Cape Town - Members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) on Friday picketed the Huis Spitskop old age home in Murraysburg demanding immediate changes in the way the home was managed.
They said that the home’s current board had not held an AGM for more than three years and that this had adversely affected the management of the home.
They said that its staff members were being poorly paid as well as mistreated.
The ANCYL handed over a memorandum in which they demanded that the home reinstate workers who have been suspended without pay since December 2021 and that provision be made.
Among other issues cited in the memorandum were that standards of care for the residents of the home were below par with residents making do with poor quality threadbare blankets.
Standing Committee on Social Development member Ayanda Bans (ANC), who was at the picket, said she had written to Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez about the challenges faced at the home but to no avail.
Bans said that a new policy had been implemented at the home, banning staff members from speaking to outsiders about their working conditions and management was not open to engagement about conditions.
“Despite ours being a legal and peaceful picket, management at first refused to accept our memorandum. The manager said they had instructions from the board not to receive the memorandum.”
She said that eventually a retired former manager of the home went out and met the marchers to receive the memorandum.
Bans said she would be calling on the national Department of Social Development to look into the affairs of Huis Spitskop.
Contacted for comment, MEC Fernandez’s spokesperson Joshua Chigome said the department had made an on-site monitoring visit to the facility.
He said recommendations in respect of areas of improvement and compliance with minimum norms and standards for residential facilities had been identified and included in a monitoring report that was sent to the home’s board.
Meanwhile, the board said they would only be in a position to respond to our queries tomorrow.