- Grantor system shelved weeks before deadline, triggering confusion and operational strain.
- Care services face overlapping demands with no clarity on adjudication or payment timelines.
- GCCC calls for deadline extension, transparency on Grantor’s cost, and urgent process reform.
The Gauteng Care Crisis Committee (GCCC) has condemned the provincial Department of Social Development for quietly retiring its online funding management system, Grantor, just weeks before the 15 October 2025 deadline for 2026/27 funding applications.
Launched on 10 August 2025 with promises of streamlining applications and payments to non-profits, Grantor instead delivered dysfunction, confusion, and emotional strain across the province’s care sector.
From its inception, Grantor was riddled with flaws. Training sessions held in early August revealed immediate weaknesses, prompting the GCCC to submit three pages of technical and procedural questions to the department on 19 August 2025. Most remain unanswered.
Even the department appeared uncertain of the system’s readiness, with its 18 August 2025 call for proposals allowed submissions via Grantor or email, a dual-track approach that signaled internal doubt.
On 29 September, with less than three weeks to go, the department abruptly instructed care services to abandon Grantor altogether and use a new funding template. Many organisations have yet to receive this template, and no public announcement has clarified the change, the GCCC said.
Systemic breakdown
“Grantor’s collapse is not an isolated failure, but it reflects a broader pattern of unpredictability and mismanagement in Gauteng’s funding processes. In 2023, the department cancelled existing three-year agreements and imposed new criteria with less than three weeks’ notice,” the GCCC said in a statement.
“Centralised adjudication led to such delays that the GCCC had to obtain a court order compelling the department to issue contracts and release payments in May 2024. The following year, responsibility shifted back to regional offices, but the process was again derailed by last-minute chaos. Organisations received award letters instead of contracts, and payments were delayed until 2025. Then came Grantor, introduced, trained on, and shelved, leaving care services with no consistent or transparent process for 2026.”
The consequences have been severe. A GCCC poll found that by 19 September, more than six weeks after training, at least 102 care services still lacked log-in credentials. Those who accessed the system encountered serious data errors, including misidentification and false flags on the Central Supplier Database. Design flaws rendered the platform unusable. Applications couldn’t be saved, critical fields were limited to 43 characters, and the system allowed only one programme to be entered, ignoring multi-programme organisations entirely.
Sector stretched to breaking point
Care services are now expected to redo their funding applications while simultaneously submitting annual audit reports, quarterly performance reviews, board minutes, monthly financials, requisitions, invoices, and donation records. The emotional toll is mounting, the organisation said.
One GCCC member described the situation as more than an administrative hiccup, saying it has caused genuine emotional and operational strain. “Senior staff across the sector are overwhelmed, disillusioned, and stretched beyond capacity. “are here to serve our communities,” they said, “but department’s mismanagement has made it nearly impossible to do so.”
The GCCC has called on the department to urgently clarify who will evaluate the current applications, on what basis, and by when. It must also disclose how long Grantor was in development, at what cost, and whether it will be permanently shelved or relaunched. If the latter, care services must be involved in its redesign, piloting, and testing.
In response to the crisis, the GCCC is calling for an extension of the application deadline beyond 15 October to allow care services time to redo their submissions. It demands full transparency on Grantor’s development, cost, and future, and insists the department outline clear steps for timely adjudication and payment for the 2026/27 cycle. The department has also been urged to also publicly announce the changed process and ensure the new template is readily accessible.
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