A charity has been accused of preying on the very people it was set up to help – albino and blind South Africans – pocketing thousands of rand in the process.
Several former employees have told The Star that the International Federation of People with Albinism and Blindness (IFPAB) lured dozens of disabled South from across the country with promises of lodging, stable jobs and education.
And several of the charity’s supposed beneficiaries told The Star that they were mistreated at the organisation’s headquarters in Joburg and that they were forced to lodge in a derelict building in the CBD with no running water, little food and a constant stream of verbal abuse.
Initially, there were 60 lodgers in the building, but that number has dropped to 10.
A month after The Star started its investigation, the organisation is haemorrhaging staff and lodgers, but continues to run an unregistered school for more than 200 children.
The IFPAB International School of Gauteng claims to be an accredited institution that offers classes to pupils from Grade R to Grade 12 under the Cambridge Educational System, an internationally recognised standard of education.
But the Department of Basic Education says the school is not registered and is operating illegally.
The school’s headquarters are on the eighth floor of a seemingly abandoned building near the corner of Nugget and Jeppe streets. It has been based here since the beginning of the year.
During a visit to the premises, a team from The Star encountered lifts that did not work, so the dozens of disabled pupils and boarders – some of them blind, some under 10 years old – have to make their way up the eight flights of stairs for their classes.
A strong smell of urine and excrement pervades the building.
Buckets of murky water, not nearly enough to serve the basic needs of the hundreds of pupils who frequent the building each day, had been placed all around the building.
The children have no alternative to filthy bathrooms with toilets that don’t flush.
People who lodge in the building are required to share small rooms with between 10 and 15 people, sleeping on blow-up mattresses, their possessions crammed into minimal cupboard space.
When The Star first confronted the school’s director, Pastor Peter Ngoma, about the school’s appalling conditions, he promised that the water situation would be fixed within a week. But a month later, the situation remained unchanged.
Ngoma said his organisation had little money and could not afford to pay all its members.
“We have no concrete partnerships, but certain organisations are providing us with some money to support our beneficiaries,” he said. He refused to name any of the donors.
He is taking school fees from pupils, and claims that at least the teachers are paid, but several sources at the school, including members of its board of directors, deny this.
Ngoma admitted the organisation’s school was not registered, but claimed there was an arrangement with the British Council in Joburg to provide Cambridge system final exams for his Grade 12 pupils at the end of the year.
The British Council said it had never heard of the IFPAB charity organisation and denied the final exams arrangement.
Ngoma said school fees were waived for disabled students, while able-bodied pupils paid R200 a month.
This means the organisation takes in anywhere between R20 000 and R30 000 from its non-disabled pupils each month.
Department of Social Development spokesman Sello Mokoena said his department had received numerous complaints concerning the charity organisation, and these were being investigated.
“We’re looking into the mistreatment of its beneficiaries, the living conditions and the management structure.
“Of course, the department condemns the mistreatment of people at organisations that are meant to help the disabled,” said Mokoena.
Department of Basic Education’s spokesman Granville Whittle said the unregistered school was under investigation. He would not elaborate further. - The Star