SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PRESENTS REVISED PLANS AND BUDGET FOR 2025/26 TO PARLIAMENT

By Precious Mupenzi.

• The Department of Social Development and its entities returned to Parliament to present their revised strategic and performance plans for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
• The updates reflect technical adjustments made following the retabling of the national budget and are aimed at improving alignment with national priorities.
• ⁠While the Committee welcomed the revisions, members raised concerns about ongoing service delivery issues and the impact on grant beneficiaries.

The Department’s Director-General, Mr Peter Netshipale, opened the briefing by explaining that the focus was not to revisit the full plan but to present changes that reflect recent budget adjustments. These revisions, he said, were informed by guidance from Parliament and developed in consultation with the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.
Mr Kenny Maluleke, Chief Director for Strategy and Change Management, presented the revised Annual Performance Plan and confirmed that the Department’s five-year Strategic Plan remains unchanged. The APP adjustments are technical refinements that improve alignment with provincial implementation frameworks and national policy.
Key changes include the removal of a target under Programme 4 related to the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre, as the data is already reported through provincial systems. Another shift replaced the National Plan of Action for Children with the National Strategy to Accelerate Action for Children, which is ready for submission to Cabinet and more directly supports SONA directives.
The Department also relocated a Programme 5 target on community mobilisation to its Annual Operational Plan. This change supports the development of a new cooperative monitoring tool within the District Development Model.
SASSA and the National Development Agency also presented their revised plans. Both entities shared strategic priorities aimed at enhancing service delivery and improving system resilience.
While acknowledging the updates, members of the Portfolio Committee raised serious concerns. Honourable Abrahams questioned the persistent challenges around long queues and winter readiness at SASSA offices. She criticised the impact of verification processes that require beneficiaries, particularly in rural areas, to travel long distances often in cold conditions just to comply.
She recommended that SASSA provide regular briefings to the Committee, especially ahead of engagements with National Treasury. “We need real-time updates to avoid another crisis like the postbank card renewal. The Committee must be kept in the loop,” she said.
Despite the service delivery concerns, Honourable Monyai welcomed the Department’s constitutional alignment and efforts to widen the social protection net. “The strength of this presentation lies in its recognition of the need to expand the social security system,” he said.
The briefing reinforced the Department’s intention to deliver more integrated, responsive and people-centred social development services in the year ahead.