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20 August 2021 Year 31 Vol: 49
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Money for nothing?
Drop-in centre knows little about R10 million Lotto grant by Anton van Zyl and Kaizer Nengovhela
TOP: Chief Nkhetheni Nemavhulani is very disappointed with the conduct of the committee members of the Tshimbupfe Drop-in Centre. LEFT: The sign outside the drop-in centre’s premises in Tshimbupfe.
Millions of rands in Lottery grants were paid to a small centre for destitute children in a Vuwani village in 2018 and 2019, but the money was never used for any children. Instead, it was apparently channelled to a borehole project. The name of the Tshimbupfe Drop-in Centre appears in the 2018-19 list of National Lotteries Commission (NLC) beneficiaries, with a R4 million grant. The following year, on 25 September 2019, a further R6 million was supposedly paid to the centre, according to NLC public records. But most of the members of the non-profit organisation are unaware of this. Only the NPO’s chairperson, who is also the ANC ward councillor, appears to be aware of the grants, and has not been able to explain exactly how the money was used. Even the traditional leadership in the area were not told about the grant to the Tshimbupfe Drop-in Centre and knew nothing about Lottery
projects in their area until reporters started investigating. The centre has no dedicated website and no social media presence. It is trying to raise R5 000 through a crowd-funding website, but according to the site no-one has yet responded. “Tshimbupfe Drop-In Centre is a perfect example of the beauty that can come when a community comes together,” says the site. “In 2009, ten powerful women from Tshimbupfe, Limpopo province, came together to help combat issues of poverty, school dropouts, teenage pregnancy, crime, and lack of parental responsibility. Six of those ten women remain at the centre to this day.” Tshimbupfe co-founder Sylvia Mashila says that there are 86 children under her care, all of them vulnerable. Forty percent of the centre’s 86 children have no parents and the rest of them have dangerous home lives, she says. Some “have no homes.” A short video on the site shows children crowding around a few school desks in the small building used by the centre.
“Though the centre has applied for social grants, they have gotten no answers so far. Because parents cannot afford to pay monthly fees, the entire staff volunteers without payment. The centre depends on donations to be able to survive,” the description reads. Yet by the time the video was uploaded, on 13 June 2019, the centre should already have received R4 million of the Lottery grant. Continues on page 2
The chairperson of the Tshimbupfe Drop-in Centre is Tshifulufheli Solly Mudau. He is an ANC ward councillor at the Collins Chabane municipality.
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