Elder abuse rates soar in KZN as victims suffer in silence

ELDER abuse in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has reached “widespread, silent, and fast-growing” proportions, with organ-isations reporting several cases weekly.

- NADIA KHAN [e-mail]

SOCIETY is urged to take a stand against elder abuse.

(Tafta)

As we commemorate 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, community workers reveal the shocking reality of physical violence, financial exploitation, and neglect facing the elderly, often at the hands of family members.

They said community intervention and government action are urgently needed to protect vulnerable seniors.

Daniel Chettiar, founder of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) North Coast, said they responded to at least four reports of elder abuse a week.

“As much as inter-partner violence is a major concern in our country, the abuse of the elderly sits at the same level. However, the problem persists because the elderly fear where they would go or what would people think if they left their homes.

“They also fear that no one would believe them as the perpetrators are often their children.”

Chettiar said the forms of abuse was no longer just verbal but physical.

“They are being beaten and in some instances left with broken hands and legs.

“They are burnt with cigarettes or boiling water, deprived of food and made to sleep on the cold floor. In many cases we have dealt with, the victims said it was because their adult child wanted their grant money to buy drugs and they refused. Sometimes, it was because their child’s spouse did not like them and wanted to get them out of the home.

“As soon as we are informed of such abuse we immediately intervene by reaching out to the police and social development department, who find them a place of safety, but only if they wish to. However, this issue is not going to end if society, especially the neighbours of the elderly who are getting abused, do not blow the whistle. We can no longer have the mentality, ‘it is not my business, so I won’t get involved’,” he said.