Probe into grant scandal

Two organisations, awarded almost R114 million in grants by the Gauteng department of social development over the past two years are under investigation as part of a probe into the department’s funding of nonprofit organisations.

The investigation has already led to several department officials being placed on “precautionary suspension”, according to a media statement released after GroundUp revealed details last week of the multimillion-rand grants awarded to The Beauty Hub Academy and Daracorp.

Responding to follow-up questions about the investigation, the department said that four officials had already been placed on “precautionary suspension” and that “more individuals” had been identified as possibly involved.

The probe is into “more than those two” organisations, but the department was unable to divulge further details about its investigation, which started in October and is scheduled to be concluded in March.

The grants to Beauty Hub, which offers training in hairdressing and beauty therapy, and Daracorp, which does training for small-scale rural and urban farmers, were made at a time of deep cuts in budgets for grants to organisations working in HIV, community care and other key areas of social support.

Beauty Hub and Daracorp were allocated R30 million and over R26 million respectively for the 202324 financial year.

The size of the grants caused a furore among other grantees, who questioned why two organisations had been allocated so much money to subsidise people they train, while other organisations funded by the department received significantly less support to subsidise trainees.

On average, the department’s grants are less than a R1 million per organisation per year.

The department has said it “would like to assure the public that the [organisations] in question form part of the investigation taking place on nonprofit organisation funding and some officials have been placed on precautionary suspension”.