This Granny Lives in a Shack Right Next to Her Unfinished RDP House

Gogo Nobesuthu Qayisa, 75, lives in a dilapidated one-room shack with two of her children and six of her grandchildren. The shack floods when it rains. There is no electricity or tap water and the toilet is not working. The family cooks outside on wood fires.

Next to her shack, a few incomplete cement block walls with no windows, doors or roof have stood for decades. This was meant to be her RDP house.

“We desperately need help,” says Qayisa. “We need our house like everyone else in this neighbourhood.”

Qayisa’s husband registered for an RDP house in the 1990s and took transfer of a serviced plot in 1997.

Western Cape Human Settlement Department spokesperson Celeste Nell said the family were approved for a top structure subsidy in September 2000 under the Philippi: Qingqa Peoples Housing Process (PHP) project. A PHP subsidy allows people to build or manage the construction of their home. PHPs are undertaken by the community with the assistance of a Support Organisation and Account Administrator responsible for implementing the project.

At the time, the Qayisas qualified for R9,775 “towards the construction of a house, an amount that should have been sufficient at that time”, said Nell.

The Housing Subsidy System reflects a payment of R9,200 in 2002 for her husband, Zamuntu Qayisa. He died in 2005.

It is unclear why the top structure was never completed but the Qingqa PHP appears to have terminated early. Funds were only paid for 89 of the project’s 210 units.

Ward Councillor Melikhaya Gadeni (ANC) said he had intervened on Qayisa’s behalf and he aims to get her a new subsidy to complete her house.

Nell said that since Qayisa’s husband had died, she needs to reapply for a subsidy in her own name.

“Our works inspectorate will arrange to visit Ms Qayisa’s property to undertake a conditional assessment of the current structure,” said Nell. A report will then be sent to the City of Cape Town to request assistance.

“Thereafter, the full current subsidy will be reinstated, and arrangements will be made for a house to be constructed,” said Nell.

“I would be glad if I had a house, because I won’t live for long,” Qayisa told GroundUp. “I will only rest in peace when I know my children have a home and live in a decent house.”

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