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By Thami Magubane, Karen Singh 
4h ago
Durban – The Department of Social Development has named and shamed organizations for failing to deliver food parcels to thousands of hungry people during the national lockdown.
He singled out non-profit organizations (NPOs) Healing Peps – Midlands Cluster, Widowed Woman of South Africa (WWOSA) – Ulundi Cluster, Insikazi Foundation – Pietermaritzburg and eThekwini clusters, as responsible for the failure.
These NPOs were responsible for supplying food to poor people throughout the province.
Last week, during a heated two-day exchange between members of the social development portfolio committee and officials, it emerged that the department had delivered food packages to only 1,025 communities during the shutdown between July and August.
The department had purchased food parcels worth 25 million rand, which were supposed to be delivered in baskets to more than 176,000 people in those two months.
Then the department officials were summoned to the meeting where each of the districts was summoned to explain their failure. Each group was asked to explain what they had done to distribute the packages.
The department said it had received a total of 88,450 legitimate applications and deserving cases from social workers.
In a statement yesterday, KZN Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza said they had instituted a formal investigation into the failure of non-profit organizations to deliver Distress Relief (SRD) to needy communities in the province.
“The investigation will determine the circumstances surrounding the payment to NPOs to provide this critical service, but (who are) now claiming that their coffers have been depleted due to operating costs.”
The department said that during this quarter it allocated an amount of 25 million rand for SRD. However, during the engagements between the MEC and the departmental management, the NPOs mentioned lack of capacity as one of the reasons why they were unable to meet demand.
“We have taken a tough stance against corruption and demand clean governance. Our obligation as members of the executive is to ensure that public funds are properly managed. The time for people to get away with mismanagement and abuse of public funds should come to an end, ”Khoza said.
The department said it had even allocated assets to nonprofits, such as bakkies, trucks, forklifts, and gas cards to deliver SRDs.
Khoza said she was concerned about the inconsistency of accountability officials working closely with NPOs to provide such services to those in need.
“It is impossible that the department could pay such a large amount of money to benefit poor and needy communities, but only to be told that (the money) was exhausted without presenting any evidence portfolio.
“We cannot accept that the SRD has only reached a few beneficiaries, but the funds were already exhausted. These NPOs, along with responsible officials, must provide us with proof of where and when the food was delivered.
“The investigation will get to the bottom of this matter so that we can rid the department of mismanagement complaints and focus on serving the people,” he said.
The director of the nonprofit Healing Peps, who did not want to be named, said last night that it was the first time he had heard about the investigation. He said the NPO had presented an evidence binder to the auditor late last month.
“The money has not run out. The stock is full in the warehouse and we are still busy supplying (food packages), ”he said. He added that he was not sure where the idea had come from that the money allocated to Healing Peps had run out. She said that the investigation does not concern her because she presented bank statements and proof of delivery of the vouchers.
Healing Peps provided vouchers in the form of food packages to more than 3,000 beneficiaries. She said they had experienced challenges in terms of the ability to get the packages to the beneficiaries.
“The department has provided us with some motor vehicles, but their capacity cannot always cope with the supplies that are going to be delivered.” He said the department had recently offered to help speed up the delivery of vouchers. The names of the recipients, delivery times and location come from the department, he added.
“We always do what the department tells us to do. There has not been a day that we have not submitted an application. “
The Mercury
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