Newcastle’s NPO’s face closure

While many residents are already hanging up tinsel and planning a festive feast, the town’s disabled, mentally challenged, destitute, abused and neglected face homelessness as non-profits organisations (NPO) prepare for inevitable shut down.

Nil Desperandum, the Crisis Centre, Sanca, Peter Pan créche, and Raphah are among the NPOs that have taken immense financial strain following failure of the Department of Social Development (DSD) to pay grant money for more than five months.

This despite a service level agreement between DSD and the NPOs being in place and the money being allocated a year in advance.

A common complaint among all NPOs is the fact that paperwork submitted to DSD was regularly being lost. Despite the fact that DSD officials sign for documents they receive, they often claim that these documents were never submitted.

St Anthony’s orphanage and La Gratitude are also believed to be affected.

An invitation to DSD to have a representative attend an emergency meeting with the various NPOs on Thursday was not honoured, and without a hasty resolution within sight, many NPOs will regretfully be forced to close their doors, leaving the town’s most vulnerable residents to fend for themselves.

Eleanor van der Westhuizen said letters would be sent out to the families of Nil Desperandum residents this week, advising them of the financial dilemma the organisation now faces and urging them to take their relatives home until the matter is resolved. Those residents whose family members cannot accommodate them will be dropped off at the DSD offices, where social workers will have to find suitable accommodation for them.

“I am afraid for the patients. Many of them are mentally unstable and this is going to cause unnecessary tension and stress for them, but without the funds required to run the place, what can we do?” asked Mrs van der Westhuizen.

Mary Dobbie of the Crisis Centre warned that, while there were not many incidents of domestic violence reported in December when people were in a festive mood, cases dramatically increase in January when the people come to realise that they have overspent, but still have bills to pay. However, the Crisis Centre has also not received the grant funding that it requires to pay its running costs.

Ruth Lovelock, who spoke on behalf of Thembelihle Children’s Shelter, said that while her running costs, water, electricity and food, were constant, DSD was two months behind on its payment to the shelter.

Jacky Shongwe, the principal of the Peter Pan créche, which affords the school readiness programme to children whose parents cannot afford school fees, said she had driven to the DSD regional offices in Ladysmith for assistance. Her attempts to address the issue of non-payment in person, however, also proved fruitless.

“At the Ladysmith offices, it was chaos. The phones were ringing but weren’t being answered. We struggled to find anybody to help us because people were not in their offices. Eventually, I found my way to the finance offices. It took the staff about half an hour to locate the correct paperwork, and then we were told that all the paperwork was in order and had been stamped and that all that was left for our payment to be processed. I reported back to Newcastle and told the manager that the paperwork was in order and the payment would be processed. Months later, we still haven’t been paid and when my manager called to find out what was going on, they told her that they had never said that the paperwork had been finalised. It ended up being a case of my word against theirs,” explained Mrs Shongwe.

Mrs Lovelock said her biggest concern with regards to non-payment from DSD is that no one could account for where the money was going.

“We have an agreement with DSD and the money is budgeted for in advance, so if it is not coming to us, where is it going? Another concern is the shocking attitudes of DSD officials. They are unwilling to help and laugh off our complaints,” she said.

Mrs van der Westhuizen agreed, “They seem to have a slapdash attitude that gives me the impression that this is just a job to them. To us it’s not just a job, we really love what we do and the people we take care of become like an extension of our own families.”

“The Newcastle public really supports us. They are truly fantastic, but why should they always reach into their pockets to keep us afloat when our clients are also clients of Social Development and taxpayers’ money is allocated to this? Where is the money going?” asked Mrs Dobbie. “We have the passion. We have the empathy in our hearts, We don’t want to withdraw our services because we love what we do. We just need the resources.”

Sonja Luus of Raphah said she has never been successful in obtaining funds from DSD.

“In the last six years, we had 800 destitute people through our doors. We have touched the lives of about 60 000 people through our outreach project which includes soup kitchens and planting community gardens. Our expenses are high and we only get by, living hand to mouth, due to the support of the community,” said Mrs Luus.

Thembelihle is home to 41 children who would otherwise be on the street.

“DSD is two months behind with our payments. The worst case scenario, is that we will be forced close our doors and all these children will end up back in the children’s court,” said Mrs Lovelock.

Peter Pan créche cater for 43 children, most of whom would otherwise be roaming the streets of Siyahlala-la informal settlement.

While SANCA does have some reserve funding, officials said even their reserves were being depleted.

“We rely on the subsidy from DSD. We cater for 50 patients a month, but reach up to 5 000 people with our awareness campaigns. If we do not receive our subsidy soon, staff members may lose their jobs because we won’t have the funds to pay them,” said Naseem Gauy.

Nil Desperandum is home to 25 mentally and physically challenged residents whose families do not have the necessary skills to cater for their special needs. At the home, they receive abundant care, shelter and love.

The Newcastle Crisis Centre takes in between 30 and 40 clients every month, and Mrs Dobbie fears that DSD’s failure to pay subsidies will result in staff losing their jobs and, ultimately, closure of the facility.

“What will happen to us without DSD’s support? Do I turn away children who are battered and bruised and leave them in the streets? What will happen to the rape victim who has nowhere to go, or the domestic violence victim who has three children who doesn’t know what to do? With the great support from the community, we could probably still manage to feed the women and children at the Crisis Centre, but how do we pay our water and lights account? How do we tell a rape victim who comes in that she can’t have a hot shower and restore some of her dignity? The funding situation is dire and the public needs to know about what’s happening at DSD,” said Mrs Dobbie.

Bishop Sandy Dickie berated Government for making poor policy decisions, which contributed to social problems.

“The Government is reducing the age for consensual sex to 12 years. This means that there will be even more parents out there with no means to support their children, and more children in the system. We need to change Government policy to be more moral, instead of giving in to moral degeneration. Society is imploding, and here DSD is strangling the very people who can help,” he said.

The information contained in the above article was e-mailed to Lumka Oliphant, the media enquiries manager to Department of Social Development minister, Bathabile Dlamini, on Tuesday for comment.