GROUNDUP
‘Malpractice’ probe under way into multimillion-rand grant to Gauteng beauty academy
Four officials of the provincial Department of Social Development already ‘under precautionary suspension’
Two organisations, awarded almost R114-million in grants by the Gauteng Department of Social Development over the past two years, are under investigation as part of a probe into the department’s funding of non-profit organisations.
The investigation has already led to several department officials being placed on “precautionary suspension”, according to a media statement released after GroundUp revealed details last week of the multimillion-rand grants awarded to The Beauty Hub Academy and Daracorp.
Responding to follow-up questions about the investigation, the department said that four officials had already been placed on “precautionary suspension” and that “more individuals” had been identified as possibly involved.
The probe is into “more than those two” organisations, but the department was unable to divulge further details about its investigation, which started in October and is scheduled to be concluded in March.
The grants to Beauty Hub, which offers training in hairdressing and beauty therapy, and Daracorp, which does training for small-scale rural and urban farmers, were made at a time of deep cuts in budgets for grants to organisations working in HIV, community care, older people, poverty relief, and other key areas of social support.
Read more in Daily Maverick: Beauty academy gets R64-million government subsidy as welfare services budgets are slashed
Beauty Hub and Daracporp were allocated R30-million and over R26-million respectively for the 2023/24 financial year. In the 2022/23 financial year they received R33.7-million and R23.9-million respectively.
The size of the grants caused a furore among other grantees who questioned why two organisations had been allocated so much money to subsidise people they train, while other organisations funded by the Gauteng department received significantly less support to subsidise trainees. On average the department’s grants are less than a R1-million per organisation per year.
In a media release two days after GroundUp’s story was published, the department said it “notes the GroundUp article” and that it “would like to assure the public that the [organisations] in question form part of the investigation taking place in the department on non-profit organisation funding and some officials have been placed on precautionary suspension”.
The statement, issued by Lwando Majiza from the office of the MEC of Gauteng Department Social Development, Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, said: “As indicated by Premier Panyaza Lesufi in his State of the Province Address our provincial government is concerned about the numerous allegations we have received on malpractices and questionable funding practices in the department. Accordingly the investigation seeks to probe whether funding is allocated correctly and ascertain if we are receiving value for money.”
Although the investigation was ongoing, the department had begun “addressing areas of concern stemming from our oversight bodies, and as part of these measures is the creation of an independent Non-Profit Organisation Evaluation and Adjudication panel”.
This panel would “scrutinise evaluate, and adjudicate applications for funding from the non-profit organisation sector, and make recommendations on funding as aligned to the priorities and mandates of the department. Further the Panel is required to perform independent monitoring and evaluation of funded non-profit organisations periodically during each financial year”.
An advert for members to serve on a “centralised, independent evaluations and adjudication panel” appeared early in December last year.
Each panel will consist of a chairperson and four other members, who will “consider, evaluate, adjudicate and recommend funding across five sectors”.
During the current [2023/24] financial year, the department awarded grants of over R2.13-billion rand to organisations offering social services, making it one of the biggest, if not the biggest, funder of this sector. It awarded R2.36-billion in the previous financial year.
“We remain committed to working and supporting hardworking non-profit organisations in our communities and through the investigation we seek to weed out maladministration and questionable funding practices” Mbali Hlophe, Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, commented in the media statement. DM
First published by GroundUp.
Become an Insider
ANC methodology.
Steal, lie, dodge, re-group, start again.
The ANC theft machine is a hydra that grows heads waaaaay faster than we can cut them off.
Let’s all just face the truth already. The entire ANC government is complicit and will blatantly lie to cover each other. Once one source of funding is cut off by the public sector, the government and their cronies simply set up another and carry on.
A looter continua.
Viva ANC Viva!
Another day, another scam. Tomorrow, a different scam. The day after, yet another scam. And the NPA looks on. No doubt arrests will be made, perps will be suspended (on full pay), some will appear in court and most will get bail. Then South Africa waits . . . and waits . . . .and waits. Sometime after 2035 perhaps one or two perps will get jailtime. The rest will be forgotten about, free to enjoy their loot.
3 are already suspended on full pay. I wonder for how long? Private companies faced with the same issue would wrap this up ASAP as they cannot afford to have suspended employees sitting around on full pay. But of course government departments have no such constraints and can take their time. This helps comrades and there is no problem with funds for them as they are supplied by the tax payers of SA. Despicable.
R33.7 million to a beauty academy? Must have some REALLY ugly people as clients.
It is an extremely critical skill to learn how to affix fake caterpillars to top eyelids and even more critical to learn how to attach those fake talons to the ends of the fingers of those who have nothing better to waste their money on.
“Each Panel will consist of a chairperson and four other persons” … but no mention of how many panels? Simple arithmetic (because I failed maths) tells me at assumed R2 million per chairperson and R1.5 million per panel member per annum … would equal R8 million per panel per year . Assuming there are 4 or 5 panels, it would amount to R32 million to R40 million per annum. Almost about the same as that being donated to the “beauty academy” if I am correct? Why bother to change the ‘beneficiaries’ of this largesse to new group of people you have apparently advertised for ? Oh … I forget .. what you really mean is ADD this largesse to the existing one … under the pretext of greater accountability ! I guess my maths still sucks ? I am not sure if anyone in government today ‘works’ for the kind of pittance I am assuming in my calculations ?
My first question would be, why is there a probe, only after this, if one can call it concern was revealed by Groundup? No doubt a cover-up is in the making.
Yip, another day, another scam. Over R2-billion in awarded grants. What a gravy train!
Nothing is said about the staff who did not do their job, no due diligence etc. They are complicit and part of the problem, they are employed and paid a salary for their skills and allow such skullduggery.
Name and shame and prosecute them, let them not hide behind their incompetence and for the people that employed these incompetent staff, same medicine, they are equally incompetent.
Lipstick on the proverbial farmyard animal. I wish we had some top satirists. Evelyn Waugh would have a field day. Though the squandering of the fiscus is not really a laughing matter. Why are we paying tax?
Whilst people claim that the recipients of excessive payments are the “crooks”, the real crooks are the govrrment officials who authorise the blatantly exorbitant contracts/ payments. How anybody can honestly think that some small salon in a person’s residence in Soweto can physically train hundreds of people and earm millions in the process is not fit for purpose. They are the real crooks. They should ne called to account to try and justify why they accepted this offer.
Eish! Can’t believe it!
It saddening that we continue to come across such grave allegations of possible malfeasance and manipulation of social expenditure funding for critical social services and mitigation measures for poverty alleviation.
Hoping that this probe reaps rewards!
This is clearly part of a much “larger” operation at work, too.
Money allocated to to friends with kick backs. Where is the ethical management in all these processes
The amounts mentioned are outrageous and a serious indication of fraud by persons unworthy of any official function and should be incarcerated if found guilty of fraud.
We the taxpayers are bombarded by this type of news where civil servants simply rob and loot at will. The selection processes and oversight of spending tax money are abysmal.
And this, dear fellow readers, is exactly why the ANC will buy its way into the next election success again. The only way to strangle this is to stop paying taxes which will be stolen for these nefarious purposes. After all, Iran and China will also eventually realise that their money falls into a bottomless pit.