Johannesburg - The Maropeng Centre at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site is this week hosting the review of the implementation of South Africa’s population policy conference.
According to the Department of Social Development, 300 participants will be represented by diverse sectors, including young people, the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, civil society organisations and academics.
The aim of the conference that ends on Thursday will be to assess progress made in implementing the policy, which was developed to include population concerns in development planning.
The department said topics for the conference would include a panel discussion on the role of young fathers in raising children, why adolescents should be a priority and government support initiatives advancing the 1.8 billion campaign and agenda.
“The minister will also launch the State of the World Population 2023 report focusing on the empowerment of women and girls,” the department said.
Meanwhile, the National Shelter Movement of South Africa (NSMSA) and other non-profit organisations (NPO) working in the social care services sector have criticised the department after a recent announcement declared that “unused” social services funds — for critical services to vulnerable women, children, disabled and older persons — will be redistributed to other government departments.
“This emerging shift seems to imply that the government now expects non-profits to fund themselves, even though these very NPOs are doing the government’s work.”
According to the NSMSA, an umbrella organisation that supports 95 gender-based violence (GBV) shelters across the nine provinces, Section 27 of the Constitution provides for the people’s right to social care services and establishes the government’s legal obligation to provide these services,“ read a statement from NSMSA
NSMSA’s head of the executive, Zubeda Dangor, said the government meant to back out of its responsibility to provide care for the vulnerable.
“However, neither the government nor the Department of Social Services can legally withdraw a right from people simply because they do not feel like funding these services anymore or because they want to do something else. Taking away social care services from our most vulnerable amounts to a regressive rather than progressive realisation of rights, as demanded by the Constitution,” said Dangor.
Dangor said the department was responsible for social care in the country; underspending and redistribution of its funds are counter-productive and not advisable, and if redistribution within the department is required, it should be very closely monitored.
“With that said, there are some budgets that should be completely safeguarded, such as those services that work to protect women, children, the disabled and older persons,” added Dangor.
Funding uncertainty is nothing new to NPOs in the social care services sector in South Africa. And it is very concerning that the government appears to be so cavalier with the wellbeing of our country’s most vulnerable. The fact that Gauteng DSD felt it was acceptable to just pull up to 61% from NPO funding in April is an indication of how these services and the people they support are regarded by the government. The funds have since been reinstated, as per last year’s budget, but only following a massive outcry from those providing services on the government’s behalf to help vulnerable and abused children without families, people with disabilities and the elderly.
“What will happen to the very fabric of our society when we no longer care for our country’s most vulnerable? Is this really the type of South Africa we want to be? Over the years, shelter services for victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, which is on the rise in South Africa, have been severely obstructed as a result of the government’s inability to provide clear and consistent funding. Even with our own fund-raising efforts, we need so much more to provide adequate care for vulnerable women and children,” adds Dangor.
Recently, the Department of Social Development inducted the new panel of arbitrators for NPOs in Kempton Park, Gauteng.
The department wished the panel members all the best in their new assignment and hoped their experience would bring value to the non-profit organisation sector as they assist with speeding up the adjudication of appeals.
“Non-profit organisations are important as they assist with the rendering of developmental services for marginalised, poor and vulnerable persons, including women, children and persons with disabilities.
“Their role became more important as the country recovered from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which negatively affected poor and vulnerable South Africans. The department reaffirms its position of empowering NPOs to remain compliant to avoid deregistration,” said the department.
The Star