Non-governmental organisations are feeling the pinch as the country teeters ever closer to a technical recession. Many will have to close many of their branches - especially in poor communities - if they don't receive substantial funding in the next few months.
The Southern African NGO Network (Sangonet) says although a "crisis" is a few months away, scaling back of services and resources is a definite reality.
"Funders are not able to assist the organisations anymore because they themselves aren't coping. It is going to have a major impact on welfare organisations - either they will close down or their staff will be forced to leave the NGO sector," says Sangonet's executive director, David Barnard.
Ashley Theron, national executive director of Child Welfare SA (CWSA), whose monthly operational costs amount to about R1,5-million running 10 offices, envisions the charity will have to drastically limit services. They may even stop services altogether to the more than 2 million children, their families and communities across the country if funds are not received soon.
"If we do not receive urgent financial assistance, we will have to curtail some very essential services - especially in deep rural under- or un-serviced areas. There is a shortage of social workers and social auxiliary workers in SA and we, with our limited resources, struggle to find professionals willing to work in these underdeveloped areas for the low salaries we pay volunteers."
Theron says subsidies received from the government account for 18 percent of CWSA's expenditure. The rest of the money is sourced through donor funding and fundraising activities. Due to the economic downturn it only managed to raise a quarter of its income target.
He says, however, government officials are sympathetic and have indicated that they view CWSA as its child protection implementation arm and will do every thing possible to prevent CWSA closing down or drastically curtailing its services.
"There are lots of long-term solutions, but the need for a short term bail-out still exists."
Theron says it would be unfair to name individual offices which could face closure but says out of its 245 organisations and outreach programmes 222 receive intensive developmental, support and other services from CWSA as a national body.
"It will be a tragedy - if these services are curtailed or CWSA suspends their operations, the children, families and communities being served will be left completely destitute," he says.
"The Department of Social Development will not be in a position to replace Child Welfare South Africa's services. Just rebuilding the infrastructure which Child Welfare South Africa and its members have built up over almost 100 years and the goodwill they have built with communities who have been marginalised for so many years will take decades to re-establish," says Theron.
Joan van Niekerk, national co-ordinator for Childline South Africa, says the organisation has already been told by several donors there is less money available for distribution to good causes this year.
"This includes charitable collections, as well as social responsibility programmes of some companies - so we are preparing for a year of more limited resources.
"It is sad that despite the fact that children are considered the future of our country, our investment in children's welfare services is one of the areas of cutting back," says Van Niekerk.
Recently the Treatment Action Campaign announced that it would retrench 20 percent of its staff due to a funding shortfall. The organisation's general secretary, Vuyiseka Dubula, says the shortfall was largely due to a several million rand tranche of its global fund grant not being paid.
"We have no choice but to retrench approximately 20 percent of our staff and to end our treatment literacy bursary programme, which is heavily dependent on global fund money."
Dubula says the TAC had 98 permanent staff and 350 bursary holders and added that it was the current global financial crisis that had also put tremendous pressure on its funders. The organisation, she says, needed to reconsider its structure due to the change in the country's political climate.
Christine Kuch, spokesperson for the National Council of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says although the organisation has reserves and still operated effectively, the credit crunch will affect SPCA's countrywide.
"We are affected in two ways: difficulty in generating income but also people handing in animals because they can no longer keep them financially. Some leave it too late - animals are starving. The best thing to do in these circumstances is not to leave it too late. Do not compromise on the amount and quality of food."
With 98 SPCAs in the country, Kuch says strict budgetary controls are going to be essential.
"We are going to have to be innovative in our funding in the future. We also want to warn people not to see animals as a way out if the financial situation - thinking that breeding and selling puppies can generate income. There is already an over-population and this is simplistic thinking," Kuch says.