Springs Child Welfare in dire need of funding

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a petition in favour of social workers at the Springs and KwaThema Child Welfare Society who have not been paid for two months.

The DA recently visited the society, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, in order to determine the effect chronic under-funding by government has on services to children.

Gauteng MP Michael Waters says according to the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD), the total budget for the society is R4 500 108-million per annum, R1 034 734-m of which is subsidised by government.

This results in a shortfall of R3 465 374-m per annum or 77%.

The society has five social workers, who each deal with nearly 200 cases.

This is 150% more than the maximum 80 cases they should be dealing with, as stipulated by the DSD.

They also have three auxiliary social workers, and between the eight of them, they have four vehicles – two of which are in working order.

The under-funding by the DSD and the fact that the quarterly subsidy, which was supposed to have been paid in April, but has still has not been paid, has led to the social workers not receiving their salaries for two months.

If and when the subsidy does come in, the society will be able to pay their bills for two months, after which they will be faced with the current predicament.

In addition to high workloads, social workers are only subsidised by the DSD to the value of R9 396 per month.

Waters alleges that social workers in the DSD start on a salary of R13 000 per month.

“The government needs to relook at its funding model and stop funding posts but rather fund programmes.”

Another factor currently affecting services to children is the fact that all Child Protection Organisations in the Springs, Brakpan and Nigel areas have still not been registered by the DSD, resulting in the fact that they can no longer go to court and remove children.

The accreditation was supposed to have been finalised by 30 April.

In order to help the society, the DA has launched a petition which can be signed online at www.petitions24.com/east_rand_child_welfare

“We intend to hand the petition to Parliament, as well as send a copy to the South African Human Rights Commission demanding that the government subsidises the society in full for services that the government must provide by law,” Waters concludes.

Comment requested from the DSD had not been received at the time of going to print.