Thousands of people dependent on NGO services, abused and vulnerable children in care, HIV services and social worker salaries in Gauteng are all about to take a hit due the provincial department of social development’s newly restructured budget.
The new allocations came into effect on April 1 but were only partly communicated to staffers at a Gallagher Estate function last Wednesday by Gauteng social development, agriculture, rural development and environment MEC Mbali Hlophe.
Gauteng DSD’s budget was increased marginally by R12m to R5.55bn for the 2023/24 financial year and is spent across five programme areas: administration; development and research; children and families; restorative services and social welfare.
In a move that has upset many, the new allocation has seen development and research receive a 41.8% increase in budget, while social welfare services has been cut by 31.4%.
Numerous distraught social workers and NPO representatives held a picket outside the DSD offices in downtown Joburg on Wednesday morning to protest the decision, which they say has placed their livelihoods and the future of those in their care at risk.
“We haven’t yet received our new service-level agreements, so we don’t know the plan. Maybe half of us will be kept on, or maybe we will all have to take a 50% salary cut,” said one woman who asked not to be identified for fear of further victimisation.
She is one of nine staffers at a child protection organisation that provides support to more than 300 orphans, abused and foster children. They have not been informed of the department’s plans as to whether it will continue providing the services when their funds are slashed.
Pule Monyeki of the West Rand Association for Persons with Disabilities (Wrap) said he had been told his funding was to be cut by half, which means they will now only be able to care for those who reside at the organisation.
“A process of retrenchment has started,” he said, explaining that Wrap employs 39 people and runs a workshop for about 75 disabled people, which will now have to be closed.
“Those people come to the workshop every day and work together assembling battery clamps. We feed some of them, and it is a place where they keep busy and socialise and don’t fall into depression,” Monyeki said.
“But now there will be nobody to take care of them, no money for security, and so we are in the process of closing down.
Refiloe Ntsekhe, the DA’s social development shadow MEC, said she attended the picket to support the many NPOs affected by the reprioritisation of budgets.
“If people think that Life Esidimeni was a tragedy, this is going to be much, much bigger and hit thousands of people. What is happening here is not constitutional. How can they think it makes sense to take money away from organisations doing vital work to fund non-performing programmes?” she said, referring to what she said were failed plans like the supply of dignity packs to people with albinism, uniforms to schoolchildren in need and sanitary pads to schoolgirls that had been allocated increases.
Sibusiso Bethani, chairperson of the Children’s Sector for the City of Johannesburg, said he represented 59 organisations across the city, all of which cared for 300 or more children.
“We are not yet certain how the budget cuts will play out because there has been no consultation. But we think that about 65% of our organisations will have to close and only 35% will continue. We have tried to engage with the MEC, but she has been unwilling and said that the decisions have already been made,” said Bethani.
“We don’t want them to interfere with our programmes. It’s not right. Last year the DSD told us to submit our requests for UPS and generators and then said they had no money. But at the end of the year they had a surplus.
Nomtanazo Nhlapo, a child and youth care worker at Ria Shuma Extension in Ekurhuleni, said her organisation cared for 349 children despite being funded for only 300.
“We support a lot of children who have no parents, and we are already underpaid. And now this month people who have been working for us for 15 or even 20 years will just suddenly have to be told, ‘You don’t have a job.’ And what will happen to our children?
Research associate Lisa Vetten of Wits University’s Southern Centre for Inequality Studies compiled an analysis of the DSD budget allocation and described it as “monumentally uncaring”, compounded by no advance warning and no communication on plans to address the needs of those who are about to be left without much-needed care and services.
Among her main concerns were the 52.4% budget cut for HIV services; 28.9% cut for people with disabilities; a 20.5% cut for the elderly; 21.1% cut for family services; zero allocation for child protection services; an 18.2% cut for childcare services; a 57% cut for crime prevention programmes; then a 131.7% increase — amounting to an additional R348.5m, well more than a quarter of the entire subsidy budget — for poverty alleviation programmes.
“So many of these projects that have been allocated more money have not been evaluated for their effectiveness. A lot has been spent on dignity packs and sewing projects to make school uniforms and recycling and waste management without us knowing what impact these projects have had in improving people’s lives.
“Now the plan is to take money away from vulnerable groups to give to these projects. It’s taking away people’s rights. There is a place for community development projects, but these cannot come at the expense of vulnerable groups.
“Social development is as much about ensuring people receive care as it is about generating cash. If NGOs close and people are deprived of services, care responsibilities will be pushed back onto families, usually the female members. The DSD will then be taking advantage of women’s unpaid care work,” Vetten told TimesLIVE Premium.
“This has not been properly thought through.”
The department did not respond to specific questions but referred TimesLIVE Premium to a press statement released last week.
In it, the department said the budget of R2.3bn allocated to NPOs remains and there is no cut to the budget.
“Residential care services to older people, child and youth care centres, shelters for women and those with disabilities will remain funded accordingly.
“As per the legislative mandate, the services to the vulnerable will continue to be provided by both the department and NPOs,” the statement read.
“In October 2022, after the election of premier Panyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng provincial government was reconfigured, resulting in certain departments being grouped together to respond to the identified priorities by the premier and subsequently the executive council.
“The department of social development was paired with the department of agriculture, rural development and environment. The reconfigured department was charged with the following elevated priorities.
“A heightened fight against substance abuse; drastically reducing homelessness; war on poverty through improving food security; welfare to work programmes through accelerated skills development; and promotion of environmental sustainability.
“As per the state of the province (Sopa) address by the premier in February, he reiterated and emphasised the need for us to do more to help the vulnerable and to safeguard the future of this nation by upscaling on skills development, ensuring that the provision of skills forms a key aspect of the substance abuse rehabilitation work, and equally the work with the poor, GBV victims and homeless within the communities.
“This is to ensure we get more individuals to be independent, particularly those who have the ability to work but lack opportunities to fully actualise and therefore remain reliant on various government grants such as the R350 grant,” said MEC Mbali Hlophe.
The statement said the department convened an engagement session with the NPOs on the April 5, where the MEC unpacked on the vision behind the combined departments.
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