Govt calls for calm amid pending shutdown of historic children’s home

The Gauteng Social Development Department is urging patience from Non-Profit Organisations as it finalises its 2024/25 budget.

The call for calm comes amid the pending shutdown of Epworth Children’s Home in Germiston.

The provincial Social Development Department has yet to decide whether it will allocate funds to some NPOs, including the once thriving home for vulnerable and abused children.

After months of failing to secure funding from the department due to non-compliance, the childcare facility announced it would be closing its doors in May.

A childcare manager at Epworth Children’s Home has described the dire situation for the more than 50 children who call the facility home.

Some of the children, many as young as five years old, have expressed uncertainty over their futures.

Described by residents as a pillar of the community, Epworth had been providing a safe haven for vulnerable and abused children for more than 105 years.

And as it struggles to secure adequate funding, Director at the facility, Penny Lundi, says going public with their pending shutdown was in no way an attempt to be moved up the funding que but a cry for help.

Epworth failed to meet government’s compliance standards after fire safety concerns, among others, were raised by the department.

Speaking with YNews, Lundi says addressing the concern was an impossible and costly task, the facility simply could not afford.

She’s urged government to work more co-operatively with NPOs in the future to better solve these compliance challenges.

She’s also bemoaned delayed payments and a lack of financial transparency, as some of the reasons for a breakdown in trust between NPOs and government.

The DA in Gauteng has slammed the department of Social Development for the home’s woes.

The party says Department of Social Development’s reckless funding approach has had a devastating impact on the Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) sector.

“The DA has warned the department for over a year that this is a possible outcome of their relentless purging of NPOs without considering the consequences of this on the vulnerable who will be left out on the streets. It is now clear that our warning fell on deaf ears,” the party adds.

However, the department’s Gauteng spokesperson, Themba Gadebe, says Epworth Children’s Home has no reason to shutdown yet, as government is yet to finalise its funding requests.

Gadebe says they have their work cut out for them as they’ve received funding requests totalling R11.4 billion this year, which is far greater than the department’s overall budget of R5.5 billion that’s meant to support NPOs. Written by Naomi Kobbie