Rehab residents concerned about future
Jabulani Rehab Centre is concerned about their future after the owners have decided to put the centre up for sale.
DISABLED residents at the Jabulani Rehab Centre is concerned about their future after the owners have decided to put the centre up for sale.
The facility, which caters for the physically challenged from communities around Empangeni, has been in operation since 1971.
Eleven of the centre’s inhabitants have been allocated government housing at Dumisani Makhaye Village, while another 11 have been waiting for RDP houses for more than five years.
They pleaded with the centre’s management and owners, the Association for the Physically Challenged (APC), to involve them in decision-making relating to their welfare.
‘Even though they tell us they will build another workshop to work from at Dumisani Makhaye, we are not happy for having to be moved to the township. Some of us use wheelchairs to move around and the terrain at some of those houses is not wheelchair friendly and we are afraid we will become easy prey for the criminals,’ said one of the women, who wished to remain anonymous.
APC Manager Jane Channels promised the residents the new centre owners would not move them before all have found accommodation.
‘Even though we now have a firm purchase offer, the prospective buyers promised they would not move anyone from the centre until they have all been allocated government houses.
‘With the sale proceeds we will build a new workshop at Dumisani Makhaye, which will not only cater for Jabulani Rehab occupants, but also for other disabled people from around Empangeni,’ Channels said.
