Showdown looms over social welfare fund

A showdown is looming between non-profit organisations and the Department of Social Development in KwaZulu-Natal over a funding shake-up.

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Durban - A showdown is looming between non-profit organisations and the Department of Social Development in KwaZulu-Natal over a funding shake-up.

The concerned NPOs were expected to meet today in Malvern, Durban, to blow the lid on changes to funding which they have warned would shrink the social service work they do in some of the province’s biggest townships.

The department denied there would be cuts in government funding to organisations - pointing out that no letters to this effect had been issued. But it conceded it was undergoing a process of “rationalising services” - where it planned to redirect resources from cities to rural KwaZulu-Natal.

Two NPOs told the Daily News that officials in some districts had told them they were to be culled by at least half from next month.

Zama Mabaso, director of non-profit Families South Afri-ca (Famsa), said they had been receiving government funding for years, but were now concerned it was in jeopardy.

She said they received close to R2 million a year from the government to operate in the eThekwini, Ilembe (Stanger), Ugu (Port Shepstone), Zululand, Uthungulu (Richards Bay) and Umkhanyakude (Jozini) municipalities.

Their Umkhanyakude social worker has been redirected to Durban’s Chatsworth centre after they were told they were no longer needed in that district.

“The department asked us to transform and branch out into rural communities, we agreed to do that,” she said.

“We had to go everywhere as part of the transformation agreement, we have been there for four years in those communities.”

 

Limbo

Mabaso said their social workers were working in several municipalities and had hardly been given an opportunity to become “community based” as specified in the initial agreement. They had been waiting for notice from the department and said their staff were in limbo.

Mabaso said they had been told last month that support for their centres in uMlazi, KwaMashu, Mpumalanga, Inanda and Chatsworth was being cut and she was concerned about the effects this would have on the families they worked with.

“These are big communities where our people are needed. Their (government) staff are not even aware (of the situation). They are still referring cases to us,” she said.

Mabaso said more than 16 500 people in the province last year had been helped - including children who had been affected by the divorce of their parents. They also provided family services and assisted victims of abuse and domestic violence.

She said it was these people who would be worst hit by a reduction or a change to funding by the provincial government.

“We are not doing this for money. We are assisting the government in their promise to communities. They call us partners and say we are an extension of them, but now suddenly we are not.”

Department spokeswoman, Ncumisa Ndelu, said the department had not issued any letters to NPOs saying funds would be slashed.

“We have a dozen NPOs who are coming at us with stories, we don’t know where they are getting it from. These are rumours they are spreading among themselves,” she said.

Ndelu said the department was rationalising services, but said the process had not been completed.

“That process is not even halfway through. The department is looking at avoiding duplication of services, some areas are over-serviced, like Durban and Pietermaritzburg, while others are under-serviced.

“The department has the capacity to do some of this work, we want to redirect the services of the NPOs. We are at a stage where not a single NPO has been contacted, it is difficult to respond when we don’t know what the people are talking about,” she said.

Without specifying which NPOs, Ndelu said some of the NPOs had failed to meet their targets in the 2015/16 financial year, despite the department subsidising them wholly.

“What is curious about one of the organisations is that in both eThekwini north and south, there are contractual issues around their failure to meet targets,” she said.

Ndelu said MEC Weziwe Thusi received an invitation on Wednesday to attend Thursday’s meeting and press conference, but could not because of prior commitments.

 

Reduction

Femada Shamam, The Association For The Aged (Tafta) chief operations officer, said a reduction in subsidy would force the NPO to cut its service by half.

She said they received R7.2m in subsidies last year, which amounted to 12% of their operating income.

She said they had been told in face-to-face meetings by officials that cuts would range between 33 and 56% throughout the different services. “We offer an extensive programme to the elderly, the subsidy cut averages 50% of our total service delivery. That means 50% may not get service and we are talking about frail elderly people in the community and those who come in daily to get meals,” she said.

Shamam said funding had failed to keep up with inflation.

Daily News