Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing hospice and home care for HIV/Aids patients in Gauteng are struggling because of late payment by the Department of Health, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
”Some of these NGOs have not been paid for almost four months,” said spokesperson Jack Bloom.
He said the organisations, some of which were supposed to receive their grants on April 1, complained that they got nothing from the department, despite continuing with their help.
”Their grants have also been severely reduced, which adds to the crisis that they face in trying to help Aids patients.”
The Edenvale Care Centre, for instance, had its grant slashed from R620 000 to R320 000, he said.
St Francis Care Centre in Boksburg was supposed to get R511 000, down from R1,5-million last year, ”but even this has not been received”.
”NGOs in Tembisa are threatening to toyi-toyi to get the money,” said Bloom, adding that the department must resolve the matter urgently as it threatened the worthy efforts of these NGOs.
Spokesperson for the Gauteng health department Simon Zwane said the NGOs were paid.
”They are just unhappy because the money was less than what they got last year,” said Zwane.
He said the reason for the reduction was that the money allocated by the national department was also reduced.
”We also had to cater for new NGOs this year,” he said. — Sapa