File Photo
of pensioners
in South Africa
© Leila Amanpour/
HelpAge International 2006
The march, organised by Age-in-Action, ended at the Delft Community Centre, where police officers and the ward councillor addressed the crowd. They encouraged people to speak out about abuse they see in the community and report it to the police.
Abuse perpetrated against the elderly includes physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse. The abusers are mostly family members, including grown children and grandchildren. Many victims are too afraid to speak out, and suffer in silence.
Abuse like Sampson suffers, from tik-addicted relatives, is on the rise, says Augustine Bhonga of Age-in-Action. Some pensioners lose their entire R920 grant to abusers. Bhonga says the organisation gets phone calls from elderly people reporting abuse by tik addicts as young as 13.
The elderly are easy targets, says Pat Lindgren of Action on Elder Abuse SA. She says there are parents and grandparents keeping ordinary appliances like toasters "under lock and key" because otherwise they were sold.
In addition to financial abuse, Lindgren says addicts could get emotionally and physically abusive, taking out their aggression from the drug on elderly relatives.
Raising awareness about abuse and people's rights is the idea behind World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. "Awareness is a form of prevention," says Lindgren.
Sampson says he has been suffering abuse for four years and it has left him "penniless". The abuse once turned physical, when the young man pushed him out of a door. He says his relatives are rude and swear at him. A recently purchased kettle, full of boiling water, was smashed on his floor, along with a clock radio.
"I feel tense," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen when they show up."
Before they became addicted to tik, Sampson says, his relatives went to school and were fine young adults. Now he wants to escape from them. He says he would prefer to move to a dormitory. "I want to go and relax. To die peacefully." [rc]
sonya.bell@inl.co.za
© 1999 - 2009 Cape Times & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.
June 16, 2009
SOUTH AFRICA: Abused pensioner is now 'penniless'
.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa / Cape Times / Finance / June 16, 2009
By Sonya Bell
Kenneth Sampson, a 70-year-old pensioner from Delft, is one of the thousands of elderly South Africans being abused by their own relatives.
The young man and woman come to his home regularly, says Sampson, where they pester him for money from his social grant and walk away with his possessions to fund their tik addiction. Sampson says they've taken his boots, his coat and his phone.
"I put it down and it's gone."
On Monday, Sampson was one of 400 people who marched through Delft to support World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
File Photo
of pensioners
in South Africa
© Leila Amanpour/
HelpAge International 2006
The march, organised by Age-in-Action, ended at the Delft Community Centre, where police officers and the ward councillor addressed the crowd. They encouraged people to speak out about abuse they see in the community and report it to the police.
Abuse perpetrated against the elderly includes physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse. The abusers are mostly family members, including grown children and grandchildren. Many victims are too afraid to speak out, and suffer in silence.
Abuse like Sampson suffers, from tik-addicted relatives, is on the rise, says Augustine Bhonga of Age-in-Action. Some pensioners lose their entire R920 grant to abusers. Bhonga says the organisation gets phone calls from elderly people reporting abuse by tik addicts as young as 13.
The elderly are easy targets, says Pat Lindgren of Action on Elder Abuse SA. She says there are parents and grandparents keeping ordinary appliances like toasters "under lock and key" because otherwise they were sold.
In addition to financial abuse, Lindgren says addicts could get emotionally and physically abusive, taking out their aggression from the drug on elderly relatives.
Raising awareness about abuse and people's rights is the idea behind World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. "Awareness is a form of prevention," says Lindgren.
Sampson says he has been suffering abuse for four years and it has left him "penniless". The abuse once turned physical, when the young man pushed him out of a door. He says his relatives are rude and swear at him. A recently purchased kettle, full of boiling water, was smashed on his floor, along with a clock radio.
"I feel tense," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen when they show up."
Before they became addicted to tik, Sampson says, his relatives went to school and were fine young adults. Now he wants to escape from them. He says he would prefer to move to a dormitory. "I want to go and relax. To die peacefully." [rc]
sonya.bell@inl.co.za
© 1999 - 2009 Cape Times & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.
File Photo
of pensioners
in South Africa
© Leila Amanpour/
HelpAge International 2006
The march, organised by Age-in-Action, ended at the Delft Community Centre, where police officers and the ward councillor addressed the crowd. They encouraged people to speak out about abuse they see in the community and report it to the police.
Abuse perpetrated against the elderly includes physical, emotional, financial and sexual abuse. The abusers are mostly family members, including grown children and grandchildren. Many victims are too afraid to speak out, and suffer in silence.
Abuse like Sampson suffers, from tik-addicted relatives, is on the rise, says Augustine Bhonga of Age-in-Action. Some pensioners lose their entire R920 grant to abusers. Bhonga says the organisation gets phone calls from elderly people reporting abuse by tik addicts as young as 13.
The elderly are easy targets, says Pat Lindgren of Action on Elder Abuse SA. She says there are parents and grandparents keeping ordinary appliances like toasters "under lock and key" because otherwise they were sold.
In addition to financial abuse, Lindgren says addicts could get emotionally and physically abusive, taking out their aggression from the drug on elderly relatives.
Raising awareness about abuse and people's rights is the idea behind World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. "Awareness is a form of prevention," says Lindgren.
Sampson says he has been suffering abuse for four years and it has left him "penniless". The abuse once turned physical, when the young man pushed him out of a door. He says his relatives are rude and swear at him. A recently purchased kettle, full of boiling water, was smashed on his floor, along with a clock radio.
"I feel tense," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen when they show up."
Before they became addicted to tik, Sampson says, his relatives went to school and were fine young adults. Now he wants to escape from them. He says he would prefer to move to a dormitory. "I want to go and relax. To die peacefully." [rc]
sonya.bell@inl.co.za
© 1999 - 2009 Cape Times & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd.
