Funding of Old Age Homes in the province; Plans to deal with loan sharks that are keeping SASSA beneficiary cards & update on Social Relief Grant

Meeting report

Mr Charles Jordan, Chief Director: Children, Families and Special Programmes, Western Cape Department of Social Development (DSD), gave a presentation on the Older Persons Programme. He outlined the legislative framework, the staff complement, the population profile of older persons in the Western Cape, and the programme's strategic objectives. 

He said Statistics SA estimated that there were 770 847 persons aged 60 years and older in the Western Cape in 2022 and 58 percent were women. The total number was projected to grow to 1 084 180 by 2031; and to almost triple to 2 044 461 by 2050.

The programme employed a developmental approach to ageing and sought to keep older persons in their families and communities for as long as possible. It involved residential and frail care facilities and alternative models such as home-based care, service centres, senior clubs, independent living and assisted living. It provided for registering residential facilities and community-based care and support services and monitoring and reporting processes. A manual register for the notification of elder abuse was ready for implementation.

The Committee was also briefed by Dr Louw Pieterse, who developed a financial governance framework for the provincial government and has assisted in dealing with challenges at old age homes since 2015.

Dr Pieterse said the aim of working with the old age homes was to align their management with governance principles. Controls were implemented to deal with mismanagement and theft. The boards and staff had to be trained. Staff were sometimes not paid. Fees were outstanding. Norms and standards needed to be prioritised. There was a lot of corruption among staff.

Most old age homes would not be financially viable without additional funding. Organisations and churches did assist some homes, but additional funding was needed. Increasing funding to an old age home would not be effective without financial mismanagement. Homes could not continue accumulating debt.

See presentation for further details

Discussion

Ms A Bans (ANC) said that the topic of old age homes was very close to her heart. The elders were not present in the virtual meeting and could not explain what they were going through. How could their wellness be monitored? She said that she had visited the Maritzburg and iKhaya homes. There had been only one applicant to join the board of one home. How was the position advertised? Why were people not made aware of these positions? These old age homes were known for having many challenges relating to staff and other issues. How did it happen that there were so few applicants when there was an uproar about the old age homes? There was a newly appointed board at iKhaya, and transformation was occurring. Why was this not the case at Maritzburg? The board in Maritzburg had been there for over ten years, which was unhealthy.

What criteria did the DSD set for funding? What was required of the boards? How much of a say did the Committee have on how homes should be run? The budgets for rural areas and the metro should not be the same. What was the DSD’s view?

Dr Pieterse said that board members were appointed yearly. Individuals and schools were approached, and a particular skill set was core. The iKhaya board started in 2015 and was handed back in 2001. It was a struggle to find competent board members. New board members were trained intensively, and the chairperson was headhunted. The guidance and assistance from the chairperson made it easy to hand over the programme to him. The costs of the iKhaya board were reduced. Training was essential when it came to an old age home. Huis Spitskop had been assisted financially for more than three years by the DSD to prepare them for their encounters with auditors. They were to have paid a fee to the Department for their aid, but the agreement was that the Department would never claim the money. The amount of R170 000 was written off, as was R65 000 owed to the Department by iKhaya due to arrears. All payments were sent to the board for approval.

The staff working at an old age home reported to the manager of the home who reported to the board. Staff had not been given increased salaries due to lack of funding. The DSD was looking at ways to provide the staff with bonuses. Happy staff were required for a well-functioning and maintained old age home.

The Chairperson said that a meeting was needed with the DSD in the next 14 to 20 days to further discuss the issues faced by old age homes. 

Ms R Windvogel (ANC) referred to slide 7. Where were the regions that the Department was giving funding to? On slide 4, how long had the vacancies existed and why had they not been filled?

Ms N Bakubaku-Vos (ANC) referred to slide 3. She asked for more information on the Older Persons Act and the norms and standards for residential facilities. Were there instances where these had been infringed? Were there monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to prevent infringement? How often were monitoring and evaluation conducted? On slide 5, how many older persons lived in residential facilities? What was the breakdown in terms of age and region? How was the DSD preparing for the rapid increase in older persons? What were the details of the contracts referred to on slide 11? Had any facilities been closed down for non-compliance in the past three years? What processes were put in place to alleviate the gaps in service delivery?

