GOGO Thombi Phakathi dreads the day when her mud rondeval will fall and bury her.
She has been waiting for an RDP house since the 90s.
“This is the only house I have. It can collapse anytime, as you can see,” she said.
Gogo Thombi (68) from KwaDinda in Makhabeleni Village, outside Greytown in KZN, lives alone in a small mud rondavel.
She said she registered for an RDP house, but she didn't get it.
“I only got a toilet,” she said.
She said her other two houses have already collapsed, and she cannot fix them as she is using a walking frame.
She said she fell and broke her left knee while collecting water to mould mud to rebuild her fallen houses.
“I don’t have anyone to help me. I don't have children. We use wood to cook and draw water from rivers and natural springs in this area. All these things are far. I buy water and wood with my pension grant. When I don’t have money, it means I will not have water and wood,” said Thombi.
She said there is a mobile clinic that comes once a month to Dinda, but when her pain becomes unbearable, she goes to a hospital in Pietermaritzburg, which is more than 100km away.
“I wish someone can help me at least be able to walk,” she pleaded.
Not far from Thombi is gogo Khulelaphi Buthelezi’s home.
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When the SunTeam arrived at her home, they found the 83-year-old under trees behind her yard picking up fallen branches.
She also lives alone in her rondavel house.
Khulelaphi said she would love to have electricity in her house because since she was born, she has never used electricity.
“We have fridges in our homes, but they are not working. We want electricity in this area,” she said.
She said she has to drag herself out of the house to go and collect wood because if she doesn’t, no one will get it for her.
“If you don’t go, what are you going to eat? I'm forced to go out and pick what I can be able to carry. I no longer have strength, but I have to do it in order to cook,” she laughed.
She appealed to the government to give her an RDP house.
“We want RDP houses,” she said.
She said she can longer walk long kilometres to the river to fetch water.
“As I live alone, sometimes my neighbours’ children do come to help me. But if no one came, I have to take out money and buy water and wood. There are young boys who use donkeys to fetch water for us, but you pay,” she said.
Gogo Sibongile Dlungele (82) echoed the same sentiments as her fellow elderly villagers.
