Almost finished - February 2007

Ma Khumalo's House
Because there is no road down the steep hill to this home, the traditional pole-and-daga construction method had to be used. Extra cement was added to the mix and the walls were reinforced with wire netting before being plastered to a smooth finish.

Ma Khumalo's story:

It has been a rocky road for MaKhumalo. As if losing two husbands was not enough, she had nine children to look after, raise and educate and no decent accommodation.

“We always lived in shacks. We could not sleep when it rained. We had to protect our meagre possessions from the water flooding in through the cracks. A slight wind could blow our roof away!

“I was a sorry sight in this community. I built three shacks for my unusually big family, using any material I could lay my hands on. The piece jobs I sometimes did paid me as little as R3 a day. Although we had three shacks, we really lived in only one of them at any given time, because they were always collapsing.

“But I never tired of building and rebuilding and eventually I had four shacks standing and rented one of them out for R40 a month. The R40 made such a difference I decided to send four of my kids to the farm, rent out another of my shacks, and use the money to supplement their fees at the much cheaper farm school. This spurred me on to construct more shacks to rent out. They used to call me the Shack Queen in this community.

“Then one day when the weather had really conspired against me and my shacks, ubaba Robert Zuma came with some men and said they represented an organization called Amathuba. He said they had seen my struggle and had asked their friends to donate money to build me a house. I wondered what sort of joke this was, but they came back. They gave me money to pay for the land at the Chief’s Council. And in no time they started bringing in materials and builders.

“Not even in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I could own a house like this one. But here I am. It happened to me. This strong house that does not leak, where my kids have space to play, is a miracle. It can rain all it wants, no worry for me. I am now the proud Shack Queen who lives in a house.

“I have opened my house to the community. Every Sunday we hold prayer sessions here. I have stopped drinking and have graduated as a bishop for my church called Freedom for Christians. I can do all these things because I have this house.”