Maria Sambo, who lives alone and has no relatives, was scheduled to move into her new home on 18 July, courtesy of the local DA leadership.
Her dreams were shattered after building material, which the DA was promised, was withheld by the local housing department depot. The DA had been promised poles and zinc sheets and the party had bought cement, a door and windows.
“The guys at the housing department in Ext 1 refused to hand over the building material, claiming that Afrika Tikkun, a non-governmental organisation, was building the shack for the woman,” said DA chairperson Thabo Phala.
Phala said the woman is still holed up in her collapsing shack and no-one has built the new one for her yet.
Chief executive officer of Afrika Tikkun, Marc Lubner, denied that they were scheduled to build a shack for anyone on Mandela Day. “I know nothing about it. We had a big sports event for our pupils on Mandela Day. We only built shacks last year on Mandela Day and certainly not this year,” said Lubner.
DA councillor in the area Refilwe Mathebula said it was sad that politics was allowed to take precedence over delivery. The idea was simply to do something positive for the needy on Mandela Day and not to score cheap political points, she said.
“It is sad that the innocent are allowed to suffer as politics gets its way. Building material is lying idle at the housing department offices waiting to be utilised by people in need. Now she was denied help because it was coming from the DA,” claimed Mathebula.
She added that the ANC failed to see through the Mandela Day principle and decided to promote politics.
Efforts to get comment from the housing department were unsuccessful, as the simple and basic building material gathers dust at the housing department depot in Diepsloot.
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