Social Development
Question by:
Hon Fransie Kamfer
Answered by:
Hon Jaco Londt
Question Number:
12
Question Body:
With reference to his reply to question 29 of 3 October 2025:
- Why has his Department not developed a provincial methodology for estimating the number of children living on the street;
- whether his Department disputes the necessity of having baseline data in order to design targeted interventions; if not, why approximate estimates are not collected through municipalities, NGOs, the SAPS, schools, clinics and outreach workers;
- (a) when does his Department plan to implement a centralised strategy for collecting data on homeless children according to (i) age, (ii) gender, (iii) municipality and (iv) risk factors?
Answer Body:
- All matters related to children in need of care and protection are recorded on the SWIMS (social work case management system). This system includes information on children living or frequenting the streets without adult caregivers, but does not create a separate category for said children apart from other children in need of care and protection. Each child in need of care and protection has specific needs and their individual profiles are captured in each case file. The Department does create temporary databases and profiles of children on the street in local areas where a number of such children are identified needing intervention, and are in the process of receiving services, including placement in alternative care.
- The Department tracks its work with all children in need of care and protection. This serves as baseline data for tracking the Department’s services to children. The Department has worked with NPO partners to develop a database of street children in the past but has found that this data changes too quickly to be reliable, since children identified found to be in need of care and protection are systematically taken off the street while others are temporarily on the street (during holidays) and can be reunited with their families. The department has found it to be more effective to create smaller temporary databases and profiles for specific geographic areas where more than five children have been identified as being habitually on the street. Said local databases are used for profiling and intervening with the children until they are either reunified or placed into alternative care.
- See response to (2) above. The Department’s Social Work Integrated Management System application is the central record with all details of children found to be in need of care and protection due to living or frequenting the streets without adult care. This data includes age, gender, domicile and risk factors of the street children.
Date:
Friday, March 6, 2026
