At least two offices of social development closed in Free State Province

Staff reporter

Senekal – Communities of Senekal and Ladybrand are up in arms after the closure of social development offices in the respective towns.

This follows a story of a two-year-old girl that was raped in Ladybrand. We tried to locate social workers to follow up on the child and her family.

The child in question was allegedly dragged out of bed while sleeping with her mom in a house consisting of 12 occupants in total. A social worker did provide the child and family with support, according to the report provided.

While asking, more community members confirmed that the offices have been closed and it’s alleged to be for 6 months or more and this affects service delivery.

A drive a few kilos to Senekal resulted in the team discovering another office shut and it’s alleged that it has been closed for 2 years.

A few years ago the same department closed a sanitary pads manufacturing firm in Qwaqwa and staff in Bloemfontein complained about not having tools of trade such as laptops.

The minutes of the audit committee meeting held in 2020 raised two critical issues.

• Procurement of 20 laptops for R500 000
• R2.5 million meant for EPWP that tHe service provider refused to account for as she alleged she got the list from staff
• With the arrest of MEC Koloi for R150 000 last week for a case related to her job in 2017, we have since asked the Hawks if the R2.5 million matter has been reported, to date no confirmation.

Tshidi Koloi, MEC for Social Development could not be reached for comment.

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