Orphanages in Gauteng that rely on financial support in the form of provincial subsidies to keep their doors open and to daily care for homeless children have, for the last month, been in the dark after the payment of subsidies by the Gauteng Department of Social Development for the 2018/19 financial year was delayed.
These orphanages were consequently unable to pay their water and electricity bills and so various municipalities suspended service delivery to these orphanages. The institutions were also unable to purchase food and many children had to go hungry.
Employees’ salaries were also affected. Some of the institutions came to the FF Plus for help to get the subsidies paid out to them.
On the 25th of May 2018, the FF Plus’s MPL in Gauteng, Mr Philip van Staden, contacted the office of the MEC for Social Development in Gauteng, Mayathula-Khoza, and the Department immediately took action to address the problem. All the orphanages in Gauteng were contacted straight away and instructed to sign their contracts for 2018/19 so that the payments could be made.
Initially, all the funds would have been paid out by the 4th of June 2018, but that did not happen. This past Tuesday during a Gauteng Legislature session, the FF Plus once again spoke to the MEC about the problems with the payment of the subsidies. The MEC indicated that she was hard at work to solve the problems and assured the FF Plus that the funds would be paid out soon.
This morning, the FF Plus got word that the payments have been made and some of the orphanages also informed the FF Plus that they have received proof of the payments made by the Department and that the funds already reflect in the respective accounts.
The problems that caused the delay in payment included, among other things, that some of the contracts were not signed and in the cases where the contracts were indeed signed, additional documentation was required. Various institutions also had problems with their audits.
What is disturbing is the fact that the Department of Social Development did not communicate with the orphanages in order to resolve the problems. The orphanages were only contacted after the FF Plus spoke to the office of the MEC.
The FF Plus hopes that the MEC and the Department will in the future better communicate with the orphanages in Gauteng so as to solve problems with the payment of subsidies faster and that the children will not have to live with the fear that the orphanages will close their doors.
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