The Eastern Cape department of health is threatening to bring down the law against a man they accuse of illegally housing 33 mentally ill people at an unlicensed NGO in Ndabakazi in Butterworth.
Khulula Abantu Bam (Free my people), has operated from an abandoned Transnet railway station for two years.
The living conditions at the place are “far worse than those in prison” an inmate told Saturday Dispatch.
The home opened last January and was discovered by the department in May this year. The department is moving to close the home down.
Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said their efforts were galvanised by the death of a patient at Butterworth Hospital on October 7.
Khulula Abantu Bam owner Sese Sitali denied any responsibility.
Sitali said of his critics: “It is plain jealousy meant to stop me from God’s work I have been doing.”
Kupelo said the department conducted an investigation.
“According to the Health Act the situation is not convincing,” said Kupelo.
They found a patient with legs chained and padlocked. “Three females complained that they fight tooth-and-nail at night as the men try to enter their room.”
After this, 29 people were transferred to a facility in Kirkwood.
This left 33 mentally ill people sleeping on old mattresses on the floor in the two-room dilapidated house, with a reception area in between.
Sitali denied beatings and the chaining of people.
The Saturday Dispatch found the 33 locked behind a fenced area in front of the main building. A male security guard was at a chained and padlocked gate.
A tiny little room used as a bathroom was outside the main building. It did not have running water. Inmates wash in two zinc laundry tubs.
Nearby is the three-seater pit toilet, which is covered with corrugated iron.
Inmates, telling their story, whispered that they had been brought to the place against their will, others claimed the owner was using them to access their disability grants. Some accused their families of being in on the deal.
Sitali confirmed that he had access to their R1500-each disability grants.
“Yes, the families who brought their people who are recipients of the grant do give me something. But I feed most of these people with my own money. I took them from the streets where no one cared for them.”
He said of Khulula Abantu Bam: “It is not the most perfect of places but it is definitely better than the streets. They were roaming, eating from dustbins and sleeping under bridges. At least here they have a roof over their heads and are served with proper meals.”
Sizwe dismissed Sitali’s claims that Khulula Abantu Bam was a licensed facility. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
Mentally ill illegally housed: residents live in squalor at rural NGO
Khulula Abantu Bam (Free my people), has operated from an abandoned Transnet railway station for two years.
The living conditions at the place are “far worse than those in prison” an inmate told Saturday Dispatch.
The home opened last January and was discovered by the department in May this year. The department is moving to close the home down.
Health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said their efforts were galvanised by the death of a patient at Butterworth Hospital on October 7.
Khulula Abantu Bam owner Sese Sitali denied any responsibility.
Sitali said of his critics: “It is plain jealousy meant to stop me from God’s work I have been doing.”
Kupelo said the department conducted an investigation.
“According to the Health Act the situation is not convincing,” said Kupelo.
They found a patient with legs chained and padlocked. “Three females complained that they fight tooth-and-nail at night as the men try to enter their room.”
After this, 29 people were transferred to a facility in Kirkwood.
This left 33 mentally ill people sleeping on old mattresses on the floor in the two-room dilapidated house, with a reception area in between.
Sitali denied beatings and the chaining of people.
The Saturday Dispatch found the 33 locked behind a fenced area in front of the main building. A male security guard was at a chained and padlocked gate.
A tiny little room used as a bathroom was outside the main building. It did not have running water. Inmates wash in two zinc laundry tubs.
Nearby is the three-seater pit toilet, which is covered with corrugated iron.
Inmates, telling their story, whispered that they had been brought to the place against their will, others claimed the owner was using them to access their disability grants. Some accused their families of being in on the deal.
Sitali confirmed that he had access to their R1500-each disability grants.
“Yes, the families who brought their people who are recipients of the grant do give me something. But I feed most of these people with my own money. I took them from the streets where no one cared for them.”
He said of Khulula Abantu Bam: “It is not the most perfect of places but it is definitely better than the streets. They were roaming, eating from dustbins and sleeping under bridges. At least here they have a roof over their heads and are served with proper meals.”
Sizwe dismissed Sitali’s claims that Khulula Abantu Bam was a licensed facility. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
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