Limpopo’s health and social development department has finally agreed to pay subsidies to victim-empowerment organisations in the province, after the Mail & Guardian revealed that some had not been paid in full since the Âbeginning of the year.
However, one of the province’s biggest welfare organisations, the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Programme (TVEP), faces closure because of a lack of funding.
Minutes of a meeting between the national and Limpopo health departments and Vhembe Victim Empowerment Organisations on September 28, of which the M&G has a copy, show that the district agreed to pay six organisations which submitted funding proposals earlier this year.
Department spokesperson Nthele Motsepe confirmed that the Mutale, Watervaal, Levubu, Makhado, Mphepu and Khaku programmes were all paid out this month.
“The delays were due to non-compliance on their part,” Motsepe said.
However, the TVEP, which deals with about 500 rape victims a year and conducts public awareness campaigns about Aids and domestic violence for about 7000 more, will not receive government funding for the 2010-2011 financial year.
“We didn’t apply because the district didn’t call for applications,” said programme director Fiona Nicholson.
But Norman ÂAzwindini, the secretary of the Vhembe Victim Empowerment Programme, said an announcement had been made in the local media and at a Âsubsequent workshop.
Nicholson said that the TVEP employed a staff of 70, of whom 23 went unpaid last month.