This phenomenon is certainly not unique to Kalbaskraal, South Africa is rife with it but what happens here is that the SASSA Grant (Old Age Pension from the State – currently around $120 a month, is taken by people who are “supplying care or assistance” to the elderly.
This amount of money is all that people who receive it get, and yet, it is stolen from them. One of them in here in the village, let’s just call him A had his entire grant taken and was given around R12 a day to live off, including food. The space he was given was a corner of a floor in a wooden shack that is a store room. Fortunately a good samaritan found out about this and she had her outside cottage cleaned out and Mr A is now living there. We are still building toilets and showers and all, but he went from a 4sqm living space to a 28 sqm. We have a stove for him and today we build him a cupboard and a bed. As soon as we have some more donations, we will start building his bathroom.
