Cape Town - Reeling from a cash crisis which has led to staff going without their February salaries, Child Welfare South Africa is on a fundraising drive to bring financial stability to the organisation which runs projects benefiting more than two million children, families and caregivers.
On Friday, staff were paid half their January salaries, with Child Welfare SA saying it was still trying to raise funds to pay them the balance, as well as their February salaries.
National director PJ Cloete said the organisation was dependent on funding from the Department of Social Development, as well as fund-raising sources, but the latter had dried up since 2012.
The department provided about R6.5-million, leaving the organisation – which has been in existence for more than 90 years – with a shortfall of more than R6m to run its operations.
“We need to raise around R8m from fund-raising efforts each year.”
Although each province made a contribution to Child Welfare SA, some were unable to do so on time and this also affected operations.
According to Cloete, the failure of one of the provinces to receive a clean audit in the past three financial years also negatively affected the organisation’s attempts to raise funds for some aspects of its operations.
However, this had been addressed, and in the 2015/16 financial year, the affected province received a clean audit, boosting the organisation's chances of receiving funding.
Cloete said Child Welfare South Africa had a strategy to turn around its finances and make it financially stable. The plan would be implemented in the new financial year starting on April 1.
The plan includes moving away from a single national payroll system, to implementing a payroll system in each province against the subsidy received, which would be based on a cost-to-company measure per employee.
The organisation will also roll out a fund-raising campaign aimed at creating permanent income.
Cloete said to achieve goals, Child Welfare would need the support of all South Africans.
A public awareness campaign is expected to be launched soon to generate support.
“We have a huge role to play in providing protection of children from violence, abuse and exploitation in South Africa. We rely on committed and like-minded people to help us do that by partnering with us in our efforts,” he said.