Johannesburg- Senseless killings of geriatrics living with dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease, has now propelled the Department of Social Development (DSD) to take a stand and create awareness around the condition.
The message they want to emphasise is that people living with the condition are not witches or practicing witchcraft.
In addressing World Alzheimer’s Day in Cacadu, Eastern Cape, last Tuesday, Deputy Minister of the DSD, Bogopane Zulu, stated that more will be done to educate caregivers to recognise symptoms when people, especially those in rural and remote villages, with limited access to healthcare, present with symptoms.
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Zulu opened up about her own grandmother who had Alzheimer’s and how she had to teach her mother how to care for her.
“My paternal grandmother died with Alzheimer’s. I had to teach my mom that her mother couldn’t recognise her. She had to attend a funeral of her own child when she doesn’t even know who is in that coffin.
She couldn’t understand why she must sit on the mattress. The most painful day I remember…was when she was in her room and there was a mirror and she never wanted to be in that room because she was angry with this person.
She said this person is competing with me. When I comb my hair she combs her hair, when I eat my food she eats with me. She competes with me for my clothes. And that was herself on a mirror reflection(sic),” said Zulu.
She explained that she had to teach her family that her grandmother wasn’t being un-cooperative but that she was ill and she helped them navigate ways to change her surroundings, so the person she saw in the mirror as “haunting” her would no longer be there.
Zulu said like other dementia sufferers, her grandmother became more active at night because the day light was too sharp for her to comprehend.
“She could remember (at night) the basic little chores she would, like taking a broom to sweep – because that is when her mind is calmer,” she said emphasising that this is when other’s in the community see them, accuse them of being witches and make them targets.
“We brutally murder them when all that they have done is to be older.”
Zulu said the problem was particularly concerning in the Chris Hani District: Lady Frere, Cofimvaba and Engcobo in the Eastern Cape where police have reported several murders.
Zulu said community members are accusing old folk of witchcraft and killing them because they see them speaking to themselves or being lost, naked and alone.
Affected family member, Nobuntu Meleni, said her grandmother had Alzheimer’s and her daughter had to move her to an old age home to escape their neighbours.
But the daughter was killed shortly after by a family member, living next door “for being the daughter of a witch”. She said the perpetrators release from prison has them at their wits end because they don’t know if he will target them next.
Traditional healer, Patricia Lewu, said she was attacked and stabbed nine times because she too started showing signs of forgetfulness and confusion.
Lewu said it was also important for traditional healers to be educated as some of them are also guilty of labelling sick old people as witches.
A concerned community member, Phesheya Shungube from Mbuzini Village in Mpumalanga told Zulu that he witnessed from a young age how houses were burnt and confused elderly people were chased out of their villages. He said this happened as recently as last year.
“We need education in our small villages because we are losing our relatives,” he said.
Zulu said the problem is widespread across South Africa and immediate intervention was needed from all sectors.
The Department of Health’s Noncommunicable Diseases manager, Zakhele Zikalala, admitted that the severity of the condition was not taken as seriously as it should be by his department. He said communities are ignorant because staff on the ground are not adequately equipped to diagnose people with dementia conditions. “When it comes to mental healthcare our caregivers were trained only the basics of it,” he said. He agreed that this should be priority.
Zulu said things that need to be implemented include: prioritised research funding, training and skills development for health providers and career advancement for professionals in geriatric medicine and related disciplines.
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