Ramapromises 2023 – SONA commitments wearing thin as some wait 27 years for a home

Elyza Mathithi from Soweto was just 23 years old when she first applied for an RDP house.

Speaking to The Citizen earlier this week, the 50-year-old Mathithi explained she is still on the waiting list for a home now, 27 years later.

“It is so frustrating, as I have four children with whom I live with in a rented backroom.

“I have for many years been enquiring with the Department of Housing to find out what is causing the delay but I never get a satisfactory response from them,” said Mathithi.

Mathithi, like thousands of others, will be keeping a close eye on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday, to hear what new promises the president has regarding access to housing for the country’s millions of poor and struggling.

In his 2022 SONA speech, Ramaphosa promises to expand access to housing, land and basic services for all citizens.

He said this would be achieved by focusing on addressing historical inequalities and ensuring that all South Africans have access to quality housing and basic services.

Mathithi and thousands of others, however, are not holding their breaths for improvement.

The rolling blackouts brought about by load shedding have become the chief talking point all round, almost eclipsing the fact that other service delivery related issues, such as the promised housing, provision of water, waste removal, and decaying infrastructure are an everyday reality for large swathes of the population.

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ANC concerned about poor service delivery

The governing African National Congress (ANC) has acknowledged the sorry state that some municipalities find themselves in terms of delivering services to their residents.

During the party’s recent 111th birthday celebrations in Mpumalanga, ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula berated ANC officials over the poor state of service delivery, stressing that the party will no longer tolerate lazy party deployees.

ALSO READ: ANC vows to prioritise service delivery in 2023

But those like Mathithi and her neighbours aren’t buying it.

Emmanuel Ntima is another resident who has been on the waiting list for many years as he applied for an RDP house in 1996.

Ntima says he does not expect to hear anything positive from Ramaphosa’s SONA on Thursday.

“It is really difficult to have hope that our government will announce anything positive regarding our struggle for RDP housing,” Ntima explained.

And he’s not the only one to have given up hope.

As the struggle for housing continued over the years, many started to occupy vacant land illegally in various parts of the country.

ALSO READ: DA blames EFF for Gauteng illegal land invasions

Walter Ndlovu says he is one of the many people who had no choice but to settle illegally at the Patsing informal settlement in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg.

Ndlovu says he has received nothing but disappointment regarding his application for an RDP house, originally submitted back in 1996.

“Every time when I go and ask what’s the update on my application, they will give me different excuses and the last excuse I was given was that I suddenly don’t qualify as my salary is above the beneficiary scale, but when I applied back then I was earning R96 per week.

“I am currently in debt, I cannot get a home loan anywhere and the rising cost of living is also not helping the situation,” Ndlovu said.

Expectations from Ramaphosa’s SONA

Ndlovu says the president needs to ensure that the issue of humanity takes centre stage in Thursday’s SONA.

“Government made a lot of promises over the years regarding the upgrading of informal settlements, but nothing has been forthcoming.

“I, like many other residents finding themselves in my situation, expect the president’s speech to focus more on prioritising informal settlements and, equally important, on how they are going to deal with the issue of corruption which is also found in the allocation of housing,” Ndlovu added.