Projects 
FACES OF AFRIKANER POVERTY
Report compiled by Solidarity Helping Hand for
the Honourable President of South Africa, Mr Jacob Zuma
Dear President Zuma
Your visit to the Bethlehem informal settlement on 24 of July 2008 was of historical importance for two reasons. For the first time in history, 1 300 impoverished Afrikaners gathered to be spoken to instead of being spoken about. It was also the first time in history that the ANC leadership really met with impoverished Afrikaners.
On that day you said that you were shocked by the conditions in the white squatter camps and that those conditions did not differ from those in coloured or black squatter camps. However, that cold winters day was a day of hope for the 1 300 impoverished Afrikaners that gathered in Bethlehem to meet you. On that day you said, in no uncertain terms, that poverty knew no colour and that all poor people had the right to the same treatment from the government. You brought with you aid in the form of state departments that could assist impoverished whites in registering for ID documents, food coupons and social grants. You brought new hope by ensuring that impoverished whites would receive additional aid in the form of electricity, housing and basic services.
Your actions on that day highlighted white poverty as a valid part of the greater South African poverty issue. It had a positive ripple effect. Leaders from across the political spectrum took note of the new silent poverty amongst Afrikaners and reached out to the impoverished whites. Hundreds of international journalists have already visited white squatter camps. You made it politically correct to also speak out about South Africa’s impoverished whites. The former Umsobomvu Youth Fund, currently known as the NYDA (National Youth Development Agency), launched an independent investigation and found that the government would have to broaden its definition of previously disadvantaged people to include the white youth aged 18 to 35 year with an income of between R500 and R3 000 per month. According to this investigation, the white youth is definitely one of the most marginalised groups in South Africa.
On that day, Helping Hand, together with the impoverished whites, believed that under your leadership a new era would dawn in which we, as Afrikaners, as well as all the other communities and the government could work together in finding a solution to the issue of poverty.
On that historic day, you were shocked by the conditions in the white informal settlements. I believe you would also be shocked to know that only 40 food coupons were handed out on that day and up until now only a further 120 coupons have been distributed. A week later all aid was stopped because government officials said it was racists to help hungry white people. You will agree that 160 food coupons distributed amongst 600 000 impoverished whites since 2008 will definitely not convince them that the South African government is looking after them.
Heila Rothman, a dying cancer sufferer, stood in line for days on end from 6:00 to17:00. On 6 March she heard that her fifth application for a disability grant had been denied. A week later she passed away.
You said yourself that poverty knows no colour, but why does this not apply to impoverished whites?
You yourself fought against laws that deprived certain races of their basic rights, but in the South Africa of today people can still only see the skin colour of the poor and that skin colour will determine whether or not they receive any help.
This report was compiled especially for you, not to play on your emotions, but only to focus your attention on the suffering and the pain that these people experience. It aims to give you a true representation of what these people experience on a day-to-day basis and the true state in which the whites at ground level find themselves, although we acknowledge that the same scenarios are being played out daily in all poor communities, whether they be black, coloured or Indian.
You will agree that in a land of hope we cannot allow people with cancer to cry in pain because they cannot afford medical care. We cannot allow the elderly to die of hunger. We cannot allow young girls to sell their bodies in order to eat, or young mothers to abandon their babies on rubbish dumps because they cannot afford to take care of them. The Irish philosopher Daniel O’Connell said: “Nothing is politically right if it is morally wrong.”
Mr Zuma, in 2008 you were president of the ANC. Today you are the president of South Africa. Our country has seen enough injustices. Enough pain and suffering. The truth is that the Afrikaner community has deteriorated since your last visit in July of 2008.
In 2008 you gave us hope. Please make history again today by making that hope a reality.
Dr Danie Langner
Executive Director
Solidarity Helping Hand
“Our people hide their poverty. We are ashamed. Behind the walls of the small municipal houses children are crying because of hunger every night.” – Ina van Heerden, Wolmer, Pretoria-North
Facts regarding white poverty
· Demographers show that currently 600 000 Afrikaners can be classified as poor.
· 46% of white households cannot afford a home costing more than R200 000.
· There are currently 77 white squatter camps in Pretoria and more than 430 countrywide.
· Between 1994 and 2005, white poverty increased by 150%.
· There are currently 131 000 white households that do not have adequate housing.
· The need for adequate housing will increase annually by approximately 7 500 houses.
· To eradicate the backlog regarding housing for impoverished whites over the next ten years, 14 000 RDP houses will have to be built annually.
