A destitute family is desperately trying to get through this year's winter after part of their home crumbled just over a week ago.
A destitute family is desperately trying to get through this year's winter after part of their home crumbled just over a week ago.
The struggling family lives just a few doors away from their ward councillor, Vuyani Kolisi, and they approached him shortly after their corrugated iron shack collapsed last Saturday. Vuyiswa Dyani lives with her boyfriend, two of their children and a third child who is related to them.
Both their children attend school, but their income is so little that they can barely afford to buy them school uniforms and other necessities.
Dyani said she was not sure what caused the shack to collapse.
"When this happened there was no wind and it was not raining. It was a clear day," she said.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail on Tuesday, Kolisi said his hands were tied because neither the shack nor the land it was built on belonged to them.
"They have been warned on several occasions to leave that house, because it looked like it would collapse at any time," Kolisi said.
He said the municipality currently did not have tents to offer them and even if there were, they could not erect them on another person's property.
The state of the structure is so bad that a person sitting inside can see out through the gaping hole.
Dyani started crying as she spoke of the suffering she and her family were experiencing.
"I am unemployed and it's hard – but I do get odd jobs from neighbours every now and then," she said.
Dyani said her parents had moved to Grahamstown years before she was born.
Since both had died, she had no one to turn to during trying times.
"I do have extended family in Vukani, but they have their own problems to deal with," she said.
The couple has been living in E Street for many years. Dyani said they had been renting the shack, but when the landlord learnt of their plight, he stopped asking for rent.
She complained that Kolisi appeared unwilling to help. "He said a lot of things when I spoke to him, but he did not appear to be willing to help us," she said.
Dyani said all she wanted was a decent house in which to raise her children. She said the only permanent income she had to rely on was the children's child support grants.
A neighbour, shocked at the family's appalling living conditions, took it upon herself to take their plight to city officials. However, New Town resident Lindiswa Katiya told Grocott's Mail that she had struggled to contact anyone at the City Hall.
"Last week I went to see the speaker [Rachel Madinda] and [councillor Nomhle]Gaga, but I could not get hold of any of them," she said.
Katiya says she was told they would be available to see her this week.
