It has been a challenging and stressful time for thousands of staff members and beneficiaries at various nonprofit organisations (NPOs) in Gauteng amid unabating funding issues that have left many on the brink of shutting their doors — some permanently.
This comes as the Gauteng social development department scrambles to finalise the signing of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with NPOs, which will allow these organisations to remain operational and accessible to the province's most vulnerable citizens.
The saga, which has been brewing for the past two years and came to a head when premier Panyaza Lesufi announced budget cuts to the NPO sector only to quickly backtrack, reared its head again in March when the department's budget was slashed by R233m. This prompted a protest from the Gauteng Care Crisis Committee (GCCC) over the impact it would have on their operations.
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Their fears were realised a month later when delays in issuing funding created panic.
The committee, which represents 62 organisations, said: “On April 1, the [department] started its new 2024/25 financial year. But for many NPOs in the province, [this date] was the end of the road. Having depleted their subsidies for 2023/24 and with no indication from the department as to whether they would receive subsidies in the new financial year, they have been forced into closing — both permanently and temporarily.
“This is the second consecutive year that the department’s tardy decision-making has caused a crisis in the NPO social care sector.”
The committee shared impact statements from some of its member NPOs on the dire effect these delays would have on their operations. These include Epworth Children's Home, People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa), Families SA (Famsa) and the West Rand Association for Persons with Disabilities (Wrapd) among a slew of others.
The department hit back at this statement shortly afterwards, saying it had just embarked on a “rigorous NPO adjudication process” that would pave the way for the signing of SLAs with eligible organisations.
The department said it had received 1,732 applications for funding, a total of R11.4bn in financial requests, which was “far greater than the department’s overall budget of R5.5bn”.
The GCCC, on its part, said it was unable to verify this figure, revising it to 257 and from its 62-member organisations.
Of this, only 63 SLAs had been sent, “amounting to a quarter of all business plans submitted by GCCC members”, the committee's Lisa Vetten said.
“Fifteen organisations have not been contacted by the department at all. In this regard, we note that no GCCC members offering services in the victim empowerment programme — responsible for all GBV services — substance abuse and homelessness have been contacted yet. All three are stated priorities of the Gauteng government,” she said.
Powa said it had been forced to let go of 74 staff members — a 90% reduction in staff.
These staff members are located at their offices in the West Rand, Sedibeng and Ekhurhuleni among others.
Only their legal services remain effective, thanks to private funding, spokesperson Thoko Budaza said. But this was also hobbled given the fact that it mostly relies on referrals from Powa's other services.
“We're only left with head office and even there, we are struggling to pay admin stuff and to keep a roof over our head because we still need to pay for water. So it's a very big impact,” she said.
Speaking about the relationship with the department over the past five years, she said it was “good” until changes were made to the SLAs. They went from having three-year agreements to one-year ones. The funding itself barely increased despite rising costs and inflation and last year.
Budaza said: “They took back the money given, citing issues of noncompliance. And when we tried to fix that, the money [eventually] came in dribs and drabs.”
Budaza said they were yet to receive a new SLA from the department. Even if it did come, it would not guarantee a resumption of normal services, as this would depend on the financial terms of the agreement.
“We're not sure what services we'd be able to bring back, but [even] if we do get funding, our imminent closure is a very big possibility. We've got the generosity of other funders, and we are trying to cultivate those in this time of crisis, and we're hoping they can come and close this gap in the meantime.
“I can even liken this to the Life Esidimeni situation,” Budaza said, spelling out just how dire the situation is for them.
Epworth is set to permanently close its doors by the end of May, after 105 years of operation.
“The lack of funding while we awaited the signing of our certificate by the department and the months they refused to pay have created a hole we cannot recover from,” the home said. “The department withheld R1.5m after refusing to renew our temporary registration in 2022 and then withheld R380,000 for November 2023 while they were busy signing our registration. We can’t recover from that unfortunately.”
Epworth's Penny-Ann Lundie said this also affected the network of NPOs they work with to carry out services.
“The child care system is a functional group of people, it's not just one group.
“We've got a lot of CPOs [child protection organisations] that are functioning at less than full capacity. They are case managers for the children who are wards of the state and have been placed in our care. They do the rehabilitation services and are required to do the statutory work to move our children.
"[But the CPOs] are in a challenged position too. Many of them are on short staff or have had to stay home because they're not being paid. In addition to that, some of the other spaces that we would've moved our children to are holding their breath because they're not sure if they are getting funded.”
Lundie said the last few weeks would be focused on ensuring the children at their homes are suitably relocated.
Reflecting on the situation, Lundie said: “In my [entire career], and I've been a social worker for a very long time, it's probably the most chaos I've ever seen. I'm not sure how we'll recover from what is happening out there right now.
“The damage that is being done to the NPO sector and the demoralisation is just unfortunate.”
The South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca) said it had opted not to renew volunteers' contracts for the prevention programmes “due to the impact of the delayed signing of the SLAs and the threat of a cut in subsidies”.
“These decisions were made because it is uncertain if these services will be funded and, if so, what the cuts would be. This has had an impact on 202 young people without jobs who were given stipends to carry out awareness and prevention campaigns in local communities and schools. At one of the Sanca centres, personnel layoffs are already imminent. By the end of April 2024, three of the centres were not able to pay salaries.”
Vetten said a letter of demand had been sent to the department over the delays and they were now considering legal action.
The department's Themba Gadebe, in response to TimesLIVE Premium's queries, confirmed there were delays in resolving the funding challenges.
“Though we had envisaged to conclude the process by end of April, we have also had to deal with administrative challenges when the HoD [head of department] who was handling the signing of the SLAs left the department.
“The enormous handovers that needed to ensue in both the departments that the HoD was heading (Gauteng social development and agriculture, rural development and environment) created some of the challenges.
“Safe to say that all NPOs have been evaluated, and to date, more than two-quarters of SLAs have been concluded and processes are under way to effect payment.
“Due to challenges the AG [auditor-general] and investigation picked up, the payment processes have also had to be aligned with Treasury regulations, in the interest of strengthening internal control systems and to promote fairness and transparency.”
Gadebe stood by the department's assertions that more than 1,700 applications had been received and said that they had all been adjudicated.
Those that have been approved were alerted and have mostly received the SLAs, he said.
“The remainder [of the applications] is what is being finalised and payments are to ensue,” he said.
While Gadebe was unable to provide an exact timeline on when the process would be concluded, he said the department was looking to bring in a “new dawn of equitable distribution of NPOs funds to deserving and compliant organisations”.
“It will also culminate in a corruption proofed environment (as best as we can) where investment made into the NPO goes to the most needy and vulnerable.”
