News24 | Funding crisis shuts down children’s centres in Gauteng

• Several Gauteng NPOs are having to close their doors or are going through closure.
• The Gauteng Department of Social Development’s funding decisions for the original financial year were delayed.
• As such, many organisations are uncertain about the long term.

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Epworth Child and Formative years Care Centre in Germiston, founded more than 100 years within the past, announced this week that it will doubtless be closing its doors on 31 Would possibly well presumably also unbiased.

It’s one of at least 18 organisations that will have to end or scale down services if their funding is cut.

The centre’s director, Penny Lundie, told GroundUp that retrenchment notices could be issued to its 30 staff members.

The 50 young people at the centre, many of whom come from unstable homes, have been abused, or have lost their parents, will be moved.

When GroundUp visited Epworth on Thursday, some of the young people were gathered around a staff member, asking questions about the closure.

The young other folks wished to cling whether or no longer they would per chance presumably maybe be separated from their siblings and to which properties they would per chance presumably maybe be moved. The emotional group member defined to the young other folks that they were “attempting to make a choice out the direction of”.

The centre had experienced delays in obtaining its five-year registration certificate, during which it continued to operate without funding from the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD). This created a gap in the centre’s finances, from which it is unable to recover.

The uncertainty and lack of communication regarding the centre’s funding application for the 2024/25 financial year, which began on 1 April, forced the board’s hand, Lundie said.

The Gauteng Care Crisis Committee, a voluntary association of 67 non-profit organisations (NPOs), on Thursday publishedstatementsby 18 NPOs in Gauteng which have either announced closure or said they will have to close if their funding applications are unsuccessful.

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Other people Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) is one of the organisations that announced it will be closing.

POWA runs six workplaces, two shelters, two Thuthuzela Care Centres, and five Sufferer Pleasant Rooms (VFR). Its shelters accommodate 157 girls and their young other folks, and their VFRs reach more than 6 000 beneficiaries per one year.

The Nisaa Institute for Women’s Pattern said it had closed its refuge’s doors. The girls and their young children at its shelters were being moved to various facilities.

Nisaa is no longer accepting new clients, although it continues to provide services such as its victim empowerment programme.

West Rand Association for People with Disabilities (WRAPD) is among several organisations preparing to scale back services if its funding application is unsuccessful.

WRAPD provides 24-hour care for 37 people with disabilities. Last year, WRAPD had to sell two vehicles to pay for salaries.

“At this stage, we have no assets that we can sell to help keep our doors open,” WRAPD director Annalene Roussouw told GroundUp.

Roussouw said:

Funding from the Gauteng Department of Social Development is paid in advance on a quarterly basis. The most recent payments were made in January, so many organisations only had funds to last them until the end of March.

The new financial year started on 1 April and funding decisions have not yet been communicated, leaving many organisations having to prepare for closure.

The GDSD, which could distribute an estimated R1.9 billion to NPOs this financial year,announced on Wednesdaythat funding allocations have been finalised.

But organisations GroundUp spoke to said that they have not yet heard the outcomes of their funding applications.

According to the department’s statement, “successful NPOs are being contacted as of the first week of April 2024, to come in to the head office for signing of SLAs. To manage the numbers, NPOs will be contacted in various groupings to ensure efficiency.”

Organisations were assessed through “physical verification of the NPO at registered addresses, observations of services being rendered, and also verification of the compliance status with the national DSD database,” according to the department’s statement.

GroundUp asked GDSD spokesperson Themba Gadebe how organisations that are closing their doors could be supported in referring their beneficiaries to other organisations — particularly, vulnerable people in need of full-time care.

Gadebe did not take care of the quiz, but repeated that SLAs were in the process of being signed.

“Nothing but lies”

Going through recent criticism during the final few weeks, the GDSD has tried to dispel rumours of budget cuts and told NPOs ina statementthat they “should not worry”.

Gauteng MEC for Social Development Mbali Mhlophe claimed in aTV interviewthat rumours of budget cuts were “propelled by a so-called researcher, called Lisa Vetten, who is working alongside with the DA, who are deliberately and in a desperate attempt to substantiate and create discontent against the governing party”. (Vetten is the chair of the Gauteng Care Crisis Committee).

The Provincial Treasury’s budget for 2024/25clearly showsthe department’s 2024/25 budget for non-profit funding is R223 million lower than that for 2023/24.

In its media statement on Wednesday, the department said it received R11.4 billion in funding applications from organisations, “an amount far exceeding the department’s overall budget”.

The department’s budget for non-profit funding is R1.9 billion, according to the provincial budget, and its total budget is R5.5 billion.

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In addition to the budget cuts, uncertainty surrounding newadjudication panels, an ongoingforensic auditof NPO funding, and unclear compliance requirements have added to the confusion and concern of NPO managers in recent months.

According to the Gauteng Care Crisis Committee’s statement, letters sent to senior Department of Social Development officers seeking clarity have gone unanswered.

In March, the Department of Social Development unsuccessfully sought acourt interdictto prohibit NPOs from protesting the cuts.

Gadebe denied that dialogue had been insufficient.

“The department has consistently communicated throughout with various statements and also directly with various provincial leaders of sectors,” he said.

He also made several disparaging remarks about Vetten and the Gauteng Care Disaster Committee, claiming they were “lying to the public and attempting to create fear and anger among NPOs against our executive on nothing but lies”.