· Research has shown that the greatest need for housing among impoverished whites is currently in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
· For the first time since the 1930s, the number of impoverished whites is increasing. The appearance of white squatter camps next to big cities like Pretoria is also a new phenomenon.
1. The elderly
1.1 Vulnerable elderly people and the lack of medical care
· Research by Helping Hand has shown that 63% of the residents in the 77 white squatter camps in Pretoria are 60 years and older.
· There is currently only one social worker for approximately every 4 000 South Africans.
· Social work has been classified as a scarce skill for the first time in history.
· Because of the shortage of social workers, the needs of poor children and the elderly in particular can no longer be looked after.
· A total of 2 100 poverty cases are currently being investigated by the Centurion Council for the Elderly.
· According to Pretoria Elderly Care, approximately 1 000 cases of elderly neglect are reported to the organisation each month.
· The former Umsobomvu Youth Fund, now known as the NYDA (National Youth Development Agency) launched an independent investigation and found that the access to disability grants is much lower in the impoverished white communities than in the impoverished black communities. According to this report, it is extremely difficult for impoverished whites to get access to disability grants.
· Most impoverished black communities have access to satellite offices of the Department of Social Development. These offices handle applications for grants that are then directed to the head office of the Department. No such service is available in impoverished white communities.
1.2 Stories of vulnerable, impoverished elderly people
· Maria Schoeman (70) has cancer of the brain, stomach and liver. Recently the cancer also spread to her right eye. Despite the intense pain that she has to cope with, the Steve Biko Academic Hospital only provides her with an eye cream and Panados. Maria lives with three other people in a dilapidated caravan on Marietjie Opperman’s smallholding. Marietjie says: “Grandma cannot afford a doctor. She pain makes her cry day and night.”
· Jurie (61) and Susan Austen (78) live in a pump house in a family member’s backyard. The little house is only 2 m2 in size. Jurie worked for the South African Railways for 23 years until he was retrenched because of affirmative action. After losing his job he was forced to move out of his subsidized home with immediate effect. Jurie receives a pension of R700 per month, of which R500 goes towards rent for the pump house. For 25 years Susan sorted letters at the Post Office. She does not receive any pension. Susan says: “We do not have a bathroom, so we bath in a little basin.”
· Koos Harmse (76) is blind. After a car accident 12 years ago, his diabetes got so much worse that he lost his sight. At the then Pretoria Academic Hospital (now the Steve Biko Academic Hospital) he waited for ten hours before deciding to rather go home to recover. Koos said: “If I had received treatment after my accident, I would probably not have lost my sight.” To apply for a disability grant, Koos has to go into the city to fetch the necessary forms from SASSA. Then he has to be examined by a district surgeon. “I am blind. How am I supposed to get to the city?” Koos asks. “My biggest wish is to see again.”
· Elsie Botha (82) lived in a water tank in Susan Kruger’s yard for two years until a Helping Hand supporter provided her with a Wendy house. Susan took Elsie in ten years ago after seeing Elsie walking next to the highway, carrying a small suitcase. “After my husband’s death I went to live with his brother and sister-in-law. They mistreated me and I had nowhere to go,” Elsie says with tears in her eyes. “They would send me out in the rain at night and make me live in a pigeon coop with very little food.”
· Rita Dannhauser survived skin cancer, but it left her face severely scarred and deformed. Rita does not have the money to pay for reconstructive surgery. Every day when Rita drops her daughter Belinda (7) off at school, the other children throng closer to stare at them. Rita says: “The children call me names and tease me.” Belinda adds: “They call my mother a monster.” In spite of her skin cancer, Rita takes her daughter to school on her bicycle every day. She also sells the Sunday newspaper on the street in the blazing sun, as this is her only means of income. However, because of the constant exposure to the sun, new cancer cells have started growing where the previous cells were removed. Rita does not receive any medical treatment.
· Sarie Rossouw worked as a theatre sister at a state hospital in Johannesburg until she suffered a stroke ten years ago. She currently lives in a white informal settlement in Pretoria with no access to basic medical care. Her whole body is covered with bedsores because she has been lying on only a thin mattress for more than a year. This year she has only been visited by a social worker once, after Helping Hand had reported her case to Pretoria Elderly Care three times. She still receives no medical care and is seriously malnourished. Her husband, Hennie Rossouw (70) bathes and feeds her and changes her nappies.
