Life Nkanyisa, a subsidiary of the Life Healthcare Group, has threatened to shut down the Witpoort Recovery Centre and the Life Nkanyisa Randfontein Recovery Centre, throwing substance abuse recovering addicts back to the streets, which are already full of drugs. This after it has served about 500 employees with Section 189 notice following the Gauteng Department of Social Development cutting funding due to budgetary constraints.

The facilities have a capacity of about 750 patients, with Witpoort Recovery Centre accommodating 300 patients and Randfontein Recovery Centre 450.

In the Section 189 document obtained by the African Times, the company has set to start daunting consultations with employees on Thursday at the Life Nkanyisa Witpoort Recovery Centre. 

“We foresee the possibility that the facility may have to be closed, and where we are not able to accommodate employees on re-deployment elsewhere in the business, employees will be redundant. All the positions at the facilities will in all likelihood be abolished, and as such, all employees are affected.”

“The retrenchment of affected staff not accommodated through re-deployment will take place after the consultation process. An estimated timeline of this process will be discussed during the meeting scheduled for August 1, 2024,” the statement said. 

A source close to the matter said the situation is bad, saying there is a huge possibility that all staff will be retrenched, adding to the already high unemployment rate in South Africa.

“I can tell you the company will retrench all the workers. It is that bad. All patients have already left the facilities. The social workers are not doing anything there. There are no patients at the facilities. It is done, my brother, and all the staff will be retrenched, I tell you. People who have bonds and cars are going to lose all that. It is a horrific truth. People are already in debt. This thing, the retrenchment process, is just a procedure. This July, there were no patients at the facilities.”

The Gauteng Department of Social Development allegedly stopped funding in April 2022, and Life Healthcare has been paying for food, electricity, and recovery services from their pocket since then. “The government in this province owes R59 million to the Witpoort Recovery Centre and R61 million to the Life Nkanyisa Randfontein Recovery Centre for the last financial year, April 2023–April 2024. The company is running at a loss, and they have to close down. The main purpose of any business is to make a profit, so if you are not making  a profit you will have to shut down,” the source said.

Attempts to get a comment from the Gauteng Department of Social Development drew a blank.