The granddaughter comes back home early after school to bath and assist her. She also struggles with her wheelchair when there is no electricity. “I had a manual wheelchair and I told doctors that I was battling, and in September last year they gave me this one. When there is no electricity I have to go and charge it at the abattoir or at school.”
She first applied for a house in 2010. “The previous councillor arranged for me to meet with officials from human settlements. They said they would build the house for me, but they said there was no site to build one in Cambridge. In 2015 they came back again and said they had found a place for me in Dimbaza, and asked if I wanted to move to that area.”
Continued Mqokozo: “I told them I do not mind going there, but the year ended without anything from them. They then said they found another place outside Mdantsane, but I did not like that area because there is no clinic there and there are no schools.”
She said she was told to look for a site in Cambridge, which she found in the Phase 3 area, and a contractor was hired.
“I submitted all my documents and I was told they would hire someone to build the house, and in February the contractor, Mr Ebrahim Sakier, came and said he will build the house for me. After two weeks I called him and asked him what was going on, and he said he was waiting for building equipment.”
“Now he does not answer my calls. I went back to human settlements and they said they are shocked that the house is not built yet, because they were expecting it to be finished already.”
She drove 5km in her electric wheelchair from her shack to her new site to show the Dispatch. Only the foundations were built.
Sakier told the Dispatch that he was waiting for the department to provide funding. “We have not started with anything, It was the previous contractor that built that foundation.”
Provincial human settlements spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said they were in the process of building the house. “Her application was approved and there is a contractor already appointed to build the house in Cambridge,” he said.
WATCH: Waiting for home 8 years on
wheelchair-bound Nontuthuzelo Mqokozo from Cambridge Phase One says the department of human settlements has failed to deliver on a promise made in 2010 to build her a house.
Wheelchair-bound Nontuthuzelo Mqokozo from Cambridge informal settlement says the Eastern Cape department of human settlements has failed to deliver on a promise made in 2010 to build her a house.
The 43-year-old was diagnosed with polio in 1980. “My parents were still alive back then so it was much better. Now that I am on my own, life is hard.”
She relies on her 24-year-old daughter and six-year-old grandchild for assistance. The family lives in a bushy area and are in constant fear.
“There are snakes that always come in here. I use a bucket to relieve myself and my granddaughter has to go and throw that away. If it rains the shack rains, if it is hot snakes come in. I am not happy in this shack. It is hard. Nothing is going well.”
Image: Bhongo Jacob
The granddaughter comes back home early after school to bath and assist her. She also struggles with her wheelchair when there is no electricity. “I had a manual wheelchair and I told doctors that I was battling, and in September last year they gave me this one. When there is no electricity I have to go and charge it at the abattoir or at school.”
She first applied for a house in 2010. “The previous councillor arranged for me to meet with officials from human settlements. They said they would build the house for me, but they said there was no site to build one in Cambridge. In 2015 they came back again and said they had found a place for me in Dimbaza, and asked if I wanted to move to that area.”
Continued Mqokozo: “I told them I do not mind going there, but the year ended without anything from them. They then said they found another place outside Mdantsane, but I did not like that area because there is no clinic there and there are no schools.”
She said she was told to look for a site in Cambridge, which she found in the Phase 3 area, and a contractor was hired.
“I submitted all my documents and I was told they would hire someone to build the house, and in February the contractor, Mr Ebrahim Sakier, came and said he will build the house for me. After two weeks I called him and asked him what was going on, and he said he was waiting for building equipment.”
“Now he does not answer my calls. I went back to human settlements and they said they are shocked that the house is not built yet, because they were expecting it to be finished already.”
She drove 5km in her electric wheelchair from her shack to her new site to show the Dispatch. Only the foundations were built.
Sakier told the Dispatch that he was waiting for the department to provide funding. “We have not started with anything, It was the previous contractor that built that foundation.”
Provincial human settlements spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said they were in the process of building the house. “Her application was approved and there is a contractor already appointed to build the house in Cambridge,” he said.
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