We need to waken from numbness in our hearts
SOCIAL Development MEC Wesiswe Thusi’s assertion that historically most NPOs received funding from foreign donors is incorrect if she is referring to the agencies which were formerly termed welfare organisations (“NPOs face huge budget cuts”, IOS August 20). Although welfare services were segregated their social work posts were approved and funded by the apartheid government.
Nor does Thusi understand the nature of social work services if she thinks that departmental staff have the necessary expertise to render services in specialised areas, which require staff members to undergo continued in-service training in their specific fields.
It was for that reason that, historically, the department rendered only certain specified services leaving the specialised agencies to deal with their areas of focus (like alcohol addiction or marriage counselling). To make matters worse, the training of social workers has suffered in recent years because some universities have taken on far more students than they can provide the necessary in-depth practical training to.
The Department of Social Development is flouting the privacy provisions of the constitution by insisting for no good reason that it be sent the ID numbers of clients of NPOs (and reportedly threatening to withdraw subsidies if they are not provided). This obliges social workers to breach professional ethics of confidentiality which is completely unacceptable.
There are very serious problems with the way in which this department functions, including as they relate to the late payment of subsidies which cause great hardship to well run NPOs which cannot pay staff salaries timeously, and grossly unprofessional conduct on the part of some of the staff who lose documents, or (as a visit to their offices shows) do not even store confidential material properly.
Allegedly NPOs have been told that posts are to be frozen because of a shortage of funds – which raises the question of where the money for approved budgets has disappeared to half way through the financial year.
It seems to me that a thorough forensic audit of this department should take place. FROM: CILLA WEBSTER Croftdene The fact that the government has cut back on monies to social welfare, the aged and disabled and has not raised a stir in society sickens me to my very core.
The vulnerable and poor will get even less from social welfare when there is no food or secondhand clothing to be given out to keep them decent and warm. How many homes who accommodate the aged and disabled will cut back their meals to perhaps one meal a day?
Our president has five wives and each one is given a Mercedes Benz, chief executives of companies earn six-figure salaries, members of society have incredible bank accounts that their children will inherit when they die and everyone is too comfortable to watch the poor get poorer and the aged and disabled be abandoned by the government.
If you have no idea what it is like to go to school or go to bed on an empty stomach you are lucky.
I urge society to care about those who have nothing and now are going to have even less. Let us waken up from the numbness in our hearts that only cares about ourselves, and show that we care about those around us who have nothing.