After years of mismanagement, the Gauteng Department of Social Development is imploding. Organisations that depend on the department’s subsidies to help poor people, elderly people, people with disabilities, children and women are suffering, while audits into irregularities at the department drag on.
Led by social development MEC Mbali Hlophe, who is also the MEC for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, the department, which has a budget of R5.46-billion, is facing one crisis after another.
Organisations which serve more than 30,000 people and employ at least 285 people, and which have received subsidies for years, are not receiving their funding. The budget for transfers to non-profit organisations is R223-million less this year than last year.
Beside the budget cuts, there have been catastrophic delays in the adjudication of funding applications. This means some organisations have had to close or retrench staff and downscale services. Shelters for women who have survived violence have had to close their doors. Food banks that distribute parcels to thousands of people are facing challenges and at least one food bank has closed, with thousands of undistributed parcels still inside.
Meanwhile, money seems to be going in strange directions. GroundUp reported earlier this year that The Beauty Hub, which offers hair and beauty treatment training, received almost R64-million in grants from the department in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years.
And even as the department is imploding and its budget is cut, it has moved to take over child adoption services from organisations that have been providing this service. Yet National Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu recently told News24 that the government does not have the capacity to process adoptions alone and needs to continue to support organisations; starkly contrasting with the view of the Gauteng government.