Adult daycare centres are being introduced in KwaZulu-Natal to protect grandmothers from rape.

The provincial social development department resolved to construct the centres following a spate of attacks on elderly women.

Social development MEC Weziwe Thusi said yesterday that the first centre will be in KwaSwayimane, in the Midlands, the village where two grannies were raped a week apart.

A 94-year-old great-grandmother was raped in the village in August. A week later, an 84-year-old grandmother was raped in the same village. In the same month, a 74-year-old woman was raped, stabbed and robbed in her granny flat in Bisley, in Pietermaritzburg.

Last month, a 70-year-old woman was raped in her home in front of her grandchildren at Matsheketsheni Reserve, in Sundumbili on the north coast.

At the court appearance of a 26-year-old man, accused of raping the 94-year-old, frightened KwaSwayimane grannies considered moving into one house to protect each other from criminals.

Thusi yesterday said at least R7-million has been set aside for the KwaSwayimane centre. It will have a gymnasium and offer occupational therapy and counselling.

"It will operate like creches. People will leave their grannies on the way to work and pick them up in the afternoon," she said.

The centre will have a daycare facility for young children.

Head of department Bheki Nkosi said drugs played a role in the abuse of elderly women in the area.

"We have knowledge of the kinds of drugs that make young people high and they commit such crimes. We want to push a campaign of anti-drugs and substance abuse vigorously because it's one of the contributors to the rapes," he said.

Thusi conceded that old age homes were not popular in some communities and she would embark on a campaign to promote the use of the new centres.

The grannies will have free use of the centres.