Lisa Vetten | What Life Esidimeni and Gauteng’s late payment of NGOs have in common
Eight years after Life Esidimeni, we are, yet again, experiencing the devastating consequences of the Gauteng government paying NGO subsidies late — or not at all writes the author.
The Gauteng health department's late payment of subsidies compounded this. For weeks, they had no money to buy food, resulting in malnutrition and hunger, strongly contributing to many of the patients’ slow deaths.In this case, it's not a specific group of people who have to bear the brunt, but rather the system that offers help to people who need social protection.
Decision-making powers were withdrawn from the five regional offices and centralised in the provincial office, which then took control of all 1 700 applications for funding. With no experience in handling these matters, and without the necessary systems in place at the provincial office, the process congealed in a chaotic muddle, worsened by budget cuts.
Nonprofit projects help to create hoped-for worlds for people who have none. Many of these projects are also a labour of love. To discover that these worlds, and those who live in them, were both expendable and redundant when the welfare organisations didn't get their funding caused its own kind of injury.
In line with this policy, services must also be costed and budgeted for, as organisations' funding has not been increased since 2022. This would both recognise the value of NGOs' work and ensure that the people they support get the quality of help they deserve.Public administration is not glamorous. But when used well, it has real power to get money to the right places and people and so fix inequalities and the shortcomings they create.
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