A century to celebrate

Maria Mothupi from Tumahole celebrated her 100th birthday on 10 January this year. Free Market Foundation’s Khaya Lam (My Home) land reform project organised a small party to celebrate her birthday on 21 January, honouring a promise made last year when she was presented with a title deed to her home on 7 May  2015, thanks to sponsor Tersia Cook.
Mrs Mothupi has lived in her house in Tumahole (Parys) since 1982 and after 33 years of living in insecurity she finally received security of tenure in 2015. Tersia Cook (74), who donated the funds to pay for the registration of the title deed as a 60th birthday gift to her brother Frans Campher, now living in the UK, brought a huge birthday cake and a gift for the birthday celebration.
The meeting between the two grandmothers was a repeat of the previous joyful event. Maria’s daughter, Sylvia, and granddaughter, Anna, were again present to share the special occasion. The organisers of the birthday party were surprised to discover that they had fortuitously chosen Anna’s birthday on which to celebrate her grandmother’s 100th – so it turned into a party for the two of them.
In October 2009, the Ngwathe Municipal Council, by a unanimous vote of all political parties, took the momentous and far-sighted decision to partner with the Free Market Foundation’s Khaya Lam (My Home) land reform project and transfer all Ngwathe Municipally-owned rental housing to registered tenants at no cost to the tenants.
Sylvia, the youngest of ten children, last year described the receiving of the title deed as a miracle. Her mother had worked for many years, and, on a very modest salary, had raised her children and even managed to build on extra rooms to house the large family. Possessing a title deed to her home restored to Maria the value of the improvements she had made to the rental property at her own expense.