The woman, Yvonne Maluleke (40), lives in absolute poverty and has to share the one-room house with the whole family. She depends on government child grants to survive. “I live in these dire conditions and have to share a room with my boys,” she explained. “Because we cannot go outside when it is dark, I have to relieve myself in a chamber pot at night in the same room shielded by darkness only. Being blind, I sometimes misjudge the time of day,” she said.

According to her, the ward councillor is aware of her living conditions. “I have tried in vain to check with the ward councillor if the government could get me an RDP house. “I need privacy and cannot finish this house by myself without an income,” she said pointing at the stalled construction of her house. Her current house was built with R25 000 she received from her mother. However, the money ran out after completing only one room. “My mother received land claim compensation funds and donated an amount to me to build this house,” she said.

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The spokesperson for the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA), Victor Magwedze, declined to comment on the matter after multiple inquiries. George Mashele, the provincial chairperson of the African People’s Convention (APC), whose party discovered the woman’s living conditions during their door-to-door campaign, condemned the governing party for failing to help Maluleke.

“It’s hard to imagine living in these kinds of conditions. A person like her qualifies for food parcels because she is blind and has no income. You cannot claim to be a caring government when we have people like that living in dire conditions,” said Mashele.