Barberton SPCA to close after 36 years – here’s why

The saying “too little too late” has never carried more weight than now, at the end of the Barberton SPCA’s 36-year history.

Time and time again it was mentioned how close the agency came to its breaking point, and it finally reached it.

As its present facility needs to be demolished and vacated by February 28, the Barberton SPCA will no longer render services to its local and surrounding communities from February 23.

The reason for the closure is multifaceted, but first and foremost, it is due to a severe lack of funds for some time now.

The second reason is the lack of a new property, as the SPCA was told early last year that it would have to vacate the current one.

As reported previously by Lowvelder, the City of Mbombela (CoM) owes the Lowveld SPCA (consisting of the Nelspruit, White River and Barberton branches) over R3m for the 2019/20 financial year, not to mention the 2020/21 one.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) existed between CoM and the Lowveld SPCA during this period, which stipulates both parties’ responsibilities in relation to each other.

In this agreement, the responsibility of managing and maintaining the pounds in these respective towns was transferred from the CoM to these SPCAs. In turn, these SPCAs are supposed to receive money from the CoM.

Note the term “existed” here. This agreement expired on July 27 last year and has yet to be renewed. The Lowveld SPCA has been trying to set up a meeting or even just get some answers to its emails regarding both the money owed and the expired agreement.

The chairperson of the White River SPCA, Estelle de Villiers, even hand-delivered another copy of the Lowveld SPCA’s financial documents after the first set of documents had been lost in the CFO’s offices in the municipality.

This was in December – she has not heard from the municipality since.

Getting back to the Barberton branch specifically, even if it received its share of the money owed, it would still be in need of a new property.

Once again, the municipality features.

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The Barberton SPCA secretary, Marlies Liebenberg, said the CoM was approached through the Umjindi office’s town planning section to identify a suitable municipal property to move the kennels to.

“This was found some 120 metres from the present location and an official application was made and paid for.

“The application was finally acknowledged by the city planning and development section of the municipality on September 6, 2021, mentioning a moratorium and process to be followed.”

No response or feedback had been received since.

A decision had to be made. The Barberton SPCA could no longer continue down this road with no money and nowhere to go. There are processes that need to be followed for a closure, starting with settling accounts, cancelling services and much more besides; this could not be delayed any longer.

“Without the outstanding MoU funding and with just a very small local income base, we are the first casualty,” said Liebenberg.

“It is indeed sad that because of this impasse regarding a small piece of land and negotiated funding, the whole of the former Umjindi area is now deprived of a free charity service to not only better the lives of animals, but those of the thousands of community members in this area as well.”

When word spread that Barberton would be closing its doors, the response on social media was immense, ranging from anger towards the municipality to sadness for the animals that will suffer as a result.

Naturally, the remaining SPCAs will be forced to pick up the pieces.

According to De Villiers, who is now also the acting regional chairperson, the Nelspruit SPCA will be hit the hardest as it is the closest to Barberton under the jurisdiction of Mbombela.

“White River will be less affected geographically; however, we will offer all the support we can.”

Barberton’s jurisdiction stretched as far as Kaapmuiden, eManzana and even on occasion Komatipoort. Nelspruit already services a large area, and provides aid in Lydenburg, Graskop, Waterval Boven and Machadodorp.

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Nelspruit’s chairperson, Lize Pienaar, said they have two trainee inspectors and one field assistant. These people deal with complaints, emergencies and most importantly, routine inspections.

“We will never be able to fill the gap Barberton is leaving because of the distance and the lack of staff.”

She said they would do their best to prevent animals’ unnecessary suffering, but that the public also needs to be patient – it is going to be difficult to get to everything.

“The closure of the Barberton SPCA is a huge setback for animal welfare.”

Luckily, mere days before its closure, Barberton currently has only four dogs in need of homes. This could change leading up to February 23, though, but staff are hoping this will not be the case.

In future, no adoptions will be made in Barberton as there will be no animal welfare society in town any longer.

Nor will Barberton residents be allowed to do adoptions outside town. This is a requirement by law.

One could see the frustration and sadness the employees at the Barberton kennels felt on Monday for the loss of a place in which they had invested so much of their lives.

Among all the bad that comes with this job, though, they will all remember the feeling of seeing a dog become something out of nothing before their eyes.

“Of nothing, you make a dog,” said Richmond Sibande, remembering the countless times a rescue pulled through thanks to their intervention.

Lana Renken, the kennel manager, said she has a special place in her heart for the people she worked with there.

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“We had tears and laughter, and we fought.” The closure is a particular hard blow to her. Not only will she be retrenched, but she was also recently diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She is planning on fighting it hard with the support of those around her, however.

According to Liebenberg, if by some miracle a new Barberton SPCA is established, they will gladly act as advisers in the matter. This is a time for new blood to step in.

Lastly, another element in this story materialised in the form of Jar-sa.com. The company describes itself as brand ambassadors for non-profit organisations.

Unfortunately, if its planned aid realises, it will not be able to save the Barberton SPCA from its imminent closure in time. It might, however, help with setting up a few accounts and afterwards putting money towards getting a Barberton SPCA up and running again.

More details on the fundraiser will soon follow.

The municipality has yet to respond to Lowvelder’s queries regarding all the above matters.

Do you have more information about the story?

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