School Children Help Repair Granny’s Flood-Damaged Home

76-year-old Annie Zwane’s roof was destroyed during heavy floods in January.

Seven months after heavy rains in January damaged their homes, dozens of families in Mondlo Township, under Abaqulusi Municipality, are still without permanent shelter.

Residents say earlier promises by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs to provide new shelters have not been fulfilled.

Left to their own devices, families are struggling to raise money to repair their homes. Community members are stepping in to raise funds and help rebuild where they can.

Among those affected is 76-year-old Annie Zwane, who had been sleeping in a damaged house without a roof for months.

Members of Khawuleza Primary School’s SoulBuddyz programme helped repair Zwane’s rondavel and clean her yard.

On Mandela Day, a group of learners from a Khawuleza Primary School’s SoulBuddyz programme helped fix a rondavel for Zwane to live in. Donations from community members and businesses were used to purchase supplies.

The group also plans to repair the roof of Zwane’s two-bedroom house. Not all of her furniture and belongings could fit in the rondavel, and most still stand in the roofless house.

Zwane is now able to sleep under a roof in her rondavel. But most of her furniture and belongings still stand in her roofless house.

Ward councillor Khumbuzile Ntuli said that requests to the provincial government to provide emergency housing for the flood victims have fallen on deaf ears.

Sthabile Msibi, whose seven-room home was destroyed, says they have received no help from the government. “We are unemployed, we remain squeezed inside two rooms with my brother and children,” Msibi said.

Ndabezinhle Sibiya, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements, failed to respond to questions.

The SoulBuddyz team hopes to help repair the roof on Zwane’s house, where most of her belongings stand without shelter.

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