Many motorists pass the row of run-down old farm workers’ houses now known as Seven House on their way between Khutsong and Welverdiend.

Seven House has become a landmark in the area due to the massive illegal rubbish dump that bears the same name and is situated just across the road from it.

Few people actually know that there are still a couple staying there.

Dorah Molathlegi and Nelson Kalipha, both 77, are the only current residents of the houses.

Both of them previously worked at the brick plant across the road that stopped producing in the early 1990s.

The houses were originally built for the employees, but everyone else has moved on, most of them because they received low-cost houses.

Although Kalipha also received a low-cost house near Lahliwe’s Place in Khutsong about a decade ago, the couple was forced to flee after drug users started harassing the old people there.

There is no running water at Seven House, and only some of the toilets, situated metres away from the houses in the veld, are still working.

A municipal water truck delivers water to a JoJo tank at the houses every two weeks; if this is finished or the truck comes late, they have to fetch water from the nearby Khutsong sewerage works.

The couple lives only off their social grants as they are frail and literally staying in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, their grandson drops by to help them with tasks.

As the last of the other people staying at Seven House received low-cost houses and moved away last year, the community leaders Chucku Kerileng and Buti Mthembu believe that the couple should be allocated one of the low-cost houses specially allocated for the elderly at one of the new housing projects in the area, such as Khutsong Ext 6.

Molathlegi confirmed that she had, in fact, already applied for a low-cost house several years ago but heard nothing back from the authorities.

“This is not an easy situation as our elderly are not safe,” says Mthembu.