This Content Is Only For Subscribers
Shelter is one of the most basic needs needed by human beings to survive. Unfortunately for Nomxolisi Maqutywa, owning her own home is just a dream for her. This 33-year-old mother lives with a 7-year-old girl child born with cerebral palsy. A condition that leads to severe mental and physical disabilities, which has left 7-year-old Phelokazi Maqutywa bedridden and unable to even sit up.
On top of living in an unsafe and unsuitable house, 7-year-old Phelokazi does not have a wheelchair. Her mother says she has been applying for a wheelchair since her child was heavy enough for her not to be able to carry her on her back anymore. She says the child needs to attend physiotherapy every month and she has to carry her to the hospital. She cannot carry the child on her back anymore because her child now has a protruding bone on the hip which makes it difficult for her to be carried on her back.
“There is no difference between myself and a homeless person, the material used to build these prefabs we stay in is soft and weak, rats easily chew through them. The conditions here are not meant for any human being especially not children, now imagine staying in such conditions with a child with special needs.” Said Nomxolisi.
Although her child is physically and mentally challenged. Nomxolisi has two other children under her care and is unemployed so providing for all her children with just a social grant is another challenge for her.
This mother explained that she is not satisfied with just sitting and not doing anything to help her situation. She said that she has tried working before but could not continue working as she feared for the safety of her child. Nomxolisi said “I am unemployed, I tried working but I had to quit because I noticed that when I was still working, I would come back from work and find my child swollen. I don’t know what that lady I left my child with did to my child. I was worried that I might lose my baby so I had to quit work and come take care of my child myself.”
This family along with other poor families live in an informal settlement called Katilumla. An area that was established in 2014. These residents were moved by Public works together with Ingquza Hill local municipality Lusikisiki from their initial residential area because there was a new road being constructed.
When they were being moved from their initial residential area, back in 2014. They say they were told by the then ward councillor Mr Mhlongo, that the prefabs they were being placed in were only for a temporal time. It is now almost 10 years and these people are still in the so-called temporal prefabs.
Noxolo Bangani is also a resident of Katilumla and says she stays in the prefab with her 2 children. She says she feels like their leaders have forsaken them and want nothing but votes from them. “when it’s time for campaigns we see our leaders but when it’s time for them to help us we hardly see them. These houses are not strong, they have gaps between the roof and the wall of the prefab and there are also gaps by the door. When it rains we need to get the water out of the house using pails. Floods mean my children’s uniforms are wet, blankets swim in the water. It becomes one huge mess.”
The term of the councillor who was leading when Katilumla was first established said he is unable to provide any details as to what the plans for the residents of Katilumla are because he is no longer the leader of ward 17. This ward was under ward 15 at the time but the demarcation has since changed and the ward is now under ward 17 under Mr. Tenyane’s leadership.
Nomampondomse Hanise a resident of Joe Slovo, a township next to Katilumla said “We are being moved around like fools because our local leaders make decisions for us without consulting us. We were under ward 19, then ward 15 and now we are in ward 17. It is clear our leaders do as they please but cannot help us in any way. Joe Slovo houses may be better than Katilumla prefabs but they’re still not proper and these houses have been here since the late 90s. Now do you think there is anything our leaders can do to fix Katilumla which is less than 10 years old…I don’t think so.”
The ward committee and the current ward councillor of ward 17 Mr Tenyane, Have been elected as the leadership of ward 17 in the 2021 local elections that were on 1 November 2021. These leaders say they both have not visited the area and access the situation because they are still new in the leadership and do not know what the problems of the ward are as of yet.
Social workers were only made aware of the living conditions of Nomxolisi and her physically and mentally challenged daughter during the writing of this article. Ntombifuthi Nothobela- Area Manager of Ingquza Hill local municipality said they do not have a way of getting to every case on the ground. And they depend on nurses, chiefs, ward councilors, and community members who forward cases to them and they take it from there.
Nomxolisi says left her cellphone number with Ntombi Mbena a social worker at the Lusikisiki St Elizabeth hospital who asked the mother to leave her cellphone number but has never called her till today.
