Senior citizens’ housing plight
JOBURG – Senior citizens are concerned about danger, concerning poor service delivery.
Residents at De Wetshof Retirement Village have raised concerns about the poor living conditions at the home.
Ivan Flowers who has been a resident at the home for four years said the drain next to his cottage has been there for over two years. “I have raised the issue several times with the home caregiver but nothing has been done.
“This drain is too deep and puts my life in danger. I took safety measures myself and up to this day, the housing department has not attended to my complaint,” said Flowers.
He said he had to put things over the drain, to cover it. “It’s easy to fall inside this drain. There is absolutely no service delivery at this home. We fix our own geysers and we are forced to cut our own grass as well. If we don’t do that, we will become ill. The department does not care about senior citizens,” he said.
Ward 118 councillor, Neuren Pietersen said he is aware of the problems the home is facing and has reported it several times to the relevant department. “The officials from the housing department have all been to the site but they seem incapable of dealing with simple matters such as grass-cutting and leaking taps,” said Pietersen.
Pietersen said the Section 79 oversite committee, chaired by Councillor Suzanne Clarke, will be revisiting the village this month to see if there has been any progress, to which he can attest, there has been very little. The problems the home faces are:
- gate problem
- pedestrian streetlights out since before June last year
- ceiling is quoted on four or five times but no work is done
- ceilings not replaced after geyser burst four years ago
- residents forced to implement maintenance.
Pietersen has assured that he will follow up with the department until senior citizens get basic service delivery. An inquiry was sent to the executive director of housing, Patric Phophi. At the time of going to print no comment had been received.
Read: Floods renew talk of Alex’s housing desperation
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