Nozala Ndoyana, 84, in front of her home in Gwaba village, Eastern Cape, South Africa. © 2023 Taurai Maduna/Human Rights Watch South Africa is failing to provide hundreds of thousands of older people access to basic care and support services. This is the result of government policies that continue to compound a legacy of racial discrimination under apartheid.
HRW released a report this week detailing how the South African government has failed to carry out the Older Persons Act, a law that would guarantee the rights of older people and enable them to continue to live in their own homes with the support they need.
Older people in South Africa today spent at least half their lives under apartheid. That regime’s racial segregation policies denied the majority of black African, coloured, and Indian/Asian people a good standard of education, decent work, and the ability to save for older age. The legacy of that racial discrimination still affects older people today.
South Africa has more than five and a half million people age 60 or older. Many of them do not have adequate financial and other support to live a dignified life.
Ben Zolile, 75, who lives in Johannesburg, used to eat lunch each day at a service center for older people but now cannot make the trip due to bad knees. “No one comes to my house,” he told HRW. “There are no other services that come to my home.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. Older people have the right to live in dignity. South Africa should carry out the Older Persons Act and fully provide people with community and home-based care. | 
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