The Free State Human Residential Bureau has pledged to help with the 75-year-old home from the village of Naledi in Qwaqwa
Officials from the Free State Department of Human Residential Affairs Office have pledged to help the 75-year-old widow get his home after the mud shed collapsed during the recent heavy rains. Her home was damaged over the weekend along with dozens of other homes throughout the state. The pensioner says he applied for a government housing project more than a decade ago. The department’s database shows that she was assigned a house, but it was not handed over to her.
Officials from the Free State Department of Human Residential Affairs Office have pledged to help the 75-year-old widow get the house after the mud house she lives in collapsed during the recent heavy rains.
Maleroelee Molato of Naledi Village, Qwaqwa, still lives in a mud shed, despite department records being assigned to an RDP home in 2010.
Last weekend, Morat was alone in a three-room mud house during a storm when parts of the roof and kitchen walls collapsed. Her home was damaged by dozens of people throughout the state.
“I hadn’t heard anything. I was sleeping deeply at the time. I only saw the morning and it was raining all night,” she said. Morat said her grandson, who lives nearby, would arrive with other community members the next morning and help her close the side of her house with cardboard sheets.
Groundup visited Morat’s shed this week. The whole house seemed to be falling apart. Morato said her dream of having an RDP home was crushed when she visited the housing office a few years ago, and in 2010 she was told that her name was listed as a beneficiary of the Governor General’s House.
“It was painful to see the people who were with us when we got our home. Some people came after me, but to this day I’m still in this trap. I don’t even know who owns my home,” she said.
Morath said two of her three children died a few years ago and her son went to Johannesburg to find work. She lived in a mud house with her husband. My husband passed away for 40 years. Pointing to the big crack in her wall, she said, “If I had the money, I would have built a proper house for a long time. One of the more recent ones falls on me. I was lucky that the wall fell outside.”
“I’ve been using this address for over 40 years. No one comes here to build a house or at least say the house has been approved,” she said.
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Her neighbor Tshepiso Matuka said, “It hurts to see an old man alone in the house. He can fall anytime. We are checking her to see if she is still fine. That day, I was called by one of the people I know because I didn’t know that the wall had collapsed.
Malefo Mopeloa, District 12 Councillor (ANC), of Maluti-A-Phofung’s local government, said he checked the RDP database, which showed that Molato had been assigned a home.
Groundup asked the Free State Department of Human Residential Affairs Bureau that Morat’s name was listed as a beneficiary, but she had not received the house. Department spokesman Zimasa Mbewu confirmed that Molato and her late husband’s names are listed as beneficiaries of the Broken New Territories (BNG, formerly known as RDP).
“We will begin our investigation and contact the beneficiaries,” she said.
“The Thabo Mofutaniana district will conduct a site verification to assess its current location. The department must check the marriage status of the applicant. The applicant will form part of the report submitted to the district. The district will need to check if there are no active projects if this applicant cannot be referred home,” she said.
