KZN MEC promises a house for pensioner, 89, living in a hovel

Newly appointed KwaZulu-Natal human settlements and public works MEC Peggy Nkonyeni will on Wednesday afternoon visit the makeshift home of an 89-year-old woman from uMhlathuze.

The plight of the pensioner, referred to as Gogo Nxumalo, was recently flighted on a KZN TV news bulletin. The senior citizen was shown living in squalid and inhumane conditions in a tiny makeshift house.

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The story caught the attention of Nkonyeni, who has decided to intervene.

"I find the squalid conditions under which uGogo lives ... very inhumane. In fact, they are an affront to her dignity and to the values that underpin the caring democratic government led by the African National Congress," Nkonyeni said.

Nkonyeni, together with department officials, will visit the woman to personally tell her of the intervention the government will undertake to alleviate her situation and also communicate the day on which the construction of a decent house for her would begin.