Heaven on earth delayed in Limpopo

Life is still unbearable for the people of Muyexe, a rural village on the outskirts of Giyani in Limpopo.

President Jacob Zuma claimed during his state of the nation address this week that lives of the villagers had changed as a result of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme launched in August last year.

"We launched the first pilot site of the programme in Giyani, Limpopo, in August last year.

"Since then, 231 houses have been built. Progress has also been made in providing infrastructure to support agricultural development and training for community members. Access to health and education facilities has improved," Zuma told parliament.

However, on Friday the Sunday Times found the villagers still suffering, with no basic amenities such as water, electricity, roads and jobs.

Zuma visited the village last year to launch the programme aimed at creating job opportunities for the struggling villagers.

His wife, MaKhumalo, also visited the village to encourage women to plough the fields in order to support their families.

But the villagers are still subjected to the harsh realities of life, as the village is short of the resources needed to enable people to lead a normal life.

It is almost 20km to the nearest tarred road and, depending on the availability of rain, produce from the fields remains a pipe dream.

Locals still rely on those who have boreholes to get water and, they say, they pay R1 for every 20-litre container. This is despite the promise by government to provide water to the villagers.

The Hatlani-Muyexe Secondary School, which caters for children from Muyexe, Altein and Muhlava-Willem villages, does not have a single computer.

Of the 9000 people in the village, only 12 have done an internship at the Giyani police station. No other government department has offered jobs to the villagers .

The village has no tap water, a basic necessity and promised by the democratic government, and crops are dying as a result of a serious shortage of rain.

According to the local headman, Khazamula Ben Maluleke, 66, the promise that the government made of providing local people with jobs had never materialised.

Maluleke said although 207 people were employed during the building of RDP houses in the village, it was back to square one, as work has been completed and the villagers have become jobless again.

"We were promised heaven on earth by this government and nothing is happening to date," he said.