Khayelitsha resident Nothukela Makapela says the hope of finally owning and living in a decent house is starting to feel like a far-fetched dream.
The four-roomed RDP which belonged to her late mother has no windows and doors while the floor in the living room is filled with dirty and smelly rubbish.
The walls of the house are covered in graffiti and pretty much looks like a dumping site.
Criminals have also started using it as a hideout.
The 31-year-old said the construction of her home was meant to be completed in 2007 along with those of a few other people. Ms Makapela said her mother’s application for a housing subsidy had been approved and she was jovial when the foundation of her home was being laid.
But that joy soon dulled.
Ms Makapela said her mother had been affiliated to the Federation Housing Projects but died in 2007 before her house was completed. She said ever since then she had been battling to ensure that the construction was finished.
Ms Makapela said when her mother died she had had to move in with relative as she was young and not working. A few years late she returned to the RDP house and moved into a bungalow just behind the unfinished building.
She managed to get some piecemeal jobs, the earnings of which she used to buy furniture and few fittings for the house, among them doors, but these were not fitted by the construction company.
When her work came to an end and she struggled to find another job, she moved back to Gugulethu to live with her relatives until she got back onto her feet. But a few months later, she said, she discovered that the RDP house had been vandalised and the furniture, doors and windows that she had bought from her hard earned money, stolen.
She is now appealing to the Department of Human Settlements to intervene and assist her.
Ntomboxolo Makoba Somdaka, the spokeperson for Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, said the department had allocated funding for all blocked housing projects and that unresolved matters were being addressed.
“I would advise Ms Makapela
to visit our offices to get clarity on
her case. We will gladly assist,” she said.