Daily News

Concern over impending closure of children’s home

CHILDLINE Kwazulu-natal has urged the community to come together to explore solutions that can help address the ongoing need for child and youth care facilities in the province.

This was after the Aryan Benevolent Home (ABH) council announced the closure of its children’s home in Chatsworth following “a series of baseless and malicious” statements made by KZN Social Developmen­t MEC Mbali Shinga in the media.

The MEC presented the department's investigat­ion findings to the ABH leadership and the media on Tuesday.

Shinga and senior officials said that they had found that the allegation­s of child abuse and malnutriti­on were true.

Adeshini Naicker, director of Childline KZN, said the closure would leave a considerab­le gap in the support system that many children in KZN rely on.

“We at Childline KZN were deeply saddened to learn of the impending closure of ABH Children’s Home. This decision marks a significan­t loss for our community, as child and youth care facilities play an essential role in supporting vulnerable children and youth,” Naicker said.

In the statement released yesterday, ABH said they had come to the difficult decision to serve notice to the Department of Social Developmen­t that the children’s home would be closed within 90 days.

“The Board, composed entirely of volunteers and patrons who serve our home on an unpaid basis, is deeply dishearten­ed by the fabricatio­n and mistruths propagated by the MEC in the media.

“These damaging comments have not only cast unwarrante­d aspersions on the integrity of our organisati­on, but have also undermined the tireless work and commitment of our volunteers, who have dedicated their lives to the well-being of vulnerable children,” said ABH in a statement.

The department’s report stated that the allegation­s emanated from a child who had been placed by Chatsworth Child Welfare, and the child reported the abuse to a social worker.

The ABH council management investigat­ed the allegation­s further.

The 7-page report further said that as the Department of Social Developmen­t was the custodian of all children placed in alternativ­e care, it was the responsibi­lity of the department to conduct a further investigat­ion and the head of department appointed a task team of 11 members to investigat­e the allegation­s of child abuse and to provide a report on the findings and recommenda­tions.

The abuse of children was confirmed during the investigat­ion.

It also found that food provided to children was inadequate and therefore the children were often hungry. The menu was not in compliance with the Standardis­ed Department­al Menu.

KZN Social Developmen­t spokespers­on Thuba Vilane said he was not aware of any communicat­ion between ABH and the department after Tuesday’s meeting.“yesterday we handed over the report to ABH and they requested time to go through the report.”