Thursday 22 September 2011

This site will be updated on 30 September 2011

AS the long awaited Project 2 housing project in Mbekweni progresses, many beneficiaries are becoming increasingly concerned, as they are still unable to take occupancy of their new homes.

Michael Makai is one of these residents who is not a happy man.

For more than eight years he has been allocated a plot, and still he and his family are living in squalor in one of the many shanty towns here.

Michael’s journey to own a home has been a long and painful one.

“I worked for a building company years ago, but injured my back at work. Hereafter I could not work for months and eventually had to leave my work.”

Once he was back on his feet, but had not completely recuperated, Michael was forced to find some kind of work to support his family.

Because of his back he was unable to return

to the building trade. He then had to resort to finding gardening jobs to bring in the bread and butter.

“Life has been hard, but at least I knew that I had been promised a home.”

In 1997, Michael’s name was put on the housing waiting list.

“We were promised homes within two years. But nothing happened. Eventually Project 2 was demarcated, and we were shown the plots where our homes would be built.

“It was great excitement again and the promises were streaming in that within a year our homes would be completed.”

That was six years ago and once again the year came and went with no joy.

And then, to add insult to injury, Michael started to receive bills to cover property tax and basic services for his home, although not a single brick had been laid.

“I have been desperate for a home for my family. During the years our shack, which is built of wood and zinc, has burnt down once and was also destroyed during heavy rains one year. We are freezing in the winter and suffering of the heat in the summer.”

There is however light at the end of the long tunnel, although still very dim.

Michael was notified a month ago that he must pay his “key deposit” (service connection fee) at the housing office in Mbekweni, and that the family would hereafter be able to move into their home in Project 2.

But R350 later, the Makai family still has to brave the cold and wet weather, because their home, number 4255, has still not been completed.

This is just one example of the snail’s pace at which houses are being built for a backlog of thousands of houses in Paarl.

A spokesperson from the housing office did however shed a ray of light on Makai’s turbulent wait.

In three weeks’ time, the Makai family will be one of the many families who will be given the keys to their new homes.

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