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She had earlier forced the widowed Maree to hand over R1 500 of the small pension her husband left her.
Maree cried as she recounted how her unemployed daughter, who is herself over the age of 60 and collects a R2 190 monthly state pension, would lock her inside the house for hours and neglect to give her food.
She would then be told her meal was ready, only to find flies already feasting on the plate.
“I had big trouble staying with her. Every month she demanded R1 500,” Maree said of her only child.
“Every day I was crying. She was locking me in the house. Even at Christmas, she left me in the bedroom. She didn’t come. What if there is a fire, and the whole place burns down, and I am locked inside?”
Her granddaughter, who witnessed her suffering, rescued Maree two years ago and found her a place to live at The Elders Voice KZN in Umbilo, Durban.
Maree is possibly just one of thousands of older people in South Africa who face physical, emotional, economic, psychological and sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment every day — a growing problem according to organisations geared toward the aged.
According to research, “The incidence of elder abuse in South Africa is not clear. Often cases of elder abuse are not registered and when reported to the police, such cases are classified under general or indecent assault or murder.”
Many rely on the R2 190-a-month South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) older-persons grant to pay rent and buy food and electricity.
As Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana prepares to deliver his budget speech next week, few hold out hope he will announce anything more than an increase of R30 or R40 in the grant.
Non-profit organisations for older people say they have not had a state subsidy increase for six years.
Jo-Ann Herbst, founder of The Elders Voice KZN, receives 300 calls every week from people seeking accommodation. Although she runs three facilities — Umbilo, as well as Amanzimtoti and Pennington on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast — without any state subsidies, she says it is impossible to help them all.
Herbst started the homes with her late husband Harvey when their biker gang, Ripple Effect, which he chaired, saw the need when they began visiting homes and institutions on a regular basis in 2011.
“We started operating from the back of our car where we used to go to these people’s homes and feed them. And we became aware that it was a ‘white pandemic’,” Herbst said.
“Indian people idolise and look after their parents until the day they die. African people, when they are old, want to go to their rural home. Coloured people are generational, so it’s a great-granny and the granny and the dad and everyone lives together.
“White people dump their parents.”
Herbst and her team feed and care for 268 people on a shoestring budget of R53 a person a day. Her residents are mainly, though not exclusively, white, which means businesses do not get broad-based black economic empowerment points for donations, making fundraising a problem.
“Old people are not a sexy topic. People want to donate to a project that has traction. Poverty-stricken people, homelessness: it’s got traction. A kid crying with a dirty little face and tears has traction,” she said.
“An emancipated dog that’s been beaten and now being fed well by an organisation like the SPCA. It’s got traction. What traction does an old person have? They’re old, wrinkly. They are no longer contributing members of society.”
Emigration has been a major cause of children abandoning their parents, even if this was not their intention, Herbst said. When they arrive abroad, they discover life is difficult and they cannot afford to financially support their elderly relatives.
In some cases, people do not have any family to look after them.
Femada Shamam, chief executive of The Association for the Aged (Tafta), said the abuse of older people is a growing social and human rights problem.
In 2023, Tafta, the University of Johannesburg and Cape Town nonprofit iKamva Labantu undertook a research study that found that some of the main causes of the abuse were drug abuse by adult children or grandchildren as well as unemployment and poverty.
“Addiction to alcohol and drugs — particularly whoonga and tik — was found to be a commonly cited risk factor, with family members perpetrating financial, psychological or physical abuse against older persons when under the influence,” Shamam said.
Socio-economic factors were also a key contributor to the abuse, as well as changing value systems, in which elders are no longer afforded respect in families and communities.
“The high unemployment rate and escalating fuel, food and utility costs have resulted in families struggling to survive financially.
“In many homes, the older person’s grant is relied on to provide food for the family.
“In some cases the grant is forcibly taken away, with family members physically assaulting the parent or grandparent to obtain the grant,” Shamam said.
Tafta’s national hotline received more than 230 reports of elder abuse last year, mostly related to family conflict, neglect and financial abuse.
With older people comprising almost 10% of the population, including more than 7 400 centenarians, the country stands at a crossroads.
“Each city in South Africa should work towards becoming an age-friendly city, providing a comprehensive basket of services and resources that support independent living, while ensuring access to essential care,” Shamam said.
There is an urgent need for more dementia and palliative care; affordable housing; municipal-level support including concessions for electricity and water for older people and the organisations housing them; as well as for intergenerational mentorship programmes to encourage economic inclusion.
Shamam believes the Sassa grant should be increased by at least 10% without these concessions or by 5% with mandatory concessions.
“These concessions should apply to essential services such as food and municipal utilities, which extend to institutions housing older people.”
Age-in-Action Western Cape director Irene Snell-Carrol said the grant should be increased to at least R5 000 so older people could afford to rent a room and pay for necessities such as electricity, food and medicine.
She said because non-profits aiding older people had not had state subsidy increases for six years, many were struggling to stay open.
Snell-Carrol’s message for Godongwana was: “I’m looking forward to the budget speech; there are rumours but … there’s no light at the tunnel.
“Government staff will go crazy if they don’t get their increases, so why don’t you treat us the same as you’re looking after your staff?”
* Name has been changed to protect her identity.
Article publié le mardi 18 février 2025
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