Event: Sharpville Youth Cultural Festival
Title: The Child
Date: 2002

On the 21 st of March 2002 the Foundation held a youth arts festival in Sharpeville. This is a period of historic importance in the South African history as it is here in Sharpeville that 69 protesters against the apartheid regime's pass laws were killed. The workshop focused on the rights of children and the role of men in the society and how they relate to men and children. Amongst those who attended the event was Zola Skweyiya, the Minister of Social Development and Welfare who gave an address on the state of children in South Africa . Others who attended the event were writers like Aggrey Klaaste and Veronique. There were other guests like the Americans associated with Bill Clinton's Democracy Fellowship Programme and the Rockefeller Foundation in Sharpeville. One of the foundation's central aims is thus the facilitation of networks among our local and international partners.

KEY NOTE ADDRESS BY MINISTER SKWEYIYA, TO THE STEVE BIKO FOUNDATION ON THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF STEVE BIKO
Issued by: Ministry Social Development
22 March 2002

Let me take this opportunity to thank the Steve Biko Foundation for inviting me to share with you some thoughts around challenges facing our nation with regard to implementing the country's commitment to human rights, particularly as it relates to children. This is indeed a relevant and significant subject.

Steve Biko epitomises the struggle for Human Rights, whose importance the nation emphasised yesterday, 21 March, in remembrance of the Sharpeville Massacre.

Bantu Steve Biko was a man of vision, whose legacy still lives with us today. His ideas about the upliftment of African people have been absorbed into many of the policies that have been implemented in South Africa since 1994. I would like to quote from Steve Biko's book "I write what I like", to remind you of his philosophy.

He wrote,

"We reject to power-based society of the westerner that seems to be concerned with perfecting their technological know -how while losing out of their spiritual dimension. We believe that in the long run, the special contribution to the world by Africans will be in this field of human relationships. The great powers of the world may have done wonders in giving the world an industrial and military look, but the great gift still has to come from Africa - giving the world a more human face."

A human face of the world, as Biko envisioned, would have no meaning unless it speaks to the issue of children's rights.

Through my travel across the length and breadth of the country over the last two years I have come across many touching and indeed painful experiences of children in various parts of the country especially amongst poor communities.

I came across orphans and child headed families. Fresh in my mind are cries of 11-year-old Lindiwe Sithole from Thembalethu Home-Based Care in Schoemansdal , Mpumalanga . At the age of 11 she has the responsibility of taking care of her two siblings. She made a fervent plea to the government and indeed society as whole to protect them from being evicted from their homes when their parents die of HIV/AIDS. She also raised her fears of being harassed by criminals.

What still echoes in my mind as well is the painful experience of Bongani Shange from Protea Glen in Soweto , who together with his brother and sister, were almost evicted form their house. They had to stop schooling because following the death of their parents from HIV/AIDS, they could not afford to pay school fees. I also recall during my visit in many other parts of the country coming across children that were undergoing the terrible problem of stigmatisation.

The surrounding communities were reported to be afraid to be openly associated with these children. In some instances they would clandestinely provide assistance, like food parcels, to these children.

These are just a few of the thousands of children throughout the country who on a daily basis endure the experience of poverty, HIV/AIDS, social exclusion and other social ills that still permeate our society.

Date from the 1996 Census indicated that 168 382 children have neither farther nor mothers alive, 24 325 have untraceable mothers and the fathers of 333 510 children cannot be traced. Nearly 99 000 households are headed by children aged 10 to 17.

Further compounding these problems is the acute problem of abuse and neglect of children. The saddest reality is that sexual abuse of children in many cases is perpetrated not by strangers but by people who the children know and trust. The incidence of sexual abuse is gnawing at the moral fibre of our society and a moral renewal is an urgent imperative.

The focus of this gathering on restoring the fabric of our communities and the reconstruction of the soul of the nation could not have come at a better time.

Ladies and Gentlemen: the ANC has throughout its history especially after coming into power after 1994 put children at the centre of its socio economic development programmes. The Constitution of the country pronounces clearly the rights of the child, for example the right to education, health, shelter care etc. In fact no one can claim socio economic rights unless through children.

The government has put into place a myriad of policies and programmes to give effect to the rights of the child. These include the National Programme of action for the Rights of the Child. Through the Child Support Grant we have reached out to just over 1.5 million children over the past year. The vast majority of these come from poor communities. The Government also provides services for children with disabilities through the Care Dependency Grant, this has provided a vital source of income for are givers with little or no other income.

The policy on the Foster Care Grant has been transformed to make it more accessible to the extended family. In the past only the western definition of a nucleus family applied in so far as access to the foster care grant was concerned.

Ladies and Gentlemen: another concern regarding children is the issue of children in conflict with the law. According to our records over 3 000 children are awaiting trial in police cells and in correctional facilities.

