By Palesa Matlala
- Gogo Lucy Rasiboka waited 26 years for her RDP house after applying in 1997 when she was 77 years old.
- The 105-year-old woman and her family finally have a proper home after years of living in shacks and shelters.
After waiting for 26 years, Gogo Lucy Rasiboka finally has a home she can call her own, after almost three decades of patience.
The 105-year-old woman applied for an RDP house in 1997 when she was 77. On Thursday, she was one of 42 people who received keys to their new houses in Lufhereng Ext 6 in Soweto.
Gogo Lucy was born in Venda, Limpopo. She came to Gauteng in the late 1930s and lived in a shack in Alexandra township until the apartheid government forced her to move.
In 1940, she moved to Diepkloof, Soweto, where she rented another shack. She made money by selling spinach at a marketplace called Ebareni.
Her daughter, Phyllis Raseboka, 61, told Scrolla.Africa that Gogo Lucy is now old and weak.
“She can’t speak well and doesn’t understand what’s happening around her. That’s why I look after her and speak for her,” said Phyllis.
Life got hard in Diepkloof. “There were problems with the yard owners. The area wasn’t safe, so I told my mother we should get zinc sheets and move to Freedom Park informal settlement,” Phyllis said.
After moving to Freedom Park, Phyllis found piecework in Johannesburg CBD. Sometimes she couldn’t afford transport home after work, so she stayed at Linatex House, a shelter in town.
“I stayed at the shelter with my workmate. Later I brought my mother, daughter, and grandchildren there because the informal settlement wasn’t safe,” she said.
The family lived at the shelter until they received their new home on Thursday.
Human Settlements MEC Tasneem Motara said they are giving houses to people who registered between 1996 and 1999.
“People register for houses every day, and we build houses every day. But we don’t build as quickly as the demand. The number of houses we can build depends on the budget that we receive from the national government,” she said.
“Our backlog is about 300,000 people registered on the human settlement system. But on average, we are only able to build about 8,000 per year.”
Phyllis and her daughter, Angel, are overjoyed after struggling for so many years. They hope Gogo Lucy lives long enough to enjoy her new home.
Pictured above: Gogo Lucy in her new home.
Source: Supplied
