The Gauteng Welfare, Social Service and Development Forum welcomes the announcement by Minister Pravin Gordhan in his Budget Speech that additional allocations have been made to provinces to enable them to “increase the employment of social workers and to provide additional support to non-governmental organisations which provide critical welfare services”.
 
This comes at a time when cutbacks in services to our country’s most vulnerable people have been happening on an appalling scale, and many thousands of workers in struggling non-profit organisations (NPOs) have been retrenched.
 
We do not yet know the extent of the funding which has been made available for NPO support – we sincerely hope that it is sufficient to make a real difference to the sector. It is in any case encouraging that the Minister has clearly acknowledged the need for additional funding for social welfare services. We also welcome the announcement of a municipal subsidy for all low income households, and we look forward to being provided with details of how this will work.
 
Jackie Loffell
Coordinator
Gauteng Welfare, Social Service and Development Forum
Tel: 082 454 0991
E-mail: jackiel@worldonline.co.za