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Businessman and philanthropist Hendrick Mudanalwo and community leader Thutheni Munyaliwa (far right) hold some of the food parcels donated to the Bele family (standing on the left). Photo: Silas Nduvheni.

Poor family pleading for an RDP house

 

Mr Mulalo Isaac Bele, an unemployed resident of Vuvha-Thengwe in the Mutale area, is appealing to the local Thulamela Municipality to help build him and his family an RDP house. He claims that his previous stand has turned into a waterhole after the recent heavy rains.

Life has taken a turn for the worse for Bele (39), his wife Mukondeleli Lilimu (33), and his five children since the rainy season started. “We have been worrying each day since February. It is not healthy to live like this. Our four-month-old toddler, Nzumbululo, has to sleep in a laundry basket, as the shack is lying in a pool of water. I have asked the ward councillor to come and see my state of misery. He promised that he would come and attend to our pleas, but he never pitched up,” Bele said.

Bele said that he felt better when philanthropist and businessman Mr Hendrick Mudanalwo visited him and took pity on their situation. “Mr Mudanalwo brought it to the community leaders in my village’s attention to get me another stand in Vuvha-Tshafhasi,” Bele said.

“I then moved to the new stand with my family and erected a one-room shack, but I’m worried that there is no privacy between me and my children. Sometimes my wife only comes back home late when the children are fast asleep.  Our children are also at risk of being terrorized or raped as our shack is the only one next to the bushes.”

On Thursday, 18 March, Mudanalwo visited Bele again. This time with food for his family. Bele said that he was very thankful for Mudanalwo’s generosity. “After I was informed about the Bele family’s situation, I tried to inform the ward councillor, Madima Nenzhelele, but he kept sending Bele from pillar to post,” said Mudanalwo.

“Councillors are the foot soldiers of the government, and whenever they are called upon, they have to speed up and help deliver better services. Seeing the delaying tactics of this ward councillor, I decided to buy food for the Bele family and informed the media, so that they could be helped,” he said.

In response to the above grievances, Madima Nenzhelele, Ward 4 councillor in the Thulamela municipality, said that they had asked some local businessmen to help build a two-roomed house for the Bele family after they had heard about their situation. He said that, due to the national lockdown, many businesses had seen a drastic drop in production and couldn’t help. Another local businessman who promised to help had apparently died.

Nenzhelele said that RDP houses were supplied to the local municipalities by the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs. He promised that, if the Vuvha village received RDP houses with the next allocation, Bele would be the first in line to get a house.

 

 

Date:28 March 2021

By: Silas Nduvheni

Read: 936

 

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