‘Let me die in my own home’
NOVEBENGU Polomani, 85, from Madakeni in Whittlesea has pleaded with Lukhanji Municipality to allocate an RDP house to her.
She lives in a temporary structure in Madakeni after her mud house collapsed. A sobbing Polomani said she and three grandchildren lived in fear as there was no yard and drunk people knocked at the door. “Who knows what they can do to us?”
Her wish is to die in her own home. “We have no (running) water and the toilet we share with other people gets dirty and I have to clean it. We can not hang our clothes on the line because they are stolen.”
Polomani said recently her neighbour was beaten up and robbed by drunk people in his home.
She was among the first people to stay at Madakeni but she was still waiting for a home. “Children have houses and I still live in this temporary house. I have been voting since 1994 but I have not benefited from this democracy.”
Polomani has a little garden she made to feed her family, but the vegetables are often stolen.
Another resident, Phumeza Goniwe, said they arrived at the houses five years ago and were told that they would receive houses within six months. When they need water they have to ask for it from the residents of houses far away.
“Polomani is old and she can not go and collect water, she has to wait for her grandchildren so she can drink her pills.”
Goniwe said when it was time for elections, politicians would come and promise them everything and forget thereafter.
Councillor Khungelwa Man- zana said the temporary houses were built after the mud houses collapsed in 2012. “Former mayor Mncedisi Nontsele said 300 houses would be built and promised that those people would be the first priority. Since then they have waited.”