By: Lungisa Somtombo
The Eastern Cape Social Development hosted a Stakeholder Engagement intended at giving an overview and mandate of the department’s programme of action in the new administration and allow new partnerships with different stakeholders.
The session will present opportunities for stakeholders to partner with the department in coming up with strategies to better their society. Taking part as stakeholders included the social sector, private companies, banking sector and agencies.
Outlining the purpose of the event, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Provincial Executive Manager Bandile Maqetuka said the event is aimed at building relations between Social Development and various stakeholders.
“We are aware that the department has relationships in place with other stakeholders but we want to strengthen and improve on those relationships,” he said.
Maquthuka further said they want to understand the operational requirements of NGOs and NPOs and understand their challenges and their proposed solutions.
“We will be listening to our stakeholders so that when we plan going forward we take their input into account,” he said.
Social Development MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi said they decided to bring the department’s stakeholders together to unpack the Policy Budget Speech, identify possible areas of collaboration and understand the challenges they have in the department.
Addressing the stakeholders MEC Mani-Lusithi mentioned that they are working with the Department of Health and the Department of Education for a Sanitary Towel Drive, but budget is not enough to reach every girl in the province as the problem of sanitary towels also affect girls in tertiary institutions.
Mani-Lusithi added that they want private companies like Old Mutual to contribute. They have a programme with Old Mutual where they go to institutions of higher learning and in communities to distribute sanitary towels.
During the session the MEC noticed that NPOs and NGOs are struggling in terms of support from the department, especially now that there are budget constraints for NPOs which led to their budget decreasing and the late arrival of funding.The MEC advised NPOs to look for more creative ways of sustaining themselves.
According to Maqetuka during the engagement session, the issues that arose were monitoring and evaluation.
The department working together with retired social workers who were part of the leadership of the department, as there is a lot to learn from them and improving the management of this partnership through contracts by making sure that terms and conditions are clear to everyone and that there are mechanisms in place so they can be able to monitor.
After this session the MEC said they will be meeting with individual stakeholders to put into action the outcomes of this session and implement the programme of action for the department.