Another Life Esidimeni tragedy is going to happen in Gauteng. Seventy-two frail care and disabled patients are about to be rendered homeless due to the imminent closure of Tswelopele Frail Care Centre. The non-profit organisation in Hillbrow has been operating for 17 years, providing 24-hour residential frail care, social work services and safety beds.
The facility has also been offering emergency temporary care for the sick, elderly and disabled, as a form of respite care. However, over the past few years, Tswelopele has been facing a severe financial crisis that has resulted in its inability to pay rent and salaries to its 55 staff members. The facility reportedly owes R3m in rent — an amount accumulated over a number of years.
Tswelopele is not in this situation due to the squandering of resources by its management. It is in this situation because since 2019, the facility has been desperately engaging the provincial department of social development seeking assistance — to no avail.
After a year of sending emails to the department and not being accorded even a mere acknowledgment, the department responded, promising to revert with a sustainable solution. The solution did not come and in two weeks, the facility will be closing down. There is no alternative accommodation for the 72 frail men and women who are presently living at the facility.
Tswelopele is not the only frail care facility in Gauteng that has been driven to the brink. Just a month ago, the Avalon Association Residential Facility for the Physically Disabled in Kensington almost closed down due to the same financial challenges.
Other facilities are also dealing with a severe under-funding crisis that could see many of them close down in the near future unless urgent intervention is done.
Social development department is mandated with providing financial assistance in the form of subsidies to NGOs, NPOs and community-based organisations doing work with the elderly and disabled. This assistance is often delayed or simply inadequate, resulting in the facilities being unable to pay service providers and rental costs.
Disturbingly, the department often underspends its annual budget, resulting in the money being returned to the National Treasury.
According to its annual report for the 2020/21 financial year, the department underspent by R431.8m. In the 2016-2021 administrative period, the department underspent by just over R1bn. All this money has been returned to the Treasury while multitudes of NGOs and NPOs are struggling financially and have been denied much-needed bailouts.
It is unthinkable that something like this is happening barely six years after the Life Esidimeni tragedy which involved the deaths of 144 people at psychiatric facilities across Gauteng. A report by the health ombudsman found that these individuals had died from starvation and neglect after having been relocated to cheaper care centres, many of which were later found to be unlicensed and grossly under-resourced.
Today, 72 frail and disabled people are about to be thrown out on the streets because the department continues to demonstrate that it does not place any value on the lives of the disabled and the sickly.
South Africans cannot be held responsible for the tragedy that was Life Esidimeni because we did not know what was happening until people started dying. The situation in Tswelopele is different because the tragedy has not yet occurred.
This means that there is still a fighting chance for us to save the lives of those 72 men and women who, unless we shame the Gauteng provincial government into acting, will perish.
We must make it impossible for the department of social department and premier David Makhura to turn a blind eye on what is happening at Tswelopele and other frail care institutions. This potential tragedy shall not happen under our watch.
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