RESIDENTS of the Mandela squatter camp in Delmas, Mpumalanga say they are forgotten citizens!
They say they have been waiting for promised land where better houses with proper sanitation were to have been built for them.
Now the residents believe they have waited far too long for their Canaan.
Up to this day they do not know where their promised land is situated – and nobody is talking about it any more!
The residents said their living conditions are unbearable.
“Many years into democracy, we are still homeless and use the bucket system. We have no electricity,” said Bafana Qiti.
Bafana (52) said he arrived in the area in 1994.
He said they were told by the then councillor that they would be relocated to another area where they would be given proper houses to live in.
But up until now, said Bafana, they still use the bucket system to answer the call of nature and there is one tap for about 50 families.
“The munici-pality comes once a week to collect the buckets, which get filled in two days, and at times they can take up to two weeks before coming. Yet we are told to go and vote,” said Bafana.
Sindisiwe Ndlala (36) said she applied for a proper toilet two years ago but got a seat with no structure around it.
She said she can use it only in the night.
“Life is hard here,” she said.
Victor Khanye Municipality spokesman Sentebaleng Mase-mola said the municipality had nothing to say on the matter.
