Family still lives in a tent 20 years after the 2000 floods
Mnisi said he had applied for an RDP house at the Makhado Municipality in 2001 along with the others flood victims.
LIMPOPO – Twenty years after the floods of 2000, a man from the Bandelierkop area near Louis Trichardt still doesn’t have a proper roof over his head for him and his 10 family members. Today, Moses Butana Mnisi from Nthabalala Sedzaufhire stays in a dilapidated tent with 10 other family members, as the RDP house he has been waiting for since the floods of 2000 has not realised yet.
After his mud house collapsed in the severe floods, it left him with one remaining bedroom, to which he attached a tent. Mnisi said he had applied for an RDP house at the Makhado Municipality in 2001 along with the others flood victims. Soon thereafter, a councillor came to survey the area, and a house was allocated to him and registered in his name, he told CV.
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“The councillor later visited me, saying I had to clean my yard so a house could be built here. I am angry that, after 20 years, we still have to live like this.” Mnisi said that he had been on a list to receive a house in 2017, but this has also not realised. Recently, he said, another person in the same village received a house, which is something he struggles to comprehend.
“What gets to me the most is that our local councillor, Dorah Mukhwevho knows about my situation, but has not done anything about it. The tent is not a safe environment for anyone to live in as it becomes a risk in the rainy season,” Mnisi lamented. Makhado Mayor, Samuel Munyai was contacted for comment, and confirmed that he had visited the family after being alerted by Mukhwevho to assess the situation.
“We wanted to identify those who don’t have proper shelter and who don’t know where their next plate of food will come from,” he said. Most families here are unemployed and need assistance from the community.” They did not choose to be poor and they need to be uplifted by those who can do something for them.” He appealed to donors who can assist to assist the less fortunate.
