Members of the KZN Legislature’s Social Development Portfolio Committee visited the Durban Association for the Aged (DAFTA) offices in Chatsworth to meet with officials and seniors following the allegations of mismanagement of funds and mistreatment of senior citizens.
Chairperson of the committee, Honourable Gloria Nonzwakazi Swaartboi, who led the delegation, visited the organisation to do an oversight following the accusations.
She said as legislators, they start by doing the oversight, law-making and thereafter public participation.
“We have three types of oversights that are conducted when investigating an organisation. The first is an organised oversight where the stakeholders are informed about the meeting and issues are discussed. The second oversight is impromptu. We go into institutions without them knowing. We check how they operate as we do not want things to be swept under the carpet,” Swaartboi said.
She added that the third oversight is reactive and this oversight was sparked following the articles that appeared in local newspapers.
“One of the allegations was made by Hon Les Govender while the other by senior citizens. They wrote their perspective about DAFTA. We want to correct the statement made by Hon Govender in the Chatsworth Tabloid a few weeks ago where he said that the committee wants to clear allegations made against DAFTA. We want to correct that because we did not sit as a portfolio committee and discuss issues. We have to discuss issues, do oversight and our own investigations to make resolutions.
“We want to caution members of the Portfolio Committee not to give statements on behalf of the committee because the chairperson remains the spokesperson of the organisation. We are not clearing the allegations and are in the process of our own investigation. There were strong allegations about mismanagement of funds, mistreatment of seniors, senior citizens not getting food and during the lockdown, they were allegedly not attended to by DAFTA and as a result they had to rely on the community, youth centre as well as a member of parliament,” she said.
Swaartboi said that other allegations are about staff being forcefully dismissed with a CCMA hearing going on and about DAFTA being illegal and unconstitutional.
“Seniors are saying it is illegal because an AGM is overdue. According to seniors, the last AGM was in 2018. Seniors also claim that DAFTA called a meeting with only board members and they decided to chase other board members without informing anyone. Those members of the board remained aggrieved. It was not a general meeting and it was unconstitutional for them to do that. We are following all these issues raised by the seniors. We will listen to the Manager of DAFTA, Cheryl Naidoo, members of DSD because they are officials from the district office of Social Development and also we want to speak to members of the community and senior citizens as beneficiaries.
“Thereafter we will go back and write a report to make a decision based on feedback that we receive. We will not take tangible resolutions now, we want to do proper investigations before making a decision. We do not fight with anyone but want to get a solution. We are also awaiting a report from the Department of Social Development who is funding the organisation. We understand that the Department is meeting with us and the report will also assist in identifying the problem,” said Swaartboi.
