With only two months before the foster care system implodes, there is still no sign of the bill being tabled in parliament, and despite rushing the fatally flawed bill through Cabinet under the guise of a court-imposed deadline, not even the department can show how it solves the problem.
So, despite reporting to the court in February 2019 that it had submitted the comprehensive legal solution to parliament, with the November deadline looming, neither the Children’s Amendment bill nor the Social Assistance Amendment bill has appeared on the desks of the Social Development Portfolio Committee for deliberation. Some department officials have been quick to blame parliament for the delays, one even quipping that “parliament keeps its own diaries”. But this is disingenuous.
This unwillingness to outline a plan was reinforced in a letter from the Minister of Social Development to the Centre for Child Law in late August. The letter meticulously answered all of the questions posed about the process of introducing the Bills, the number of foster care orders lapsing in 2019 and 2020, as well as DSD’s progress towards addressing the crisis.
Growing up my only memory of families taking care of welfare children were how the kids were abused by their host families. Welfare kids had to clean homes, family laundry, kept the yard clean while the owners kids lived like royalty. Slept on the floor and ate different meals