[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Business "Unusual" no surprise for poor

[Patrick Bond]

(And this, from the most left cabinet minister.)

Sunday Times

Extension of child grants not yet feasible
MOIPONE MALEFANE Published:Feb 10, 2008

SOUTH Africa cannot afford to extend the child support system, currently 
available to children until they turn 14, Social Development Minister 
Zola Skweyiya said.

President Thabo Mbeki announced in his State of the Nation address on 
Friday that he would set up what he called a “national war room” on 
poverty, but he made only one firm policy promise to the poor.

He said men, who have to wait five years longer than women to become 
eligible for the state’s R870 pension, would also soon be able to draw 
it from the age of 60.

Skweyiya said the government had not fully costed the extension, but 
Mbeki told Parliament about half a million men would become eligible. At 
the current pension value, that would add about R5-billion to the 
pension bill.

The ANC resolved at its national conference in Polokwane in December 
that child support grants should be paid until a child turns 18.

But in his speech Mbeki promised only to “examine interventions required 
to deal with vulnerable children over the age of 14”.

Skweyiya told the Sunday Times he hoped Finance Minister Trevor Manuel 
would make an announcement on the issue in his Budget next week, but he 
said it would not be possible to do it all at once.

“It should be planned and costed. It must be budgeted. It cannot just 
happen. What he (Mbeki) is saying is that we are going to fulfil the 
promise. It might not be today,” he said.

More likely, Skweyiya said, would be a gradual extension, adding a year 
at a time.

Parents and guardians currently collect the R200-a-month grant on behalf 
of about eight million children, but Skweyiya said many children who 
should be getting support have still not been included.

“In our research we have found that the children get the grants from 
birth to three or four years old; after that they are not known. We 
don’t know what happens to them,” Skweyiya said.

Mbeki said the critical Apex Priority was the elaboration of an 
integrated and comprehensive anti-poverty strategy that would address 
sections of the population most affected by poverty.

“But we will all agree that our society, and the poor specifically, 
cannot wait for strategies and dialogues and workshops —important as 
these may be. In any case, most of the interventions possible are things 
that government is already doing, though not sufficiently integrated.

“As such, in the spirit of Business Unusual, government intends this 
year to intensify the campaign to identify specific households and 
individuals in dire need and to put in place interventions that will 
help, in the intervening period, to alleviate their plight,” Mbeki said 
in his address.

Skweyiya added that part of the war on poverty would be the massive 
recruitment of social workers, who would interact with affected communities.

“What we need is to (expand) the welfare part of the department. Not 
that people only get grants, but also to ensure that children are 
protected from abuse,” he said.

Last year Skweyiya said that his department had developed the National 
Integrated Plan for Early Childhood Development, which seek to provide 
children with a better start in life.

“This plan is our contribution towards ensuring that our children grow 
up in an environment that is conducive to their care, development and 
protection,” he said.