Marite family loses RDP house in red tape
A RDP house was approved for the Mdluli family, who are living in a single-room shack, but it was allegedly given to someone else. The family of five is now calling on members of the public to assist them in building a house for themselves.
A Marite family of five are desperately in need of an RDP house after their efforts to obtain one from the Department of Human Settlements through the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM) saw no change in their dire circumstances.
They have now decided to call in the help of Lowveld Media.
According to Jealous Mdluli (50), he had registered for a house with the municipality and it was approved, but it was allegedly given to someone else. He also said he cannot afford to build his own house, as he is unemployed and his family depends on social grants for survival. “When I was told my house was approved, I was relieved that at least my family would have a safe shelter. But that hope was shattered when I was informed that the house had been given to someone else, but under my name. Until now I cannot find another house for me. I was broken, as there is nothing I can do now.”
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He also said he doesn’t even know the person who received his house and how he had proved he was Mdluli. He said the fact that he was informed he was promised another house, one that never materialised, makes this a bitter pill to swallow. “I am now pleading with anyone who can assist me with a home, even if it is a two-roomed house. The shack we are living in is in a very bad state, and it’s not safe for people to live in. It can collapse at any time. The bad thing about it is that we cook, bath and sleep in a tiny, dilapidated space, never knowing when it is going to collapse,” he said.
Mdluli added that the situation is now affecting his kids’ performance at school, because every time he needs to bath, the children must leave the house, whether it’s raining or not, and he must also do the same for them. “The shack can fall at any time, so any kind of help will be accepted. Even if people can give meany job, I will take it so that I can build a house for my family, as the government has failed me.”
Anyone wishing to assist the family may call 060 657 3741.
The BLM’s spokesperson, Fhumulani Thovhakale, dismissed the allegations that Mdluli’s house was given to someone else. She said the information outlining particulars was not for the approval of the house, but only a waiting list on which he had been placed, and that no house has been given to anybody else.
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“When the ward was allocated 100 houses to be built, some ward committee members visited him several times in order to complete a form for him to be registered as an applicant of the house. However, he was not found, and the information gathered was that he had not been staying in his yard full-time as he moves from one area to the other. Most of his neighbours’ houses were built during that time,” she said.
Thovhakale added that Mdluli’s plight was recently brought to the attention of the housing unit in the municipality, from the video clip he had made complaining about his house being given to someone else. “What the municipal housing officials did on the advice of the human settlements department was to complete the form they were unable to, due to him not being found, and write a motivational letter with some other applicants who are struggling like Mdluli, to assist him. This is done because the municipality gets housing allocations from the provincial department.”
She concluded that Mdluli’s house would be built once the BLM allocation had been made.
