The Archdiocese of Cape Town, has closed its welfare arm, Catholic Welfare and Development (CWD) for maladministration after almost 50 years in operation.
The CWD has been operating in Cape Town since 1970 to “deal with the abject poverty and injustices suffered by underprivileged people”.
Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town said in a public statement on 3 December the organisation started receiving reports of financial difficulties in October 2017.
“The CWO's financial position is very much worse than we could have imagined,” said Archbishop Brislin.
The CWD had its own constitution and board led by the executive director, in charge of fund-raising, operations and the financial wellbeing of the organisation.
The Archbishop said four months ago the director of the organisation, Kevin Roussel, was placed on suspension pending a disciplinary inquiry into charges of gross misconduct and insubordination. Before the hearing, Mr Roussel chose to resign.
The board then appointed an interim director to save the organisation, Brislin said, but a decision to cease operations and to retrench all workers was made.
The Archdiocese has loaned CWO a substantial amount of money, mostly to cover the salaries of 50 staff members for three months and to underwrite the retrenchment packages he said.
In an interview with the Cape Argus retrenched workers said they were told the organisation has run out of funds.
“It comes from mismanagement. A former director had left and brought this on the organisation. He ran this organisation into the ground,” one disgruntled worker was quoted as saying.
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