Following a story published by The Citizen on 31 May, titled “Gogo’s 23-year wait for home”, the community of Mokgola village near Zeerust has built a house for 81-year-old Mmangaronyana Letebele, her daughter and seven grandchildren.
Construction by volunteers started in April and the five-room house was handed over to the Letebele family last weekend.
Gogo final gets a home
Main fundraiser Pontsho “Nngaps wa le Deep” Seswana, who is also an entrepreneur, used social media to galvanise donations. Local businesses also contributed.
Letebele failed to hide her tears when she first saw her new home last Saturday.
“Who built me this beautiful house? Is it government?” she asked.
According to the pensioner, the local and provincial government had been promising her a house for 23 years, but nothing happened until the community stepped in.
“Did the government finally come to their senses by delivering on their promise for building me a house? Who built this house? It is beautiful, it does not look like the ordinary RDP [Reconstruction and Development Programme] house we know. This one is big and beautiful, is it for me?”
Setswana said they initially intended to build a two-room house but the donors felt the family deserved a decent home.
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“I was looking at what was possible, I mean two rooms was possible but the people who donated their money asked that we extend it to five-room house plan, which includes a bathroom.
“It took eight months to build, with no budget at all. We thought it would be finished by August or September but that did not happen, unfortunately,” he said.
Government’s response
The local municipality and provincial department of human settlements in the North West sent officials at the beginning of the project. After seeing the story, they told the volunteers to stop, as they would speedily deliver the house which they claimed would fall under “special projects”.
One of the volunteers, Keobone Mosimane, 28, said the community should always stand up to protect vulnerable people.
“We should not only blame the government.
“The government is unable to provide basic services [so] how do we expect them to build a house for a poor pensioner?
“It would be the case if there was a beautiful girl who the local politicians would know that they will get sexual favours after building a house.
“However it is only the children and old lady,” Mosimane said.
The children received a few clothes and a R3 000 voucher for groceries from Pick n Pay.
The house does not have any furniture yet.
