Inadequate housing leaves Mpumalanga man sharing room with snakes

It had been eight days since he had eaten a decent meal when Mpumalanga News visited him on Friday after concerned community members alerted the paper of his plight.

“I just don’t have the power anymore. I have accepted my fate that maybe I will die of hunger or be eaten by these snakes,” he said as he tried to paint a picture of his living conditions without food, electricity or blankets during winter.

He claimed the snakes gained access to the room he sleeps in as it does not have a proper door or windows.

He built this one-roomed house himself, but it could collapse at any time.

The impoverished Maphanga said since the advent of the coronavirus, circumstances took a turn for the worse as he depended on doing chores such as gardening.

“I depended on piece jobs but since this virus, I have not been able to get any and life has been really tough,” he continued.

He said he would sometimes feel a snake moving on top of him, but he had lost the will to try and fight it off in fear of
aggravating it.

Community members, after seeing Maphanga’s living conditions, said they took him food and went to help clean his house last Wednesday, but ran off without helping him after seeing a snake in the room.

“We came here to bring him food and help clean the place, but we fled after seeing a huge snake in the house he sleeps in. We later called for him and he told us that the snakes had been there for a while now.

“He told us that he has been without food since the beginning of lockdown and had no means of going out to look for some as it is prohibited to do so,” said Margaret Ngomane.

“We don’t have anything at hand either since we are also unemployed, but his situation is dire and needs urgent attention.

All we are asking for is help from good Samaritans.

“We have seen poor people being given food parcels and other forms of social relief, but we don’t know how to apply for those on his behalf,” said another community member, Betty Mbuyane.

Maphanga said he did not apply for the R350 social relief grant because he did not know about it.

This article first appeared on Mpumalanga News and has been republished with permission.

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