Gauteng residents continue to suffer due to the R83.4 million NPOs budget cut
28 February 2023
Gauteng’s most vulnerable residents particularly, the elderly and orphans, are again facing a bleak future because the Gauteng Department of Social Development has reduced the Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) budget by R83.4 million.
This is a clear indication that this department and the current government are callous and insensitive to the needs and plight of the vulnerable residents of this province.
NPOs play a critical role in ensuring that the vulnerable residents of this province have access to food, shelter, and social services. In most cases, their social workers earn far below the minimum wage, but they continue to provide love and compassion to the older persons and children with whom they have bonded and are often the only family these children have ever known.
This information was revealed in the department’s third quarter report for the 2022/ 23 financial year.
According to the department’s third quarter report of the year under review, the programme that deals with social services and serves the elderly to provide support to the residential facilities for older persons as well as providing support to community-based care organisations has had its NPO budget decreased by R42.6 million.
The department’s excuse for reducing the budget was because of the re-prioritisation of uncommitted funds from NPOs. It has further stated that some of the NPOs were either suspended or had not signed their Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
The programme that deals with children and families had its NPOs budget reduced by R40.8 million which according to the department was due to non-compliant NPOs and again SLAs that were not signed.
In total R83.4 million has been taken away from the NPOs budget. Many NPOs will be forced to shut down because they will be unable to render services and pay salaries to their employees due to budget cuts.
The department continues to turn a blind eye and reprioritizes critical funding that could ensure that many struggling NPOs provide critical services to the most vulnerable residents of Gauteng.
The DA will continue to engage the department to find ways to work with NPOs instead of reducing their budget. The department claims that the NPOs are misusing the funding and to curb such there should be proper monitoring and evaluation of NPOs by the department. Instead of the department punishing the NPOs for noncompliance they should be engaging with the municipalities to institute waivers for NPOs to reduce the complicated compliance regulations.
The DA proposes stringent measures to be put in place such as proper accounting, auditing, and consequence management. This will ensure that NPOs that are found not to be adhering to the processes are taken to account. This is because reducing NPOs funding not only affects the NPOs but has a huge impact on the residents.
Issued by Bronwynn Engelbrecht, DA Gauteng Spokesperson for Social Development, 28 February 2023
