Premier holds dialogue with the elderly
Whilst some appreciated that government had built clinics, they complained that they were far away and they operated only during the day.
MBOMBELA – On Tuesday, Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza held a special dialogue with more than 1 500 older persons from and around Ehlanzeni District municipality.
The elderly did not waste time and told Premier Mabuza their general problems challenging their lives. In the main they complained about “not being prioritised” in getting the RDP houses, faraway clinics, cut-offs of their water and electricity that these greatly inconvenienced their lives.
Although they came from five different local municipalities [Bushbuckridge, Nkomazi, Umjindi, Mbombela and Thaba Chweu], their concerns were more or less the same as they were based on service delivery by both the provincial and local government.
They said they survived only on pension grants and their lives became extremely difficult without water and electricity due to cut-offs by the municipalities. Lack of consistency in the billing systems for water and electricity frustrated them as they were demanded to pay huge amounts of money.
They also stated that some people walked long distances to get water from other areas. Miss Salome Mnisi told Mabuza that at one stage she had to catch a taxi to go to another village to have her clothes washed as her community had no water at all for weeks.
Whilst some appreciated that government had built clinics, they complained that they were far away and they operated only during the day. They pleaded with him to consider building new ones nearby as they were forced to wake up early and walk long distances.
In his response, the premier said that the elderly needed to be looked after by protecting their rights adding that they had different special problems which required the government’s attention.
“As a government we should come closer to the older persons because they cannot help themselves since they are old. We are going to set up structures that will deal with issues that affect them directly, streamline them into older persons’ forums.
“This is the beginning of the journey we will walk together with them; otherwise we cannot be a nation unless we protect the rights of the elders,” said Mabuza.
