Takalani home still not paid by health department‚ relies on donations

The Takalani Home for the Mentally Handicapped in Soweto has still not been paid its subsidies due to it by the Gauteng health department.

The Diepkloof home‚ which houses 110 patients and relies on subsidies from the Gauteng departments of social development and health‚ had warned last week that it might run out of food this week.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom confirmed on Tuesday that the home had not been paid its subsidies last week. He said the home now relied on donations from the public to keep the home running. “I spoke to Takalani. They have not been paid this week. We are going there tomorrow with food and basic supplies‚” Bloom said.

Bloom said the home houses 58 profoundly mentally disabled people who are subsidised by the health department‚ while 52 people are subsidised by the Gauteng department of social development.

“When we went there last week‚ people who are employed by the home had not been paid‚” Bloom said.

The home was left bankrupt by officials who were managing it during the time of the Esidimeni tragedy.

During the Life Esidimeni crisis‚ a number of patients which had been transferred to Takalani died due to lack of care.

On Monday‚ the DA walked out of the provincial social development portfolio committee in solidarity with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that had not been paid their grants.

The DA said delays in the payment of grant subsidies by the department have had a significant impact on the operations of NGOs as they solely depend on these grants for their sustainability.

Some NGOs have been forced to close doors while others do not have food to feed their beneficiaries nor money to pay salaries.

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