Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - April 16, 2004
Since 2001 the Department of Social Development "has completely strung us along", Laura Markovitz, project coordinator at the Alliance for Children's Entitlement to Social Security (Acess), told the Mail & Guardian.
To qualify for a grant, a child's caregiver must produce a bar-coded ID book and the child's birth certificate. Many children don't have these documents owing to inefficiencies in the Department of Home Affairs, Markowitz said, and so are prevented from receiving the grant of R170 a month. Many applicants cannot afford the transport costs incurred by repeated trips to home affairs offices.
Acess has been arguing that alternative proofs of eligibility, such as report cards signed by school principals, be accepted.
Selwyn Jehoma, chief director of grant administration in the Department of Social Development, told the M&G it is "aware of the plight of poor people who find it difficult to access the documents", but that ID documents and birth certificates are necessary to combat fraud. Allowing alternative proofs of citizenship would lead to further abuse of the grant system. Home visits by departmental officials have uncovered that "a lot of people don't exist".
He said the department is trying to avoid adding to the R1,5-billion fraud it suspects is already occurring by working with home affairs to speed up registration.
There are now 134 mobile home affairs units available alongside social development offices, Jehoma said, and social development will be working with Statistics South Africa to determine the best areas in which to deploy resources, based on the disparity between the number of children and the number of people with ID books.
Social development is willing to assist with transport costs to get the necessary documents, he said. "We're looking for something more comprehensive to avoid abuse of the system."
Acess sees alternative proof of citizenship as a temporary measure, Markovitz said, to alleviate the poverty that many people live in. She estimates that up to 50% of children do not have birth certificates.
A Children's Institute study commissioned by the HIV/Aids unit in the Department of Health and published this month looked at 118 households affected by HIV/Aids across South Africa. The study found that only 45% of the children in the households had birth certificates; and only 36% were receiving the child support grant.
Until 2001 grants could be accessed at the discretion of the director general. Then the clause allowing grants without ID books and birth certificates was dropped from the Social Assistance Act. Acess took the matter up with the director general in July 2001, Markowitz said.
Regulations based on Acess's recommendations were gazetted for comment in January this year. Two weeks were allowed for comment, after which Acess expected the regulations to come into force - but they have not been implemented.
The regulations would have given the director general scope to accept alternative documents in place of an ID book and birth certificate. Alternative proof cited by the regulations include a certified copy of a child's "Road to Health" card from a clinic or a hospital, or a report card signed by the principal of the school the child attended.
Markowitz said that it was only after several phone calls that an official in the legal department told her that the Department of Social Development felt there was no need to allow alternative proof of citizenship.This month Acess informed the department it would take legal action to compel it to make alternative arrangements for those without documents. The action aims to force the government to include the regulations in the Act, she said. "They have instituted a programme whereby people can get grants - but you can't have a programme that relies on another department that's inefficient."
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