eMzinoni’s cancer-stricken twins finally get ANC-promised house
Lwandile and Lwanele Mkhonza, 17-year-old twins from eMzinoni, suffer from a rare autosomal recessive disorder known as xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) that leads to aggressive skin and other cancers.
The ANC in Mpumalanga finally handed over a fully furnished six-room house promised to the cancer-stricken Mkhonza twins in eMzinoni, Ext 22.
Lwandile and Lwanele Mkhonza, 17-year-old twins from eMzinoni, suffer from a rare autosomal recessive disorder known as xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) that leads to aggressive skin and other cancers.
The twins lived with their mother, Phumzile Mkhonza, in a three-room shack in their grandmother’s backyard.
The disease means they must limit their exposure to heat.
Mkhonza said life was difficult for her and her boys. When it was hot outside, their shack would heat up, and she had to find shade for her sons.
Walter Mngomezulu, the ANC regional chairperson and the Gert Sibande District Municipality mayor, told the community at the handover that the Mpumalanga premier and ANC Mpumalanga provincial chairperson, Mandla Ndlovu, was called away while en route to eMzinoni for the handover.
“This long-overdue house is not from the government but from our own contribution as the ANC and our stakeholders,” said Mngomezulu.
At the handover, Nhlakanipho Zuma, the Govan Mbeki Municipality mayor, stood in as the ANC provincial executive committee member. He said some people swore at them when the house was being built.
“When we heard the cry of Phumzile Mkhonza and her twins, Ndlovu and I visited the family and promised to build them a house, but then we saw that it would take too long. We then opted to buy it.”
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Zuma said because of many obstacles in the buying process, they reverted to their first decision of building the house.
“To all who thought we used government money, I assure you, we did not. We used our own money and our stakeholders’ contributions.”
Zuma slammed people who only promise to help others and take credit for it, but they do nothing.
Mkhonza said her boys would at least now be safe from the hot sun and the shack in the summer. Zuma also promised Mkhonza’s mother, Linah Dlamini (71), an RDP house.
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