WATCH: A mother’s battle for a home for her family
A mother who has been promised a better accommodation by so many past councillors and social workers.
Verlene Howe, a social worker from our community brought Margaret Plaatjies (52) from Newclare to our attention. Plaatjies is a mother who has been promised a better accommodation by so many past councillors and social workers.
Howe explained that she moved to the area in 1994 where she met Plaatjies and her son Lucas Plaatjies who is now twenty-eight years old. According to Plaatjies, Lucas was born with a disability on his one side of his body.
The mother explained that from the age of seven years old her son started getting seizures and for that very reason he needs permanent attention.
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“He is unable to help himself. She has a part-time job where sometimes she only works for once or twice a month and has to leave Lucas in the care of a neighbour who keeps an eye on him because she works from 8 am to 6 pm,” explained Howe.
Plaatjies also lives with her daughter and two grandchildren. Many years ago, the family applied for an accommodation but did not receive one.
For more than fifteen years, Plaatjies was visited by previous councillors and social workers who took her documents and promised her that she will get proper accommodation but they never returned to her.
Since then Plaatjies has given up. “She has to take her pots and cook by the people next door because she doesn’t have a stove. She doesn’t have a wardrobe so her clothing is packed in these container boxes,” said Howe.
Plaatjies added: “On Monday (about two weeks ago) I woke up and found that they stole our toilet.”
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The space which the family lives in is built with a shared yard and everyone who is living there uses that one toilet. “We now use buckets as toilets and there’s a hole that we threw our faeces in,” said Plaatjies.
According to Plaatjies, she has to take her son once a year to the hospital for his annual check-up but she finds herself having to push her son up to Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital at any time of the night or early mornings because he gets seizures.
“He gets sick at midnight then I have to carry him down the stairs and then push him up to the hospital. The family lives in Rahima Moosa Avenue and the hospital is up the road, therefore, Plaatjies has to push Lucas all the way uphill in order to get him at the hospital for treatment.”
From the hospital, she receives diapers and she got the wheelchair for her son. The family of five is living in a one-room accommodation which has a small upper space where Lucas sleeps.
Plaatjies sleeps on the floor right next to her son’s bed, this is in order to keep an eye on him. If you walk on the upper level of the accommodation you will feel that the floor is sinking in, the area where the mother and son lay is already showing signs of sinking.
The door also does not have a lock so sometimes when Plaatjies is not there, people walk in and steal stuff from the house. Plaatjies explained that Lucas crawls and falls off the bed sometimes. He also fell down the stairs thrice but thankfully when she took him to doctor they said that he was unharmed by the fall.
The only income which Plaatjies is getting is from a grant and then she gets R150 a month for a day’s cleaning job. Plaatjies is in need of a new accommodation because she’s worried about the condition of the place and also the many drug addicts who use the yard for their activities.
Social worker Howe is also trying to get donations for the family as well as a permanent home for them. If you are interested in helping the family contact Verlene Howe on 072 533 1744.
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