· A week after Heila Rothman’s fifth disability grant application had been denied, she died of cancer. Despite being extremely sick and wheelchair-bound ,Heila was forced to personally wait in the queue at the South African Social Services Agency (SASSA) for days. The reason why all her applications were denied is stated as “for other reasons”. After her last application, SASSA’s own medical doctor stated that she was fit to work, in spite of her very weak condition. A week later she died.
· Uncle Ben’s Den, a care unit for the elderly in Pretoria West, is currently helping three people in a similar predicament. Rina Vrey (78) has twice been denied an old-age pension. According to SASSA, her file was lost after her last application and she has to start the application process all over again. Vrey said in tears: “They are messing with me. I am old. I do not have the energy to stand in queues for days on end. They do not want to help me.” Vrey receives no financial assistance from her children. She says: “I cannot buy anything for myself. I am totally dependent on the charity of others.” Helping Hand is inundated by complaints from the elderly about applications for old-age pensions that are repeatedly denied.
2. Children
2.1 The defenceless victims of poverty
An increase in poverty is directly related to an increase in crimes against children because of the degradation of the social environment in which the poor live, as well as the increasing strain of poverty on the family structure.
· Solidarity Helping Hand’s report on child abuse, released last year, found that in 90% of sexual abuse cases the child knew the perpetrator.
· Every day 60 cases of child rape as well as 13 cases of child abuse are reported in South Africa.
· It is estimated that 88% of all rape incidents are never reported.
· Of the rape cases that are reported, 45% involve child victims.
· The uncontrolled environment in which children in the 430 white informal settlements across South Africa live make them soft targets for ruthless criminals and for exploitation by older people.
· A social worker in Pretoria, who prefers to remain anonymous, suspects that most children in white informal settlements are constantly raped, molested and physically abused without having any access to social aid. Children are often sexually exploited for the financial survival of the parents.
2.2 Stories about children’s pain
· Two girls, one four years old and the other 13 years old, were removed from the Sonheuwel squatter camp by the Department of Social Development after they had been raped.
· A four-year-old boy was also removed from the same squatter camp after his heroin-addicted parents had left him to his own devices.
· When a BMW drove into the Sonheuwel Caravan Park, girls between the ages of 13 and 19 immediately rushed to the driver. In answer to the question to why this was happening, a resident only said: “Tonight all the children will have money again.”
· A 16-year old girl admitted to receiving R1 000 for having sex with an older man.
· Seven-year-old Sheldean Human was abducted and brutally murdered in 2007 by the paedophile Andrew Jordaan. She stayed in a commune with 39 impoverished whites. Sheldean’s friend, now ten years old, was also raped and indecently assaulted. The community raised funds for a child-friendly interrogation room at the local police station, but that room is currently being used as an office by a government official.
· At least one white baby is found dumped on the rubbish heaps in Onderstepoort, Pretoria every month. One of the problems stemming from severe poverty is that newborn babies are literally thrown away. Desperate young mothers know that they cannot look after the baby, and they see no other option than getting rid of the child. Impoverished girls get desperate because they know that it is already difficult enough to survive without having another mouth to feed.
· In January a newborn baby boy was found on the rubbish heaps. His head was had been severed by a tractor transporting rubbish. He was probably still alive when it happened.
3. Housing
3.1 Housing, electricity and empty promises
· The Tshwane Metro Council has promised 565 RDP houses to impoverished white families in Wolmer, Jan Niemand Park, Hermanstad and Elandspoort since 2003.
· In reality, however, only two white families have received state-subsidised houses since 2000.
· It appears that the poor will have to buy these houses from the Metro Council even though the Metro Council received these houses from the government for free. The Metro Council has also neglected to maintain these houses.
· According to research done by Helping Hand, there are currently 131 000 households without adequate housing. These families live in chicken coops, white squatter camps, broken-down caravans, tents, Wendy houses and shacks.
· 46% of white families cannot afford a house of more than R200 000.
· White families earning less than R68 400 per annum increase by 37 000 each year. In order to eradicate the housing backlog amongst impoverished whites, an average of 14 000 RDP houses need to be built each year for the next ten years.
3.2 Stories of pain
· Two years ago, Cobie Visagie’s electricity was cut off. “One month I received a bill for R55 000. That is impossible! But they still cut my electricity off immediately. I have been struggling for two years now to have it reconnected. In the past three months I have walked to the municipal offices in Acasia twenty times to sort out the problem. I need to have the electricity bill transferred from my deceased husband’s name onto mine. The ten kilometres to the municipal offices takes almost four hours. My shoes are worn through.” Cobie cannot qualify as an indigent because the electricity bill is still registered to her husband.
