Nicolette Dirk
THE Cape Town Society for the Blind (CTSB) has appealed for a “grace period” from the Department of Labour, which decided to stop automatic funding for six institutes for the blind and wants the organisations to apply for further funding through an evaluation process.
In the Western Cape, the CTSB and the Institute for the Blind in Worcester are two of the organisations that will no longer be funded by the government from the end of this month.
Emily Maneli, a director in public employment services at the Department of Labour, told the Cape Times yesterday that the various organisations were notified in 2013 about the possibility that they would no longer receive automatic funding. “All previously funded organisations and those who have not received funding yet can apply through a competition commission, after which an evaluation committee will decide by next month who gets funding,” she said.
The money given to organisations like the Institute for the Blind was managed by the Public Finance Management Act, and Maneli said the department was told by the Treasury that 2014 would be the final year when money from voted funds would be allocated to institutes without a process being followed.
“We are already in trouble with Treasury because funding was extended beyond 2013. By the end of April, the evaluation process will be completed and the successful organisation will get funding for two years,” she said.
Maneli said that prior to her department controlling the funding process, a person from the Sheltered Employment Factory was responsible for distributing funds to various institutes, but that there were many loopholes in this process.
But
CTSB chief executive Lizelle van Wyk described their predicament as chaotic as a total of 440 people were affected by the department’s decision not to grant an annual subsidy of R1.7 million to the CTSB. The organisation uses the subsidy to host workshops for cane weavers and rug weavers.
The Institute for the Blind in Worcester receives R3.5m for the manufacturing of mattresses, wooden furniture, cane and weaving products as well as metalwork.
“We have complied with all the department’s stipulations and we need at least two years to get alternative funding,” said Van Wyk.
The livelihood of 160 people at the CTSB and 280 at the Institute for the Blind in Worcester would be placed in jeopardy. Freddie Botha, executive head at the Institute for the Blind, said he could not understand how their funding had been cut, after the department visited the institute last year and expressed enthusiasm for the work being done there.
Botha said by the end of this month they will not be receiving the subsidy and will have to apply for further funding via an evaluation committee. “This is ridiculous. This will cause blind people to have to resort to begging for money along the streets,” said Botha.