Reply by member of the Executive Council for Social Development Ms Nandi Mayathula-Khoza in the Legislator to Member Surepan on the Non-Payment of NPOs
Honourable speaker
If one is heartless, nothing can ever give such a person compassion. Merciless people thrive on the misery of others. The utterances of member Surepan on the delayed payment of NPOs make him a perfect specimen of this type of individuals.
The Gauteng Department of Social Development experienced delays relating to the first quarter tranche payment of the NPOs for the financial year 2017/18 due to the national strike of social workers. Whilst this was a protected, legitimate and genuine strike to demand worker rights, it affected service delivery in this and other provinces. Due to short notice, very little alternative plans were put in place and I have instructed the Department to plan better in future. Vulnerable children and the frail elderly people were negatively affected at government institutions and thousands more were placed in harm’s way as the Service Level Agreements of the NPOs they rely on for survival were destroyed or simply couldn’t be processed.
It was only during the last week of April that the office of the CFO received these SLAs from various regions to be processed for funding. The
MEC informed NPO's about eminent delays during our stakeholder engagement with them during the strike and they all understood the situation. The DA knew about the effects of the national strike, but nevertheless chose to turn a blind eye to these facts opting rather to be drama queens who threw tantrums on a dire situation.
Fortunately, as a caring government led by the ANC in Gauteng we are focused specifically on the genuine concerns of the people. We pay particular attention to alleviating problems of the poor and the vulnerable. We did all we can to fast track the payment of NPOs and to minimise disruption to their services.
A special arrangement was made with the Provincial Treasury to process NPO’s payments run on a daily basis, (these are usually done once a week), to ensure that validated SLAs by Financial Accounting Directorate are paid within a reasonable period.
Financial Accounting Directorate received 2 259 SLAs as at 31 May 2017 and 2 233 were successfully paid at the same period. The balance of 126 will have their money in their bank accounts by tomorrow.
Furthermore, contrary to untruths by member Surepan, Abraham Kriel was paid R1, 278, 808 on 16 May 2017, GPAPD was paid R100, 140 on 16 May 2017, St Mary's was paid R578, 355 on 16 May 2017, San Salvador was paid R315, 935 on 17 May 2017. All NPOs were paid in the last quarter. No NPO remained unpaid for a period exceeding 4 months.
It is shameless for the DA to use legitimate concerns of vulnerable and destitute people of Gauteng to mislead and to isolate them from the Provincial Government. It is irresponsible and downright disgusting.
Let me confirm that as opposed to false claims as made by member Sarupen on behalf of the DA, there were no NPOs that were not paid for 4 months as we just entered the third month of the first quarter. All these affected NPOs were paid within 6 weeks from commencement of new Financial Year. In future Member Sarupan, do your constituency work correctly, so that you avoid coming here to mislead the house and the people of Gauteng.
I thank you Madam Speaker.
