Cape Town old age home faces ‘neglect and abuse’ claims in row over treatment of frail care resident

A photo taken from a Tiktok video that a trainee carer at Lilac Residence Seapark in Melkbosstrand took of Johanna de Kock in December 2024, while De Kock was hanging off the bed and asking for help. (Photo: Supplied/Viljoen de Kock)

By Tamsin Metelerkamp

3 Apr 2025

Lilac Residence Seapark, an assisted living facility for the elderly in Melkbosstrand, Cape Town, has denied allegations that it neglected the wellbeing of residents after a former client lodged a criminal complaint with the police about the treatment of his mother at the facility.

The families of some residents and former residents of Lilac Residence Seapark have raised concerns about the quality of care at the home, claiming there have been incidents of neglect and poor management.

Among those who spoke to Daily Maverick is Viljoen de Kock, whose mother, Johanna de Kock, was a resident of the facility before being moved to another home in January this year. According to De Kock, there was a “sequence of events of neglect and abuse” of his mother at Lilac Residence Seapark, which started after new management took over the facility in October 2023.

Lilac Residence Seapark has denied these claims, saying it is “deeply committed to ensuring the safety, dignity and wellbeing” of its residents.

De Kock’s concerns

Lilac Residence provides a range of care services for the elderly, including frail care, dementia care and post-operative and sub-acute illness care. De Kock’s mother, who is diagnosed with dementia, was in frail care at the facility.

In February 2024, Johanna suffered a fall while having tea on her bed, which resulted in a broken femur. After three weeks in hospital and a step-down facility, Johanna was moved back to Lilac Residence, where De Kock alleges her leg wound became infected because of a lack of adequate care.

According to De Kock, he had confirmed with Lilac Residence that the staff would be able to look after his mother once she was returned to their care, since her mobility would be affected by the healing wound. Daily Maverick has seen the WhatsApp exchange between De Kock and a representative of the facility, dated 12 March, in which he asked: “Will Seapark be able to care for her when her leg heals? Her mobility will be impacted.”

The representative responded: “Of course we will. It won’t be a problem as we have many residents in wheelchairs.”

“On 25 March, she went back to Lilac Residence, and then the wound wasn’t looked after,” alleged Pieter du Plessis, De Kock’s partner.

Johanna was readmitted to Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital on 14 April 2024 with a fever and signs of infection at her wound site. A report by her orthopaedic surgeon, dated 13 May 2024, said “it was evident that the wound was not properly cared for and that no warning was giving [sic] in the early stages of wound deterioration”. Johanna required urgent wound debridement and antibiotics.

I mean, we’re in a state of panic, because [Johanna] was climbing out of bed. If she falls out of that bed, she’s dead.

In communication between Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital and De Kock, a hospital nursing manager noted that Johanna had a “pressure lesion on her sacrum” (base of the spine) when admitted, with skin that looked red and fragile.

“The multiple medical issues [Johanna] developed raised serious concerns about whether she received the proper standard of care that Lilac Residence claims to provide,” Du Plessis said.

De Kock said he had a meeting with Lilac Residence management on 16 April 2024, during which he was told the dressing for the wound was changed twice daily. However, he argued that the state of infection of the wound when she was readmitted to hospital casts doubt on this claim.

When Johanna returned to Lilac Residence after the second hospital stay, De Kock organised for the facility’s staff to receive training in how to care for the wound at the step-down facility.

The relationship between the De Kock family and Lilac Residence deteriorated further when a trainee carer at the facility shared a TikTok video of Johanna in November 2024, in which she can be seen hanging off her bed and repeatedly asking for help while the trainee records. Just before the end of the video, the trainee responds: “Okay, we’ll help you now.”

old age home abuse A photo taken from a TikTok video that a trainee carer at Lilac Residence Seapark in Melkbosstrand took of Johanna de Kock in December 2024, while De Kock was hanging off the bed and asking for help. (Photo: Supplied /Viljoen de Kock)

According to Lilac Residence, the trainee claimed she shared the video on Facebook because she wanted to show her friends the work she did.

In the wake of this incident, De Kock said he tried to find a workable solution with the facility, suggesting a “transparency initiative” and instalment of webcams at all residents’ beds that would allow their families to check in on their wellbeing. He already had one such camera installed at Johanna’s bed, with permission from her and Lilac Residence.

“We didn’t want to move [Johanna]. She was 500m from us and places like these are so fully booked… you cannot get a bed anywhere,” Du Plessis said.

