‘We are told that someone will come to fix the problem, but nothing ever happens,” said 80-year-old Maboyisi Maneli, a resident at the City of Johannesburg-owned Annie Burger Old Age Home in Crown Gardens, Johannesburg.

“This is the way we live.”

The state of 80-year-old resident Maboyisi Maneli’s bathroom at the city-owned Annie Burger Old Age Home in Johannesburg South. His bedroom and bathroom do not have a light and his broken bathroom window has not been repaired. Shards of glass can be seen on the floor. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Maboyisi Maneli shows how he has taped paper to his cracked windows to keep the cold out at his unit at the city-owned Annie Burger Old Age Home. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Watson Job from Galilea Healing Centre NGO in ward 54 shines a light into resident Maboyisi Maneli’s bathroom. The bathroom has no lights. (Photo: Julia Evans)

80-year-old resident Maboyisi Maneli’s kitchen at Annie Burger Old Age Home. Maneli says his oven takes the entire day to heat up and his stove top does not work, so he has resorted to using a portable hotplate. (Photo: Julia Evans)

80-year-old resident Maboyisi Maneli’s leaking roof and broken light in his bedroom at city-owned Annie Burger Old Age Home. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Maneli’s unit has one only working light and broken windows that have gone unfixed for three years.

After identifying trends of complaints, Johannesburg’s Office of the Ombudsman launched an “own-instance investigation” of municipal retirement homes in Johannesburg.

“The Office of the Ombudsman is known as the office of last resort, but this time we are doing something special. We have taken it upon ourselves to investigate the conditions faced by the elderly at retirement villages,” said advocate Siduduzo Gumede, the Ombudsman for the City of Johannesburg.

Advocate Siduduzo Gumede, Ombudsman for the City of Johannesburg (left), looks at a mini-transformer that had been tampered with for illegal electrical connections at the Annie Burger Old Age home. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Gumede and his team visited the Annie Burger Old Age Home on 19 August in partnership with the city’s Department of Social Development to engage with senior citizens about their complaints and inform them of their rights. 

“Our visit to the Annie Burger Old Age Home highlights society’s disposition towards the protection of the inherent dignity of older persons in general,” said Gumede after the visit. 

“The nature of complaints that came to the fore is indicative of the unjust reality faced by many elderly residents when it comes to access to basic service delivery and protection of their constitutional rights.”

Stuart Marais, the councillor for Ward 54 in Johannesburg South, told Daily Maverick that the main issues at Annie Burger were maintenance, security and people living there illegally.

“The elderly… they’ve worked so hard, and they are entitled to an easy, nice life,” said Marais. 

The in-house carer at the Annie Burger Old Age Home has a book filled with complaints from residents of leaking roofs and ceiling damage, stoves not working, geysers leaking or not working, outside pipes leaking, broken windows, broken or jammed security gates and doors, and toilets leaking or not flushing.

After its visit, the Office of the Ombudsman reported receiving 40 complaints at Annie Burger, ranging from security concerns and unmaintained facilities to allegations of drug trafficking and the corrupt selling of units to young couples or families. 

No geyser for five years

Daily Maverick met 94-year-old Chris van Vreden, who has been living at Annie Burger for 15 years.

Peeling paint on the walls of 94-year-old resident Christopher van Vreden’s bathroom at city-owned Annie Burger Old Age Home in Johannesburg South. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Van Vreden said he hasn’t had a geyser for five years. He said young people living illegally in the retirement village stole his jewellery box which contained a gold watch and his tools.

When he was walking home late one night he fell and lay on the ground for two hours before anyone found him.

Marais said that residents paid only R185 a month, but were entitled to some form of comfort and community.

“It’s a very basic life, but you would think that it would be like everyone sitting on the stoep until late at night… [but] it doesn’t work like that. We’ve got this criminal element.

“It’s got every facet of stealing. They broke into a guy’s house who was deaf — because they know he’s deaf, he can’t hear a thing — they stole his TV from his cabinet in the lounge.”

Marais said the main gate is sometimes unmanned and security is lax.

The mini-transformers have been tampered with and there are accusations of residents bypassing electricity boxes to avoid paying for electricity — increasing the cost of other residents’ bills. Some residents reported that their electricity bills are much higher than they should be, with some paying up to R800 a month.

Annie Burger Old Age Home resident Shirley Pietersen (67) said her front door sometimes got stuck and she had to call her son to let her out. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Shirley Pietersen (67) approached Daily Maverick during the ombudsman’s tour and showed how her front door sometimes jams shut, explaining that she often gets stuck inside her house and has to call her son to help her get out. Pietersen, who was a teacher, said the pipe outside her house was leaking and her back door was unusable.

