The forgotten elderly
The elderly residents at M.O.T.H Warrior have been told to vacate the premises since the property was put up for sale
Only seven of the elderly residents have remained at that M.O.T.H Warrior premises, the rest had been moved or re-homed somewhere else. The decision to sell the Shellhole in Muldersdrift was taken in November last year, and the residents were told to vacate the premises by January 2022.
“We were stunned. You don’t sell any old age home,” said Dan Weber, who has lived there for two years. “We asked them (management) for sit down with us to talk about it and make suggestions, but they just ignored us. Then we started including the general headquarters in our emails and that’s when we finally had a sit-down.”
He explained how they not only pleaded their case as residents but attempted to come up with solutions to save the premises but, “The words I heard plenty often were ‘we have looked at everything’. They just told us they were running at a loss. We requested to see the bank statements but we were refused.”
Phil McMahon, an executive of the Voluntary Association for M.O.T.H Warrior clarified that no one was being forcibly removed, but that the property was no longer financially viable. “We have found alternative housing for other residents. The sale is purely financial because we are losing money every month. No one is being evicted but we cannot continue to lose money. A lot of the people who live there are SASSA pensioners and we can’t ask them for more money. The majority of the residents have been moved to other M.O.T.H properties.”
McMahon explained that all residents were given an eight-month notice of the impending move. “It is not being sold for development. We would rather keep it but we’ve done everything we can.”
The premises has 25 cottages, however, it now resembles an abandoned town as just seven people remain. Trudie Coetzee, who has lived there since 2017 said, “It feels like I have been here for 40 years and I want to stay here until I die or until I have to go to frail care”. Coetzee echoes how many of the remaining seven feel – forlorn at the thought of leaving what has been their homes.
Denise Kirkpatrick has lived at Warrior for nearly 15 years and has not been placed. “It’s sad. It’s really not lekker. Everyone here is elderly, if they wanted to kick me out … I don’t have a place to put any of my stuff and I don’t have anywhere to go.” Michael Nolan, who has been a resident for eight years, said some of them were willing to pay more in rent to keep the place going. “They didn’t tell us how much rent we should pay to keep the place going. I lived here with my wife, who recently passed and I just don’t understand why this is happening.”
Despair, confusion and an overall sense of loss could be felt as we walked from one house to another. Robbie Dou, who is also the custodian, said he was heartbroken. “I have lived here for 11 years, I am devastated. I have no idea where I will go. I have a problem finding a place because of my dogs; most places are not pet-friendly.”
On October 6, the last of the military tanks were removed at the Muldersdrift Shellhole to be repaired and sent to their new home. The remaining residents have been told they needed to be out by January 2.
