The Gauteng Department of Social Development's reduction in funding to non-government organisations (NGOs) is absolutely reckless.
These are the organisations doing the work the Department is supposed to be doing.
The FF Plus requested, in a letter to the MEC for Social Development, Mbali Hlophe, and the Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi, that the decision must be reviewed.
The Department of Social Development has already failed in fulfilling its mandate and that is why these NGOs are basically doing its job.
NGOs assist those who need urgent help, like victims of violent crime and children with nowhere else to turn.
Social workers are embroiled in a daily battle to help those in need – in a vocation that does not get the credit and support they really need.
The FF Plus will pose questions to the relevant MEC about the extent of the cutbacks during the question-and-answer session in the Gauteng Legislature.
With the reduction in funding, NGO staff and social workers will end up being part of South Africa's unemployment statistics, while the people who need urgent care will be left without any support.
It must not happen.
This once again proves that the ANC does not act in the best interests of the most vulnerable in Gauteng.
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