GROUNDUP LOTTO CUTS
National Lotteries Commission to ditch animal welfare funding from next year
A ‘tough decision’ says the NLC, while organisations argue their cause has not been taken seriously.
The National Lotteries Commission (NLC) has made the “tough decision” to drop animal welfare as a focus area for funding in 2022/2023, a decision that some organisations say is ignorant and unfair. Others say that the application for NLC funding is laborious and simply not worth applying for.
In its latest call for applications, the NLC excluded animal welfare as a funding priority. The decision was “tough”, according to NLC spokesperson Ndivhuho Mafela. The NLC said funding priorities for the charities sector in 2022/2023 are: 35% towards early childhood development, 30% towards the fight against gender-based violence, and 35% towards protection of the vulnerable.
Mafela said the “demand for funding far outstrips the supply every year” and this means the NLC has to make difficult decisions about what to fund. He said that animal welfare will be considered for future funding cycles “if it is possible to include it among many urgent and competing priorities”.
During 2020/2021, Mafela said, 21 animal welfare organisations applied and nine were funded to the value of about R2.8-million. In 2021/2022, 50 animal welfare organisations applied for NLC funding, and ten organisations were funded to the value of R4.6-million.
Allan Perrins, spokesperson of the Animal Welfare Society of South Africa, said they had applied in the past but had stopped. The application process was too laborious, he said, and funding sometimes came years later, even for urgent projects. “I don’t know whether the pain’s worth the gain,” said Perrins.
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GroundUp previously reported on the NLC dropping funding for animal welfare for the years 2016/2017, a move which caused the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to reduce its free services to animal owners.
Karen de Klerk, chairperson of the Cape Animal Welfare Forum (Cawf), which is an umbrella body of several animal welfare organisations across the Western Cape, said members were unhappy with the NLC’s choice. Lottery funding is a “lifeline” for many of these organisations, she said.
De Klerk said she doesn’t think the NLC understands the importance of the animal welfare sector. She said animal welfare organisations provide crucial services to animals that spread diseases to the people who live near them, in informal settlements.
“And the NLC has billions of rands in a year that they could allocate to very specific target projects to uplift the general health of the communities’ animals through registered and reputable organisations. But they don’t. They don’t take it seriously enough,” said De Klerk.
She said it was too late now but Cawf would challenge the decision for the following year.
Mafela of the NLC said the Commission recognised “that animal welfare is an issue many people feel strongly about, and that human well-being is inextricably linked to animal and ecosystem well-being, particularly in rural communities that rely on animals for their livelihoods”. DM
First published by GroundUp.
This is so terribly sad.
Why? So there is more for the top brass at the NLC to steal? Horrible people!!!
The 3 chosen categories seem very vague. One wonders how these projects actually function on the ground. Eg what is funding to combat gender based violence going to? Education for boys shelters for victims advice to the police…?
I thought “donations” went elsewhere long ago !
“Humans are judged by how they treat their animals” said Nelson Mandela. so the NLC who cannot even keep control of their finances, e.g. so their CEO can afford huge homes at a huge cost stolen from the NLC, now make animals suffer. again another disgrace hits South Africa and shows its incompetence at governing generally.
Just imagine how many neglected animals worthy of assistance could fit into Alfred Nevhuthanda’s R6,3 million Rolls Royce, bought with funds filched from the NLC.
Probably too little opportunity for corruption when giving grants to established animal charities!
Early childhood development : how many well run Kindergartens have been built and maintained ?
Gender based violence: how many well run shelters for abused women and they’re children have been built and maintained ?
Protection of the vulnerable: for the NLC staff who are vulnerable to the desire of fancy cars,big mansions,Gucci attire and tenders for the 2 above mentioned ?
Perhaps the money pillaged from NLC could have been allocated, but it’s gone now. Why is it called animal welfare, when the need for support of animals is caused by humans?
The vagaries of NLC funding are a financial risk to NPO’s if they are reliant on this funding as one doesn’t know from one year to the next if it will be granted. As far as I know, the funds also have to be spent on the project applied for whereas given the nature of the NLC funding it might be preferable to be able to invest it an for the NPO to utilise the revenue stream for its activities. Relying on donations to fund each years expenditure is an ongoing NPO challenge.
As opposed to to looting it’s funds??