NPOs and beneficiaries holding placards protesting outside the Gauteng Department Social Development offices in Johannesburg. (Iviwe Mzandisi/News24)

• The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has ordered the provincial social development department to begin subsidy payments to Epworth Children’s Home and Bethany House Trust, following a court application. 
• The court’s order, handed down on Thursday evening, includes immediate payment deadlines, extension of service-level agreements, and negotiations for future funding.
• Epworth director Penny-Ann Lundie says the court ruling is a “lifeline”, given that the facility was expected to close on Friday.

The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg has ordered the provincial social development department to begin paying subsidies that are due to the Epworth Children’s Home and Bethany House Trust from Friday afternoon. 

The ruling, handed down on Thursday evening, followed an urgent application from the two organisations, which pleaded with the court to help keep them operating.

Epworth is home to 84 children, and Bethany House Trust has more than 140 children who are either in full-time care or benefiting from their programmes.   

Epworth Children’s Home director Penny-Ann Lundie said: “The order takes the immediate pressure off, so we are not facing imminent closure on 31 May. Obviously that alleviates a lot of the stress on the staff and particularly the children.” 

“It is satisfying that government has acknowledged the crisis their funding process has caused, and they have reinstated the 2023/2024 funding model on an interim basis until 30 September.”

READ | NPOs take legal action against Gauteng social development department over unpaid funds

Epworth Children’s Home and Bethany House Trust lodged their urgent application on Tuesday to address outstanding payments from the Gauteng Department of Social Development.

Epworth is claiming more than R1.9 million in outstanding payments from between October and December 2022, January 2023, and November 2023.

Bethany House is seeking the R4.1 million it is owed for its child and youth care centres across the province and programmes such as victim empowerment, covering the period from April to June 2024. 

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Judge Thina Siwendu ruled that the department must:

Bethany House Trust CEO Gert Jonker said: “Practically the court order implies that Bethany House has a lifeline for a few months to remain operational for the benefit of our beneficiaries, who are primarily vulnerable children and youth”. 

Lundie added: “This is an interim arrangement, and the fear is that Epworth and other NPO’s will be placed in the same situation come 30 September. We will approach our engagements with government in good faith in the hope that another potential disaster can be avoided.”

In the NPOs’ application on Tuesday, they asked that the department be prohibited from refusing or withdrawing their current funding.

It is also asked that the status quo of their existing agreements be retained for the past financial year, and that the department be made to pay them their subsidies on or before the seventh day of the month.   

Siwendu instructed the department to submit an interim payment plan.  

ALSO READ | Century-old Epworth Children’s Home in Joburg to close after failing to secure funding

This year, the department has overhauled its funding process by introducing external panels to determine who it will subsidise and who it will not. 

During a meeting with the nongovernment organisations earlier this month, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi announced an increase in the sector’s budget, raising it to R2.4 billion for the 2024/25 financial year, up from the previously allocated R1.8 million.

However, the NGOs were sceptical because they had spent months without their subsidies or any feedback from the department about why. 

The department blamed the delays on several forensic audits initiated over the past year.    

In response to Thursday evening’s court order, department spokesperson Thabo Gadebe said they “agree to the order and reiterate that this was indicated in the meeting with the premier, that where cuts were effected, the department would review these”. 

Gadebe added:

Jonker said the Bethany House Trust would continue to work with the department “as we have been for decades – and the entire welfare sector to ensure that the voices of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable citizens of Gauteng are heard loud and clear”.    

The department backtracked on its initial deadline to finalise service-level agreements and pay organisations by 24 May, saying a court order handed down by Judge Ingrid Opperman last week “supersedes” its earlier commitment.

Opperman’s order compels the department to conclude service-level agreements by 30 May and to pay them within seven days of the signing of the agreement.