Issued by: GCIS
DATE: 12 JULY 2000
Govt urged to improve security at pension pay out points
Older persons in two North West towns have urged government to improve the security at all pension pay points.
Making their voices heard at public hearings held for the elderly in the province, they also urged government to train the elderly in providing care for AIDS sufferers.
Speaking at the Klerksdorp Civic Centre today, Ms Glades Moeketsi told a group of more than 500 elderly people, that in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, elders were made not only to care for their own children who have contracted the disease, but also for their grandchildren who have become orphaned.
Ms Moeketsi said the elderly faced the impact of this epidemic on a meagre R500 pension and without any form of training on how to care for their infected family members and their grandchildren who are inevitably afraid.
She called on the government to look at the possibility of training the elderly to look after those either infected or affected by the disease.
Speaking on the first day of the hearings in Vryburg, yesterday, Ms Elizabeth Klaas from Maranatha Senior Citizens Club of Coldridge called on the government to scrap the 'bakkie' system of payment for the elderly.
She said this system contributed to the lack of safety at pay points.
'Pensioners who use this system are being paid by Cash Pay Master Services, who dispense social grants from vehicles, with money dispensing machines,' she said.
Ms Klaas called for the payment of grants to be done at banks and post offices to ensure greater security and simultaneously alleviate the embarrassment of pensioners having to sleep over at pay points to ensure they received their money with certainty.
At both hearings, the chairman of the ministerial committee Mr Tom Manthatha led the elderly in a moment of silence to pay tribute to pensioners who have died in recent pay-point tragedies.
In the latest incident, 73-year old Arabang Molapo was shot and killed yesterday, during an armed robbery at the Tladi municipal offices at Soweto.
Mr Manthatha said this incident heightened the need for the public to take a closer look at the conditions the elderly faced.
Contact:
Kgati Sathekge: 082 808 9486
Issued by the GCIS for the Department of Welfare, Population and Development