‘I was shocked when I received a toilet instead of RDP house,’ says Mpumalanga resident

A 35-year-old unemployed mother of three children is still waiting to receive her RDP house almost two years after a toilet was built for her by the Department of Human Settlements.

Veronica Seerane said her hopes were raised when the construction workers started to build a toilet at her premises in Demulane Village in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality. To her surprise the builders left the place only after completing the dry pit toilet.

“I was shocked as to why I had only received a toilet instead of a home, because I had applied for an RDP house years ago. To date no one is providing me with precise answers as to what happened. I was hurt and some even tease me of having a fancy toilet yet I sleep in a dilapidated house,” she said. The single mother shares her one-room stick-and-mud house with her children aged 16, six and 10 months.

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Seerane depends on her children’s child support grant – a total of R1 350.

“The money is not enough for all our needs, including monthly groceries, clothes, electricity and school fees. I sometimes work in the field where I get R200 added to the monthly groceries,” she said.

Seerane lost her mother in 2015 and her father in 2009. She used some of her inheritance to buy the stand.

“All I need is a decent house for my three boys. Living in this dilapidated shack with leaking roofs and walls and ant nests in the walls is not safe for me and my children. I plead for the Department of Human Settlement or anyone who can build a decent shelter to help me.”

Seerane’s neighbour Constance Mlimi (not her real name) said she had also applied for a toilet, but did not received one. Mlimi revealed that their applications were made to a local ANC ward committee member. “We are still waiting for our toilets and Seerane is still waiting for her house as some had already received them,” she said.

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Freddy Ngobe, spokesperson for the provincial Department of Human Settlements, said there were no recordings of Seerane’s name in the department’s database list of RDP house applicants.

“The department has no record of Veronica Seerane of Bushbuckridge. She is, however, advised to check with the municipality in relation to her application.”

This article was republished from Mpumalanga News with permission