Disabled woman to get home ‘to call her own’

NOMALANGA Ndamase has long dreamt of owning a home, but being disabled means she cannot work towards that dream.

However, thanks to an initiative by the department of human settlements, the 37-year-old, who now lives in a temporary structure in New Payne village, will soon live in a proper house.

Ndamase was diagnosed with polio when she was 10 and has been wheelchair-bound since.

The mother-of-two said she could not believe that she would move into a brick house that she could call her own. The rest of the family survives on social grants.

“The temporary shelter was a gift and I will never stop being grateful to the person who gave it to me, but it does start to come apart after a while.

“No one is meant to live in it forever, I’ve had to fix this one [prefab] numerous times as it was starting to fall apart,” she said. Her house will be built in the same yard she lives in now as the site belongs to her after New Payne traditional leader Bishop Vuyisile Plaatjie gave her the plot.

Ndamase said her life would improve in many ways once her house was completed.

“I had given up on ever owning a house, I was never able to further my education. I try to make a living by selling the beadwork I make but that was never going to afford me a house. I really appreciate human settlements thinking of me, I really cannot wait,” said Ndamase.

Provincial human settlements department spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said the department would prioritise qualifying beneficiaries who had been occupying temporary shelters for many years to receive houses. The process will be rolled out over a three-year period. —