Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Gogo’s wish to own a house before she dies
A GRANDMOTHER from Khayelitsha fears that she will die without ever having owned a house.
Nomsa Nduna, 72, is wheelchair-bound and stays in a one-bedroom shack, with her children and grandchildren.
She said she has been on the waiting list for a very long time.
Nduna said, when she first got to Cape Town, coming from the Eastern Cape, she stayed with her sister’s boss, but had to look for her own place.
She said she had to go back home when she couldn’t get a place to stay.
“I had to come back to Cape Town and in 2005, I applied for a house because staying in informal settlements was not good for my condition,” said Nduna.
She said, since then, she has been going from one housing office to another, only to be told she is on the waiting list.
Nduna said going from one office to another cost her financially because she had to hire cars to take her, and on rainy days she would get sick, which worsened her disability.
She has grandchildren, who are staying with her in this small shack, and she can’t even move her wheelchair around, she said.
The shack she is staying in now is not hers and the owners have given her until December to find a place, because they want their place back, she added.
“I don’t know where I will stay come December, all I’m asking for is a house before I die so my children can have a place to live,” said Nduna.
She thought the elderly and disabled would be a priority when it comes to housing allocation.
Mayco member for human settlements Malusi Booi said according to the City’s records, Nduna registered on the housing database in 2005.
“Once an opportunity becomes available for Nduna, City officials will inform her about the opportunity and the steps to follow,” he said.
Booi said beneficiaries of all City housing projects, including people with permanent disabilities, are allocated homes in accordance with its allocation policy and the date of registration on the housing needs register.
This was to ensure that housing opportunities were provided to qualifying applicants in a fair, transparent, and equal manner, and to prevent queue jumping.
State-subsidised housing projects included beneficiaries with special needs, such as people with a permanent disability and the elderly, he said.