AUTOFORUM

MISA comment

Apr 26, 2024 Martlé Keyter, MISA, Motor Industry Staff Association, non-profit organisations (NPO’s), South African Reserve Bank

MISA comment

South Africans don’t enjoy economic freedom 30 years after democracy. The persistent high cost of living, fueled by new records in the implementation of load shedding, high interest rate and increasing fuel prices have left South Africans cash-strapped. South Africans cannot be considered free, three decades after our first democratic elections, if the unemployment rate is considered, at 32.10 % - the highest in the world and 40% of South African adults have to borrow money to buy food.

“MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association, is appalled that Government is silent about all the severe budget cuts to non-profit organisations (NPO’s) assisting the most vulnerable in our communities. Some of the NPO’s face possible closure after receiving 50% less than what they used to get from the Department of Social Development (DSO). These NPO’s exist because of the DSO’s inability to deliver services to all in need,” says Martlé Keyter, the Union’s Chief Executive Officer: Operations.

Currently there is an ongoing investigation into how a social worker who allowed a 3-year-old from foster care back to her mother without adequate supervision. The little girl, who has been brought under the attention of social workers in 2018, died on 11 May 2021. She was allegedly throttled to death and had injuries of different ages on her body. The case against her 29-year-old Johannesburg mother and her 40-year-old ex-husband is due to start on Thursday in the South Gauteng High Court. The charges include murder, rape, child abuse and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, over the three year period whilst the social worker was to have to monitored the girl.

According to Keyter, Government’s lack of action is making a mockery of Freedom Month’s theme, “30 Years of Democracy, Partnership and Growth”. Keyter, reacting to the findings of the FinMark Trust’s annual FinScope Consumer South Africa 2023 report, - which indicates that 40% of South African adults borrow money to purchase food while two out of five individuals have gone without electricity in the past 12 months because they could not afford it. “About 38% (17 million) of adults, do not earn enough money to cover the basic cost of living. Salaries simply does not keep up with the rapid rise in the cost of living.”

This report comes a week after the Epworth Children’s Home, a haven for displaced children for more than 100 years, announced it has to close its doors at the end of May because it was unable to secure funding. The home has not received any funding from the DSO since 2022 and had to operate on a deficit of R2 million. Another two NPO’s, People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) and the Nisaa Institute for Women Development, have already closed their doors.

The DSO in Gauteng suspended fourteen officials in December last year for alleged corruption of “millions of rands”. Investigations are ongoing. The Department simply pulling up its shoulders to say that the applications received from NPO’s were far more than its overall budget, the budget for NPO’s being R223-million less than last year.

“In the meantime, the worsening cost of living crisis has spilled over to non-related industries like the retail motor industry. For months new passenger car sales have been declining because consumers can no longer afford to buy them.”

MISA has applied to the South African Reserve Bank on numerous occasions to lower the interest rates to stimulate economic growth.