THEY live in their old prefab houses behind rows of RDP houses.
They had hoped to occupy the brightly coloured houses but their names didn’t appear on the list.
Three years later, 16 families in extension 7 in Mount Frere are pleading with the municipality not to forget them.
They said the condition of their temporary structures was getting worse by the day.
Some roofs are patched with zinc. They leak when it rains, and rattle when the wind blows. The floors are collapsing and the walls are crumbling.
The people share a toilet built by a resident.
The huts were built for people who were on the list of RDP beneficiaries.
Gogo Ntombomzi Zongolo (69) said her name used to appear on the beneficiaries list at Umzimvubu Municipality but her life turned to misery when she was no longer a beneficiary.
“That’s how I ended up in these prefabs, living like a dog,” she said.
Nomaphelo Ncapai said she has sleepless nights worrying about what would happen to her and two children if she was evicted from the prefabs. She uses crutches to walk and depends on her social grant to provide for her two children.
She also said her name disappeared from the beneficiary list and she had nowhere to go.
Simthembile Kulu, spokesman for Umzimvubu local municipality, said the prefab structures were meant to be lived in for only a short time while the municipality was rectifying houses but people illegally occupied the houses and were refusing to leave.
He said it was unlawful to provide prefab housing as permanent shelter and they had to find other places.
