Members of five poor families in Silangwe village in Mbizana could not contain their emotions, with many sobbing uncontrollably as they were handed the keys to their new RDP homes.
The keys were given by human settlements MEC Helen Sauls-August on Tuesday morning. Many of those who received new homes are unemployed and rely on social grants for survival. As a result, many stayed in rundown and crumbling mud houses which they built themselves, as they could not even afford to buy bricks to build proper homes for themselves and their loved ones.
The handing over of the five houses formed part of the OR Tambo centenary celebrations taking place this week in Nkantolo village, the birth home of one of the most iconic leaders of the ruling ANC, Oliver Tambo.
Tambo, who passed away in 1993, is recognised as the party’s longest serving president. Silangwe, on the other hand, is the birthplace of his late mother Julia.
One of those who had tears streaming down her face was 53-year-old Mamoyeke Radebe, who has been staying in an old rondavel with three of her six children.
The unemployed mother and her family survives on child support grants she receives for two of the three children.
Radebe said such was the condition of the mud rondavel that the family prayed hard to God constantly to keep them safe in the event that it came down, especially on rainy and windy days.
“It was happiness,” she said of her emotional outburst.
“I have never stayed in a proper house. The rondavel leaked so much when it rained that we had to find a dry corner inside to sleep in when it rained. It also had huge cracks on it.”
The five houses that were given to the Silangwe village residents also came fully furnished.
Radebe said she was trying to take it all in as she had never owned such beautiful furniture in her life.
Sauls-August, meanwhile, revealed that the new homes were built through a departmental programme that sought to eradicate collapsing mud structures and ensure that people were provided with decent, safe and secure homes.
The beneficiaries included a child-headed family, and elderly and disabled people.
Currently government was building more than 6000 RDP units at a cost of around R700-million in Mbizana, with more than 4700 already completed, she added.