Organisations looking after the elderly and orphaned, abandoned and abused children are in financial dire straits because the department of social development has failed to pay their subsidies for the past three months.
The non-government organisations (NGOs) have warned the financial failures of the department could force the collapse of many institutions in the social work sector of the province.
And without their government payment, some NGOs will not be able to pay social workers, meaning hundreds of staff members face a bleak Christmas.
The department has blamed the problem on glitches with a new payment system that was introduced in June, but has vowed the NGOs and other nonprofit organisations will be paid by Christmas.
Nicolette Leonard, who runs the House of Resurrection, an Aids haven in Salsoneville, said the non-payment had hit it hard.
“We have been unable to pay our house-mothers. It is making it difficult for us to pay any workers,” she said.
“We had to send them home with outstanding monies due to them.”
Riaan Marais, from Oosterland Child and Youth Care Centre, said it had 104 children in its care. Thirty of these children were not going home or away on holiday.
“We have a lot of expenses this time of the year.”
He said officials kept on promising its subsidies would be paid but nothing had happened.
“We don’t know what the problem is. They claim they understand our position but our subsidies for October, November and December remain unpaid.
“It is very frustrating as they are not communicating with us. The uncertainty and stress they are putting us under is enormous,” Marais said.
“Department officials are always trying to blame the paperwork. They never want to take responsibility. Nobody even responds to our e-mails.
“The current 2018-19 financial year is one of the worst yet for us. The department has almost never paid us on time.”
An agreement was struck in 2012 that the department would pay the nonprofit organisations three months’ of subsidies each quarter.
Dalene Ritter, of Child Welfare South Africa, said she believed the problem was with departmental systems not being created efficiently.
“I don’t think this is an insurmountable problem.
“I am not a woman who gives up, but after 49 years in social work I am coming very close to it due to these problems.”
Ritter said the chair of the Eastern Cape social development portfolio committee, Christian Martin, had been very helpful in trying his best to sort out the payment problems.
“The unfortunate consequence and the impact on service delivery is that it breaks down people’s resolve to carry on. We have these problems every three months and, once this year, we were not paid for six months,” she said.
“We are not pointing the finger at a single official but we want to call on the department to get a proper payment system in place.”
Ritter said the payment headaches had worsened in the past three to four years.
“Now it is very serious.”
Magda van Solms, of the Christelike Maatskap like Raad (CMR), said it had 12 offices in the Eastern Cape and received a government subsidy for social workers, social auxiliary workers and supervisors.
Looking after abused or neglected children and adoptions are among its functions.
“The late payment of subsidies impacts the ability of NGOs to honour their salary commitment towards their staff, which places huge strain on the employees, especially at Christmas time.”
Van Solms said while it appreciated that the head of the department and officials were doing their utmost to process payments, late payment needed to be urgently addressed as many NGOs would be unable to keep their doors open in the new year should the problem continue.
The office manager of the CMR in East London, Gaye Moonieya, said the NGO had not been paid since September.
“The department of social development has a service level agreement with us in which they undertake to pay the subsidy for the services we provide. By not paying us timeously, they are legally in contravention of that agreement.”
Vuyiswa Duma-Maphumulo, convener of the Eastern Cape NPO Provincial Forum, said if the non-payments continued, it could lead to more of the institutions closing.
She said organisations which had gone unpaid worked with rape survivors, the disabled, preschools, and HIV/Aids-affected people.
Department spokesperson Gcobani Maswana said with the introduction of a new NPO Payment System in June 2018, “immense technical glitches” were experienced, which resulted in the delay of payments of NGOs for the first and second quarter.
“The department as a result took a decision to put on hold the new system and revert to the old system and fast-track payments.
“This then had a cascading effect on the third quarter. The department is currently processing payments for the third quarter after a labour-intensive reconciliation of information was done, prior to the finalisation of payments.”
Maswana promised that everybody would be paid by Christmas.
“Any situation that seeks to derail the department, towards achieving that, is taken seriously . . . Any inconvenience as a result of the payment delay is regrettable,” he added.
- Additional reporting by Siphe Macanda