Join us at PILG discussing the "Crisis in Social Care Services: Legal and Other Solutions"
Join us at Public Interest Law Gathering (PILG) discussing the "Crisis in Social Care Services: Legal and Other Solutions"
South African civil society is well-aware of the shrinking space available to us for progressive advocacy and political dissent. However, there is another area where our space is under pressure that requires urgent attention.
The overwhelming majority of social care services in SA are provided by NGOs, with this work overwhelmingly performed by women, largely for women and child beneficiaries. These services include post-rape care, shelters for abused women, child and youth care centres, care for the aged and persons with disabilities, programmes aimed at substance abuse. Many of these services are legislated state services. All are crucial in protecting, respecting, and promoting human rights.
The government, mostly Department of Social Development and Department of Health, never fully funds the organisations to provide these services. It relies on the fact that international and other donors will fund large portions of the services, and only provides a partial subsidy, in the form of monetary transfers. These subsidies, how large or small they are, to whom they are given, and how they are managed, are at the heart of large-scale and harmful constriction of service NGOs, at the expense of beneficiaries.
This panel will interrogate the roots of the problem, their very real impact on services, and how the law can or cannot be used to fix the problems.
Panelists: Ms Mpule Thejane-Lenyehelo (A Re Ageng Social Services), Ms Matodzi Amisi (Department: Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation); Ms Lisa Vetten (WITS City Institute).
Facilitator: Sanja Bornman (LHR Gender Equality Programme)
Where: University of Western Cape
When: Wednesday, 26 July 2017
Time: 13h45-15h15
To register to attend the Public Interest Law Gathering click here
For more information on this see the latest Judgment on casual workers here