By Buziwe Nocuze
- Yandisa Mtshoqolwana, a security guard, co-founded the Flagstaff Foundation in 2024 to help families stuck living in mud houses.
- The foundation has helped six families in Wards 11, 31 and 32 get temporary homes using money from their pockets.
Yandisa Mtshoqolwana earns his living as a security guard. In his spare time, he has helped move six families out of flooded, crumbling mud houses.
Mtshoqolwana co-founded the Flagstaff Foundation in 2024 with Nogcina Mbiko and one other community member. It was officially registered in 2026. The organisation works in Wards 11, 31 and 32 in Flagstaff, Eastern Cape, helping families who cannot get RDP houses or temporary structures on their own.
Seeing the families staying in flooded houses when it rains was one of the reasons the group started, Mtshoqolwana said. He said most of the homeowners are elderly people looking after their grandchildren.
Helping a family costs money. Mtshoqolwana uses part of his security guard wage to buy data, send emails to the municipality, and pay for printing and copies.
Mbiko does not have a formal job. She sells products including perfumes, and puts some of that profit toward the families too.
“I don’t have a job, but that doesn’t mean I cannot assist. Some people don’t understand why we are helping while we still need help. I always tell them that to help someone, a person doesn’t need to have everything,” Mbiko said.
One of the six families is the Nonkonyanas.
Silindele Nonkonyana’s family of five had been staying with a relative since 2019, after their mud house was damaged by heavy rain. They now have a temporary structure to call home.
“We are grateful for what the organisation did for us. Now we have a place called home,” Nonkonyana said.
Ward 11 councillor Bongani Nokhele said close to 200 people in his ward alone are still waiting for houses, some since 2021. He has sent their documents to the departments but has had no response.
Pictured above: A new temporary structure from the Flagstaff Foundation stands next to the mud houses it replaced.
Image source: Supplied
