89-year-old Shabangu sobs upon receipt of title deed
Dance and church songs were the order of the moment when grannies took their turns to receive their title deeds in River Park from the Mayor of Johannesburg Cllr Dr Mpho Phalatse along with her MMC for JHuman Settlements Mlungisi Mabaso on June 21.
As housing is a much sought after commodity in Alexandra, grannies and grandpas thronged the East Bank Hall on June 21 to receive their title deeds for their RDP houses in River Park.
One of them was 89-year-old River Park resident Paul Shabangu who is wheelchair-bound and was wheeled to the inaugural handover of the title deeds by his grandson Thando Shabangu.
Shabangu could hardly contain himself as tears flowed down his cheeks upon being awarded the title deed by the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg Dr Mpho Phalatse along with her MMC for Human Settlements Mlungisi Mabaso and Ward 81 Joanne Horwitz.
Shabangu, who was born in Alexandra in 1933 and not in a good state of health in his advanced age, mumbled a few words of gratitude to Phalatse and Mabaso.
“I cannot express the amount of my gratitude to finally have a house of my own with the title deeds to secure the future of my children and grandchildren. I am certain when the time comes for me to leave this earth, I will do so at peace now, knowing I have secured the future of my generations to come,” he told Alex News as he boarded the car to take him home.
Dance and church songs were the order of the day when the grannies took their turns to receive their deeds. Khanyi Tiny Tshabalala, who was born in Alexandra in 1957 said she was so happy as a child.
The same can be said for Makoma Phoebe Sekgobela, who said she was born on 15 April 1940 at 3rd Avenue Number 1. She added she had six children and two of them were late. “This is the only ‘lefa’ [deceased estate] I will give to my children and grandchildren,” she said in her native Setswana.
The mayor and MMC issued five title deeds as they had to rush back to the Civic Centre in Braamfontein to receive a memorandum about issues of electricity supply from Eskom from protesting Soweto residents.
The balance of the 102 title deeds that were issued on the day were handed out by the City’s Region E director Liziwe Ntshinga-Makoro and Horwitz, together with staff from the City.
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