Housing audit needed to address access, accountability
by Karen Jooste MP – DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development
Date: 05 November 2017
Release: Immediate
Type: Press Statement
The DA will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development, Rosemary Capa, to request an urgent sitting, as it has come to our attention that a High Court order which allows SASSA to pay foster care grants to beneficiaries when foster care placements lapse, will expire at the end of this year.
Each foster care placement lasts up to a maximum of 2 years, and has to be reviewed and renewed at the end of the 2 years. The problem is that once a foster care placement expires, the grant stops being paid to the beneficiary.
The grants remained in payment only because of this High Court order, which will expire in December 2017. This means that thousands of children in need of care and protection will not receive their foster care grants in January.
South Africa is facing yet another looming grants crisis at the bumbling hands of Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini.
The Minister has since been taken to court by civil society for failing to produce a comprehensive solution to the lingering foster care crisis and is purportedly trying to reach an out of court agreement, in what is no doubt a strategy to shield herself from further public embarrassment.
What makes matters worse is that there is a vast backlog in the foster care system as many placements have not been reviewed, and new applications are clogging up the already bloated system.
It is estimated that at the end of 2014, 300 000 placements had expired representing over 60% of all foster care grants.
When the DA asked the Minister in Parliamentary questions about this issue, she purposefully gave a vague answer. She simply does not care about the heart-breaking realities that the children of this country face.
Media Enquiries
Karen Jooste MP
DA Member of the Portfolio Committee on Social Development
076 546 8663
Marshallé Frederiks
Press Officer
081 834 0792
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