The provincial department of human settlements has set aside R4.4-million to finally build houses for a blind community living in poverty in Dimbaza.
Human settlements spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said the families had approached the office of the premier seeking housing assistance from the department.
He said their plight was in line with an existing programme set up to assist the destitute in the province.
“The department has a destitute and vulnerable groups programme which prioritises the disabled, elderly, and child-headed families. These families qualified to be assisted within this programme,” Sicwetsha said.
A group of 50 blind people were first recruited in 1990 from across the former bantustans with the aim of upskilling them for a better life.
They joined the Enoch Sontonga Rehabilitation Centre in Dimbaza, where they were joined by other physically challenged people and were taught sewing.
The group graduated in 1998 with their certificates but it was only then that government realised the blind members could not be absorbed into textile companies operational in the area at the time due to their lack of sight.
It was then that they were sent to the Thembelihle Centre for the blind to learn braille and other skills more suited to them.
However, they were never absorbed into any work place and have since been living in poverty and dependent on disability grants.
Speaking to the Saturday Dispatch, Zamile Jokani, 43, said the group were excited at the thought of owning their own houses but “seeing will be believing”.
“Maybe when that day comes I will actually get to see,” he said jokingly.
On a more serious note, he said the group had suffered many difficulties over the years.
“We have been abused in all kinds of ways by different regimes of government. We were promised a better life by the Ciskeian government, only to be made destitute in Dimbaza.”
He said they had constantly been told that government work places were not user-friendly for blind people.
By the year 2000 the group, which originally numbered 50, was down to 38, as some members had left while at least one had died.
The then premier Nosimo Balindlela built 11 houses for those seen as “emergency cases” while the remaining 27 have been waiting for their homes ever since.
Jokani, who lives off his disability grant, stays with his three children and fiance in a rented home in Pola Park, King William’s Town.
“The challenges of a blind person are unique,” he said. “Being homeless for so long has added to those challenges.”
Blind folk finally to get homes after waiting for years
Human settlements spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha said the families had approached the office of the premier seeking housing assistance from the department.
He said their plight was in line with an existing programme set up to assist the destitute in the province.
“The department has a destitute and vulnerable groups programme which prioritises the disabled, elderly, and child-headed families. These families qualified to be assisted within this programme,” Sicwetsha said.
A group of 50 blind people were first recruited in 1990 from across the former bantustans with the aim of upskilling them for a better life.
They joined the Enoch Sontonga Rehabilitation Centre in Dimbaza, where they were joined by other physically challenged people and were taught sewing.
The group graduated in 1998 with their certificates but it was only then that government realised the blind members could not be absorbed into textile companies operational in the area at the time due to their lack of sight.
It was then that they were sent to the Thembelihle Centre for the blind to learn braille and other skills more suited to them.
However, they were never absorbed into any work place and have since been living in poverty and dependent on disability grants.
Speaking to the Saturday Dispatch, Zamile Jokani, 43, said the group were excited at the thought of owning their own houses but “seeing will be believing”.
“Maybe when that day comes I will actually get to see,” he said jokingly.
On a more serious note, he said the group had suffered many difficulties over the years.
“We have been abused in all kinds of ways by different regimes of government. We were promised a better life by the Ciskeian government, only to be made destitute in Dimbaza.”
He said they had constantly been told that government work places were not user-friendly for blind people.
By the year 2000 the group, which originally numbered 50, was down to 38, as some members had left while at least one had died.
The then premier Nosimo Balindlela built 11 houses for those seen as “emergency cases” while the remaining 27 have been waiting for their homes ever since.
Jokani, who lives off his disability grant, stays with his three children and fiance in a rented home in Pola Park, King William’s Town.
“The challenges of a blind person are unique,” he said. “Being homeless for so long has added to those challenges.”
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