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Two DA MPs - Pierre Rabie, who speaks on trade and industry, and Janet Semple whose speaks on social development - issued a joint statement on Monday in which they said they had received complaints from 105 organisations that the trust was not functioning effectively.
"The result of this is that many ill, hungry, illiterate, disabled or poor South Africans are not receiving the care from these organisations that they would otherwise receive," the two said. "Since it took over operations, the (trust) has accumulated three years' worth of funds, only a small fraction of which appear to have been distributed."
Complaints have come from a wide range of organisations, including several substantial national institutions with branches across the country, and also including several small community-based groups, Semple and Rabie said. They provide many diverse but crucial services, ranging from hospice care, to orphan support, to crisis and trauma counselling, special needs education, and many others.
Although the payments system was reasonably effective up until 2006, under the same distribution agency, no money at all was distributed in 2006.
Now the situation is so dire that many non-governmental organisations are cutting staff, cutting salaries and reducing services, while others are anticipating closure unless money comes through.
Not only was the trust not doing its job, but its existence was a constraint on non-profit organisations' ability to raise their own funds independently, the DA said. Many local and international donors were reluctant to continue making donations, in the belief that the lottery was now filling that gap.
The DA will be asking parliamentary questions about staffing, staff training, equipment and management capacity to establish what had gone wrong with the trust.
"In addition, we will write to the chairman of the portfolio committee on social development to request that those in charge of the distribution agency be urgently summoned to appear before the committee to explain themselves and address the above-mentioned complaints," Semple and Rabie said.
"In addition, we will further propose that all staff be placed on performance-based contracts with pay conditional on meeting specific delivery targets relating to grant payments; and deadlines and timetables be standardised so that all potential beneficiaries know exactly what requirements they must fulfil."
- I-Net Bridge
