March is Human Rights month. However, across the country many are waiting in vain for their rights to be fulfilled. This forces some to occupy land illegally.
A group of elderly people in Port Elizabeth live in makeshift structures erected on municipal land.
The metro’s housing backlog is in excess of 80 000 units. Only 2 500 houses are being built annually.
The residents reflect a face of desperation as they queue to put down their names for a plot. However, it is not an official process. The municipal land is earmarked for low cost housing.
They have been evicted from the place before.
“My heart is so sore. At some point, they asked me when I will be turning 60, and I told them by 2015 I will have turned 60 because I was born on the 28th of October, but my ID reflects otherwise. My name had already been recorded on the housing list, but when I went back, it had vanished,” says one of the residents, Lungiswa Ngamntwini.
Another resident, Doris Feni says,“I registered my name on the housing registry and was told that I qualified for a house in one area, but when those houses were finally built, we never really occupied them. We never even got the title deeds.”
Failed by the system, they find themselves in a quandary, having to break the law and beg for help.
“We are very ashamed, even though we ask people for help. There’s a lady who had a wheelbarrow around here. She is always willing to help together with my aunt. We are very ashamed. We are very poor. If only we can get toilets and water, I would be very happy,” says resident Lungile Lali.
Neighbours assist with water and toilets but it is becoming expensive.
“There are very old men that I usually help. They take their wheelbarrows from their area and come here, because I know how it feels like to live in a shack. That is why I help them. I ask them to come to my house, even when I’m not around and get water, use toilets if they have to,” says neighbour Zanele Stokhwe.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality says it is in the process of accommodating the elderly on the housing list. An audit will exclude people who sold their houses, and are now trying to secure another.
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