Cobie touches her face self-consciously: “I look like Cinderella. I have to make an open fire outside on which to cook my food. The soot sticks to everything and you can’t wash it off with only cold water. I try, but you quickly lose you femininity.” In order to heat water, Cobie has to put a plastic swimming pool filled with water in the sun for a couple of hours. “When it rains, we can’t eat, because I can’t make a fire. At least food keeps longer during the colder months.” Cobie grew up in an affluent family in the east of Pretoria. “I first lost my son, then my brother and mother. Life has a way of knocking you down,” she adds sadly.
· Martin Venter and his friend Gert van Vuuren live under a tree next to the Northern Sports Grounds in Pretoria North. Martin says: “When it rains, we cover ourselves with a plastic sheet. I have given up. These days I work as a car attendant and earn about R40 per day. My stomach is now used to eating only once a day.
Gert lost his job at a workshop in Monument Park because of the recession. “This is the first time that I have to live on the street. I struggle to get enough money to send to my 12-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter,” he adds despondently.
· Jennifer Olckers and her husband applied for an RDP house in 2003. An open plot in Jopie Fouriestreet in Wolmer is currently being developed for the building of RDP houses. The local government, however, stated that these houses are not earmarked for residents of Wolmer, but for residents of nearby Shoshanguve. “I want to live in Wolmer with my friends and family, but now they want to move us to Bon Accord. There is nothing in Bon Accord. It is surrounded by smallholdings. How am I going to get my kids to school? Where am I going to work? I so desperately want my own place, but why can’t it be in Wolmer in Jopie Fourie Street? Now I will be far away from everything and everybody.”
· Frieda Janse van Rensburg applied for an RDP house back in 2006: “I want to live in the north with my family. I am old and don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere. My mother-in-law is sick and bedridden. How can I help her if I am so far away from everything?”
· Seven years ago, Cornelia Schutte applied for an RDP house: “I don’t know anyone in Bon Accord,” she says. “There are only smallholdings. There are no shops and it is ten kilometres from town.” Cornelia’s son suffers from asthma. “How will I get my son to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital when he has an asthma attack? The hospital is 150 kilometres away from Bon Accord and I don’t own a car. I am very upset about the fact that we cannot live in Jopie Fourie Street. There we are close to friends, family and health care.”
· An unknown man lives under the President Steyn Bridge in Pretoria. Every day he wanders around collecting food with a beggar’s placard around his neck. He is just another one of the growing number of invisible people wandering the city begging for food.
4. Education
4.1 Education statistics
· The Solidarity Research Institute recently found that approximately 85 000, or roughly 23%, of the 363 000 candidates expected to pass the matric examination of 2009 would be unemployed in 2010. This did not include the approximately 218 000 learners who would probably have failed their matric exam. This would mean that, in actual terms, much more than 23% would be unemployed in 2010.
· The almost 600 000 matric learners of 2009 started as a group of grade one learners totalling 1,6 million. That is another million entrants into the economy not included in the research.
· The report also found that approximately 8,9% of people with a tertiary qualification will not be able to find employment, while 25,7% of people with only a matric certificate as their highest qualification will be unemployed.
· A local primary school in Pretoria applied for government aid for their disadvantaged white learners. The Department of Education denied their application.
· Research conducted by Helping Hand found that most high school learners living in informal settlements in Pretoria do not attend school. The reasons for this are lack of transport, financial restraints and an unsafe environment.
4.2 Stories of pain
· Lacia Labuschagne (16) lives in a caravan in the Sonheuwel Caravan Park with two friends as well as her three-year-old daughter and six-month-old baby boy. “Social services took away my children. They say I can’t look after them.” Lacia has no contact with her father, and her mother committed suicide three years ago. She recently left Suiderberg High School to find employment somewhere. It is suspected that she is pregnant with her third child. “If I had a job, I would have money and then I would be able to look after my kids. Maybe I can work behind the till in a shop. I want my kids back.” Lacia’s friend Veruschka Clark (18) also has a baby girl.
· Dwayne de Roubaix (5) lives with his parents in the Ruyterwacht squatter camp in the Western Cape. He is privileged enough to attend school and does his homework at night by candlelight. Although the squatter camp is situated in a residential area, there is no electricity. Dwayne’s parents cannot afford any stationary for Dwayne.
