Our Trefoil Guild has been supporting the Lingelethu Home for the past few years.
Send your letters to bctletters@caxton.co.za.
We have knitted blankets, donated toiletries, established a veggie garden and, as opportunities arose, were able to do other “good turns”.
When Zelda, who runs Lingelethu was given notice that the home was to be closed, she turned to us for advice and we formed a steering committee to look at this very serious situation.
Zelda was at her wits end as, however much she tried to get guidance from the authorities, she was sent from pillar to post.
At the meeting on November 11, which promised to find “a way forward” for the home, it was obvious from the start that the departments of health and social development had come with instructions to get the home closed – or else…
This heartless decision comes from their reluctance to be criticised for their incompetence in this matter.
They have failed Zelda completely.
They had the cheek to suggest that she rather operate the home as a day care centre and give these old and disabled people from the local informal settlement a good meal, some exercise/entertainment, etc.
No mention of financial support you’ll notice.
And, no thought for the sad fact that Zelda had in fact rescued many of these people from the abuse and neglect which is what they were subjected to in their leaky shacks.
With breathtaking arrogance, a social work manager then turned to our Trefoil Guild and said that we would be better occupied going out and raising money for a vehicle to collect these patients on a daily basis!
Well, our little group of ladies managed to raise the princely sum of R5 000 this year – from a stall at the Bunny Park Craft Market.
Mostly knitting and other hand crafts … I’m afraid that I cannot knit a Kombi!
This sad situation has upset the old people at the home dreadfully.
Here we are in the season of goodwill and they are threatened with being sent back either to “home-based care” (Huh?) or relocated to other homes “elsewhere in the country”.
This is local government at its worst.
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