DPMO to construct new houses for four elderly people
DEPUTY Prime Minister’s Office will be changing the lives of four elderly people from across the country with the construction of new houses.
Their houses are currently dilapidated and nearing collapse. Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla took the initiative to assess the living conditions of the elderly people this past week.
Dladla visited elderly people in four constituencies in the Hhohho region including Ndzingeni, Timphisini, Ntfonjeni, and Mayiwane with the assistance of Members of Parliament (MPS), where she witnessed first-hand the plight of the vulnerable elderly people.
The DPM’S Office stated that the MPS of the respective constituencies were very instrumental in informing the DPM about the living conditions of the elderly people.
During her assessment visits, Dladla personally interacted with the elderly who explained the hardships they endure daily due to the lack of appropriate housing and food. She stated that during the Sibaya dialogue, His Majesty King Mswati III commissioned parliamentarians to work with communities to try and curb the poverty outcry from emaswati. Which is something that is part of her office’s mandate.
Based on the situation in which the DPM found the elderly people residing in, she pleaded with all emaswati to look after their parents and refrain from abandoning them in such living conditions. All four visited families received food parcels comprising rice, vegetable oil, and beans.
The first Inkhundla to be visited was
Ndzingeni, where she met two elderly people who did not have proper houses. One of them was 66-year-old Siphiwe Mavuso who told the DPM she did not know that she was residing with a snake until her dilapidated one-room house collapsed.
It was when she was removing her items that the snake was discovered.
Ndzingeni MP Gcina Magagula together with his Inkhundla team identified and led the DPM to Mavuso.
It was reported that her house collapsed after a heavy storm last year and has been living in a tent provided by the NDMA
ever since. The DPM promised that a one-roomed house and a toilet would be constructed for her, as well as a makeshift kitchen and a water tank.
Another was 74-year-old Moses Mncina who was also living in a dilapidated structure and told the DPM that he only survives through the elderly grant with no other source of income.
The DPM and her team found his house to be in a bad state such that when it rains, everything inside becomes wet. He was also promised a new house as well.
At Timphisini Inkhundla, 81-year-old Tryphina Motsa-mamba was found to be living in a very bad condition in that she receives assistance in the form of food from her neighbours.
She was found to be residing alone and she was excited when she received visitors in the form of the DPM and her team. She was even more ecstatic when she was told she would be receiving a new house soon.
Dladla thanked the neighbours for looking after Mamba and providing her with food.
Mamba will receive a new house, a toilet, and a water tank.
Meanwhile, at Ntfonjeni, the DPM found 63-year-old Sisana Hlatjwako who is a widow and a mother to 11 children, two of whom have since passed on. It was discovered that none of the family members are gainfully employed and none of her children completed school.
They survive by doing piece jobs to buy food, which is always never enough for all family members. As a result, Hlatjwako is unable to afford to build a new house and resides in one built with old, corrugated sheets that leak.
She told the DPM her greatest wish is to own a properly built house, which will be fulfilled as the DPM promised one will be constructed for her and provided with a water tank.
At Mayiwane on the other hand, the DPM was met by an excited 80-year-old Norah Ndzelaphi Malaza who showed off her almost completed house being constructed by the NDMA.
She told the DPM she still could not believe that the beautiful house being constructed was hers. Malaza was identified by MP Sicelo Dlamini who notified the DPM, who acted quickly, and construction began.
She further told the DPM that having resided in her old, dilapidated house for so long, she had accepted that it would one day collapse on top of her. However, that mindset has changed as she will soon be moving into her newly constructed house.
The DPM always encourages emaswati to reach out to her office to report incidents that involve the living conditions of elderly people, child-headed families, and other vulnerable people in the country.
She has always also emphasized the importance of emaswati residing in urban areas and not abandoning their parents and families in rural areas.
Dladla has since promised to pilot a channel in the country’s broadcasting stations to track down all those abandoning their parents and children and have them answer on national TV and radio.