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Newly appointed acting social development minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, tabled the department of social development’s R302bn budget vote in parliament on Tuesday defended the government’s social protection framework, acknowledging the growing pressure on welfare systems, unemployment, poverty and governance failures.Chikunga tabled the R302bn social development’s budget on Tuesday. The budget debate took place days after President Cyril Ramaphosa removed former minister Sisisi Tolashe from cabinet and appointed Chikunga in an acting capacity pending a permanent appointment. Tolashe had come under political and media pressure over a series of controversies linked to poor governance and irregular departmental spending.An amount of R293bn of the department’s allocation would go towards children, older persons and persons with disabilities through the social assistance programme.The allocation includes R36.4bn for the continuation of the Covid-19 social relief of distress grant until March 2027 and R300m for the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) to administer the grant.Chikunga said social grants remained one of the government’s most effective tools to combat poverty and inequality. “For two decades Sassa has been at the centre of our resolve to shield millions from extreme poverty,” she said.She cited departmental and academic research showing grants had improved child nutrition, educational outcomes and livelihoods. According to the department, 84.2% of the 729,650 learners who wrote matric in 2025 were recipients of the child support grant, while the matric pass rate among beneficiaries rose from 74% in 2021 to 84.9% in 2025.She said intensified grant reviews had saved the state more than R1bn while biometric verification systems had now been rolled out across all 132 Sassa offices. She confirmed that queue management systems had been expanded to 378 offices nationally.The acting minister said the government was continuing work towards a future basic income support framework and had finalised costing models linked to the draft policy. She also announced that the government would expand gender-based violence shelters to the remaining five districts without shelter coverage and said the department would prioritise filling critical vacancies, including that of director-general.ANC MP Thokozile Sokanyile said social grants were a constitutional obligation rather than charity. “Social grants must never be viewed as handouts. They are instruments of justice and human dignity,” she said.Sokanyile said about 26.5-million South Africans relied on grants and argued that grants were often the only source of income sustaining households, particularly older people raising grandchildren and unemployed youth searching for work.She said grants should also serve as a bridge towards economic participation through skills development, entrepreneurship and labour market interventions. “The poor must not be punished for being poor,” Sokanyile said, while calling for the acceleration of a permanent basic income support mechanism.DA MP and portfolio committee chair Bridget Masango focused heavily on policy delays and legislative failures within the department. Masango criticised the apparent disappearance of the white paper on social development, which parliament had previously been told was at an advanced stage of development.“The delays in finalising this policy and its related legislation continue to negatively affect service delivery, accountability and the optimal functioning of the department itself,” she said.Masango also criticised delays to the Children’s Amendment Bill, arguing that the government was failing vulnerable children amid rising levels of malnutrition, abuse and abandonment. “South Africa’s children are stunted. Some suffer and die from malnutrition. Others are abandoned, abused and, in some cases, lose their lives,” she said.She further raised concerns about delays in implementing the Older Persons Act regulations and criticised the failure to appoint a new board for the Central Drug Authority after the previous board’s term expired in March 2026.On gender-based violence, Masango pointed to police statistics showing 24,417 sexual offence cases and 19,387 rapes recorded between April and September 2025, warning that delays to the Victim Support Services Bill undermined the state’s response to gender-based violence.EFF MP Paulnita Marais said the budget remained too heavily focused on social relief without adequately addressing long-term economic empowerment and job creation. “South Africa cannot afford welfare without growth and cannot afford grants without a parallel strategy for economic inclusion,” she said.Marais raised concerns about rising dependency on the state while economic growth remained weak, arguing that the government had failed to create sustainable pathways out of poverty.She also referenced findings by the auditor-general, who issued the department with a qualified audit opinion for the 2024/25 financial year. “A qualified audit outcome is not a minor issue. It signals material weakness in financial management,” she said.Marais warned that weaknesses in grant administration systems increased the risks of fraud, corruption and irregular expenditure and criticised persistent payment delays, long queues and digital exclusion affecting grant beneficiaries.IFP MP Busaphi Machi said the party supported the budget because social services were “an investment in human dignity and resilience”, but warned that the system risked becoming overly bureaucratic.Machi criticised the exclusion of children under two years old from certain Sassa performance targets and warned that the government could not ignore early childhood development during a national nutrition crisis.“We cannot claim to build a healthy, capable future workforce while ignoring our children during the foundation phase of their brain development,” Machi said.She also raised concerns about the effect of biometric verification systems on elderly and rural beneficiaries, arguing that technological systems had in some cases become barriers to accessing grants.PA MP Sheila Peters supported the budget but argued that grant increases remained insufficient given the rising cost of living. “Our pensioners are carrying enormous burdens, raising grandchildren, supporting unemployed family members and trying to survive in an economy where food, electricity and transport costs continue to rise,” Peters said.She criticised delays in finalising a permanent basic income support policy and warned that millions of South Africans remained uncertain about what would happen after the social relief of distress grant expires in March 2027.Peters also raised concern over gender-based violence and child abuse, arguing that government interventions remained too limited relative to the scale of the crisis.“Girls as young as 10 years old continue to fall pregnant and face high-risk exploitation, abuse and HIV infection,” she said.ActionSA MP Dereleen James rejected the budget entirely, accusing the department of corruption, instability and political patronage. “South Africans deserve a department led by people of integrity, not politically connected looters and deployees.”James criticised the continued absence of a functioning Central Drug Authority board amid worsening substance abuse problems and accused the department of failing vulnerable South Africans. She also referred to allegations of abuse at care facilities and criticised the department’s responsiveness to oversight complaints.Business Day
