National Lottery cuts NSPCA funding
The National Lotteries Commission says the decision to withdraw funds from the animal welfare organisation, NSPCA, did not come easy.
The NLC COO, Phillemon Letwaba, says the NSPCA's application did not align with the funding priority this financial year.
"We receive about R1.5 billion in terms of money that is available for distribution including arts, culture and sport, and 47% is allocated to charities. We receive on average 40 000 applications from various charities every year and because we are duty bound to confront the challenges confronting the government," Letwaba says.
"We need to make sure that we are funding for impact but we need to make sure that we clearly define the funding priorities every year," he explains further.
Letwaba says the NSPCA has been a beneficiary for many years and have received more R128 million from the NLC.
He says it was not automatic that each year they receive funding as their funding is application based.
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Letwaba says this year's priorities were not in line with what the SPCA had applied for, but it does not mean that the NSPCA will not be funded in the future.
He says when discussing the focus of priorities they look at the broader challenges of society and this decision was not meant to exclude the animal welfare, but they cannot fund every charity.
Letwaba says they do feel pressure to make an impact in society.
"And that why through the distribution of this grant we need to make sure that we assist government with dealing challenges affecting our society," Letwaba says.
"It is for that fact that you see our boards everywhere so that NLC reaches all corners of South Africa in terms of brining impact to the needy and the marginalised," he concludes.