South Africa, Kimberley 26 September 2022: In improving the efficient delivery of social services to South Africans in far-flung areas of the country, the Deputy Minister of the Department of Social Development, Mme Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, kicked off her three-day outreach in Kimberley Northern Cape, to assist NPOs to be compliant.
The department launched the Know Your NPO Status Campaign in November 2020 due to the high number of NPOs that were not compliant. The Northern Cape province has 5 965 NPOs, and 3 669 are not compliant. Kimberley alone has 6060 religious organizations that are registered, and 3 825 are not compliant.
It is for this reason that the Deputy Minister has been on a roadshow across the country to educate and encourage faith-based organizations to comply with the NPO Act.
Today, NPOs received their certificates that were outstanding, and enquiries were attended to by the department’s NPO team.
“Sadly we have seen some NPOs in the faith-based sector unknowingly being used for money laundering. The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has equipped religious leaders with tools of knowing how to identify tactics used by money launders,” said the Deputy Minister.
“We are urging NPOs to ensure their organizations are compliant, to avoid being de-registered,” she added.
The deputy minister will continue her outreach in Kimberley and will hand over the Kutlwano Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centre in partnership with Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and CIPLA Foundation. Kutlwano Early Childhood Development centre was originally housed in a corrugated iron shack.
Through the partnership with Deputy Minister Bogopane-Zulu, ACSA, in collaboration with CIPLA Foundation, funded a new state of the art structure at a total cost of over Four Million Rand.