Robbed by the AbaQulusi?

THE LIVES of a family from Mondlo whose house burned down back in 2008 have headed on a downward spiral since.

According to Nompilo Mpanza, the house she was living in with four other family members in the A section of Mondlo burned down in April 2008.

Nompilo says that the flames left them with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

“We were visited by people from the Department of Human Settlement alongside the AbaQulusi Mayor who was then still a councillor,” said Nompilo.

According to this woman, the department handed over a R5000 cheque to her and her family with which they were to go to a local hardware store and buy doors, windows and other building material.

“Cllr Khaba then took this cheque and promised to return with a suitable car to transport the goods once we had bought them yet this did not happen,” said Nompilo.

“We tried to contact the Mayor and even went to the municipal offices countless times but to no avail. A few months later, she resurfaced and told us that the then MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs, Mike Mabuyakhulu was set to meet our family to address our issue as we were at that time living from house to house with no proper home,” she said.

It is alleged that the MEC then told Nompilo and her family that they would receive a six roomed house and they were also introduced to the construction workers who were going to work on the house.

Nompilo said that her family was then informed that the money would be handed to the Cllr Khaba and that she would settle all the money matters regarding the house.

“To this day that house still hasn’t been built. I have tried calling her and sending her messages to which she responds with rude remarks and recently told me to ‘go ahead and tell the bigshots’,” said a sad Nompilo.

Nompilo says that the Mayor told them to go and apply for an RDP house.

“When we went to try and get one of these we were told that we were not allowed to apply for an RDP house as the MEC had given us a fully-furnished house,” Nompilo recalled.

The future seems very bleak for this family who are fast losing hope of ever receiving the money or the house they were promised.

The Vryheid Herald was still awaiting comment from the municipality at the time of going to print.