It is painful to learn that there are people who are still tragic victims of poverty even after 12 years of democracy in our country. One such forgotten family is the Hlungani’s of Bungeni village, near Makhado. Five family members share a tiny makeshift duplicated mud hut, the size of a 1000l water tank and they often go to bed with empty stomachs.

The tiny hut has no electricity and the space is limited in such a way that the family members fight to squeeze themselves when sleeping. Their valuable possessions are a few cooking pots, a 25l water container and old clothes and blankets spread out inside the hut. The floor is dusty and the half-thatched small roof is leaking. The door cannot open fully and one has to squeeze to get through.

“Poverty is part of our daily life and we have accepted our fate. We mainly depend on handouts for survival because life is always a tough battle for us. Things like bread and meat are a luxury to us and we only get hold of them once in a blue moon,” said Sylvia (34), a single parent who stays with her four kids Khathu (17), California (12) Rivalani (8) and Xivutiso (3).

All the children except Xivutiso are attending school at Bungeni Primary School and they have not paid school fees. They do not have school uniforms, shoes or warm clothes. Life in the family also seems to disturb the children’s educational development. Despite being 17 years old, Khathu is still doing Grade 5 at the local school.

Although three of the children receive child support grants from the state, Sylvia says the money is too little to meet all the basic needs in the family.

She says troubles started when her other mud hut fell during the 2000 floods. She added that nobody from the government or local municipality has ever visited her family to assist her. “Since then, we have had a tough battle with life. Although the government preaches the Batho Pele concept on a daily basis, we do not see the fruits of our freedom because we are a forgotten family. We have the right to access a proper house, food and clothing despite our poor financial background. We are prisoners of poverty in our small hut and we don’t know what will happen if strong winds or heavy rains come. There is nothing we can do except risking our lives by staying in our little hive. What wrong have we done to deserve all this misfortune? We have given up hope for a better life because we sing the song of poverty on a daily basis and no one ever listens to our plight.”

The spokesperson for the Makhado Municipality, Peter Muleya, says the municipality became aware that there is a need for the Hlungwani family to be provided with a house after they had already made the latest allocations. However, he promised that the family will be put in the priority list when the next allocation comes.

“We will make a recommendation that they get special attention as soon as we have allocations for new houses.” Community members who would like help the family with food, clothing donations or offer any assistance can call 082 224 4616.