Cape Town - Struggling welfare groups, buckling under a lack of funding, have slammed the National Lotteries Board for the R56 million handed to a Cape minstrel group since 2011.
This year alone the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund has approved R41m for the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association.
Richard Stemmet, the head of the association, is also at the helm of the Cape Carnival Events and Cultural Committee.
Launched last month, the committee will organise all minstrel, Malay choir and Christmas band-related events.
The City of Cape Town will give them financial and logistical support worth R3.65m to ensure the events run smoothly, with the province chipping in with R2.35m.
While the association thrives, groups such as the Treatment Action Campaign have to do their own fundraising.
The HIV/Aids activists previously benefited from lotteries board funding but announced last month they desperately needed to raise R10m to keep afloat.
TAC general secretary Anele Yawa said they had managed to raise R2m in recent weeks, thanks to generous donors.
“As the TAC we have made our proposal to the lottery for funding, but we are still waiting for a response from them.”
For now it was generous donors from across the world and on home soil “who are keeping this group alive”.
Kathleen Dey, director of the Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust, said it was difficult to compare the minstrel funding with that of welfare groups because they were paid from two different lottery categories. The minstrels fell into the arts, culture and national heritage grouping while NGOs were in the charities category.
“What we need is a more strategic approach from the lotteries board when looking at these categories. We don’t get even close to that amount to run an organisation that does something extraordinary.”
Dey said Rape Crisis had received less than R2m from the lotteries board in the past three years.
“It is disheartening to see organisations closing doors and losing jobs, or people having to take a cut in salary because of this.
“The purpose of the lotteries funding is to make sure the country’s NGOs sustain themselves and continue working - you cannot measure the value of that.”
Marieta Kemp, of the National Coalition of Social Services, said the disparity in funding had a shocking domino effect.
The coalition oversees more than 3 000 welfare organisations countrywide, helping vulnerable groups including abused women and children, the disabled and the elderly.
In the past two years they closed two offices dealing with the welfare of scores of children, said Kemp.
“The disturbing part is that we render statutory services that are the state’s responsibility, like running shelters, social work and the protection of children, so we cannot just stop doing those things. These are compulsory services and if we don’t deliver them, government is going to have to step in and take over, and we know government charges more to carry out these tasks.”
Kemp said that for even a quarter of the amount of funding handed to the minstrel carnival association since 2011, her organisation could open and operate early childhood development centres across the country for a year.
“The lack of funding is devastating.
“It has everything to do with what this country says it stands for - protecting vulnerable people. It should be a priority of government, yet sometimes I get the impression government does not want to hear this.
“Somehow, something is wrong regarding the understanding and utilising of the (lottery) funds, and I am not sure the public always know where it goes.”
The annual budget of the lotteries board for distribution of funds is about R2 billion.
Of this, charities get 45 percent, arts, culture and national heritage groups 28 percent, and sport and recreation22 percent, with 5 percent to miscellaneous projects.
The board’s Odaho Sengani said the minstrel carnival association applied for funding for different projects during the calls for applications between 2010 and last year - and received it in 2011, last year and this year.
Allocations on all grants were adjudicated by independently appointed distributing agencies in each sector.
The Charities agency, under which Rape Crisis and the social services coalition would fall, was still adjudicating applications received during the last call for applications, where about 7 800 were received.
The sports and recreation sector had received about 4 300 applications, and the arts, culture and national heritage sector about 2 700. “Charities receive the bulk of the budget for distribution, but it also has the greatest demand.”
A date for the next call for charities applications would be made “in due course”.
Meanwhile, the minstrel carnival association’s Kevin Momberg insists the millions handed to them “is still too little”.
“It may seem like a lot of money to those who don’t understand exactly how the minstrel troupes function and remain afloat.
“You must remember, we pay for all the stadiums and security, all the materials, food and transport. The bands, team captains and coaches must also be paid. Then, multiply that by our 30 or 35 teams, which average about 400 to 500 people each.
“It is a multimillion-rand business that runs throughout the year, but we do not make a profit. It all goes into organising successful events we can all be proud of on a national and even international level.”
It was a pity people did not see the positive contributions the minstrels made to society. “Last weekend we were in Macassar (for a charity event) and I was shocked at the poverty. I felt so bad for those poor kids, but we could provide them with some presents and food…
“I understand there is a need for houses, education and especially children’s needs. But this is a culture that is massive in our townships and we want to see it grow and use it to uplift people.”
Cape Argus