PENSIONERS AT WAR

An almighty row has broken out between the board of a retirement village and a resident accused of a reign of terror – and the matter is now in the hands of the high court 

- JANA MARX

IT’S the period of your life when you want to spend days with loved ones and stop to smell the proverbial roses every so often. But for some of the residents of a retirement village in the Free State, peace and quiet is far from the agenda.

On the one side is 72-year-old Beverley-Ann Shahia, who vows to spend the rest of her golden years fighting anyone who wants to evict her from her home. There’s a witch hunt that’s been going on for years, she claims, and she doesn’t plan to just roll over and give up.

On the other side is the board of Welkom Retirement Village, which claims Beverley-Ann misused the organisation’s money when she was both chairperson of the board and manager of the village, and renovated her home without the necessary board approval. She gave maintenance contracts to her husband and son and conducted a reign of terror against residents, they add.

The battle has become so ugly it’s gone to the Free State High Court. The court ruled Beverley-Ann is living illegally in the village and ordered she move out by the end of March.

But the pensioner is adamant the only place she’s going is back to court to clear her name. She’s going to fight to remain in her home, she adds, referring to the property dubbed Nkandla 2 by board members after former president Jacob Zuma’s scandal-prone home to which vast renovations were done with tax-payers’ money.

“Where am I supposed to go?” she asks.

NONE of the allegations made against her are true, Beverley-Ann tells YOU. She believes the board has turned on her because she won’t keep quiet about “irregularities” committed by them, such as wasting the retirement village’s funds.