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NEWS<br />
Eastern Cape Today<br />
24 August - 30 August 2012<br />
KIDS HELPLESS AFTER HOME CLOSED<br />
By Siphe Macanda<br />
It has been six months since Isaiah 58, one<br />
of Buffalo City Metro’s most prominent<br />
children’s homes, has been closed, leaving<br />
110 children homeless.<br />
Based in Parkridge, East London,<br />
the home was established in the 80s<br />
when it housed 13 children and looked<br />
after orphans, abused and abandoned<br />
kids.<br />
The home also operates as a school which<br />
is still offering grades R to 7.<br />
Founder Ms Margaret Van Zyl couldn’t<br />
hold back her tears while expressing her<br />
concern over the home’s closure.<br />
“I opened this home for struggling children.<br />
I wanted it to be a beacon of hope for<br />
the community.<br />
“Now that the home has been closed<br />
these children live on the streets and<br />
the buildings are being vandalised”, she<br />
said.<br />
When the EC Today visited the home, we<br />
found shattered windows, doors broken<br />
and a visible dwindling glimmer of hope<br />
from the staff members.<br />
Problems at the home are alleged to<br />
have started in 2009 when a social worker,<br />
whose name is known to the EC Today, arrived<br />
at the school and became sexually<br />
By Desmond Coetzee<br />
DIMBAZA – Hundreds of community<br />
members from all sectors of society attended<br />
the province’s Women’s Day in<br />
Dimbaza last Friday.<br />
The activities started with local groups<br />
taking the opportunity to showcase their<br />
skills in entertaining the audience with<br />
their skills in singing and dancing while<br />
they waited for the guests to arrive.<br />
Attending the event were delegates<br />
from Alfred Nzo, Amathole, Chris Hani,<br />
Joe Gqabi, OR Tambo, Sarah Baartman,<br />
and the two metros, Buffalo City and<br />
Nelson Mandela Bay.<br />
There were disruptions when a small<br />
group of disgruntled residents who used<br />
the opportunity as a platform to raise<br />
their grievances about poor service delivery<br />
by holding up placards.<br />
EC premier Ms Noxolo Kiviet was the<br />
guest speaker and noted the group on<br />
entering the tent and showed some in-<br />
n 110 homeless after Isaiah 58 closure<br />
CLOSED DOORS<br />
Isaiah 58 pre-primary and what used to be a children’s home in Parkridge closed and children<br />
that used to stay at the home are said to be suffering. Picture Siphe Macanda<br />
involved with teenagers.<br />
Athenkosi Fihla, who used to stay at the<br />
home said, “After her [the social worker’s]<br />
terest after instructing an official to give<br />
some attention.<br />
During her keynote address Ms Kiviet<br />
called for women power and told the audience<br />
that women’s economic empowerment<br />
is the new form of struggle.<br />
“The struggle still continues and<br />
we now have a new kind of struggle, a<br />
struggle for women empowerment, particularly<br />
to realize economic freedom,”<br />
she said.<br />
She was also concerned about the<br />
slow pace that the province is making to<br />
achieve 50-50 representation at senior<br />
management level.<br />
“We have currently 847 senior managers<br />
in the administration and only 283<br />
of those are women, 33.4 percent,” she<br />
said.<br />
The premier said one of the most important<br />
mechanisms to achieve economic<br />
emancipation in the province is<br />
education.<br />
arrival there was turmoil at the home. She<br />
dated kids way younger than her. I remember<br />
we were even barred from the of-<br />
7<br />
fices but she allowed her lovers there”.<br />
After financial mismanagement was uncovered,<br />
the Department of Social Development<br />
intervened, taking away children<br />
under the department to other homes.<br />
Isaiah 58 co-founder Ms Colleen Jansen<br />
claimed that after the children were taken<br />
away from the home, many continued to<br />
contact Isaiah 58, complaining that they<br />
were unhappy where they were.<br />
“Until today these kids come to us asking<br />
for help but there is nothing much we<br />
can do because we have no funding coming<br />
through.<br />
“One child even attempted to commit<br />
suicide because of her living conditions,”<br />
she said.<br />
Department of Social Development MEC<br />
Pemmy Majodina said: “We are not in<br />
charge of running schools, but with regard<br />
to the children’s home, we have had many<br />
interventions in an attempt to help but<br />
there is no cooperation from the management<br />
of the facility.”<br />
The Name Isaiah 58 is inspired by Chapter<br />
58 verse 7 in the book of Isaiah: “Is it<br />
not to share your food with the hungry and<br />
to provide the poor wanderer with shelter<br />
— when you see the naked, to clothe them,<br />
and not to turn away from your own flesh<br />
and blood?”<br />
Joining together to celebrate women<br />
HONOURED<br />
EC Premier Noxolo Kiviet is led to her seat followed by BCM mayor Zukiswa Ncitha at a<br />
packed tent erected at the Dimbaza Sports Grounds for the occasion of the Provincial<br />
Women’s Day last Friday. Picture by Sibulele Konongo
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