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Paarl residents hope Ramaphosa’s visit will change their desperate living conditions

People outside a shack
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Residents of Thembani Square, an informal settlement in Mbekweni, Paarl where President Cyril Ramaphosa will be delivering the key note address for the Women’s Day celebration event say they hope he will address their challenges when he speaks on Thursday.

Thembani Square is just opposite the grounds where the big white marquee where the official Women’s Day event will take place on Thursday. But the women here have little to celebrate.

Thembani Square is plagued by problems including lack of sanitation facilities, access to water and unemployment.

Resident Yolanda Hleko, says it is difficult to use the communal toilets since they are only cleaned once a week. “We collect R10 each household to have the toilets cleaned. If you go there now you will find them dirty. ”

The community also uses communal taps. “The water coming from the taps is sometimes not clean,” Hleko explains.

A mother to two children Nomboniso Ndubane says she and her children only survive through grants.

“We are not working. As you can see we are all sitting around here, sunrise until sunset. Most of us are unemployed.”

Residents have called on government to provide skills development programmes.

Twenty four-year-old, Asiphile Maki says the youth in the area lacks skills.

“I am unemployed and have two children. I dropped out of school after having my first child. Now I have been trying to get employment to provide for my children but it has been difficult. I remain unemployed and with nothing to offer to the labour market.”

Safety is also a major concern for the women in this informal settlement.

“Women and children are being raped and robbed. Just there by the street, a woman was robbed this morning,” says Hleko pointing not very far from the place where she is seated hand washing laundry.

But it is not just strangers the women are afraid of.

Nomaseru Solo says her son is a drug addict. His addiction, she says, puts her life at risk.

“He steals from me and other residents to feed his addiction. I have now forced him to go live with his father but he keeps coming back here. I am scared that he is going to steal from someone and the community will turn against me.”

Women’s Day is the day when South Africa commemorates the 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings against the pass laws. – Additional reporting by Mamaponya Motsai

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