A DESTITUTE North West grandmother wants to be placed in an old-age home after years of living in abject poverty.
The 82-year-old, who lives in a dilapidated RDP house with her three children and eight grandchildren, cannot walk because her feet are swollen. She has been paralysed for three years. Her face was burnt last month while she was trying to prepare food for herself.
Tampie Phologolo stays in a three-roomed RDP house that has no windows, no bed, no furniture and has corrugated iron sheeting as a door. Her left eye was damaged when she was burnt.
She receives no medical attention for her condition because she does not have money for transport.
Phologolo is a registered pensioner but has appointed one of her children as a guardian.
She said she cannot even enjoy her pension grants because her children do not always give her the money.
"It is by luck when I eat a decent meal, normally it is just mealie meal. Sometimes my grandchildren bring me leftovers from town were they beg people for food," she said.
Her daughter Kgomotso Phologolo said the grant that her mother gets is too little to feed the whole house.
"I send my children to go and beg in town so that we can eat. We are really suffering," Kgomotso says.
The family has no electricity. Three of the children staying in the dwelling do not attend school. They do not have birth certificates.
The North West department of social development, women, children and people with disabilities said it will deploy a social worker to the house to assess the grandmother's living conditions.
The department's spokesman Petrus Siko said it will move her to an old-age home after the assessment.
"We call on all our grannies to voice their frustrations with social workers in their areas to curb future abuse of the elderly," he said.
Oageng Mosiane, spokesman at the moral regeneration unit at the office of the premier, said the it will build Phologolo a new house, help her take a bath and buy groceries for her and her family.
Suffering granny, kids plead for help
A DESTITUTE North West grandmother wants to be placed in an old-age home after years of living in abject poverty.
The 82-year-old, who lives in a dilapidated RDP house with her three children and eight grandchildren, cannot walk because her feet are swollen. She has been paralysed for three years. Her face was burnt last month while she was trying to prepare food for herself.
Tampie Phologolo stays in a three-roomed RDP house that has no windows, no bed, no furniture and has corrugated iron sheeting as a door. Her left eye was damaged when she was burnt.
She receives no medical attention for her condition because she does not have money for transport.
Phologolo is a registered pensioner but has appointed one of her children as a guardian.
She said she cannot even enjoy her pension grants because her children do not always give her the money.
"It is by luck when I eat a decent meal, normally it is just mealie meal. Sometimes my grandchildren bring me leftovers from town were they beg people for food," she said.
Her daughter Kgomotso Phologolo said the grant that her mother gets is too little to feed the whole house.
"I send my children to go and beg in town so that we can eat. We are really suffering," Kgomotso says.
The family has no electricity. Three of the children staying in the dwelling do not attend school. They do not have birth certificates.
The North West department of social development, women, children and people with disabilities said it will deploy a social worker to the house to assess the grandmother's living conditions.
The department's spokesman Petrus Siko said it will move her to an old-age home after the assessment.
"We call on all our grannies to voice their frustrations with social workers in their areas to curb future abuse of the elderly," he said.
Oageng Mosiane, spokesman at the moral regeneration unit at the office of the premier, said the it will build Phologolo a new house, help her take a bath and buy groceries for her and her family.
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