Seeing light at end of tunnel
Nelukau said she was happy to finally speak to someone who could listen to her attentively, and that something good was going to happen.
A distraught former nurse Nelly Nelukau missed out an opportunity to speak to President Cyril Ramaphosa on February 26, but the ANC chief whip in Ekurhuleni, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, was kind enough to listen to her concerns.
Nelukau is also the founder of Dzulani Children Care Centre, an orphanage based in Vosloorus.
Nelukau told Kathorus MAIL that after her request for funding to run her orphanage was turned down by the Department of Social Welfare, she felt a need to speak to Ramaphosa.
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She wanted to talk to the president about the challenges she was facing, and that she ran her orphanage from her own pocket.
“After I overheard people talk about Ramaphosa coming to Vosloorus, I thought this was my chance to finally speak to him and tell him about the difficulties of running an orphanage without funding, and to plead with him to give an order to the Department of Social Welfare so help me with the funding I needed.
“Unfortunately president did not give any of the community members a chance to talk to him,” said Nelukau.
Fortunately for Nelukau, Dlabathi was kind enough to lend him an ear.
She told Dlabathi how difficult life had become as she had to run the orphanage using her own money. Kathorus MAIL witnessed the conversation between Dlabathi and Nelukau.
She told the chief whip she was running a home for children who were mostly orphans. “Others were abandoned by their parents during birth and were brought to the orphanage by the police and social workers. But still the same social workers fail to vouch for me to get funding,” Nelukau told chief whip.
She continued: “There was a time when I was told there is no way I could get funding while I am still staying at the same house. I was told to leave my house hoping that if I leave my house I will soon get funding. And nothing happened. After that I was told I do not qualify because the orphanage is not registered. I have been moved from pillar to post trying to get help for my children in the orphanage.”
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Nelukau told the chief whip she felt she was either being undermined or sabotaged.
Dlabathi said he was aware of the situation at the orphanage.
“We are here at a local level and the documents are processed at national level. There is very little or nothing to tell people at national level what to do. But I promise to see what is holding up things. We will take it from there,” said Dlabathi.
“I can now see light at the end of the tunnel.”
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