A fragile house divides a family in Kliptown
Andre Williams and his family had to evacuate their home a few weeks due to the heavy rains which caused their house to sink in Kliptown.
Andre Williams and his family had to evacuate their home a few weeks due to the heavy rains which caused their house to sink in Kliptown.
The Williams family has been living at the two-and-a-half room house for the last 34-years. Williams shared that their house started sinking after the heavy storms, however, before the sinking, the walls started cracking.
“We know that these are old houses and even if we try fixing it, it doesn’t work. The wall fell about four or five years ago and we fixed it but after the heavy rains came, it started creating the cracks in the walls again,” said Williams.
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The family of five is not living in their home at the moment as they are afraid that the structure may collapse on them.
Visiting the home, it is evident that one cannot even enter as the wall is currently leaning on a door due to the huge cracks.
Williams and his neighbour Johnson Sephiri had to fill a deep hole that opened up when the walls of the house started sinking.
“At night we can hear water running under our homes. It’s like there is a stream under our houses, and this is when it is not even raining. What upsets me is that the Housing Department only comes and puts new numbers for us, we don’t know what they do with those numbers. We started as numbers 15 and 16 and now we are 146 and 150, the numbers just go up,” explained Sephiri.
Williams shared that he like many are waiting for the RDP houses that were once promised to them many years ago. “I applied in 1996 for housing and then we had to reapply. I just want my family to be together in a safe place, whether we get help to fix our home or to be relocated, we would be grateful,” he added.
Ann Adams, a ward committee member, and a community activist said that their plea is for the different provincial and national departments to assist the residents in Kliptown.
The Williams family is currently divided throughout Eldorado Park as they hope that they can have a safe home where they can once again be a united family.
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