THE Department of Social Development in the Eastern Cape, Bukiwe Fanta, confirmed that they had hosted a MEC Media and Stakeholder Engagement Session in OR Tambo District Municipality in Mthatha, last week.
Fanta confirmed that they were worried about the high rate of different challenges in this district, which includes Gender Based Violence (GBV).
“OR Tambo District is leading in the high rate of GBV. It was my wish that this engagement could make us understand the vision that we have, to assist us in working together to fight these problems,” said Fanta.
She added that their intention was to share the ideas with other stakeholders on what they can do in order to fight the challenges facing communities.
Fanta appealed to community members to ensure that they fight the issue of poverty by ploughing their gardens.
“If we can all stand up and fight poverty, and stop having this mentality of depending on someone else, we can solve the problem of poverty. On the other side our children are facing the problem of drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. We must pray for these things because they are destroying their future.”
She appealed to parents to take responsibility for raising their children, in order to fight underage drinking.
According to her, not everything should be fought by government only; parents should also take part in fighting this problem.
According to her, they (parents) are the ones who are living with their children and are able to see these problems.
“It means communities must work with government, because the department sees these children only when they are violent at school. Community structures on the ground should open their eyes. I agree that government do have programmes, for instance we have a programme called teenagers against drugs and substance abuse. We do visit schools and educate learners, but people that can play more of a role on this are parents.”
Fanta also mentioned that even families should take part in fighting this problem, but unfortunately they are disintegrated, but they appeal to them to do something.
She confirmed that social workers are not scarce, but the challenge is funds that are shrinking.
She said that for instance in her policy speech last year, she forced that 200 social workers should be hired, and they trained them.
“Unfortunately, we did not manage to hire all of them; hence these stakeholders’ engagements are assisting us. It is not the responsibility of the government only to hire them, but also the private sector has the responsibility to do so.”
She said that they appeal to the private sector to assist them in this regard. According to her, they know that there is a need for them to be hired, but money is the main problem.
Director of Khula Children’s Rights Organization, Petros Majola, confirmed that there is a problem of under-age drinking and he is one of the people who raised the issue of teenage pregnancy and alcohol abuse by children.
“When we were doing prayer services for anti-pens down, I shared my ideas stating that it is the responsibility of each and every household to instil values in their children. There is no way that we can outsource our responsibility as parents and put everything on government. When parents cannot take the responsibility, then if we see that we have failed, we can then approach government. The introduction of children’s rights messed up everything, because it was not properly introduced. When we entered into a democratic South Africa we never had a moment of preparing the adults. As a result children are told that they have rights whereas parents were left behind,” said Majola.
