Times Of Swaziland: TAKING CARE OF THE ELDERLY

TAKING CARE OF THE ELDERLY
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By Vusi Kunene on 26/10/2017 08:31:00


I have been thinking of the plight of our senior people in this country and it
pains me because most of the time in the news there are stories of old people
who are living a destitute life.
Every time we are told of the appalling conditions they are living under. We
recommend the institutions and organisations that sometimes bring the needed
relief to the elderly. But before that relief arrives, the elderly person would
have struggled and at times may think why God is not taking his or her life.
This is not a good thing. While thinking about this I wondered how it can be
dealt with so that there is no need for the elderly to go through hardships.
Something is not right and I don’t want to go to the extent of mentioning what
we heard this year; that even those deserving elderly will not get anything from
government because they have to wait for others to die so that they can take the
position of those departed. Government was not considerate when it said that. To
me that means government’s wish is to see the elderly pass on so that it can
have money to give to others.
I even thought that it was a strategy that there was no medication in hospitals
so that the elderly could pass on to be replaced by others. I know this may be
too extreme but I ventured to those levels of thinking about this.
Looking at Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which
our country is a signatory to, it provides that everyone has a right to a
standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself including
food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. A person
also has a right to security in the event of old age. In my understanding,
therefore, when we are speaking of rights, it is the State that is the duty
bearer and should make sure that people enjoy their rights. So the security of
the elderly rests squarely with government as per the provision of the UDHR.
Article 22 provides that everyone, as a member of society (including the
elderly), has a right to social security and is entitled to realisation through
national effort and international cooperation and in accordance with the
organisation and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural
rights indispensible for his dignity. In my opinion, this means that State
resources should be used to provide for the elderly for the protection of their
dignity.
Can anyone have dignity if he or she is living in appalling conditions? We have
seen structures where the elderly can no longer have privacy because the shelter
he or she is living in can be called a ‘see through’, for lack of a better
term.
It is a known fact that government will be quick to mention that it is willing
to cater for the elderly but it lacks resources. We will be told that the office
of the Deputy Prime Minister is tasked with making sure that the welfare of the
elderly is taken care of. I cannot gainsay that view for now but I can mention
that instead of wasting State resources on certain individuals we can at least
give to the elderly. If the money that was a gift to senior civil servants was
channelled towards the welfare of the elderly, it would have gone a long way in
alleviating the conditions they are living in. Until our government takes our
Constitution seriously and begin to educate people about it and stick to its
provisions it will always be a struggle. As long as it is anathema in this
country to speak freely of human rights and government be accountable then we
will have a problem. As long as we still have judgments of our courts that will
say we as a country are different from other countries we are still to suffer.
Yes, I am speaking of the judgment that says democracy lies in the eyes of the
beholder and therefore our democracy is different from others. That to me means
even our human rights are different from those of other people.
Before I digress; my point is that government can at some point avoid some of
these problems by teaching Swazis about the Constitution. Some elderly people
are living in abject poverty but they have children who can afford to take care
of them. Section 29 (5) of the Constitution provides that children have a duty
to respect their parents at all times and to maintain them in case of need. But
this provision appears in the Bill of Rights and therefore it will be difficult
for government to speak of same because it is anathema to speak of rights in
this country. That tells me that the struggle of the elderly even when there are
people who are supposed to provide for them will continue. Let government
respect the Constitution and then the children will also be forced to follow it
and take care of their parents.