Although we have increased the number of secure care facilities over the past two years, these are insufficient to accommodate the number of children awaiting trial. Our view is that establishing additional facilities will not solve the problem. It is therefore imperative that we expand our diversion programmes, such as the one stop justice centres and the probation's services. The interdepartmental team of Social Development, Justice, Correctional Services and the SAPS continue to work closely to reduce the number of children awaiting trial in adult facilities.

Figures obtained from the provinces show that in 1999, 12% of children aged from 7 to 18 were arrested for coming in to conflict with the law, 62% of the categories of crimes involved were economic other crimes were related to aggression (32%), sex(2%) or narcotics (2%), this therefore suggests that an integrated crime prevention approach that tackles poverty is also essential.

Furthermore, an integrated and multifaceted approach is being adopted in finding sustainable solutions to the problems confronting our children in general. In terms of nutrition, 40 per cent of households do not have enough to eat, and nearly 25 per cent of children under five years of age are stunted owing to long-term under-nutrition, and 10 per cent are underweight than urban children. Together with the Departments of Health, Education and Agriculture we will mount a nutrition public awareness campaign as from the 2nd of April.

The poverty relief and the HIV/AIDS home based care programmes are just two of the Department's strategies designed to address issues of integration.

This integration takes the form of ensuring that social groups such as the elderly persons, women, youth, the disabled and children bec ome central to the delivery strategies of the department including community and home based care.

This year we will focus our energies on strengthening the volunteer movement, most of whom are women and the elderly persons. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to these thousands of unsung heroes who give their lot for the betterment of their poorest of the poor. The example of these heroes is reassuring and inspires confidence and hope.

They exemplify the response of our people are making to the President's call of Vuk' Uzenzele.

One of the main challenges for this year is to finalise the Comprehensive Child Care legislation. The South African Law Commission has published for comment a discussion paper on which the new Child Care legislation will be based. Critical tot hat is to ensure that the legislation provides a framework for the protection of the rights of all our children especially those who are made vulnerable through poverty and circumstances not of their own making.

I therefore implore all of you present here, to participate in this national endeavour and assist us in achieving the desired goal of protecting our children.

Ladies and Gentlemen: let us remember that we have an obligation as a country to ensure that we live up to our international commitments with regard to children. As early as 1996 our country has been signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children as well as the African Charter on the Rights of a Child.

The challenge therefore is for all of us to work closely together in ensuring that these commitments are translated into reality. All of us therefore have a duty to ensure that we reach every house, street, location, village and community in both rural and urban areas of our country.

The President in the State of the Nation address announced that we would be mounting a national effort to register all people who are eligible for social grants.

To give effect to this we together with the Departments of Home Affairs, Health and Education will first focus on the registration of children, especially for the child support grant.

Our target over the next three years is to register 3 million children. We will in this campaign work very closely with NGO's, CBOs, FBOs, Business and all civil society structures and we call upon you to join us in this endeavour.

Access to services and grants constitutes a vital element to poverty alleviation but most importantly to the support and strengthening of families. In our Ten Point Plan the rebuilding of families constitute an important element. We believe that the building of strong families is an important building block for a strong and winning nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen: as you maybe aware, the country has committed itself to tackle the issue of moral regeneration of our society. The Government has called for a moral regeneration summit to be held during the course of this year.

I was impressed to note that the mission of the Steve Biko Foundation states, "To promote, nurture and develop, community based youth leadership as an avenue for civic participation in the political, economic and cultural life of South African society."

We hope in pursuit of this noble mission you will make meaningful contribution to the moral regeneration summit.

In conclusion we would like to call on you to join us in our campaign called "Abantwana Kuqala/ Children First - Kinders Eerste - Bana Pele."

2003 – Sharpeville Artists Festival

The Sharpville Festival came as we celebrated the Sharpville massacre. The theme for the Foundation's programmes for the year focused on the soul of the nation. We focused on promoting human rights awareness in communities particularly around the incident of child abuse. The Sharpeville Program was aimed at school going pupils. For 10 weeks various schools were provided with a facilitator to conduct workshops and seminars which were mostly conducted after school hours. Each school was challenged to identify a social problem in their surrounding and together with a facilitator decided on a possible intervention program to be implemented. One such school where this program was implemented was Lebowa Primary School . In that school the exercise was around a hypothetical case of a grade five pupil who had been sexually abused by her brother's friend. The school decided to deal with this problem by creating a short dramatic sketch which spoke to the issue at hand. The exercise was under the supervision of a facilitator. A performance was organized with parents and teachers in attendance and this provided a forum where school governing bodies, CBOs, learners and teachers gathered. The schools workshops and seminars culminated in a schools festival which was on 19 March 2002 at Vukuzakhe Primary School.

The Foundation also worked with various NGOs, CBOs, Arts Organizations and Individuals as part of the Sharpeville Project. During the months of February to March the Foundation together with other partners embarked on a community mobilization program which was aimed at sensitizing and galvanizing communities around the theme of saving the Soul of the Nation Soul. Various community discussion forums and arts performances were held. During the month of March these organizations came together to participate in a Community Arts Festival during Human Rights week.

© Copyright 2006, Steve Biko Foundation