MEC Mathabo Leeto making remarkable strides to combat social ills in the Free State
It has come to light that children are violated by those entrusted with
their safety. We are also concerned about teenage pregnancy, bullying in school and suicide among young people.”
This critical reflection was echoed by the Free State Department of Social Development (DSD) MEC Nokwanje Selina “Mathabo” Leeto, who is passionate about women’s development and the protection of children.
“The DSD is there to provide a safe environment and support to victims and their parents to ensure that our children are protected,” she told Public Sector Manager magazine ahead of the National Child Protection Week.
The purpose of this annual event, which will be commemorated from 29 May to 5 June, is to raise awareness of the rights of children as articulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and the Children's Act of 2005.
The week is an important event on the United Nations Children's Fund calendar and has been celebrated in South Africa since 1997.
The MEC reiterated that it is in citizens’ hands to stop the cycle of neglect, abuse, violence and exploitation of children. She said this at a time when the country is up in arms, calling for justice for children in various provinces who are victims of abuse.
She added that her department ensures that social workers in the province are capacitated on how to support children who have been victimised. As an added precaution, everyone who works with children across all sectors is thoroughly screened.
“Child Protection Week must be considered as a 365-day campaign. In the Free State, we will be launching the campaign on 11 May to increase efforts on working together to end violence against children,” said the MEC.
It was her activism against social injustices that led her to a career in politics.
Improving service delivery
The MEC was deployed to her current portfolio in 2024 and has since ensured that the department employs an extra 128 social workers to improve service deliver in the province. The department has also completed its organisational structure review and conducted skills audit among its employees.
“In my first year as the MEC for this department, we successfully launched the Molo Makhelwane campaign in the province. [The campaign] seeks to unite our communities and families by intensifying moral regeneration programmes and social cohesion,” she said, adding that the department’s key focus is on social security, poverty alleviation and communities’ social welfare.
The department’s key programmes include social assistance, developmental social welfare services, women empowerment, youth development, poverty reduction, victim empowerment, child protection and disability services.
The MEC said that the department will intensify the Molo Makwelwane campaign during the 2025/26 financial year to focus more on household profiling to get a “better understanding of community needs and [to] streamline our services in order to meet those needs effectively”.
Fighting social ills
This initiative will be scaled up across all five districts in the province, expanding the reach and impact of the department’s efforts to serve communities and fight pervasive social illness such as gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), unemployment, poverty and substance abuse among others.
She reiterated that ending GBVF in the province is chief to the department’s priorities. This is in alignment with government’s commitment to fight the scourge.
In line with the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, the department has ensured that there are shelters for victims of GBVF throughout the province.
“In March this year, we man- aged to launch another shelter in Bethlehem. The Tshepong Ya Rona Shelter was launched in the area to provide services to vulnerable members of the com- munity who have been abused,” she said.
Protecting the elderly
The MEC said ageism and the abuse of elderly people is another social challenge that many communities experience, but the department is working around the clock to combat it.
“We are working with other stakeholders such as elderly people’s forums in protecting the constitutional rights of our elderly people. We [plead with] our people to adhere to [the] Older Persons Act of 2006, which promotes and maintains the status, rights and well-being and security of older persons. Being an elder is not a sin or a curse.
Therefore, our elderly people should be treated with respect and dignity,” she said.
The MEC urged the private sector in the province to collaborate more with government to address social ills and create a better South Africa.
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