Faced with abuse in their golden years

About one in every five senior citizens in South Africa is abused.

According to Ndwedwe social worker, Lungile Ngcobo an alarming number of these cases are never reported.

Ngcobo said she regularly sees pensioners who are victims of financial, emotional and mental abuse.

“We deal mostly with cases of financial abuse where the pensioner’s money is not used to meet their needs but those of the people they live with and the pensioner is sometimes even starved because they have no money for food,” said Ngcobo.

Ngcobo said in some cases the pensioner’s money was used on drugs and liquor by their child or grandchildren who then come home intoxicated and verbally abuse the senior citizen.

“These incidents are really heartbreaking because you find that a gogo just accepts the life of abuse and does not come and speak to us so we can intervene,” said Ngcobo.

She said the government makes provision for people who live with very old or sick pensioners by paying them a monthly stipend of R310 called a grant.

“The cases of abuses are no more prevalent in rural or urban areas. It is everywhere.”

The Courier spoke to *Mary Mhlongo who was a victim of financial abuse for years by her daughter, before her son and daughter-in-law intervened.

“My daughter and her four children lived with me. She did not have a job and the children’s fathers did not pay maintenance,” said Mhlongo.

The Isnembe gogo said her daughter would take the child support grant and use it to buy new clothes for herself and do her hair. Mhlongo’s pension money would then be used to buy groceries for the family of six which would only last half of the month.

“When the food was finished, my daughter would leave us and go live with friends or her boyfriend while I was left with hungry children. I would be forced to go to loan sharks because we were hungry,” said Mhlongo.

When the debt threatened to drown her she finally told her son the truth.

Although she is glad to be out of the situation, Mhlongo still blames herself for the way her daughter turned out.

“I feel like I spoilt her too much as a child, so she never learned any form of accountability. My advice to any old person who finds themselves caught in the situation similar to mine is to tell someone and soon. Most of us oldies are always trying to hide the things we consider to be embarrassing, no matter how much they hurt us.”

*name changed to protect the source’s identity