Granny builds dream house
INSPIRED: TAKES MATTERS INTO HER OWN HANDS AFTER WAITING 20 YEARS FOR RDP HOUSE
Pensioner used planks from a dumpsite to build the home she’d always wanted.
A62-year-old woman ran out of patience after waiting for an RDP house for over 20 years and built herself a wooden bungalow. Gloria Matebe, the grandmother of two young girls, spent six months building her home from discarded pieces of timber that she collected from a nearby dumpsite in GG Camp informal settlement in Oudtshoorn.
The pensioner said she had been on a waiting list since 1998 , but had lost hope of having a postal address of her own. Matebe said she had registered for a house when her two children were still young and had hoped to raise them in a decent home.
“I never thought I would still be waiting for a house today,” she added.
In July last year, with the help of two young men she started building herself a house made of old planks discarded by a local timber company.
The bungalow is fitted with a small kitchen, a sitting room and a large bedroom that can take up to three single beds. The roof is made of zinc sheets. The wooden planks of the house are varnished on the outside to make it look more attractive.
Lack of electricity in the area means many people go to a nearby dumpsite every Thursday to collect wood to make fires for cooking. Matebe collected the wood there to make her home, which she shares with her daughter and two grandchildren.
She said she couldn’t stand living in a shack any longer.
“I am getting old and I felt I couldn’t wait for a government subsidy any longer.
“I built this bungalow out of frustration. I wanted to spend Christmas in a more secure environment than a shack.”
She can now lock her front door and the door to her room.
Matebe cooks outside to avoid any risk of setting fire to her new home.
Her neighbour, Fennie Deimans, said: “She is a strong woman. Every morning she would go to the dumpsite to collect the planks and return home to build. She is the first person to own such a beautiful bungalow in this area.”
Deimans said she had also been on a waiting list for an RDP house for “too long”.
“This woman has inspired many of us.”
Republished from Groundup