we do when it stops?" (16 year old girl from Mpumalanga) "The teachers shout at you. They say that we cannot sit on the seats at school because we don’t pay school fees. People who sit on the chairs are those who pay school fees. The teachers like to swear at us. They don’t have a good way of approaching children. They keep on teasing us about the school fees. It is not nice because we also like to pay we just don’t have money". (11 year old girl from the Northern Province) people's budget campaign - prioritising child social security! People's Budget Campaign (PBC) was officially adopted at SANGOCO’s National NGO Week in 1997. SANGOCO, SACC and COSATU then launched the PBC in 2000, representing three key pillars of civil society, churches, nongovernmental organisations and trade unions. The PBC attempts to define fiscal strategies that advocate for a pro-poor budget, support economic development, greater social spending and promoting ordinary people's involvement and participation in the budget process. The Draft People's Budget Framework Outline included the following key proposals...
For 2002 SANGOCO has proposed that the demands concerning the Child Support Grant be brought on board the PBC priorities and to this end the PBC has resolved the following-:
Teresa Guthrie of the Children’s Institute [CI] drafted and coordinated the submission from ACESS on Children’s Social Security for the PBC and Paula Proudlock, also from the CI will serve as our representative on the Budget Task Team. Contact either of them for more information. As indicated previously ACESS has operated with a small core of organisations that have committed both their own personnel and resources to the ACESS Alliance. This has had its limitations, most obvious of which is the limited communication between the Alliance and its 65 odd members nation wide. In a strategic planning session recently ACESS explored how to address these and other constraints to embarking on a massive campaign on social security for all. It is our hope that together we can as an Alliance make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children in South Africa. Two key activities, which ACESS hopes to be able to facilitate, are provincial / regional meetings of ACESS members and the convening of a national consultative meeting of the child rights sector to chart a pathway for ACESS for 2002 and beyond. Our fundraising efforts have been initiated to support these plans. Your ideas and support are vital. Research is being undertaken and information gathered that will enhance the development of a comprehensive social security system. Progress in this regard has been limited by lack of funds for full-time researchers. If you know of people who should become members of ACESS, share this information with them and invite their participation. Only as an Alliance can we become a force that will not be ignored. Yours sincerely Shirin
Motala contact the alliance For further information on ACESS and its activities, please contact one of the Task Team or Reference Team members listed below: Shirin
Motala Shereen
Usdin Teresa
Guthrie or Paula Proudlock
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