The days of sharp investment advisers plundering the savings of the aged could be numbered.
Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the Minister for Welfare and Population Development, is revising legislation to protect the elderly not only from financial exploitation but also from other forms of abuse.
However, James Selfe, Democratic Party Member of Parliament, says Fraser-Moleketi is not moving fast enough and early next year he will introduce a private members' bill proposing to amend the current Aged Persons Act to give the elderly greater protection.
Marilyn Lilley, chair person of an organisation called Concerned Friends of the Frail and Aged, says many of the more than 1 000 complaints received by her organisation since 1992 involved financial abuse.
She says elderly people in all cultures have been abused, irrespective of whether they are rich or poor.
Financial abuse takes place in private homes as well as old age homes.
In old age homes "the often limited personal finances of the elderly are further reduced by staff who steal their possessions or force frail residents to pay to be washed or for certain procedures".
Lilley says the lack of suitable legislation and the apparent "apathy on the part of the Department of Welfare to introduce protective laws, even though we have pointed out this need to them for five years, makes it easy for anyone to abuse the elderly and get away with it".
However, Lilley says that solutions do not lie with legislation alone.
Bankers and insurance companies should stop unethical behaviour and "train their personnel to be able to detect possible cases of exploitation and financial abuse of the elderly".
"For older people who have been financially exploited, the consequences can be disastrous. The victims are often forced into a marginal existence for the remainder of their lives."
Selfe revealed his plan to introduce a private members' bill after Personal Finance recently exposed two appalling cases of elderly people being exploited by financial advisers.
Selfe's legislation proposes that unscrupulous financial advisers who take advantage of the elderly be sent to prison for five years.
And anyone who does not report any abuse, including financial abuse, will also fall foul of the proposed law.
The bill defines aged person abuse as the physical, emotional or psychological abuse of the elderly and includes neglect, victimisation and financial or other exploitation.
The bill has the support of a wide range of organisations representing the interests of the elderly.
Fraser-Moleketi, in a letter to Selfe, has opposed his bill because she says there is no point in amending current out-dated legislation. She believes a whole new approach and law is needed. But there has to be extensive consultation.
Selfe says Fraser-Moleketi is suffering from "consultitus".
"It is all very dandy to consult all the stake holders but elderly people out there are being exploited on a daily basis."
Selfe says aged people are "the most vulnerable and exploited people. They have very little in the line of formal rights. They are very often subjected to abuse of one form or another and are very susceptible to exploitation."
He said Personal Finance's exposi "very neatly illustrated the exploitation and sharp practices older people are very often subjected to, often involving what amounts to fraud, if not theft".