Termination of contract

However, things came to a head on 7 January 2025 when De Kock and Du Plessis say they looked at the webcam feed and saw Johanna trying to climb out of bed with nobody to help her. Du Plessis said that 22 calls to the facility went unanswered, including to members of management.

“Eventually, the person answered and she was so rude to us. I mean, we’re in a state of panic, because [Johanna] was climbing out of bed. If she falls out of that bed, she’s dead,” Du Plessis said.

According to De Kock and Du Plessis, they rushed to the facility to check on Johanna at 5pm and found no senior management on site. Du Plessis said he followed a junior staff member who said she was in charge when she walked away from him, and demanded her name.

A staff member at Lilac Residence reportedly threatened to call the police after the exchange became heated. Du Plessis said he called the police and asked them to come to the facility after he heard they had not been called by Lilac Residence, but later cancelled the call-out when the CEO of the facility arrived.

Another staff member at Lilac Residence subsequently contacted the police and asked them to come to the home.

The police allegedly told Du Plessis and De Kock to leave the premises if they weren’t going to press charges.

No family should have to fight this hard to ensure their loved ones receive even the most basic level of dignity and respect.

In a letter to families of residents, dated 9 January, Lilac Residence noted that there had been an incident at the facility in which a family member “harassed our staff and residents to the point of not giving them the opportunity to leave and continue with their duties”, adding that it would not stand for “unruly behaviour”. It stated that the police had been notified of the incident.

On 10 January, Lilac Residence sent a letter to De Kock terminating the contract for Johanna’s care at the facility, with 30 days’ notice to allow an opportunity to find alternative arrangements. The letter said the termination was linked to a violation of the house rules prohibiting “abuse of any kind to any staff”.

“Due to severe policy violations, including abuse and threats against our staff, we were left with no choice but to terminate the De Kock lease. We remain concerned about De Kock’s ongoing harassment of our employees,” Lilac Residence said in a statement released on 20 February.

De Kock refuted Lilac Residence’s statement, calling it a “blatant attempt to shift blame and silence valid concerns”. He denied harassing or abusing staff or residents.

“The real issue here is not me – it is their failure to uphold the duty of care they claim to provide to vulnerable elderly residents. No family should have to fight this hard to ensure their loved ones receive even the most basic level of dignity and respect,” he said.

De Kock and Du Plessis lodged a criminal complaint against Lilac Residence at the Melkbosstrand police station in late January, alleging harmful neglect of Johanna at the facility.

Daily Maverick asked the South African Police Service for more information about the incident at Lilac Residence on 7 January, as well as the criminal complaint laid by De Kock and Du Plessis later that month.

“Kindly be advised that Melkbosstrand SAPS bear knowledge of the incident cited in your enquiry. However, upon arrival at the mentioned facility, when SAPS members requested the persons of interest to leave the premises, no complainant registered a criminal case,” SAPS responded.

The SAPS confirmed that Du Plessis and De Kock registered a criminal case which was being investigated by the Milnerton Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.

“The circumstances surrounding the latter incident are now under investigation,” it said.

Lilac Residence denies allegations

Lilac Residence has said that De Kock’s allegations are “baseless”. It also accused him of making unauthorised recordings of staff and residents, as well as threatening staff and “hurling abusive language”.

“I welcome the opportunity to address and resolve De Kock’s claim in a court of law. While we acknowledge some of his concerns, we don’t believe his mom, Ms De Kock, was deliberately abused or neglected by our staff as claimed. I look forward to proving our innocence in court,” said Claudette Jallat, CEO of Lilac Residence.

According to Lilac Residence, neither Johanna’s fall nor the subsequent infection of her wound were the fault of the facility. It said the wound appeared to have healed after her initial discharge from hospital, and that “no dressing was required to be administered by Lilac’s nurse”.

I noticed there was definitely something wrong. [My mother] kept on scratching and scratching.

“However, the nurse noticed the wound was oozing and she asked De Kock to book an appointment with her doctor to treat it, which did not happen. The nurse was forced to provide emergency treatment and dress the wound. The flare-up of the wound was not due to Lilac’s negligence,” the facility stated.

On the matter of the social media video of Johanna, Lilac Residence said the training of the carer who shared the video on TikTok and Facebook was immediately terminated, along with that of another colleague who was implicated in the incident.

“The video was removed from Facebook and we reported the post as a violation on social media platforms. De Kock was immediately notified, who sympathised with management at the time. He was reassured that his mother was not hurt and emotional support was offered to her,” it said.

Jallat said the facility took full responsibility for the incident and apologised for the “unacceptable behaviour” of the trainees.

