The agency tasked with disbursing funds to combat poverty is not meeting its targets
David Macfarlane Creating the momentary impression that you’ve stepped on to the flightdeck of the Starship Enterprise, electric-blue light glows and hums in the irradiated reception area of the National Development Agency’s (NDA) elegant new offices in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Astronomically, the NDA has had R340-million during the past year for channelling to non-profit organisations in their fight against poverty. Yet it has disbursed less than a tenth of that and cash-strapped, embattled NGOs around the country are angry, bewildered and despairing. One of the country’s oldest NGOs working in adult education submitted its funding application two years ago, and has not even had a date set for assessment of its application. It has had to resort to retrenchments, and surviving staff have had no salary increases for four years. Sources say they know of no NGO in adult education that has received any funding at all from the NDA in the past six months. And the sector is reeling from years of underfunding. About 280 adult education NGOs were operating in 1997; about 60 remain. Astoundingly, nearly R50-million of European Union money, donated in August last year, has remained in the NDA’s bank account since. As a result, a further R66-million pledged by the EU remains in EU hands. The NDA received R190-million from the government and R100-million from the Independent Development Trust during the past year. Established by an Act of Parliament, the NDA says its primary aim is “the eradication of poverty and its causes, and [to] strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations in combating poverty”. It specifies four areas of operation. By far the largest number of applications for funding fall in the field of education and training, which includes adult education, early childhood development, gender awareness and human rights education. The other three areas are health (including HIV/Aids awareness and domestic violence), economic development (including skills training and agricultural development) and rural (including rural local government and land reform). The scale of the problem South Africa faces in eradicating poverty is starkly reflected in appalling literacy and adult education statistics. Almost half of the country’s adults are illiterate, 32% of adults have less than a grade seven education, and 16% of adults have no schooling at all. The need for adult education is likely to grow, given the high numbers of children who do not attend school at all, and the poor quality of schooling for many who do. Because government funding to address these problems is miniscule, donor funding remains critically important and will do so for many years. So the NDA’s role is pivotal if the country is ever to address the plight of the millions whose lives are blighted by poverty.
It started operating in April last year, taking over from the Transitional National Development Trust (TNDT) established in 1996 in response to the early Nineties’ NGO funding crisis as international donor funds dried up. Yet observers comment that the TNDT, with far fewer funds at its disposal, managed to disburse greater sums than the NDA has so far achieved. “The TNDT delivered, which is something the NDA has proven itself unable to do, even with the same staff, who are now leaving or have left in droves,” says one Mail &Guardian source, closely familiar with NDA operations, who places the blame squarely on NDA management and its CEO, Dr Thoahlane Thoahlane. “He has no management skills, no management experience, a poor leadership style, and his own directors have difficulty with him. He’s inexperienced in the field, and the staff he appoints don’t have adequate track records in developmental areas.” “It’s just whites who are complaining,” counters Thoahlane. “They see this sector as their heritage, and have now lost out. We need to discuss this in more depth.” Questioned on details of the NDA business plan submitted to the Department of Finance in July, Thoahlane showed some unfamiliarity with the plan. “I have to read this [plan] just like you,” he said. “I wasn’t [working for the NDA] when it was written.” Asked whether the NDA had in its first year met its commitment to an uninterrupted grant-making function, Thoahlane replied, “Yes,” in apparent contradiction not only of multiple NGOs who complained to the M&G but of the NDA’s own figures. These show that the R33-million the NDA says it has disbursed falls light years short of the R150-million it committed itself to disbursing in its first year but Thoahlane declined to answer why this is so. He also claimed “the R50-million [donated by the EU] has not yet been allocated because there were conditions attached to it”. Referring to “logistical problems experienced at the EU headquarters in Brussels”, he said the matter is “outside the hands of the NDA”. But the NDA says it is about to move to high-speed mode. Only 400 or so applications for funding remain unassessed compared with 4 500 by the middle of last year. Thoahlane also says decentralising, which will shortly establish NDA offices in each province, “will assist to accelerate disbursement”.
“The NDA must tell us why there are delays,” says one dismayed NGO staffer. “We don’t understand. Everyone’s looking to the NDA for money and not getting it. There’s a sense of disaster in the [NGO] sector.” Beam the money down, Dr T.