Thousands of people who rely on social grants in North West have been left in limbo by continuing provincial government failure to pay subsidies to organisations that care for orphans and the aged.

The North West's social development department has for the past four months failed to pay their monthly grants.

The inefficiency of officials has affected at least 130 non- governmental organisations (NGO) that care for orphans and run hospices in which HIV sufferers and elderly people are nursed.

Some of the people and care centres affected have resorted to seeking high-interest loans from banks, while others have had to exhaust their savings to keep going.

The Japie Kritzinger Old Age Home in Bloemhof last received its R72 000 subsidy in February.

Manager Ans Aucamp said: "We have used all our savings, and now there is nothing left. They keep blaming faults in the system.

"We have old people who don't have children or family, and they must eat every day. We can't tell them that we don't have food."

Aucamp said that the home, which takes care of 60 people, would be forced to close down if it did not receive the subsidy by the end of this month.

"We will have to let the people go and look for relatives. We depend on donations, but that is not sufficient."

Equally frustrated is Vryburg NG Welsyn manager Mariette van Huysteen. Her NGO offers a variety of services, including social work and care for abandoned, abused and neglected children as well as HIV/Aids sufferers.

"We have been waiting for the subsidy since March," she said.

"We still have a bit of money, but it is running out. We don't know what we will do at the end of July."

Van Huysteen said that the funding problem had forced the charity to cut down on food parcels given to the nearby Huhudi community.

"Government owes us about R213000. For a business that is not a lot of money, but for an NGO, it's a lot. We hope they will pay soon."

Lerato Seelame of the Thusanang Disabled Centre, also in Vryburg, said she did not know how she would pay her eight-member staff.

"Government is supposed to give us a monthly subsidy of R15 a day, but we haven't received it. They last gave us funding in April for renovations. We struggle, and workers don't understand that there is no money. We can't buy nutritious food," said Seelame, whose centre cares for 40 children.

Another care provider, Marietjie Scheepers, was lucky to receive her subsidy of R77 000 three weeks ago, but had to use R50 000 of it to settle a loan she raised earlier.

"We also had to pay municipal accounts and our workers," said Scheepers, who is still waiting for last month's grant.

"It's quite bleak. We really make it through on a wing and a prayer. We are struggling. I don't know what to do. We now beg for everything; pumpkins, a bag of potatoes and anything that we can get."

Departmental spokesman Tebogo Lekgethwane conceded there were problems, and said the provincial government hoped to fix these within a month. He blamed the fiasco on "system error".