Johnathan Paoli
THE Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu is set to launch the Child Poverty and Child Support Grant (CSG) review report on Friday in Johannesburg.
The review is expected to reflect on the state of child poverty in the country, document the policy process in the development and expansion of the CSG, and review the impact of the CSG on child poverty.
The launch of the report is part of Social Development Month celebrated every year annually in October, with this year’s celebration under the theme “working together to eradicate poverty and other social ills”.
The department said that the month is primarily observed to showcase the work taken by the department and its entities, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and National Development Agency (NDA).
In 2020, Zulu acknowledged the pressing need to review policy around the CSG, and the following year, the department commissioned the Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town to undertake a comprehensive review of child poverty and the value of the CSG.
“The CSG has been successful at reaching a large number of poor children with relative ease and it has the most pro-poor targeting record of all the existing social grants,” the department said.
Zulu has however, come under fire recently, with the DA calling for her immediate dismissal.
DA Shadow minister of Social Development Brigette Masango said that Zulu was at the helm of a department responsible for the welfare of the country’s most vulnerable citizens and has shown herself to be one of the worst-performing ministers in cabinet.
Allegations the opposition party has made include, continuous payment failures of Sassa grants, attempts at cadre-deployment, the controversial signing of a deal with the US African Development Foundation, and her failure to appoint enough social workers or intervene in the growing NGO crisis in Gauteng.
“What is most shocking about Minister Zulu’s management of her Department is the fact that she seems to have no empathy in her behaviour towards the people she is meant to serve,” Masango said.
The department said that the CSG has successfully reached 13 million children to the value of R510 a month per child and the allocated CSG budget for the 2022/23 financial year was R77 billion.
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