· Jessica Bester is another one of the 14 children currently living in the Ruyterwacht squatter camp. She is a gifted learner who is studying for her matric this year. She is, however, doing all her studying by candlelight. Jessica and her family have been living in a Wendy house in the squatter camp since 2007. Her father, Michael, lost his job as an electrician because of affirmative action. He currently makes a living by collecting scrap metal.
5. Empty promises and a lack of upliftment projects
· It is, however, almost impossible for residents in the poorer communities in Pretoria to be registered as indigent due to a lack of assistance from the Tshwane Metro Council. That means that a lot of residents cannot qualify for free water and electricity.
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· Since Presidents Zuma’s visit, only 160 food coupons have been distributed in the whole of Pretoria. This is contrary to promises that were made.
· Even though promises were made that these communities would also receive government aid, several applications have been denied. In Pretoria a social worker from the Ele?s Community Centre applied to the Department of Social Development for funds to support of community upliftment projects. The application was denied.
6. Stories of disappointment
· Beulah Fatherly had to get up at 4:00 in the morning to apply for a food coupon of R900 for her family at the Pension Offices in the city. “President Zuma promised in 2008 that we would also get food coupons. After the president’s visit we received one food coupon. After that they refused to issue us with food coupons. I have applied for a disability grant many times, but my application is always denied, even though I have been declared medically unfit to work,” says Beulah. Three years ago she had a stomach operation and since then she has only been able to eat refined foods: “I desperately need those food coupons. Not only me, there are seven people that live with us and they are all unemployed. My husband’s piece work is our only income.”
· President Zuma visited Uncle Ben’s Den, a care centre that looks after approximately 140 destitute elderly residents, in 2008. According to the residents, President Zuma promised that the government would largely subsidise their electricity to ensure the equal treatment of all underprivileged people. To date, however, nothing has come of that promise and the centre still pays its own electricity bill. They had to ask for financial assistance from Helping Hand recently because they were unable to pay their electricity bill of R25 000.
· Promises of electricity being provided to the 48 residents of Bethlehem, an informal settlement in Pretoria West, were also not kept.
7. Families’ stories of pain
· “There are approximately 60 white beggars in Wolmer and my brother is one of them,” says Mart-Mart de Jager. “It breaks my heart to see him standing there on the street corner. I love my brother. Beggars lose their self-respect; it is very difficult to motivate such a person to turn his life around. He has three wonderful children. Jakes has been on the streets for five years now.”
· Last year Stefanus and Anna Bezuidenhout’s daughter committed suicide by hanging herself from a steel cabinet. “After Anna’s husband died, she was unable to cope with the pressure of raising five children on her own,” says her mother. “Every day she used to go round to houses collecting scrap to sell, and then her car broke down to top it all. I constantly wonder if we could have done anything more to save her. I am heartbroken.” Anna’s (30) suicide letter reads as follows: To my five beautiful kids; I love you. Mommy did not want to do this to you, but I can’t handle it any longer. Maybe it would be better if I were no longer here.”
· An extract from a letter pleading for help received by Helping Hand:
I am writing this letter with an aching heart.
In Pretoria, in the Melgisedek block close to the old HF Verwoerd State Hospital, there are rooms.
It used to be an old municipal building, and it had electricity and a kitchen. People used to pay to live there and then they received food from the kitchen, but the previous owner disappeared with the rent money and did not pay for any of the utilities. Now the municipality refuses to reconnect the electricity.
Inside those rooms there are people of all ages in dire need. Children as well.
A special elderly lady lives there, and I am ashamed to admit that she is my mother – because I cannot help her. Her situation is utterly desperate.
Currently she is living with five other people. She sleeps on a mattress on the floor. My mother is 70 and she receives an old-age pension, but she can definitely not afford a bed.
Her old-age pension must feed all five of them, and that includes a two-year-old baby. They cannot survive on so little.
The gel that is used for the little stove costs R20 for three days’ cooking. Now you can calculate for yourself how little is left over for food.
They bathe in basins in which they also do their washing. It is very bad, especially for a sickly, 70-year-old pensioner.
I can’t even help her buy a bed, because I was declared insolvent myself. I am not worried about myself, but I am worried about her and the little two-year-old boy.
My heart tells me that no child can grow up like that. He always has to keep quiet, since most of the people there work nightshift and want to sleep during the day. They yell and swear at my mother if he cries even a little.
I hope and pray that someone can help my mother and the little boy.
Regards
Martie
