Ensure protection against vulnerability by creating an enabling environment for the provision of a comprehensive, integrated and sustainable social development service.
The social development sector provides social development services and leads government’s efforts to forge partnerships through which vulnerable individuals, groups and communities become capable and active participants in their own development. Several pieces of legislation determine the department’s mandate: - the Non-profit Organisations Act (1997) establishes an administrative and regulatory framework within which non-profit organisations can conduct their affairs, and provides for their registration by the department - the 1997 White Paper for Social Welfare sets out the principles, guidelines, policies and programmes for developmental social welfare in South Africa. A draft white paper for social development is under review - the 1998 White Paper on Population Policy for South Africa is aimed at promoting the sustainable development of all South Africans by integrating population issues with development planning in all spheres of government and all sectors of society - the Social Assistance Act (2004), as amended, provides a legislative framework for the provision of social assistance. The act and its regulations set out the different types of social grants payable, including those for social relief of distress, and their qualifying criteria - the South African Social Security Agency Act (2004) establishes the South African Social Security Agency as an entity responsible for the administration and payment of social grants - the Children’s Act (2005), as amended, gives effect to certain rights of children, as contained in the Constitution, and sets out principles and processes relating to their care and protection - the Older Persons Act (2006) is aimed at maintaining and promoting the rights, status, wellbeing, safety and security of older people. It provides for older people to enjoy quality services while staying with their families and in their communities for as long as possible, and to live in residential care facilities - the Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Act (2008) and associated regulations provide a legal framework for the establishment, registration and monitoring of in-patient treatment centres and halfway houses.
The Estimates of National Expenditure (ENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the budget for the new financial year.
A department's programmes are the activities that it spends money on during the financial year. Different programmes have different budgets, depending on their objectives and available budgets. More detail on the programmes is available in the department's Estimates of National Expenditure documents.
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In addition to exploring the department budget by programmes, the budget is classified according to Economic Classification.
The Economic Classification of a department's expenditure distinguishes between various categories of current expenditure and capital expenditure. The purpose of the economic classification is to categorise transactions according to type of object or input, such as compensation of employees or capital assets.
This visualisation highlights how many categories of expenditure there are for this department at Economic Classification level 4, and which ones are the biggest. year -- 2026-27
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Explore how the budget is distributed across spending items.
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Budget programmes will differ in composition of spending, from compensation of employees, transfers to other agencies and goods and services, depending on their objective.
Select an Economic Classification to filter the data in this chart and see how much programmes spend on that category.
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The Adjusted Estimates of National Expenditure (AENE) is a book published along with the tabling of the adjusted budget.
No adjusted budget data is available for this department for 2026-27.
Budgeted and actual expenditure for a department can increase or decrease from year to year. Changes in expenditure can follow shifts in departmental activities, priorities, efficiencies, and the price of goods and services over time.
The chart shows the department's latest available historical expenditure for past years, and planned expenditure for the current year and medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) years.
The phase used for each year is shown below:
Compare the adjusted appropriation to the main appropriation to see whether changes were made in the adjustments budget to the appropriations set out in the budget. The audited outcome shows what was actually spent.
Note: Direct charges against the National Revenue Fund are excluded.
Read more in the Annual Report on the department's website.
Compare the amount of budget allocated to each of this deparment’s programmes at each phase in the process leading up to the Audited Outcome
National Treasury, departments and commitees are busy with different things depending on the time of year: