Maleroele Molato from the village of Naledi in Qwaqwa still lives in the mud hut, although the records of the department show that it was assigned an RDP house in 2010. Photos: Tladi Moloi
- Officials of the Free State Department of Human Settlements have promised to help a 75-year-old widow to get a house after her mud hut collapsed during recent heavy rainfall.
- Her house was damaged during the weekend, together with dozens of other houses in the province.
- The pensioner says that she had requested a government project more than 10 years ago. The database of the department shows that she has assigned a house, but it has never been transferred to her.
Officials of the Free State Department of Human Settlements have promised to help a 75-year-old widow to get a house after the mud house in which she lives in collapsed during the recent heavy rainfall.
Maleroele Molato from the village of Naledi in Qwaqwa still lives in the mud hut, although the records of the department show that it was assigned an RDP house in 2010.
Molato was only in her mud house with three rooms during a storm last weekend when part of her roof and kitchen wall collapsed. Her house was one of the dozens of damaged in the province.
“I heard nothing. At that moment I was deeply asleep. I only saw it in the morning and it rained all night,” she said. Molato said that her grandson who lives in the neighborhood arrived the next morning with other members of the community to help her close the side of her house with corrugated sheets.
Groundup visited the Hut van Molato this week. The whole house seemed to be crumbling. Molato said that 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 was mentioned as the beneficiary of a government house in 2010. She said she had requested one of the new developments in one of the new developments more than ten years ago, but had never heard anything after that.
“It was painful to see people with whom I was when they got our names to get houses. Some even came after me, but until today I still stay in this fall. I don’t even know who my house has,” she said.
Molato said that two of her three children died a few years ago and her son went to Johannesburg to look for work and never returned. She lived in the Mud House with her husband, who has since died for 40 years. She pointed to a big crack in her wall and said, “If I had money, I would have built a good house for a long time. These days it will fall on top of me. I was lucky that the wall fell outside.”
“I have used this address for more than 40 years. Nobody even came here to build the house or at least say that the house has been approved,” she said.
The side of the mud hut is boarded up with corrugated sheets.
Her neighbor, Tshepiso Matuka, said: “It hurts to see an old person who stays alone in that house. It can fall at any time. We always check her to see if she’s still good. That day I was called by one of the boys I knew because I didn’t know the wall had been fooled.
Malefo Mopeloa, Ward 12 Councilor (ANC) of the Maluti-A-Phofung Local Congregation said he had checked the RDP database that demonstrated that Molato had been assigned a house.
Groundup asked the Free State Department of Human Settlements how it was that the name of Molato was mentioned as a beneficiary, but she had not received a house. Zimasa Mbewu, spokesperson for the department, confirmed that the names of Molato and her deceased husband are mentioned as beneficiaries of a Breaking New Ground (BNG, formerly known as RDP) house.
“We will start an investigation and will be in contact with the beneficiary,” she said.
“The Thabo Mofutsanyana district will perform site verification to assess what is currently on site. Huis,” she said.
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By Tladi Moloi
groundup.org.za
