Several NGOs gather to protest outside the Department of Social Development to express their frustrations at financial and administrative changes that were not discussed with them first. Picture: Timothy Bernard Independent Newspapers
After watching non-governmental organisations (NGOs) struggling due to delayed payments by the Department of Social Development (DSD), Gauteng voters have been urged to remember the mix of incompetence, corruption and lack of care that came with the arrogance of long years in power by the ANC.
NGOs in the Gauteng province were forced to take the DSD to court on an urgent application as a result of the delays in funding and subsidies for the past two months.
The delays in the payments had, according to some reports, forced organisations to retrench staff and close their doors, while the DSD scrambled to finalise the signing of service level agreements (SLAs).
On Wednesday, however, the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, ordered the department to finalise funding applications submitted by NPOs and to issue SLA by the end of May.
The court also ruled that organisations owed funds must be paid within seven days of the agreements being concluded.
Even with this ruling in hand proving to be a welcome respite for organisations frustrated by payment delays, the DA’s Jack Bloom said the behaviour meted out to NGOs struggling to look after hundreds of mental health patients was reminiscent of another Life Esidimeni tragedy looming.
Bloom said it was scandalous that delays in payments were happening often to organisations that looked after the most vulnerable people in Gauteng, while Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi was able to find money for his “pet electioneering projects”.
Of his own accord during his inaugural State of the Province Address, Lesufi admitted that the DSD had been besieged by corruption, with no action being taken.
It was against this backdrop that Lesufi requested Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Agriculture and Rural Development Mbali Hlophe to launch an inquiry into the funding for NGOs.
“I have to ask this question: does the Gauteng government hate the weak and helpless who are dependent on others to survive? There is no excuse for their neglect and cruelty against NGOs in this sector,” said Bloom.
The DA’s health spokesperson said he believed it was the incompetence, corruption and a lack of care that comes with the arrogance of long years in power.
It was for this reason that he urged voters in the province to cast their votes in the national and provincial elections taking place in the country in less than a week’s time.
Prior to this ruling, however, Hlophe during a recent interview with “The Star” indicated that funding to the affected NGOs would be effected on May 24 (Friday).
Hlophe fingered departmental corruption as the reason for the delayed payments, and that she had been hard at work since taking over the outgoing ANC government.
According to the MEC, the auditor-general had called on her department to fix processes of payments as there was a questionable movement of money that needed to be resolved.
This, she said, ultimately resulted in the delays as they could not go into the new financial year with all the reports currently being investigated.
Hlophe said that now with the adjudications concluded, payments to NGOs were being finalised to ensure that quarterly payments were effected by the department moving forward.
The MEC said the department had already met with some organisations to take them through the delays and the changes made.
The Star
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