‘I felt like I won lotto’: housing beneficiaries elated about their new homes

When Mbulelo Matyila, 42, was diagnosed with gangrene, lost both legs and was without a job, his dream of one day owning a home faded. 

The father of two from Meadowlands in Soweto lost hope. When his legs were amputated, his situation worsened as close friends and people in his life deserted him. 

“It completely changed my life as I was no longer the same. I am now disabled and wheelchair-bound, but I cope through mercy.

“I do experience the trials and tribulations, but I still believe in God. If it wasn't for prayer I could have committed suicide,” he said. 

Sitting inside his new two-bedroom home in Lufhereng Ext 6, Soweto, beaming with excitement, Matyila said he started applying for an RDP house in 2011. Due to his disability, his application was treated as a special case. 

Matyila said he was renting a back room with his grant money. Life was a struggle with his children and a wife staying at someone else's home. 

“I stay in a back room with the mother of my kids and two children. I finally have my own space. I don't owe anyone any explanation. I do things the way I want. Getting my own house reinstated my dignity. People with disability, you know, have low self-esteem, but now I think I have regained my self-esteem. I am fulfilled,” he said.

Matyila relies on the government grant but also buys and sells old clothes to generate an income to support his family.

He said when he received a call that his application was approved and he would receive a new home, he burst into tears.

“I am feeling very different. When you stay under someone's roof you have to live according to their rules. I cried when I received the call that my house was approved. I cried, and it felt like I had won the lotto,” he said. 

After moving from house to house, renting back rooms, Phyllis Raseboka, 61, ended up in a shelter in Johannesburg with her 105-year-old mother, Lucy Raseboka, and her two grandchildren. 

Her mother Lucy was evicted from Alexandra in 1940 and forcefully relocated to Diepkloof, later moved to Freedom Park where she lived in a shack and then again to a shelter in the Johannesburg CBD, Linatex House.

Diagnosed with amnesia, the elderly woman hardly recalls past events and battles at times to remember the names of those closest to her. But her daughter and caretaker, Phyllis, said they stayed in Diepsloot renting from different homes.

Their initial application for a house was in 1996, but after the library in the area burnt down, officials told them to reapply as the files were destroyed in the fire. 

“We stayed in Diepkloof, but we couldn't afford the monthly rent. I built a shack in Freedom Park. When we were staying at the informal settlement in 2016 I was doing minimal jobs. I struggled with transport money and then I went to sleep in a shelter with another woman.

“I explained my situation and she thought it was better if she found a room for me. I got a room at a shelter in Joburg. I ended up taking my mother to a shelter in 2016 from the informal settlement and we stayed together,” said Phyllis. 

She said there was no dignity in sharing a room with the two grandchildren. “I feel privileged that we will now stay in a decent home,” she said. 

Gauteng MEC for human settlements Tasneem Motara and MMC for human settlements in the City of Johannesburg Mlungisi Mabaso handed over houses to 42 beneficiaries. 

The project is part of the Lufhereng Ext 6 Development Project. Motara said the project is a multi-mixed typology development.

She said the development will also include social amenities as it grows, including community halls, schools and clinics.

“But today we were here doing allocations to 42 beneficiaries and the allocation is ongoing.” 

“The next step is the municipality will come and install the meters and connect their electricity after opening the accounts. Then the next step is the issuing of title deeds. Today they get what is called a happy letter. It is just an indication they have received the house, they are happy with the condition of the house,” she said. 

She said the registration of title deeds takes anything between three to six months depending on the backlog at the deeds office.

She said most of the beneficiaries were those who registered for houses in 1996 and 1999 and are from greater Soweto.

She said people register every day for houses and the department builds and completes them, but they don't build as quickly as the demand, which is dependent on the budget. 

“The [housing] backlog is about 300,000 now on the human settlements [registration] on average, and we are only able to build 8,000 houses [per annum] and that's across the province,” she said. 

She said the department uses mega-development projects which include mixed RDP, bond and social houses as it allows them to build at a scale that is budget-dependent. 

“Hopefully, the economy will turn around because the backlog is linked to the economy. You won't have the amount of people registering for houses if they are economically active and have other options,” she said. 

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