28 July 2026
Some welfare organisations have been unable to pay their staff this financial year. Illustration: Lisa Nelson
Lifeline Vaal, which has provided life-saving services to some of Gauteng’s most vulnerable residents for 44 years, has not been able to pay its staff since April because the provincial Department of Social Development has not paid subsidies. Many staff members are unable to afford food, rent or transport.
The organisation is among several that have not been paid this financial year, which started in April.
Some organisations are not being paid due to compliance issues that they say are nearly impossible to fix due to bureaucracy; others have been approved for funding, but their budgets have been cut so dramatically that it is unfeasible to operate; and many organisations are yet to be issued with service agreements.
The Gauteng Care Crisis Committee (GCCC), a voluntary association of more than 500 organisations, estimates that tens of thousands of beneficiaries and hundreds of jobs are at risk.
The department’s tabled budget for non-profit organisations for 2026/27 is R1.98-billion – about R495-million per quarter. The department paid out R422-million in quarter 1 (April-June). As of 24 July, R200-million has been paid out in quarter 2, according to spokesperson Motsomai Motlhaolwa.
This contradicts an earlier social media post by the department stating that the budget was R1.8-billion, of which R1.04-billion had been paid out.
In a statement, the GCCC claimed the department has overrun its budget and does not have sufficient money to honour all its contracts with organisations.
Motlhaolwa denied this, saying the department “has not stopped paying NPOs”.
Motlhaolwa said that contracted organisations that have not been paid since April are experiencing “challenges of compliance on their side.”
Lifeline Vaal has been told by the department that they will not receive their funding until all staff members are vetted against the National Register for Sexual Offenders and the Child Protection Register, as is required by law.
Colleen Rogers, the organisation’s director, explained that the vetting process, which is done by SAPS, has been costly, slow and inefficient.
The organisation was able to raise R7,500 for some of the vetting fees. One of the organisation’s board members applied for vetting in November last year, and waited until March. When they received the document, it was a firearm licence and not the sexual offences clearance.
The organisation received subsidies from the department in previous years while the vetting was ongoing. Rogers believes the department is now using the vetting process as “an excuse” for non-payment.
The organisation’s programmes include the only registered shelter for abused women and children in Sedibeng, a 24/7 Thuthuzela medico-legal centre that supports 80 sexual and domestic violence victims every month, and community awareness and psychosocial care services that reached more than 150,000 people last year.
SANCA Thusong, an outpatient centre for the treatment of substance use disorder, received approval letters saying their programmes would be funded. But only when they were called in to sign contracts in late April, almost a month after the start of the financial year, did they discover that their organisation’s funding had been cut by more than half, by about R1.3-million, making it unfeasible to continue operating.
The organisation appealed the budget but has not received an outcome of the appeal. It was forced to close its doors on 25 May after its resources were “completely depleted”. The organisation’s Elosine Aucamp said that 52 staff members have gone unpaid and “are struggling to make ends meet”.
The centre assisted 2,076 outpatients last year, but hundreds of patients are now “hanging in the air” without treatment, said Aucamp.
Ekupholeni Mental Health and Trauma Centre has received funding from the provincial government since 1997. In 2025/26, it provided 24-hour post-rape care and victim empowerment services to over 4,000 people. But it has not yet received official feedback on its application for funding this year. The organisation’s 100 workers have been unpaid since April.
Director Nolusindiso Mhlauli-Mzimela said that department officials have contacted them several times in the past two weeks to arrange signing a contract for this year but keep rescheduling.