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As part of the own-instance investigation, the ombudsman visited the Eeufees Oord Old Age Home on 26 August. The ombudsman said the main issues there were the lack of adequate security, drug abuse, structural problems, electricity billing issues and illegal occupants.

Lia Grace Eybeis (88) has lived at Eeufees Oord Old Age Home since 2002 and worked at Coronation hospital in administration. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Lia Grace Eybeis (88), who has lived at Eeufees Oord since 2002, used to work at Coronation Hospital. She said she had to buy a tap and hire a plumber, which cost her R450, after her complaint of a broken kitchen tap went unheeded.

The peeling ceiling of a unit at Eeufees Oord Old Age Home. (Photo: Julia Evans)

The ceiling of Eeufees Oord Old Age Home resident Aubrey Crowder (69) has been leaking since last October. (Photo: Julia Evans)

The ceiling of resident Aubrey Crowder (69) has been leaking since last October, but when a contractor finally came a few weeks ago, they said it wasn’t a big enough issue to fix.

Raymond Marais (88), who has lived in the retirement village for 20 years, has a sagging ceiling in his room, and a resident who asked to remain anonymous said there were many illegal occupants, one of whom sold drugs and intimidated residents by tapping on their windows. 

Who is responsible?

These city-owned retirement facilities are managed and maintained by the Department of Human Settlements in the City of Johannesburg (previously known as the Department of Housing).

Advocate Livhuwani Tshiwalule from the Office of the Ombudsman’s Legal Department told Daily Maverick that while the Department of Human Settlements might bring in other departments to help, it was in charge and responsible for procuring contractors to maintain the infrastructure — such as hiring plumbers to fix leaking pipes and painters to paint peeling walls — and ensuring there were no illegal residents at the retirement villages. 

The Eeufees Oord Old Age Home in Joburg faces issues of inadequate security, drug abuse, structural problems, electricity billing issues and illegal occupants. (Photo: Julia Evans)

The Eeufees Oord Old Age Home in Joburg faces issues of inadequate security, drug abuse, structural problems, electricity billing issues and illegal occupants. (Photo: Julia Evans)

During the ombudsman’s visit to Annie Burger on 19 August, there were no representatives from the Department of Human Settlements present.

“It’s shocking that I don’t seem to get a sense that the departments are taking these issues seriously,” said Gumede. “I’d imagine that the departments ought to be here.”

However, their investigation seems to have made an impact, as during the ombudsman’s visit on 23 August to Eeufees Oord, contractors were replacing streetlight bulbs that had been broken for months, and a representative from the Department of Human Settlements was present during the stakeholder engagement.

A contractor procured from the City of Joburg’s Human Settlements Department fixes streetlights on the premises of the Eeufees Oord Old Age Home on the day of the Joburg office of the Ombudsman’s stakeholder engagement, 26 August 2022. (Photo: Julia Evans)

Gumede said a department representative told him that the day before that engagement, he had been called rather urgently to sign off on papers to get the street lighting fixed because they had heard that the ombudsman would be there the next day.

“They [the Department of Human Settlements] are addressing the issues because they don’t want to be embarrassed,” said Gumede.

Department of Human Settlements responds

When asked why these maintenance issues had been left for months without being addressed and why illegal tenants were allowed to live on the property, Department of Human Settlements spokesperson Neo Goba said: “It’s the department’s intention to address the maintenance issues at the retirement villages.

“Emergencies such as burst geysers are being addressed at the moment. For the more planned maintenance, we are in the process of appointing professionals in the packaging and planning of the required maintenance such as painting, roofs to be upgraded, etc.

“Private security has been placed at Annie Burger Old Age Home to address issues of safety and security. The Department of Human Settlements will be investigating allegations of corrupt officials selling off units. We are in the process of evicting illegal occupants.”

Marais said delays in the procurement of contractors, and maintenance issues were attributed to budget issues. In response to this, the department said: “There is no isolated set budget for old age homes. The budget allocated caters for all housing stock: old age homes, hostels, flats etc.”

Gumede said the Office of the Ombudsman would hold a meeting with all relevant departments and come up with a strategy. 

“I think we have a sense of what must be happening everywhere else, so we can devise a strategy and already start implementing and addressing the issues that have been raised,” Gumede told Daily Maverick.

“We will continue to revisit other retirement villages, but already with a plan of action.”

Gumede said the investigation had been an “eye-opener”, but he did not think it would be difficult to address the issues. “I hope that the city responds accordingly; we are definitely going to raise the issues at the highest level.”

Gumede said the city should make sure its old age homes were maintained. 

“We identified a need, and we put a plan together and we built these units. Let’s maintain them. It’s an investment in the future. It’s an investment in people.” DM