Family of 13 urgently need a shelter

A family of 13 members at Mashau-Thenga, near Elim, continues to live in an unstable, thatched-roof hut, even after many attempts to have the government build them an RDP house.

Ms Martha Maano (55) said that she first registered for an RDP around 2004, but her application was unsuccessful. No reasons were given why her name was not approved for a house while a lot of other people, even those who had proper houses, got RDP houses, she said.

She tried to submit her name again at least twice when the ward committee visited her at home. “I am unemployed, or else I would have built myself a proper house a long time ago,” she said.

The five adults and eight children, who are Maano's children and grandchildren, share living and sleeping conditions in the mud hut with no proper floor. Maano hasn't qualified for a government grant for the aged yet.

According to Maano's daughter, Ms Dolance Musitha (27), who also lives with her, she fails to understand the reason why all services should bypass them in the village.

“Even when we submit our names for the hunger relief programme, they do not give us food,” she worried. “But we see even people who are employed getting food while our name had been removed from the list. Maybe we have wronged those who compile the name lists and now they are taking revenge by rubbing off our name each time we need help.” Musitha said that the municipality must provide them with a temporary shelter while they are still considering whether or not to build them a house.

When Limpopo Mirror visited the family last week, Dolance grabbed the journalist by the hand and led him into the hut. “See our poverty,” she pointed at a tattered sponge matress on the floor. “We are suffering.”

The thatch on the rafters is flimsy, so that it is possible to see the sun and the sky from inside the hut. During rainy seasons, the hut is filled with water which enters through the roof. At one stage, the water damaged the main electricity box and it had to be replaced. “Now we fear that if the rains come again and find us still living in this hut, the electricity box may burst and kill all of us in the fire.”

The DA's chairperson for Ward 9, Mr Jonas Mugovhani, visited the family, spoke with them and made a report which he will submit to the municipality. “This family needs urgent help from the side of the municipality,” Mugovhani said. “If the municipality fails to act accordingly, I will submit the report to DA's provincial office, who will see that this matter is addressed with higher authorities. This family should have received an RDP house a long time ago – their poverty is so apparent that every hardworking, caring ward councillor must see it.”

The spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Mr Louis Bobodi, was sent an email for comment last week Wednesday. However, he had not responded yet at the time of going to press.

Date:29 August 2014

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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