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Thousands of Gauteng’s needy and vulnerable children, elderly, and people with disabilities will now receive limited to no welfare and social services because the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD) has reduced the NPOs funding by R62.1 million.

This was done without proper consultation with the NPO sector to ascertain its impact on the services they render to their communities.

The money has been reprioritised to fund Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s drug and substance abuse programme without evaluating the consequences that the NPO sector will be faced without adequate funding.

This incompetent department has constantly been underspending on its budget and can no longer be trusted to run the drug and substance abuse programme.

Premier Lesufi saw it fit to reprioritise the budget for DSD, and there are concerning increases and decreases in programmes.

Gauteng MEC of Finance, Jacob Mamabolo 2023 budget indicated the following changes:

• Program 1: Administration is reduced from R753,449,000 to R718,409,000 (R35 million decrease)
• Program 2: Social Welfare Services Reduced from R1,050,199,000 to R692,604 (R357 million decrease)
• Program 3: Children and Families decreases from R2,151,638,000 to R1,965,543,000 (R220 million decrease)
• Program 4: Restorative Services also has an increase from R760,036,000 to R959,904,000 (R200 million increase)
• Program 5: Development and Research get a shocking sharp increase from R821,904,000 to R1,214,346,000 (R392 million increase)

The cuts are in direct contrast to what the Premier promised during the SOPA. A case of talk left-walk-right.

All these programmes are of utmost importance however, thousands of poor residents on chronic medication will find themselves deprived of bare minimums like food and will struggle to take medication because there are not enough funds.

Furthermore, the poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods programme budget has more than doubled although this programme has been underspending in the past five years. The programmes that have had budget increases some of their sub-programmes have been poorly performing and not meeting the targets.

If this reprioritisation goes ahead, social welfare professionals, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, orphans and vulnerable and those living with HIV and AIDS will now suffer. However, with the newly prioritised programs which have historical non-performance, millions will be returned to the treasury due to the department’s inability to deliver on these programmes.

The DA will continue to fight against cutting down of funding to NPOs. We will use all the mechanisms at our disposal to force the department to review its reprioritisation of funds. We urge all Gauteng residents to sign the DA’s petition here to Scrap the new NPOs funding model Now!

Issued by Refiloe Nt’sekhe MPL - DA Shadow MEC for Social Development