Zukisa Ngxishe, who has been disabled from birth, fends for himself in a small shack in Chicken Farm far away from his family, who live in Mthatha.
Ngxishe, 41, who needs crutches and a wheelchair to get around, lives in a 2.5m² shack which is not even his.
When he moved to East London in 2005, he first stayed in Dice before moving to New Life, where he looked after someone’s RDP house.
After being kicked out by the owner, he found himself in the same situation – this time looking after a shack in Chicken Village.
For Ngxishe it was a roof over his head, but for the owner, he acted as a deterrent to those who might otherwise steal the zinc walls.
For Ngxishe, who has very little mobility in his legs and has struggled to walk since birth, his living situation is less than ideal.
In front of the entrance to his temporary home is a steep rocky slope, which makes it very difficultfor him to enter and exit the shelter. It took 30 seconds for the man to get through his doorway as he tried to navigate the slope, having to grab hold of a wooden beam sticking into the doorway, something which would usually be a quick stride.
The shack does not provide adequate shelter from the elements of nature either, and inside, half of the tiny room is filled with wood cuttings and poles, materials he hopes to one day use to build a home of his own when he has enough money.
The rest of the room is occupied by a double bed, a small wooden table, a plastic bath, bucket and five-litre bottle of water. Owning his own home is, however, a distant dream for Ngxishe, who makes us of his R1500 disability grant to survive each month.
The door to the shack does not close, and at night he uses a large rock and his wheelchair to not only keep the door from opening, but to stop people from coming in uninvited.
There are parts of the shack’s walls which are fibreglass and others which are missing, covered by a blanket. The flooring is non-existent, with just the bare earth beneath him.Ngxishe lives alone and relies on the generosity of neighbours to get by each day with the most basic of tasks. He is reliant on the surrounding community to help him with things like fetching water, as the nearest tap is roughly 500m away from him.
Ngxishe said that he also had to trust anyone who happened to be walking by to take his money, go to the spaza shop and actually buy what he has asked for instead of running away with the cash.
In the past, he has been taken advantage of by scam artists who offered him funeral coverage but instead stole what little he had.
“I was promised a burial scheme. They stole my grant. For two months I did not get my money,” said Ngxishe, adding that he “was taken advantage of” and now finds it difficult to “trust anyone”.
To go to the toilet Ngxishe has to struggle across the road in front of his dwelling, frequented by traffic, particularly taxis. This road is not safe for the slow-moving man as he makes his way to the bushes.
His neighbours have also offered to help him build a home for himself, free of charge, on a neighbouring plot, should he eventually secure all the materials needed.
He is unable to rely on his family for help due to their strained relationship.
“If I were to just get a house, everything would be perfect,” said Ngxishe, who dreams of a RDP house with a wheelchair ramp and running water.Sergeant Thembisa Nyongo, of the Berlin SAPS, brought the plight of Ngxishe to the Saturday Dispatch’s attention, and said that police through their Women’s Network and Men for Change programme hoped to help him wherever possible by getting a team together to clean his area and hopefully find a zinc donation.
Nyongo said that the Women’s Network and Men for Change programme would be paying a visit to him no later than next week.
Mzukisi Solani, Eastern Cape social development provincial spokesman, said that while Ngxishe already had a wheelchair and was receiving a disability grant, there were two ways the department would usually help someone in his situation. They would send an assessor to look at Ngxishe and assess his situation to determine how else they could help.
Solani said one of the ways his department might be able to help was by paying for a carer, if needed, but that the priority in such cases should first be proper shelter.
While Ward 13 councillor, Nokulunga Matiwane, did not answer phone calls or respond to e-mails sent to her, the office of the Portfolio Head for Human Settlements, who was copied in one of the emails, did, expressing a desire to become involved and asking for documentation which would help them follow up on the matter.
Those who wish to help can contact Captain Nkosikho Mzuku on 082-301-7345 or mzukun@saps.gov.za..