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Court stops social development dept from relocating patients at Mpumalanga care facility

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The Sunfield Fortuna home outside Balfour in Mpumalanga. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla
The Sunfield Fortuna home outside Balfour in Mpumalanga. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla

The High Court sitting in Mbombela barred the social development department from moving disabled patients from a care facility.

AfriForum took the department to court for threatening to move 36 disabled patients.

The patients, from Sunfield Home Fortuna, outside Balfour, receive disability grants.

The home claims that, in 14 years, there has been no increase. The 36 patients receive a monthly subsidy of about R1 900 each.

After the plea for a subsidy increase, the department threatened to move the patients from the home. 

On Tuesday, the court granted an order to stop the relocation of the patients. The court ordered that a curator be appointed.

"This is a great victory in a David and Goliath story, where the government treats the most vulnerable in our society unfairly and even threatens them," said AfriForum's Ernst van Zyl.

"Today's victory emphasises the importance of civil rights organisations, like AfriForum, in a country with a government without a conscience." 



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