Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA
Key legislation
● Social Services Professions Act, No. 110 of 1978
● Social Assistance Act, No. 59 of 1992
● Welfare Law Amendment Act, No. 106 of 1997
● Social Assistance Act, No. 13 of 2004
●
Children’s Act, No. 38 of 2005 as amended by Act No. 41 of 2007 and the Child
Justice Act, No. 75 of 2008 (‘the Children’s Act’)
● Social Assistance Amendment Act, No. 6 of 2008
● South African Social Security Agency Act, No. 9 of 2004
● Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act, No. 70 of 2008
Programmes and services provided
The programmes and services provided by the DoSD to realise and protect the rights
of children and their families fall into three categories: 23 comprehensive social security,
developmental social welfare services, and community development services.
Comprehensive social security
The right to social security is protected internationally, regionally and nationally. The
UNCRC specifically obliges ‘State Parties [to] recognize for every child the right to benefit
from social security, including social insurance, and [to] take the necessary measures to
achieve the full realization of this right’ (Article 26(1)). The ACRWC in turn obliges State
Parties to ‘assist parents and other persons responsible for the child and in case of need
provide material assistance and support programmes’ (Article 20(2)). At a national level,
the South African Constitution guarantees that ‘everyone has the right to have access to
social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependents,
appropriate social assistance’ (section 27(1)(c)).
Social security includes both social assistance (non-contributory schemes) and social
insurance (contributory schemes). 24 Social security is aimed at:
● supporting adults whose earning power has permanently ceased, been interrupted,
never developed, or is being exercised only at unacceptable social cost and such a
person is in consequence not able to avoid poverty;
● supporting children in need of maintenance. 25 The obligation to provide social
security for children in need of maintenance applies, in the first instance, to children
who are removed from their family setting. However, it is not limited to this scenario.
There is also an obligation on government to provide social security to children
whose parents are unable to provide their children’s rights. 26
23 The author has organised the programmes and services offered in the programmatic order provided by the
Department’s 2010–2015 Strategic Plan (DoSD 2010).
24 Social security is defined in the White Paper for Social Welfare in South Africa (1997) as ‘a wide range of public and
private measures that provide cash or in-kind benefits, or both, first in the event of an individual’s earning power
permanently ceasing, being interrupted, never developing, or being exercised only at unacceptable social cost and
such person being unable to avoid poverty. And secondly, to maintain children…It includes both social assistance
and social insurance (contributory schemes)’.
25 White Paper for Social Welfare in South Africa, 1997
26 In both the Grootboom (Government of the Republic of South Africa and others v Grootboom and Others 2001 (1), SA
46 (CC) 2000 (11) BCLR 1169 (CC)) and the TAC (Minister of Health & Others v Treatment Action Campaign and Others
2002 (5) SA 721 (CC) 2002 (10) BCLR 1033 (CC)) cases, the courts decided that parents carry the primary responsibility for
providing children’s socio-economic rights. Where children are removed from the family setting, then the state is the primary
duty bearer and must provide the child’s socio-economic rights provided for in sections 27 and 28 of the Constitution. This
does not mean that the state has no obligation to a child living with his or her family. While parents are the main providers,
if the parents are unable to provide their children’s rights, the state must ensure that the rights are protected.
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