DEAR Editor,-
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KZN welcomes a unanimous decision by the provincial Social Development Portfolio Committee to stop the provincial Social Development Department from closing down Kokstad-based Elonwabeni Old Age Home.
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The resolution comes after a committee oversight inspection of the facility late last week and shocking findings by the DA in June – after concerned community members appealed for help.
When the DA first visited Elonwabeni in June, there was no food as a result of the resignation of board members who had left the home without access to funds. We also found that the home’s very elderly residents had to bath in cold water in below freezing temperatures when there was no electricity.
Staff at the home had also not been paid and, to top it all, there were serious claims of fraudulent activity by former board members.
Equally shocking were the claims by the community and residents of the home that KZN Social Development MEC Weziwe Thusi was first made aware of their desperate plight in January and that she had failed to act.
The recent portfolio committee visit to Elonwabeni and the subsequent decision by its members to stop the closure of this facility is a victory for the elderly residents who, as recently as last month, were told they would be moved five hours away to Nkandla.
It is also purely as a result of the combined efforts of the local community, the DA and the portfolio committee – rather than the department – that the following was announced:
• The home now has full access to electricity with assistance of the local municipality;
• KZN’s Social Development Department and local district managers will provide proper facility management pending the re-election of an interim board of governors;
• The department will from now on ensure the distribution of adequate food to the facility;
• The department has also given an assurance that residents whose SASSA cards were allegedly fraudulently used by former board members have been blocked and new cards are on their way; and
• The department will be expected to report on measures taken regarding allegations of criminal activity by former board members.
What happened at Elonwabeni should be a lesson for MEC Thusi and her department.
Our elderly people can no longer be treated like second–class citizens. Nor can they be ignored and simply shunted around against their will.
The DA will not hesitate to call the department out for failing to honour its mandate and the commitments it has now made to residents.
We remain committed to monitoring the situation at Elonwabeni and other facilities in KZN which are home to society’s most vulnerable citizens.
SHARON HOOSEN, MPL
DA KZN Spokesperson on Social Development
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