Durban - Some non-profit organisations (NPOs) will not get government funding from September, but the KwaZulu-Natal government has insisted the needy would still receive social services.
Funding would cease because services were being duplicated in some areas, Ncumisa Ndelu, spokesman for the KZN Department of Social Development, said on Sunday.
“There is absolutely no reason for any alarm,” Ndelu said, stressing that NPOs should not rely on the government alone to fund them.
“Some make the mistake of thinking the government is their only source of income when the law allows them to raise funds outside of government,” she said.
Ndelu responded after a press release issued by the DA’s provincial spokesman on social development, Dr Rishigen Viranna, and the DA member of the portfolio committee on social development, revealed that Child Welfare in Margate had called on the party to help because “it faces closure due to a funding crisis”.
The service deals with 3 993 cases, supervises 991 children in foster placements and has had a permanent case load of 1 047 over the past year.
“In short, it provides a vital service to the KZN South Coast,” Viranna said.
The DA was “extremely concerned” by reports that many KZN organisations, especially those caring for women, children and the elderly, had had their budgets slashed by as much as 30%, “wiping out the 6% tariff increase that both the organisations and the DA had fought for last year”.
The move came despite assurances in their budget speeches earlier this year by the MECs for Finance, Belinda Scott, and Social Development, Weziwe Thusi, that subsidies would not be reduced, Viranna said.
He pointed out that Child Welfare was one of the most hard-hit non-governmental organisations in KZN, despite providing foster care services, “social worker services and working hard to protect citizens from any form of abuse”.
Even before the latest cuts, the organisations had been under immense financial pressure to keep their doors open, he maintained.
It was not just Margate Child Welfare facing cuts either, he said.
“Others are in the same boat, with costs rising when tariffs were declining,” he said.
Viranna said he had submitted written parliamentary questions to Thusi to get an explanation about the situation, but there had been no response.
Now, he had written to the chairwoman of the province’s social development portfolio committee, Fatima Nahara, asking for an urgent meeting at which “the department must account for the funding crisis”.
However, the department spokeswoman said she did not know why organisations were suddenly acting surprised, because this was something that had been “communicated, communicated and communicated” to them and the department was still holding discussions with them.
The MEC for finance as well as social development had announced in their budget speeches that there would be a rationalisation of services and funding.
She said this was because of a duplication of services by social workers, with both government and NPOs having social workers in some areas, and the government paying them all.
“This is a waste of money. We are asking NPOs if their social workers are willing to go where there is a gap, if applicable, so that services are evenly spread out,” she said.
“It is a rationalisation of services, not a removal of services.”
Asked if she would comment about the view that budgets had been slashed by as much as 30%, she said she was unaware of that, but added there had been no increase in government subsidies.
NPOs should raise their issues in the dedicated NPO Forum, she said.
The department was expected to issue a press release today, giving clarity.