Suffer the children: It’s contemptible that Gauteng MECs for social development are not held to account

Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi says that healthcare facilities in the province are experiencing “pressures” rather than “crises”. (Photo by Gallo Images/Sharon Seretlo)

By Roger Pearce, Simon Lerefolo and David Webb

2 Sep 2021

Former president Jacob Zuma was jailed in July after being found guilty of contempt of court. But Gauteng’s various MECs for social development have been sitting pretty, in spite of being in contempt of court – not once, but twice.

Roger Pearce, Simon Lerefolo and David Webb are trustees of African Havens.

The MEC for Social Development in Gauteng has taken a risky road in dealing with a Gauteng High Court decision by simply ignoring the order of the court to provide full registration to a series of children’s homes, of which we are trustees.

We say “MEC” to refer to the position rather than a single person, because there have been three MECs of Social Development and one acting MEC in the two years since the high court ordered that the African Havens children’s homes be permanently registered. Having failed to do so, the department is currently in contempt of court.

The first MEC in question was Thuliswa Nkabinde-Khawe, who served between May and November 2019. She has since passed away. Then Panyaza Lesufi held the position of acting MEC for six months (November 2019 to June 2020). Gauteng Premier David Makhura subsequently appointed Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi in June 2020. Finally, in December 2020, Morakane Mosupyoe was appointed Gauteng MEC for Social Development during a reshuffle of the legislature.

Thuliswa Nkabinde-Khawe, who served between May and November 2019. She has since passed away. (Photo: Tebogo Letsie)

Panyaza Lesufi held the position of acting MEC for six months (November 2019 to June 2020). (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)

Nomathemba Mokgethi was appointed as MEC in June 2020. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sharon Seretlo)

Tonight – and every other night the department continues to ignore the high court’s order to fully register the African Havens cluster of children’s homes, which the high court granted on 20 April 2020 and upheld in a contempt hearing in December 2020 – vulnerable children remain on the streets of Gauteng.

And sadly, there will be more vulnerable children to come. The Department of Health has recorded more than 23,000 teenage pregnancies between April 2020 and March 2021, with 934 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 giving birth.

About 3,000 babies survive neglect in South Africa each year and we have more than three million Aids orphans (according to conservative estimates) in the country. There is an urgent need for temporary places of safety for abandoned and orphaned children, or those facing abuse or neglect. Just ask any social worker. And the Covid-19 pandemic, which has resulted in thousands of excess deaths, has no doubt exacerbated the problem.

Yet, two of our African Havens homes have closed because of the department’s failure to register them – despite the two legal decisions in support of the registrations. One has been sold because it wasn’t being used, while another has been loaned to another social project since we are unable to receive children. Others have empty beds. We have spent thousands of rands of donor funding arguing for the registration of our cluster of children’s homes following the department’s own directive that they be registered, but these court cases have been unnecessary and diverted vital funds away from the work we do in caring for abandoned and vulnerable babies and children.

“And we are back in court again on 6 September to establish that a court case won twice over has still been won.”

Our case was originally brought to the high court in 2019 when we sought the court’s assistance in addressing the delays and obstruction to registering the African Havens’ children’s homes. These are not a group of fly-by-night children’s homes that popped up out of nowhere, but have served Gauteng for 16 years, caring for many hundreds of vulnerable children in foster care.

In all those years, there has not been a hint of trouble at any of these homes or any valid reasons given to reject their registrations. But year after year, the department stalled the process and demanded more changes… to the board, to the founding document, to the staff – until they abruptly sent word that registration was denied, and settled into a long pattern of ignoring African Havens completely.

Finding no merit in the department’s refusal to register the homes, and even less in the department’s silence, the high court ordered the Gauteng MEC of Social Development to provide registration documents to the Havens in an order dated 20 April 2020.

Done. Dusted. Justice has prevailed. Or so we thought.

Seven months went by with no word from the department. We then brought an application in the high court against the MEC for contempt of court. The high court promptly granted the order.

The MEC’s lawyer agreed that they would comply within 10 days. But again, the deadline passed. The MEC is currently in contempt of two orders of the high court!

The contempt application was re-enrolled for March this year. Days before the court date, an attorney for the department responded by offering a confused mix of responses to the first complaint and the first contempt application, neither of which he was entitled to comment on by that date. This obliged African Havens attorney to file heads of argument for yet another hearing date, which is now set for 6 September.

It’s become a cliché to quote former president Nelson Mandela, but we haven’t seen any other South African president grasp the importance of prioritising the welfare of our children like he did. Mandela said: “Giving children a healthy start in life, no matter where they are born, or the circumstance of their birth, is the moral obligation of every one of us.”

Leaving children without infrastructure and support systems – to fend for themselves on the streets or in child-headed households – is not the healthy start he was talking about.

So, while we await the outcome of our next court hearing, vulnerable children on the streets of Gauteng might utter a silent prayer, hoping for a warm bed, a home-cooked meal, a clean set of clothes, a new toy and a place to call home.

It is not the Havens waiting for justice; it is these children.

In our years of working with staff from the Department of Social Development, we have met many remarkable and committed people of integrity. But somewhere at mid-level, bureaucracy and power games have crippled the system. There is an inexplicable determination to win at all costs; to never admit defeat. It’s a destructive, not caring, attitude.

When that happens, it is always the children who suffer. DM/MC

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