A group of 14 mentally disabled people have on several occasions been fed just dry bread and sometimes soil themselves due to shortages of diapers.

For the past eight months, Precious Place of Hope, a home for disabled and mentally challenged children and adults in Walkerville, south of Johannesburg, hasn't received its monthly grant from the provincial department of health.

The home, which takes care of disabled people aged between 12 and 37, regularly runs out of toilet paper, forcing caregivers to wash them every time they relieve themselves.

The nonpayment of the mental health grant, which is R4,000 per person per month, has made it difficult for the centre to take care of the monthly needs of the children and adults, caregivers said.

Eight caregivers who have to regularly bath, feed, cook, clean and change diapers have been working without being paid.

Agatha Sisilana, 69, has been with the centre for 14 years and said it was the love they had for the children that saw them reporting for work on a daily basis.

"We work under difficult situations, there is shortage of food. I don't know when last the children had vegetables with their meals. On Monday we did not have adult diapers or toilet paper and we had to constantly bathe them," she said.

When Sowetan visited the centre some kitchen cupboards were already empty as food had run out. The beds were neatly made and the shelves neatly packed. There are three fridges, one had just two cabbage heads and a pack of carrots. Another fridge had just sausages.

Julia Litsebe, 50, another caregiver, said: "We have to give them oats with no milk and sugar. On Saturday we threw away an expired mealie meal bag that had maggots."

A manager at the centre who wanted to remain anonymous said they had been told by health department that their invoices were somehow wrong.

"We used to get R56,000 from the department, with 50% being used for food and the other 50% to pay our salaries," the manager said.

The manager said they now had to survive on R20,400 per month from disability grants. "It is not enough because adult diapers cost about R4,000, R12,000 then goes to groceries and we have to pay the company that disposes the diapers," the manager said.

To add to the home's woes, the municipality has now threatened to cut its electricity as the home owe more than R100,000 in unpaid power bills.

"The last time we bought food was in January and because we did not have enough money we were forced to buy cheap brands. I am aware that a mealie meal bag had to be thrown away because it was expired but at times we get expired food from the donors," the manager said.

The department's Philani Mhlungu said they would check if the centre was accredited by the department.