De Kock’s concerns previously appeared in Rapport.

Scabies outbreaks

Some family members of residents reported outbreaks of scabies – an itchy skin rash caused by parasitic mites – at Lilac Residence. De Kock said that while the first outbreak occurred in October 2023, cases continued cropping up periodically throughout the next year.

Daily Maverick spoke to two other relatives of residents at the home who confirmed the scabies issue. One has since moved their family member to another facility.

Georgia, the daughter of a resident at Lilac Residence who was ascribed a pseudonym after asking to speak anonymously, said her mother first developed scabies in late 2023.

“I noticed there was definitely something wrong. [My mother] kept on scratching and scratching,” she said, adding that she was still concerned about incidents of scabies among residents at the beginning of this year.

“It actually still hasn't stopped… [Lilac Residence] doesn’t take care of it. They deny anything was wrong,” Georgia alleged.

“... The people that they appointed there are not capable. They are not capable of taking care of the people.”

However, Georgia noted that between January and March this year, Lilac Residence “stepped up” its efforts and appointed more nursing staff.

“I still avoid the management as much as possible and only deal with the new [nursing] sister. At this stage my mother is too old and fragile to be moved,” she said.

Lola, the daughter of a resident at Lilac Residence who was ascribed a pseudonym after asking to speak anonymously, moved her mother out of the facility earlier this year. She told Daily Maverick that before that, issues of itching among residents had been going on “for months”.

No, there was no outbreak of scabies. Occurrences of scabies in long-term care facilities are not uncommon.

“[My mother] was scratching so much, I took her to one of the doctors here [in January]. He gave her an anti-allergy tablet. Immediately, the itching stopped,” she said, claiming that there was “something… causing an allergic reaction” among the elderly at the facility.

Lola also questioned the training of some of the carers who interacted with her mother at Lilac Residence.

A healthcare professional in Melkbosstrand, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of a professional backlash, said there had been cases of scabies among residents of Lilac Residence in February and March 2024, and later in July and September 2024.

“It’s very concerning when… scabies pops its head out, because the way that scabies works is basically if the people and the linen… are not clean, that’s when these things take hold and run rampant through the old age community that lives there,” he said.

“If one resident of Seapark comes in with suspected scabies or something like that, that’s fine. But when multiple caregivers, patients and family [members] of patients come in with the same thing from one place, it’s very concerning.”

He claimed that “the frequency of these outbreaks, as well as their duration, does speak to mismanagement and the lack of proper… care [at Lilac Residence Seapark]”.

When Daily Maverick approached Lilac Residence it was referred to statements released by the facility, including a question-and-answer document published on 20 February that included: “Was there a scabies outbreak at Lilac Residence?”

“No, there was no outbreak of scabies. Occurrences of scabies in long-term care facilities are not uncommon. We follow strict infection control policies. Residents diagnosed with scabies receive appropriate treatment. We are also aware that there were instances of scabies before Lilac took over the facility,” the home said.

Lilac Residence said it “strongly rejected” any claims of abuse or neglect at the facility, adding that such allegations were “deeply unfair to our dedicated staff, who work tirelessly to care for our residents”.

“We are fully compliant with frail care regulations and uphold the highest standards of treatment,” it added.

According to Lilac Residence, all of its nurses are registered with the South African Nursing Council and all caregivers have the required certifications and experience. It stated that the facility adhered to evidence-based care practices and consulted external experts to ensure compliance with care standards.

The Western Cape Department of Social Development conducted an inspection at Lilac Residence Seapark in January, after De Kock lodged a complaint about care standards at the facility.

“We have shared the key findings with families, as promised. The department found that we are compliant with all policies, procedures and protocols for the safety and wellbeing of our residents. We are pleased that there were no negative findings against our facility,” Lilac Residence said.

Department spokesperson Monique Mortlock-Malgas noted that the facility was a private home and was not managed or owned by the department.

However, Mortlock-Malgas confirmed that it had received complaints in 2024 from a relative of a resident at the facility.

“As per the Older Persons Act, the department is mandated to investigate norms and standards of a facility for older persons. Management of the facility gave their full cooperation during this investigation and the department found that norms and standards had been met,” she said.

Daily Maverick received statements that Lilac Residence had collected from eight relatives of residents at the facility, in which they said they were satisfied with the standard of care their elderly family members were receiving, and had not noted any examples of neglect or abuse. DM

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South Africa

De Kock’s concerns

Termination of contract

Lilac Residence denies allegations

Scabies outbreaks