Homes become nightmare for disabled
Motherwell duplex residents forced to move out over access problems
IT WAS a dream come true when Nomandla Kolanisi finally received her RDP duplex – but that was shattered when the doublestorey structure did not cater for her disability. The NU29 duplex, with a flight of stairs inside, like so many other RDP doublestorey houses in Motherwell does not cater for disabled people.
After waiting six years, Kolanisi has had to give up her dream because of her debilitating cerebral palsy.
Her plight has put the spotlight on disabled people being given duplexes at the housing scheme that failed to accommodate them.
Kolanisi, 44, now lives with her brother Lioni Kolanisi in NU12.
She lived in the duplex for almost two years before she was forced to rent her home out to another family member.
“If I had stayed at the duplex it would have killed me. I have weak arms and legs,” she said.
Kolanisi, who developed cerebral palsy as a child, even used her disability grant to instal steel handles on the stairwell to help her climb up to her bedroom. “I would always tumble down the stairs.”
It took Kolanisi about an hour to climb the 14 steps by herself.
“It is impossible to get assistance from a neighbour to climb the stairs because I would have to walk to them.”
She was given the duplex in April 2016 but moved out in January this year.
“When I first saw the house I was not happy but I was desperate for accommodation so I just accepted what I got,” she said.
Kolanisi would sleep on a couch downstairs during the week and make her way upstairs at the weekend.
“My nine-year-old daughter is still in primary school and needs me to help get her ready for school. I slept downstairs to help her in the morning.”
Kolanisi said she had complained to municipal housing official Yandisa Febhani.
“I asked Febhani, who allocates houses to people, why I got this house. But she told me to accept what I had been given,” she said.
Another NU29 resident, Zoleka Moyeni, said she was forced to move her mentally challenged daughter Nolubabalo Mabhongo, 31, to NU8, even though her daughter – whose condition affects limb control – was given a duplex. “I had to move my daughter to live with my very old mother. She constantly fell and hurt herself on the stairs,” Moyeni said.
Like Kolanisi, Moyeni claims to have visited Febhani’s office but was met with a hostile response.
“I took my daughter to Febhani’s office to show her that Nolubabalo is incapable of living there.
“Febhani told me to go and speak to my councillor about this issue,” Moyeni said.
Febhani refused to comment when contacted by The Herald. Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said Kolanisi and Mabhongo were not initially beneficiaries of the double- storey project.
“Due to the non-availability of houses at that time and their vulnerabilities and desperation to move from a shack to a brick house, the municipality offered them to be moved to the house and they agreed.”
He said the municipality was looking at ways to relocate Kolanisi and Mabhongo to suitable houses.
“However, that process takes time due to intergovernmental challenges,” he said.
Both Kolanisi and Mabhongo said they were forced to move into the duplexes as no other options were made available to them.
Nelson Mandela Bay Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities executive director Brian Bezuidenhout said: “We firstly need to be sure their need [disability] was clearly stated on their application. If it was, then it is unfortunate they were given these houses.”
Both Kolanisi and Moyeni said they had stated the disabilities on their applications.
Bezuidenhout further quoted the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act, which addresses reasonable accommodation and universal access and makes provision for necessary modification and adjustments for the disabled.
Disabled people require a doctor’s letter to declare their disability on the housing application form.
The NU29 housing scheme has 162 flats with construction starting in 2014.
But it hit a snag three years ago when the budget for the scheme ran out and it was revealed that many of the houses were built with structural defects.
Today, the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements is seeking legal advice on how to proceed with the case of the shoddily built houses.
Some residents were, however, moved into the completed homes despite safety concerns about whether or not they were structurally sound.
Motherwell Disability Forum chairman Zolani Dondashe laid the blame on the ward’s previous ANC councillor, Aaron Nyikilana, and human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga.
Nyikilana was councillor from 2011 until 2016 but was replaced by Morgan Tshaka in August 2016 .
“The DA and the ANC are just using disabled people as pawns in their political game,” Dondashe said.
“Bhanga promised to move all the disabled people renting and owning houses at the NU29 to one-storey houses early last year but that has not been done,” Dondashe said.
Tshaka denied any knowledge of disabled people living in the duplexes, apart from Kolanisi.
Questions put to Bhanga as to how those affected were given such houses in the first place, have remained unanswered.