Thembisa Shologu
The Gauteng Provincial Government has reaffirmed its commitment to continue to protect and support the Non-profit Organisation (NPO) sector to ensure it functions to its optimum level.
During an engagement with the sector on issues affecting them and impacting on their mandate of delivering social services on behalf of government at the Johannesburg City Hall on Wednesday, Premier Panyaza Lesufi appreciated their selflessness in serving the poor, weak and the vulnerable communities.
On Tuesday, Premier Lesufi had a meeting with the leadership sector where issues were raised including a lack of communication and response from the department, budget cuts that make it impossible for them to execute their mandate, challenges around the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and outstanding payments.
“It is very important that we reaffirm the commitment to support this sector. We resolve that all matters that are related to the SLA in particular the 70/30 split that clause is immediately suspended and other clause(S) the sector feels need to be reviewed.
“After analysing your concerns and worries, we are taking back your budget from R1.8 billion to R2.4 billion, that is a decision we have taken,” said Lesufi.
He however cautioned the sector that due to a high number of applications, NPOs might not get the 100% they want.
A tripartite technical team including the leadership of this sector, the Department of Finance and the Department of Social Development will be immediately established to sort out all the SLAs including the dates on when payments would be made so that the sector can plan appropriately and correctly.
This process will take 21 days.
Social Development Acting Head of Department Bongani Ngomane said: “I want to clarify the programme going forward, firstly payment has started and we agreed as the department that we will start with programmes two and three, meaning programme four and five will receive payments later.
“We are starting with two and three because those are life and death programmes. Those are 24 hours programmes, they include shelter, children’s homes and old age and disability homes so that is what we will do.”
Ngomane urged NPOs to follow-up after submitting signed SLAs with a call or a WhatsApp message.
The department has setup a call centre and over and above that as from Wednesday there will be an enquiry centre in all its regional offices for people to get more clarity.
“We have taken a decision as the department that every end of the quarter we will have such engagements with yourselves so that we hear from you, we get feedback, and we avoid crisis meetings.
“All your issues have been noted and we are going to develop an action plan and the action plan will be reported on those quarterly meetings and we track progress,” he assured NPOs.
SOURCED FROM THE GPG WEBSITE.
