SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SAVES JOBS OF HIV & AIDS WORKERS IN NPO @KASIBC_NEWS
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT SAVES JOBS OF HIV & AIDS WORKERS IN NPO @KASIBC_NEWS
The department indicates that following reductions in the HIV & AIDS Programme, they have had to adjust operations, and these changes will not affect those receiving psycho-social services from orphan and vulnerable children and youth organisations, as well as home and community care-based centres contracted to the department.
This follows advice from Gauteng Social Development MEC Faith Mazibuko that there must be no reduction in the number of NPOs funded in the sector and that there must be no job losses. The department will continue to pay the salaries of social and auxiliary workers, community carers, and child and youth care workers who operate within the NPOs to provide psycho-social support services to vulnerable groups.
Additionally, over the years, the department has intentionally invested in strengthening human resource capacity for the provision of psycho-social services as added capacity. As a result, community carers have been given opportunities to either be trained or undergo RPL, enabling them to provide PSS services.
To date, the aforementioned social services professionals, i.e., auxiliary child and youth care workers and social auxiliary workers, operate within NPOs and are registered as such with the South African Council for Social Services Professionals.
It is believed that the HR capacity in organisations may sufficiently render services to people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS, including vulnerable groups, as funded and contracted by the department.
It has also been announced that as a result of budget cuts and streamlining of operations, all food parcels will now be distributed through the department’s food distribution centres managed by the Sustainable Livelihoods Development Directorate.
Food distribution centres are fully experienced in providing food parcels to food-insecure households, which includes the provision of short-term relief. The department has also developed standard operating procedures and guidelines to ensure that the processes are well-coordinated.
The department is still ensuring that the most vulnerable groups have access to services. The SOPs prioritise households with no source of income or benefits from any available government support. Furthermore, the department aims to ensure that food parcels do not serve as the only support provided and that vulnerable households, when appropriately capacitated, can transform their livelihoods.
Through the identification of change agents, the vulnerability of such households may be reduced. People should not rely on receiving assistance indefinitely but should be capacitated accordingly. The HCBC programme would benefit from this, noting that there have been minimal exit opportunities for food parcel beneficiaries unless the sector can demonstrate otherwise.
The collaboration between HIV & AIDS and sustainable livelihoods serves the best interest of the beneficiaries; there will be linkages with development plans and skills development as part of exit strategies. This is further outlined in the SOP to manage such a transition. It is also anticipated that the sector would welcome such initiatives and provide additional input on how to sustain this developmental agenda.
The budget cuts across government departments were abrupt and certainly did not allow the department sufficient time for intensive consultations and impact assessments. The department receives allocations through treasury funding and would not have anticipated the allocation received.
However, the department had to work with the available budget to ensure the continuity of services. The budget provided by the Treasury is final and has been received as such. The budget is insufficient to cover all items; we are all required to do more with less, which affects how programs used to be funded.
Funding for HIV and AIDS had to be sourced from other programmes to supplement the budget. This has assisted in ensuring that NPOs continue to be funded, jobs are retained, and services to beneficiaries are continued.
The incentive grant is funding received from the National Department of Public Works to create more work opportunities within the EPWP. As such, the indicative allocations received by the department determine the number of work opportunities that can be created during that period.
The incentive grant agreement that the department enters into with the National Department of Public Works is only valid for a 12-month period, which implies that the work opportunities created utilising the incentive grant should align with the contractual obligations the department has with the National Department of Public Works.
In the 2024/25 fiscal year, the department received an incentive grant allocation of R14,777,000 compared to an allocation of R22,444,000 in the 2023/24 fiscal year. This implies that the department should reduce or cut the creation of work opportunities in line with the incentive grant allocation.
Even though there were budget cuts that the program experienced, the department retained the number of work opportunities that were affected, and these were funded through the equitable share budget.
In the 2025/26 fiscal year, there were further budget reductions, and the allocated amount received is R12,123,000, further impacting the number of work opportunities.
The scenarios above clearly indicate that the department has ensured no job losses have occurred within the program since 2023/2024 amidst the budget cuts.
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