A Gauteng based NGO will shut its doors until further notice, after its funding allocation from the Gauteng department of social development was slashed by 61%.
CMR Gauteng East, a child and family care organisation with 13 satellite offices across Pretoria, closed its doors on Monday, citing budget cuts by the department as a reason behind its closure.
The organisation, which rendered services which include child protection, family preservation, poverty relief through food schemes and aftercare and support programmes, said it could no longer keep its doors open and will refer all cases to the department of social development for handling.
This comes after the department dropped a bombshell two weeks ago on organisations, with huge budget cuts to their funding, and some organisations' applications for funding declined.
As a child protection organisation we want to emphasise that people will now have nowhere to go. Children who are molested, abused, neglected ... who will stand up for them?
— CMR Gauteng East director,
Henda van der Merwe
Most of the NGOs in the province have pointed out that it would be impossible for them to carry on with their work with the current budget allocations, which have been cut by more than 50% in most cases.
CMR Gauteng East director, Henda van der Merwe, said the organisation would not be able to do half the job it did last year with the current allocation.
She said last year they were able to assist more than 28,000 people and said with the current allocation for this year, they would be able to assist less than 10,000 people and 55 staff members stand to lose their jobs.
“As a child protection organisation we want to emphasise that people will now have nowhere to go. Children who are molested, abused, neglected ... who will stand up for them?
“Where is the priority of people in our society who are at the lowest level, who due to economic realities cannot help themselves, and are therefore assigned to the multitude of NGOs that depend on funding to be able to do their work,” Van der Merwe asked.
In letters sent to NGOs, the department of social development said most of its budget has been allocated for drug rehab, while funds for children, the elderly, the disabled and those living with HIV were slashed.
On Monday, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said NGOs should not panic and that he will have a meeting with social development to discuss the matter and see to it that funding to NGOs is not cut.
Lesufi maintained that NGOs play an important role in society and their work should not be hampered.
The Gauteng department of social development said it would only be able to respond to questions after its meetings with Lesufi on Tuesday.
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