Mr C Fry (DA) asked what could be done to ensure that the financial management system was secure. 

Dr Robert Macdonald, Head of Department, DSD, said the delay in filling vacancies was due to the shortfall in the compensation budget. Some posts would not be filled immediately, and some would not be filled at all due to lack of funding.

Mr Jordan responded to Ms Bakubaku-Vos. The Older Persons Act had regulations about what norms and standards must be implemented. There was a long checklist dealing with safety, dietary standards and so on. The old age homes were monitored often, but not every day. There were over 300 old age homes and limited staff. Health audits were conducted. Three-year monitoring plans were set in place as well as desktop assessments. Financial red flags were monitored. Any form of abuse was investigated. Non-compliance did not result in an old age home being closed down. Failure of the staff to follow procedures was not tolerated. Spot checks and rapid assessments were conducted.

Two old age homes had closed down of their own accord. People from these homes had been transferred to other homes close by. Sometimes the municipality closed old age homes if they did not comply with municipal by-laws. 

Regarding budgeting, costing had been done to determine what an old age home needed to survive. Dr Pieterse helped with health audits. Millions were needed and this had to be discussed with the treasury.

The Chairperson said the budgetary issues and serious matters faced at the old age home needed to be revisited at another time due to time constraints.

SASSA presentation

The Committee was briefed by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) on steps taken by SASSA Western Cape to deal with loan sharks who kept the SASSA cards of grant beneficiaries as security for loans given to them. The Committee was also briefed on Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants in the province.

The briefing outlined the various laws relating to money lending and the processes followed in prosecuting loan sharks and recovering SASSA cards held by them. The Committee heard that there had been 106 cases since 2012 and 109 arrests. A total amount of R313 921 in cash had been confiscated and 3 308 cards had been recovered. Those arrested included registered and non-registered money lenders and owners of shops and spaza shops. 

SASSA was continuously sensitising beneficiaries about not using the SASSA card as security for loans.

Concerning SRD payments, the Committee heard that since the beginning of the financial year, 338 beneficiaries had received disaster cash payments totalling R513 171. Just over 4 500 beneficiaries had received immediate relief payments totalling R6.6 million. 

The Committee was told of plans to issue school uniforms to non-fee paying schools next year. Each Local office of SASSA would receive 264 uniforms equating to R686 400 per office. The total rand value of the uniforms was estimated to be R10 982 400.

See presentation for further details

Discussion

The Chairperson said that fraud was a significant problem. Did the confiscation of R313 000 from money lenders take place in the Western Cape or only in Cape Town? SASSA responded that it was in the whole of the province. Most of the illegal operations were in the Southern Cape.

The Chairperson asked if the school uniforms were something new.

He was told that SASSA was required to provide school uniforms, within its budget, to those that could not afford them. This covered only 264 children per local office. The R10 million would be split between the 16 local offices. 

The Chairperson asked whether the issue of SASSA office space in Khayelitsha had been resolved.

Ms Annelise Bester, acting Regional Executive Manager, SASSA, Western Cape, said the issue had been resolved and a service site had been provided. A new office was being built by the national Department of Public Works as well.

The Chairperson asked if the COVID-19 pandemic had contributed to many people coming forward for grants.

Ms Bester said many people had come forward for the R350 grant. The statistics would be sent to the Committee. Many people had applied online. Face-to-face applications had increased significantly as well.

Ms W Philander (DA) said it was important to know how to approach loan sharks. More awareness programmes needed to be conducted in communities. People needed to know their rights so that loan sharks did not exploit them. The Committee should be provided with more information on how these issues affected the different regions and to what extent. What did the reduction in cases indicate? Was this a result of a new approach or were people not coming forward and reporting?

She was told that SASSA only acted on reported cases. Loan sharks would not die out. They might move to another town, but operations continued. Cases were now picking up.

The meeting was adjourned.