Pensioner who was allocated an RDP house 15 years ago still lives in a mud hut

Officials from the Free State Department of Human Settlements have promised to help a 75-year-old widow get a house after the mud home she lives in collapsed during the recent heavy rainfall.

Maleroele Molato from Naledi village in Qwaqwa still lives in the mud hut even though the department’s records show she was allocated a RDP house in 2010.

Molato was alone in her three-roomed mud house during a storm last weekend when part of her roof and kitchen wall collapsed. Her home was among dozens damaged across the province.

“I did not hear anything. I was deep asleep at that time. I only saw it in the morning and it was raining the whole night,” she said. Molato said her grandson who lives nearby arrived the next morning with other community members to help her close the side of her house with corrugated sheets.

GroundUp visited Molato’s hut this week. The whole house appeared to be crumbling. Molato said her dream of having an RDP house was crushed a few years ago when she visited the housing office and was told that her name had been listed as a beneficiary of a government house in 2010. She said she had applied for a house in one of the new developments over a decade ago but never heard anything thereafter.

“It was painful to see people I was with when they took our names down getting houses. Some even came after me but until today I am still staying in this trap. I don’t even know who has my house,” she said.

Molato said two of her three children died a few years ago and her son went to Johannesburg to look for work and has never returned. She lived in the mud house with her husband, who has since passed away, for 40 years. Pointing to a large crack in her wall, she said, “If I had money I would have long built a proper house. One of these days it will fall on top of me. I was lucky that the wall fell over outside.”

“I have used this address for over 40 years. No one has even come here to build the house or at least say the house has been approved,” she said.
Her neighbour, Tshepiso Matuka, said, “It hurts to see an old person staying alone in that house. It can fall at any time. We always check on her to see if she is still well. That day, I was called by one of the guys I know because I wasn’t aware that the wall had collapsed. We went there and took some sheets from other rooms and covered the part,” he said.

Malefo Mopeloa, ward 12 councillor (ANC) at the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality said that he had checked the RDP database which showed that Molato had been allocated a house.

GroundUp asked the Free State Department of Human Settlements how it was that Molato’s name was listed as a beneficiary but she had not received a house. Zimasa Mbewu, spokesperson for the department, confirmed that Molato and her late husband’s names are listed as beneficiaries of a Breaking New Ground (BNG, formerly known as RDP) house.

“We will launch an investigation and will be in contact with the beneficiary,” she said.

“The district of Thabo Mofutsanyana will conduct site verification to assess what is currently on site. The department will have to ascertain the marital status of the applicant, which will form part of the report submitted to the district. The district will then have to check if there’s no active project where this applicant can be referred to. If not, an internal process will unfold to make a special request for an individual subsidy application to be done which will culminate into the building of a new house,” she said.

This article first appeared on GroundUp. Read the original article here.