NPOs concerned about funding cuts

NON-PROFIT organisations (NPOs) funded by the Department of Social Development are concerned that the possible cuts in funding allocation next year will have a detrimental impact on an already struggling sector and the services they render.

The organisations recently received a letter from the provincial department’s Children and Family Directorate warning them of a possible cut in budget allocation for its programmes in the 2023/24 financial year.

In the letter, the department said that there had been a significant impact on budgets across the government departments as a result of the economic slump, with the ongoing energy crisis requiring the government to reprioritise services and budgets.

Molo Songololo director Patric Solomons said a cut in the social budget would further hinder the organisation’s ability to provide vital support services, care and protection to the poor and vulnerable.

Solomons said numerous NGOs had either closed or reduced services as funders cut or suspended crucial funding due to the Covid-19 impact. He said the department’s funding model was threatening the quality of services as NGOs struggled to provide decent salaries to their support staff.

“Molo Songololo wants to encourage NGOs to raise their concerns about possible funding cuts at the coming National Presidential Summit against Gender-Based Violence to be held next week,” he said.

Ilitha Labantu spokesperson Siyabulela Monakali said the funding cuts meant fewer people would have access to essential services. Monakali said NGOs often played an intermediary role in providing essential services where government fails.

“The government needs to find amicable solutions to the budgetary constraints, as cutting the budget for social services will leave members of communities in a more vulnerable state,” he said.

The provincial department’s spokesperson, Esther Lewis, said this year alone the department received around R80 million less than the original budget allocation for 2022/23 set out in the pre-Covid Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.

Lewis said the budget cuts have had an impact on the department’s front-line services delivered at the local office level, programmes, as well as funding to the NPO sector as a whole.

“The impact includes the inability to employ more social workers – resulting in already higher than recommended case loads, a reduction in the number of subsidy transfers to NPOs, and having to reconsider non-statutory services,” she said.

ANC provincial spokesperson on social development, Gladys Bakubaku-Vos, said the party would engage the department on its plans and the programmes that would be affected.

Bakubaku-Vos said they were opposed to the department’s budget cuts plans and would also raise the matter in the legislature.