Delayed payments put thousands of Gauteng’s most vulnerable at risk

by Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL – DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Social Development

The DA has been reliably informed that a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and non-profit organisations (NPOs) in Gauteng have not received their grant funding from the Department of Social Development.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between NGOs / NPOs and the government have not yet been signed which means that these organizations have not received any payment.
This is a calamitous situation as NGOs/NPOs rely on these grants to operate and to provide services to the most vulnerable members of our society.

The NGOs/NPOs provide critical care to the aged, children and people with disabilities hence it is imperative that they get funding timeously from the department.

Some managers at NGOs/NPOs are now giving staff transport money from their pockets so that they can come to work and services can continue.

This mess happened last year during the Social Workers strike. The DA warned the department and they should have had systems in place after last year incident.

The DA believes that it is the responsibility of the Gauteng Social Development MEC, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza to ensure that internal financial controls are strengthened to ensure timeous payments to NGOs in the province.

We will write to MEC Mayathula-Khoza to ascertain the reasons behind the delays in payments and to urge her to fast-track payments to the NGOs. We will continue to monitor the situation as another Esidimeni-type tragedy cannot be allowed to occur.