Health MEC personally ensures that department assists family

ELIZABETH Mothiba, her five children and two grandchildren, will soon have smiles on their faces following a special visit by the MEC of health and social development, Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba recently.

The MEC visited the family after being told about their poverty and neediness. Mothiba from Segoreng section, Mentz village in Mankweng, shares a dilapidated one-room house with her family, and there is no fixed source of income in the family. There are enormous holes and large cracks that water seeps through. Mothiba depends financially on her eldest son, Danny, who does temporary jobs within the community to put food on the table.

Department spokesperson, Adéle van der Linde, said Letsatsi-Duba personally visited the Mothiba family to hand over food parcels and observe the situation the family is in. “The department is currently providing Social Relief of Distress (SRD) for the family. SRD is a comprehensive service provided in cases of poverty where bereavement counseling is necessary. For example, when a family member has passed away, or if a family loses their home during disaster such as fire and storm, to name a few.”

She further said the department sent social workers to the Mothiba family to assess and establish what interventions were needed. She said the department spoke to Sassa on the family’s behalf to provide food relief monthly and the family was currently receiving food packages from Sassa. “As far as the house for the family is concerned, we are still in the process of approaching our partners to see how best they can be assisted,” she said.

Van der Linde urged people who were in the same situation to approach the department of social development through its social work offices in various municipalities so that the department could send people to assess the situation.