Programme director
Members of the Executive Council (MECs)
Honourable executive mayor for Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipality
Heads of departments
Older Persons' Parliament
MMCs and others councillors present here today
Managers and all officials the provincial government
Members of governance structures
Members of various non-governmental organisations (NGOs), faith based organisations (FBOs) and community based organisations (CBOs)
Our elderly, community elders and leaders of our communities
Baagi ba Ventersdorp and the entire Dr Kenneth Kaunda district
Dumelang bagaetsho!
I feel blessed to stand here today in front of important people like you, our elders. In my years of service to this country and province and from my upbringing as a child, I was always educated about the importance of respecting the elders and drawing from their wisdom.
Ka Setswana rare: "letlhaku le leshwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo". In other words, we are never to forget our elders but we are rather encouraged to use them as the building foundation of our nation, society and communities.
Today signifies yet another landmark progress in the history of our country's democratic dispensation. We are officially launching the Older
Persons Act no 13 of 2006. This launch is taking place nationally and as a province we saw it important to also partake by having this provincial launch event as a way of awakening our people to the importance of this act.
It is the aim of government to see the lives of our elderly improve, to make them happy, to keep them healthy and to ensure that they are well looked after.
The African National Congress (ANC) as a ruling party and as a liberation movement fought for the liberation of all our people including our elders. Fighting for liberation therefore meant the abolition of all laws that were discriminatory and not looking after the interests of all the citizens in an equitable manner.
The new act therefore came into being to address loopholes identified in the Aged Persons Act 81 of 1967 (as amended by Act of 1998). The act had the following gray areas which made it undemocratic:
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we saw it was outdated and not responsive to current needs of older persons
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it focused on institutional care which caters for only two percent of older persons
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it did not have any provision for community based care.
Now, the new act aims at maintaining and protecting the status, wellbeing, safety and rights of Older Persons. It also aims to promote their integration in the community by creating an enabling environment and promoting participation in activities with people of other ages and cultures.
It is therefore the main objectives of the Act to ascertain the following:
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that older persons remain in the community for as long as they can
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to maintain and promote the status, well-being, safety and security of older persons
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to recognise the skills and wisdom of older persons
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and to promote participation of older persons in community activities so as to promote them as people.
One of the things that stand out of this Act is to combat abuse of older persons which is broadly defined to accommodate different types of abuse. Older persons have for a very long time been abused physically, emotionally, financially and even sexually.
They have been neglected, put away and hidden by their own families. With this act, we are saying enough is enough. No more! Not ever again will we see the dignity of our elders been pulled through the mud like that. Our elderly deserves respect. After all, I truly believe a nation without the wisdom of its elders is a lost nation.
Ladies and gentlemen, according to section three of this new act, it is the responsibility of all the organs of state to implement the Act in an integrated, coordinated and uniform manner. It is also a joint responsibility of both government and non government structures to ensure that the act achieves its objectives and that we must all take seriously the importance of a well planned, coordinated and integrated services to o older persons.
In building a morally sound society, we must endeavour to:
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respect, protect, promote and fulfil older person’s rights
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respect older person’s inherent dignity
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treat older persons fairly and equitably, and
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protect the older persons from unfair discrimination on any ground.
We want to make sure that our elders are well capacitated to live independently within the community by developing programmes that are aimed at ensuring that older persons are economically and socially empowered.
We must empower our elders. Today our elders shoulder much more responsibility than ever before. We must therefore also ensure that older persons have access to information, education and counselling especially on HIV and AIDS and provision of nutritionally balanced meals. This is because now they are left in homes to look after ill people, to take care of grand children and to look after the whole family.
In a society where many of our household are affected by HIV and AIDS, older persons now make major contributions. For instance, throughout Africa and elsewhere, millions of adult AIDS patients are cared for at home by their parents.
On their death, orphaned children left behind (currently, more than 14 million under the age of 15 in African countries alone) are mainly looked after by their grandparents.
Now we can all agree that such a critical role and contributions to development can only be ensured if older persons enjoy adequate levels of health, for which appropriate policies need to be in place.
In line with the Madrid international plan of action, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched in 2002 a document "Active Ageing: A Policy Framework", outlining its approaches and perspectives for healthy ageing throughout the life course.
It is our responsibility to ensure that the elderly receive immediate and accessible healthcare to enable them to continue to play the nurturing role they are doing.
As government, we provide our elders with the old age grant, but the truth is that the old age grant that government gives to older persons does not necessarily cover everything as it is used wherever is needed by families and grandchildren thus leaving nothing for their own needs.
I urge our elders to also take charge of their money and make sure it is used responsibly. You must also avoid surrounding yourselves with family members who are greedy and take your money to use it for alcohol and drugs.
Now, older persons often get sick themselves mainly because of age. For this reason, looking after families might be even more of a burden to them but because of the nature of society we live in, they are left with no choice but to shoulder this responsibility.
We must therefore really ensure that a frail older person receives maximum care within the community through comprehensive range of integrated services.
Services may include home based care, information, education on how to take care of older persons and counselling for family members, care givers and the community regarding ageing and associated conditions.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is important for all of us as stakeholders to make effort to study the act so that we may find it easy to implement it. Like I said earlier, it is our joint responsibility to implement the act. It is also our responsibility to look after our elders and to protect them.
I thank you!
