The North West MEC for Social Development has conceded that the shortage of social workers has had an adverse result in various sectors of the society across the province.The department MEC, Basetsana Dantjie, told YOUFM Newshour special broadcast last night that the situation is exacerbated by lack of enough funding from the National Department.
“It is true, I must admit but remember this is not the North West problem, other provinces are also suffering the similar challenges that are mostly aggravated by lack of funding. In the province, we are facing a budget shortfall this financial year. At least the Free State has successfully intervened but other provinces like ours are still battling to be honest,” said Dantjie.
The MEC said the matter has been escalated to Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, in trying to come up with solutions to the challenge.Dantjie was speaking to YOUFM Newshour after leading a high impact service delivery programme dubbed ‘Re thuse, Re go thuse’ at Robega village outside Rustenburg.
“This is our resolve to bring integrated services to our people. We have government departments and their entities including SASSA which is spearheading this outreach programme. Rural communities have benefited from this initiative and intend to reach other vulnerable communities before the end of the financial year,” remarked Dantjie.
Meanwhile, the MEC has undertaken to continue assisting struggling non-profit organisations (NPOs) to remain compliant to avert the possibility of being deregistered from the provincial database.“There are acts that regulate the registration of NPOs, such as Act 71 which is clear as to who you are intending to assist through your NPO, whether its children, old people or people living with disabilities. Now after successfully registering the NPO and it’s approved by the department you can now begin to make your applications for funding which is a separate process on its own,” explained the MEC.
She warned that the department would not hesitate to shut down non-compliant NPOs.
“There’s another NPO in Maboloka in Brits, at the Madibeng Local Municipality, which we had to shut down earlier this year due to non-compliance. During our oversight visit to the NPO we found that it is unfortunately not compliant, there were no security, and we also received heartbreaking stories of sexual harassment and murder amongst others. That was done after consultation with the local tribal authority and the families of the affected members who were housed at the shelter managed by the NPO,” said the MEC.
In addition, Dantjie urged all NPOs to ensure that they subject themselves to the Auditor-General’s guidelines and their financial books are audited annually.
“What the Auditor-General has told us so far is that most of our NPOs are misappropriating their funds. What we are doing as the department is to remind them that they (NPOs) are not personal property, NPO is not a cooperative and it’s not a business but a community project, so NPO’s funds must be properly,” concluded Dantjie.
