By REGINALD KANYANE
1 October 2024 – The Portfolio Committee on Social Development joins the South African nation and the international community at large in commemorating and celebrating the International Older Persons Day today by honouring the rich inheritance older people past and present pass to younger people.
Older persons are a foundation of the nation, its beauty and are a reservoir of its wisdom.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Bridget Masango said on 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated 1 October as the International Day of Older Persons. Masango further said this was preceded by initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing and endorsed later that year by the UN General Assembly.
She added that in 1991, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (resolution 46/91).
“In implementing the above mentioned international obligations, the sixth Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development considered and passed the Older Persons Amendment Bill.
“It conducted extensive public participation on the Bill countrywide. It received substantial inputs from older persons, most of which related to service delivery issues,” said Masango.
She said the Department of Social Development noted them and committed itself to address them through regulations once the Bill has been enacted into law. Masango said inputs related to the Bill were considered by the committee and some were added as amendments to the Bill.
“The committee welcomed this process as it provided older people with an opportunity to be part of a process of drafting legislation that seeks to protect their basic human rights and also educating them about their rights and protections in law.
“On 27 March 2024, the committee adopted its report on the Older Persons Amendment Bill. In the report, the committee recommended that the National Assembly adopt the report and approve the Bill,” she said.
Masango said the National Assembly then passed the Bill and referred it to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for further consideration and public participation by provincial legislatures. She said the Bill seeks to amend the Older Person’s Act (No. 13 of 2006) to address its implementation challenges.
“The Bill seeks to insert new definitions and new provisions relating to the monitoring and evaluation of all services to older persons, to make provision for the removal of older persons to temporary safe care without a court order, to tighten up the existing implementation and compliance measures, and to effect some textual amendments for greater clarity.
“The Bill seeks to address, among other things, the lack of coordination between areas of government to deliver services to older persons, non-inclusion in the Act of the valuable role older persons play in their families in terms of passing knowledge and wisdom to the younger generation,” said Masango.
She said this includes lack of legal provision for older persons to be capacitated with knowledge on non-communicable diseases and the lack of legal provision for services to older persons with disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Masango said the key amendments in the Bill include strengthening the protection and prevention of abuse of older persons, strengthening of coordination mechanisms between government departments, elimination of harmful traditional practices including witchcraft accusations against older persons, making provision for recognising the responsibilities of older persons in passing inter-generational knowledge and wisdom.
“We reiterate the commitment of the committee to its mandate of overseeing the executive in rendering services that include services to older persons. The committee takes the good social welfare of the older persons as a fundamental right,” she said.
The Guardian 