Eastern Cape Social Development MEC, Nancy Sihlwayi, appeared before a Bhisho Portfolio Committee on Tuesday to explain budget cuts to several Non-Profit Organisations.
The briefing came a day after Head of Department, Ntombi Baart, apologised to the affected NPO's for the Department's lack of adequate communication about the decision which Sihlwayi said was taken at a national level.
The Department had only notified NPO's a few months before the budget cut leaving them with no choice but retrench a number of social workers in Nelson Mandela Bay as well as Buffalo City.
Baart reportedly told the briefing that the Department had decided to revise the budget to see how it could reallocate funds, following pressure from the MEC and the Portfolio Committee.
Sihlwayi told Algoa FM News after the meeting with the committee on Tuesday that they would be meeting all affected Non-Profit Organisations in East London on Wednesday followed by Port Elizabeth on Thursday to come up with a sustainable solution.
"The budget cut is a national policy directorate but it is dignity and respectful to speak to people that are going to be affected in good time which the department did not do. That's why the apology, the apology is on the basis of no consultation and no proper engagement with the affected NPO's" she said.
Sihlwayi said that she believed that there wouldn't be a huge outcry if the NPO's were consulted in time.
"We would have reached a consensus on how best we can do this in terms of meeting each other half way," she added.
Meanwhile, Port Elizabeth Mental Health's Director, Limeez Arends, said the organisation welcomed the Department's apology, however she said that the damage had been done in terms of costs incurred by NPO's.
"They were made aware that the damage has already been done in terms of the financial losses we as NPO's incurred as a result of them not informing and consulting with us us prior the decision regarding the subsidy cuts. Should we have known about the subsidy cuts from April to June we wouldn't have carried such a financial loss" she said
Arends says the organisation also had to retrench some of it's social workers after it's budget was slashed from R2.5m to only R1m in the 2017/2018 financial year.
She said that despite the upcoming meeting, the Department had already indicated that some posts would not be reinstated due to the budget cut.
