DA appalled at Child Welfare salary crisis

Issued by Bridget Masango MP – Team One Gauteng Spokesperson on Social Cohesion and Forgotten Communities
18 Feb 2019 in Press Statements

Note to Editors: Find attached a video of today’s oversight at Child Welfare South Africa (SA) by Team One Gauteng Spokesperson on Social Cohesion and Forgotten Communities, Bridget Masango MP

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Minister of Social Development, Susan Shabangu, to intervene in the salary crisis at Child Welfare South Africa (SA) Kagiso in Krugersdorp.

   

The DA is taking the nonpayment of staff seriously and is determined to take this matter as far as it needs to go to ensure this crisis is resolved because it is affecting the lives of the children of South Africa.

Most of the caregivers including social workers, administrative workers and cleaners are struggling and cannot afford to report for work daily as they last received their salaries in April 2018.

The inaction of the Department of Social Development in solving this crisis is beyond the comprehension of the DA.

How did the Department of Social Development allow this situation to reach such alarming levels?

Child Welfare SA Kagiso assists more than a thousand abused, abandoned and neglected children with statutory services such as foster care, behavioural problems,  placements and mediation. These children now risk losing the social welfare network that supports them.

In 2012, the US Agency for International Development, the Murray Trust and the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund stopped supporting Child Welfare SA due to mismanagement of funds.

Equally so, the Department of Social Development last funded Child Welfare SA Kagiso in April 2018.

Child Welfare SA Kagiso is in need of R1.2 million annually to continue rendering much needed services to the children of Kagiso.

The management of Child Welfare SA Kagiso is the responsibility of the Department of Social Development which in turn is the responsibility of the national ANC government. This is yet another example of how the ANC is failing the people of South Africa.

Only the DA can build One South Africa for All, where the people come first and the vulnerable people are taken care of.

You can download the pictures here and here.