A 78-year-old Ngqeleni pensioner is living under the stars after powerful winds took down half of her one-roomed mud home in October.
She now lives in fear.
Matshaka Notheza, from Zinduneni village finds herself excluded from housing support and a pension from the government because her ID book was destroyed when her previous home, in Durban, collapsed.
Try as she does, her visits to Home Affairs for a new ID have been just as disastrous.
Recalling her most recent housing disaster, she said, tearing up: “I was inside the flat when it collapsed. I was thankful that I was not harmed.
“It saddens me that I am not able to receive a pension grant like other people my age because if I did I would have been able to rebuild the flat.
“I depend on handouts from people and sometimes the man I live with buys groceries when he receives his grant.”
On Thursday morning, a group of men from the village patched the collapsed wall with zinc sheeting. But there were still some holes.
“The wind blows ever hour of the day but there is nothing I can do,” she said.
“I am pinning my hopes on the government building me a proper house that I can live in without fearing for my life.
“I did not have the means to rebuild it because I am old and in pain most of the time.
“People from the government have been coming here and my prayer is that they make me happy by building me a house.
“I pray to God to keep me safe every time I go to bed.
“It pains me that my struggle is rooted in not getting my ID.
“I have no communication with my children, who are all over the country.”
She said the only food she had was donated by social workers.
Ward 19 councillor Mphathiseni Hoya said community leaders had banded together to help Notheza with her ID.
“We worked with the office of social workers and home affairs to trace her ID,” he said.
“It took two years to trace that she had an ID before. It was only confirmed in June that her ID number appears on the system of home affairs.
“It pained me as a leader to see her living in this condition, but things were made difficult by her not having an ID.
“We made all efforts to help, even putting her name forward to benefit from the Nyandeni municipality Covid-19 relief programme in May to build a house using her neighbour’s documents.
“She received food parcels and other relief using her neighbour’s documents too.
Notheza’s cry has been heard by the Nyandeni municipality. A two-room flat will be built for her. Building would start on Monday, Nyandeni municipality spokesperson Ncebakazi Kholwane said.
“An appointed contractor paid a visit to her home today [Thursday].
“This follows a resolution taken by the municipality council last year to pilot a programme of provision of shelter to identified indigent households in need of shelter as part of the relief programme even though provision of shelter is not the responsibility of a local municipality.
“An assessment was done last year in October and she is one of the two beneficiaries who will be first in the programme to benefit this financial year.
“The delay was informed by the procurement processes that had to be undertaken to realise the provision of shelter to the beneficiaries.”
DispatchLIVE
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