Sunfield Home receives its first increased subsidy amount after long legal battle

Positive end after AfriForum reached a settlement with the department

Sunfield Home Fortuna, a home for physically and mentally disabled persons outside Balfour in Mpumalanga, today received for the first time the increased subsidy amount that AfriForum negotiated in a settlement agreement with the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development. AfriForum’s legal team – which represents the home – has negotiated that the state-subsidised residents’ subsidies will henceforth be R3 600 per month, rather than the R1 984 that has remained unchanged for more than a decade. The department will also have to increase the subsidy amount by 10% annually.

The Sunfield Home approached AfriForum in August 2022 because the department wanted to cancel the home’s subsidy. This would’ve meant that the Sunfield Home’s most vulnerable residents would be relocated. After AfriForum obtained an interdict to prevent the cancellation of the contract and ensured that the payment of the existing subsidy continued, the civil rights organization’s case against the department focused on the unfair subsidy amount that had not increased in the past 15 years.

The Mpumalanga High Court ruled in January this year that a new subsidy amount of R7 637,23 per state-subsidised resident is payable per month and that the annual increase must be budgeted and paid based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development applied for leave to appeal and after this was granted, it became clear that the home would not survive financially until the appeal process was completed. At one stage, the home was in such a desperate state that its power was cut off due to its inability to settle the Eskom bill. This compelled AfriForum’s legal team to settle on behalf of the home and negotiate a smaller subsidy amount.

“It is promising that the home has finally received the increased subsidy amount after a lengthy court battle. It brings much-needed relief and security to many vulnerable residents who depend on the care this home offers,” says Louis Boshoff, Campaign Officer at AfriForum.

Boshoff says it’s nevertheless disappointing that the department was not prepared to comply with the court order, but rather put up a fight against it. “The care of physically and mentally disabled persons is not an optional expense that can simply be neglected. Imagine the Department of Education going to court because it does not want to continue spending money on schools, or the Department of Defence wanting to stop spending money on army bases – this would have happened to homes like Sunfield if the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development had continued with its plans without opposition.”

It is of the utmost importance to AfriForum that taxpayers’ money is used wisely and where this does not happen, the civil rights organisation will step in and ensure that it is rectified.