​Portfolio Committee on Social Development has embarked on a three-day oversight visit to Gauteng this week. This follows media reports that NPOs face closure, potentially leaving many vulnerable and destitute. The committee's oversight seeks to obtain responses from the Gauteng Department of Social Development on this issue from relevant government departments providing services in this sector and to engage with the NPO sector to understand the effect of the budget cuts on their services and the communities they serve.
During the committee's interaction with the department and NPOs, the issue of non-compliance by NPOs due to their failure to meet municipal by-laws was prominent. 
Addressing the committee, the Gauteng Department of Social Development's Deputy Director-General for Social Welfare Services, Onkemetse Kabasia, said that a large portion of their budget is used to pay for costly compliance fees to ensure that NPOs adhere to a list of stringent municipal by-laws regarding building regulations, requirements, and the legal status of NPOs.
Kabasia called on the committee to conduct a study to assess the efficacy and compatibility of the welfare legislation because, as it currently stands, it is not instructive regarding who should fund and administer these by-laws.
Furthermore, the Department briefed the committee about its interventions to ease the funding crisis. It stated that 95% of NPOs have already been duly funded for the current financial year, and those that have not received funding would do so by the end of March.
Addressing the committee, Gauteng Social Development MEC Faith Mazibuko said that to ensure openness and transparency about NPO funding in Gauteng, the department plans a public signing ceremony with all NPOs. "We will further publicise them to ensure that they are known by the communities they serve," she said.
Mazibuko added that NPOs are the backbone of government welfare programs because they provide 70% of government services. After receiving a briefing from the department, the committee conducted a site visit to the Ikusasa Lethu Youth and Elderly Project in Freedom Park, south of Johannesburg, where they were shown the work of the organisation.
Speaking during the visit, Portfolio Committee on Social Development Chairperson Bridget Masango said that experiencing the role this NPO plays in that community was different from what the committee had initially envisioned.
Masango added, "We heard and saw for ourselves the impressive relationship that exists between the department and this NPO. Above all, we were impressed to hear that all the commitments the department has made to it have been met."
The chairperson agreed that such an anomaly should be corrected to ensure that the welfare legislation is responsive to existing misalignments and that the services rendered by NPOs to poor and vulnerable communities are seamless.