Rebecca’s* heart broke into pieces when she paid a surprise visit to her 81-year-old grandmother at the old age home the family had placed her in several months prior. Up until this point, the family had to make an appointment to visit the facility.
“I arrived unannounced and the employees were shocked to see me. As I was walking around I noticed that the place looked like a pigsty,” Rebecca recalls. “I broke down and cried when I saw my grandmother with traces of human faeces on her legs and dress. It looked like she had soiled herself but no one bothered to change her.”
In late 2019 Rebecca’s family took their grandmother and her older sister to Vutlhari Old Age Home and Hospice in the village of Roerfontein in Greater Letaba Local Municipality in Limpopo. There was nobody available to care for the two elderly women. And the Vuthlari was close enough for the family to visit regularly.
“My grandmother cried like a baby, saying she no longer wanted to stay there. She wants to go and die at home. Her sister did not look good at all, she looked frail and sick. I decided there and then that the place was not good for them,” Rebecca tells Health-e News.
Unfortunately, this family’s story is not an isolated incident.
Lerato* tells Health-e News that she removed her mother from the centre after two weeks.
“My mother (55) suffers from bipolar disorder. I thought it was best that she get help at the centre and it felt right as it was in our village. It was in June this year when I called the centre and they came to my home,” says Lerato.
Lerato says she was shocked when Pheko Baloyi, the centre manager, gave her mother medication without a prescription. Lerato’s mother was then taken to Baloyi’s personal home ostensibly because she needed extra care.
“We paid R2 600 for her to be registered at the centre and we were told that she would have a special nurse. That never happened, instead, she was taken care of by Baloyi’s helper who would scream at her,” says Lerato.
Photos taken by the Conty Lebepe Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that helps poor and marginalised communities, paint a story of despair and neglect. The photos, which Health-e News has seen, show a building that looks like an abandoned house. The windows are broken, some have been covered with rusted sheets of corrugated iron. The walls are cracked and crumbling, and some of the structures don’t have doors or even a roof.
Tlou Moabelo, chairperson of the Conty Lebepe Foundation tells Health-e News that they were called by concerned members and families of the affected older persons, who complained about inhumane activities at Vuthlari.
Beyond the physical structures, the photos show elderly people curled in blankets on concrete floors, some of them with sores all over their bodies. There are also allegations of mistreatment of the elderly patients, and dispensing of expired medication.
“It’s really disturbing to hear that these incidents are continuing to happen, even though there’s been so much awareness raised around our responsibility to care and protect older persons,” says Femada Shamam, CEO of The Association for the Aged (Tafta).
Regulations regarding older persons
Shamam explains that the Older Persons Act mandates the Department of Social Development to have an oversight role and to conduct inspections to ensure that old-age homes meet the required standards. This includes ensuring that residents have access to basic care, something that seems to be missing at Vutlhari.
A former employee, Kodwa* who spoke to Health-e News on condition of anonymity says the centre does not even have professional nurses or social workers.
Kodwa joined the centre on 26 May but was fired just four months later, after being accused of exposing the centre.
“I used to cry every day when I started working there because of the conditions that elderly people were subjected to. There was a sick old person who was forever chained and we had to give him food through the window. Old people sleep on the floors as there are no beds,” she says.
She says there were only two staff members responsible for cleaning, cooking and taking care of the patients.
She adds that the patients’ SASSA grant cards were kept by Baloyi, but it’s not clear what he did with the money as the patients did not get nutritious food.
“He is the one who collects their grant money on their behalf and he does not even share it with them. We have also not been paid for three months,” she says.
The centre is currently home to 19 older men and one older woman. Established in 1998, it’s the only old age home and hospice that serves villagers in the Sekgosese area that has a population of over 46 000 residents. Since inception it has housed terminally ill people, the blind, orphans, and psychiatric patients.
Limpopo Social Development MEC visits the centre
“We visited the centre on 19 September and the situation was shocking. The place looked dirty, unhygienic and unsafe. Some patients had soiled themselves. The employees were working without protective clothing. Through our investigation we discovered that when one patient is very sick, they are fed with Mageu mixed with danone,” Moabelo says.
She says they immediately wrote a letter calling on the Limpopo Social Development MEC Florence Radzilani to intervene so as to avoid another Life Esidimeni tragedy when the Gauteng health department relocated thousands of mental health patients, many to unregistered NGOs who didn’t know how to care for them.
According to Kodwa, social workers visited the centre on 23 September asking questions and taking photos. She says after the visit by the social workers she was fired.
The MEC and her team visited the centre on Wednesday 25 September but were allegedly denied access. The MEC’s spokesperson, Joshua Kwapa, tells Health-e News that the visit was prompted by allegations of ill-treatment of older people.
“The centre is not registered with the department. A team of investigators is currently doing assessments of the conditions under which people are admitted to the centre. An investigation looking into malpractice and inhumane conditions is currently underway,” he says.
Kwapa says they understand that the right of admission is reserved so they have made arrangements with the centre manager to visit the place so as to continue with their investigation.
He says the department will start a process of moving the patients to government facilities after the investigation has been completed. “Patients who prefer to go back to their families would be allowed to do so,” he says.
When Health-e News contacted Baloy, he said he is doing his best to fulfil his vision as he was called by God to work at the centre.
“I am trying to do my best with the little resources I acquire from donations while the government folded their arms and failed to help. I was threatened many times because of this centre. I am used to fighting their political positions,” he says.
However, he failed to respond to questions about the allegations of ill-treatment, and the misuse of SASSA grant cards. – Health-e News
*Not their real names
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