Family loses everything in rain
ALEXANDRA - Rains leave Extension 8 family homeless, pleading for help.
An Extension 8 family is in desperate need of assistance after the recent rain destroyed their rented house, leaving them homeless.
The disaster would have been worse had Lucky Phahlele, his wife and two nine- and two-year-old children been in the house said to have been destroyed by a deluge of water at midday on 7 November.
Phahlele, who was at work when he was alerted to the damage, found the house flattened when he got home. “All our belongings – TV and music sets, two wardrobes, two fridges, a washing machine, room dividers, tables, sofas and children’s certificates and legal documents were destroyed.”
Read: Floods renew talk of Alex’s housing desperation
His wife was said to have been visiting friends and the children were at school when he arrived, and he couldn’t salvage anything. Neighbours who declined to be named said the torrent first broke down a perimeter wall before descending on the house. They said they heard a loud thud when the walls of the house built under the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) crumbled and they couldn’t save anything as it happened quickly.
Phahlele said the family’s fate was worsened when housing officials told him and the councillor Teffo Rapadu that all RDP houses more than five years old were the responsibility of the owner. According to the Daily Sun, the house is said to belong to Maria Moagi a granny to Dr Khumalo, Kaizer Chiefs’ Soccer Club’s legendary midfielder and now its development coach. Khumalo is said to have visited the house recently to find that it had no drainage system and had reported this to the council.
Phahlele, whose family now moves from one place to another said he couldn’t build a temporary structure on the site which isn’t his, and pleaded for urgent assistance.
“I need to shelter the family in this wet weather. We will appreciate any assistance to start all over again,” he pleaded.
Details: 062 080 2160
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