Minister Lindiwe Zulu rubbishes GBV fund allegations
Lindiwe Zulu has said she would not be resigning after her department was called out over R100M GBV fund mismanagement.
Social Development minister Lindiwe Zulu said she will not resign amid reports of her department not distributing R100 million from Criminal Asset Recovery Account (CARA) to programmes for survivors of gender-based violence.
Zulu says she does not intend to resign over unfounded allegations of the media.
LINDIWE ZULU DEFENDS AGAINST ALLEGATIONS
Zulu said she would not resign over unfounded allegations after in response to a parliamentary question from a Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Bridget Masango after she asked if the minister is planning on resigning over the alleged failure to to distribute R100m from CARA to gender-based violence programs.
According to Mercury, Zulu noted a collapse in the GBV command centre after a R45m contract with Brilliantel led to social worker dismissals and the end of free services for victims.
Zulu emphasized that the National Development Agency (NDA) must always safeguard public funds.
She mentioned the NDA has funded 312 organizations for the Gender-Based Violence and Femicide plan. Out of these, 22 breached the agreement, leading to a hold on their earmarked funding for investigation, reported Mercury.
“The NDA board, which took the decision to put the transfer of CARA funds to the organisations that were red-flagged for breach of funding agreement, has a fiduciary responsibility and is required to act in the best interest of the organisation as per the Public Finance Management Act,” said Zulu.
Zulu clarified that the GBV command center is running smoothly, and no social workers were dismissed.